Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: with a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States Before the … by Thomas M. Cooley. 4th Ed. 2 Vols.

Reprint of the important fourth edition edited by Thomas M. Cooley. Originally published: Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1873. Commentaries on the Constitution was the most extensive and widely discussed study of the Constitution written during the antebellum period. It was originally published in 1833 and went through two more editions in 1851 and 1858. Divided into three books, it offers a strongly nationalist interpretation of the Federal constitution. Book I contains a history of the colonies and a discussion of their charters. Book II discusses the Continental Congress and analyzes the f laws that crippled the Articles of Confederation. Book III begins with a history of the Constitution and its ratification. This is followed by a brilliant line-by-line exposition of each of its articles and amendments. Published in 1873, Cooley’s edition updated Story’s text to include discussion of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, as well as other changes introduced during the Civil War and Reconstruction.