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T' Q 
 
 MIGHIQ/\JN hj \W JOURNAL 
 
 Vol, \ T . , December, 1896. No. 12 
 
 ; A' BRIEF OUTLINE' OF TIIE LIFE AND WORKS 
 
 OF 
 
 : 1 i < J JUDGE. COOLEY. ' 
 
 George 'a ff katzenberger. 
 
 ,, , v . i ' \\. ■. ■ - 
 
 The following sketch of the life of the man whom we all delight 
 to honor, is neither a biography nor review, and makes no preten¬ 
 tions to literary, merit. It is rather an effort to compress into the 
 fewest words an outline of a busy life. 
 
 Thomas McIntyre Cooley was born at Attica, N, Y., January 6, 
 1824; His father, Thomas Cooley, was a Massachusetts farmer of 
 the Puritan blood who settled in Attica with a large family in 1804, 
 having invested his limited means in one hundred acres of wild tim¬ 
 ber land which he brought under cultivation with the help of - his 
 family. 
 
 The subject of this notice secured for himself a fair academic 
 education, taught school for three terms, and having decided to 
 study the law, began in the office of Tlieron R. Strong of Palmyra, 
 N. Y., who afterwards became one of the judges of the supreme 
 court of that state. 
 
 In 1848 he removed to Adrian, Mich., where he continued his 
 legal studies in a private law office until 1846, when he was admit¬ 
 ted to the bar. In the meantime he had held the office of deputy 
 county clerk and register in chancery, performing practically all 
 the official ditties of his principal, and for a while he was editor of 
 the ‘AYatcli tower”. 
 
 |p 44950 
 
374 
 
 MICHIGA N LAW JO URN A L. 
 
 In January 1846 he entered the practice of law in Tecumsey, 
 Mich., with Judge Consider A. Stacey. But he had not yet fully 
 decided upon a permanent profession and for the next two years was 
 associated with Mr. J. W. Scott as a dealer in real estate in Toledo, 
 Ohio. He then returned to Adrian and became a partner of the 
 Hon. F. C. Beman, an able lawyer afterwards in congress. 
 
 In 1850 he was elected Circuit Court Commissioner, and also 
 Recorder of Adrian. In 1854 he was elected by the legislature of 
 the state to compile the public statutes of Michigan from the earliest 
 days, a duty which he performed to the general public satisfaction, 
 classifying all the laws after a plan originating with himself and fol¬ 
 lowed in the classifications made by his successors. 
 
 In 1857 he was appointed a reporter of the decisions of the 
 supreme court. This office he held until 1864, publishing in the 
 meantime eight volumes of reports. 
 
 In 1859 when the department of law was organized in the state 
 university, the Jay Professorship was tendered to him and accepted. 
 As the other professors appointed at the same time resided in the 
 City of Detroit, and were not expected to change their residence, it 
 became necessary for him to remove to Ann Arbor, which he did 
 before taking up the duties to which he was chosen. He was lecturer 
 on real estate law and the law of domestic relations from the first. 
 He lectured also on Constitutional Law, which soon, from the 
 demands made upon his attention, became the leading subject of 
 discussion and continued to be such while he remained in the posi¬ 
 tion. He was lecturer on Constitutional Law and Medical Jurispru¬ 
 dence from 1861 to 1865. After resigning as dean of the law 
 department in 1884, he was appointed as professor of history and 
 dean of the school of political science, a position which he held a 
 number of years. 
 
 In November 1864 he was elected one of the justices of the 
 supreme court of Michigan to fill a vacancy, and was re-elected in 
 1869 and again in 1877 for the full terms of eight years each, making 
 his full service upon that court twenty-one years. 
 
 The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him in 1873, 
 and in 1886 the same degree was given him by Harvard. Princeton 
 University, also, in 1896 at its sesquicentennial celebration honored 
 him in company with a number of distinguished people of this and 
 other countries with the same degree. 
 
 In 1887, when the Interstate Commerce Law was to be put in 
 operation, at the special solicitation of President Cleveland, he 
 
THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JUDGE COOLEY. 
 
 375 
 
 accepted the office of chairman of the commission appointed to 
 enforce it, the President speaking of the strong public opinion which 
 called for the appointment and stating that it was in deferance to 
 that opinion that he tendered the office. This appointment necessi¬ 
 tated his proceeding to Washington for the performance of the duties 
 thereby imposed upon him and which were found to be very severe 
 and laborious. The chairmanship in particular required great labor 
 which he performed for the most part with little aid from a stenogra¬ 
 pher or other clerk. This he found to be gradually undermining his 
 health and finally to such an extent that he was compelled to divest 
 himself of a considerable portion of the active labor or resign the 
 duties of the office altogether. This last resource he finally adopted 
 and laid down his office in 1891 with the view of getting the rest 
 which it was obvious he was in need of. He returned to Ann Arbor 
 where he has since resided in comparative retirement. 
 
 Judge Cooley was married in 1846 to Mary Elizabeth Horton, a 
 woman of accomplishments and rare ability, with whom he lived 
 happily until her death in 1890, and by whom he had six children, 
 all living. 
 
 Judge Cooley is better known, throughout the country, as an 
 author than in any other capacity. The translators of von Holst’s 
 ‘‘Constitutional History of the United States” dedicated that famous 
 work to Judge Cooley as “one of the most eminent expounders of 
 our Constitution.” His “Constitutional Limitations” which first 
 appeared in 1868, is the work by which he is most widely known. It 
 has passed through numerous editions, the sixth appearing in 1890, 
 while an edition for students has been published since. An edition 
 of Blackstone’s Commentaries very fully annotated, with the view 
 of its being used in the law schools of the country, has also appeared 
 in several editions and has been univerally received with satisfaction. 
 An edition of Story on the Constitution has been edited by him, fully 
 annotated, the fourth edition in two volumes appearing in 1873. He 
 is also author of the following works : “Taxation” written especially 
 with reference to taxation for state purposes, provided for in state 
 constitutions, and appearing revised in 1886 ; A “Treatise on the 
 Principle of the Law of Torts or Legal Wrongs of a Civil Nature” 
 whicli has passed through several editions and been condensed for 
 use in law schools, and “Constitutional Law” second edition, 1891. 
 He edited E. B. Harrington’s Michigan Chancery Reports of 1837-42 
 while the articles on Law in the second edition of the American 
 Encyclopaedia were also edited by him. In 1885 he published a 
 
376 
 
 MICHIGAN LA W JOURNAL. 
 
 ‘‘History of Michigan” as one of the American Commonwealth ser¬ 
 ies begun by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. He further wrote an Intro¬ 
 duction to “The American Railway” in 1887. 
 
 Inasmuch as Judge Cooley has not preserved all of his published 
 papers and addresses, the following list is necessarily imperfect: 
 
 1. The Judicial Functions of Surveyors, 1852. 
 
 2. What the Law can do for the Health of the People. An 
 address at a State Sanitary Convention. 
 
 3. Some Checks and Balances in Government, International 
 Review, May and June, 1876. 
 
 4. The Cases in which the Master is Liable for Injuries, Southern 
 Law Review, 1876. 
 
 5. Liability of Public Officers to Private Actions for Neglect of 
 duty, Southern Law Review, 1887. (This paper opens with a sentence 
 since widely quoted, “A public office-is a public trust.”) 
 
 6. Limits to State Control of Private Business, Princeton Review, 
 March, 1878. 
 
 7. Changes in the Balance of Governmental Powers. Address 
 to the Law Students of the University of Michigan, 1878. 
 
 8. The, Surrender of Fugitives from Justice, Princeton Review, 
 January, 1879. 
 
 9. The Recording Laws of the United States, their Inadequacy 
 and their Danger. Address before the American Bar Association, 
 1881. 
 
 10. Presidential Inability, North American Review, Nov., 1881. 
 
 11. State Regulation of Corporate Profits, North American Re¬ 
 view, September, 1883. 
 
 12. The Abnegation of Self Government, Princeton Review, 
 November, 1883. 
 
 13. Law as an Educating Force. Address at the Law Com¬ 
 mencement, University of Michigan, 1884. 
 
 14. What shall be done with our Ex-Presidents? Contribution to 
 a Symposium, The Century , December, 1885. 
 
 15. Codification, American Law Review, May and June, 1886. 
 
 16. The Semi-Centennial of Michigan. Address delivered at 
 the celebration of the State Semi-Centennial, 1886. 
 
 17. Arbitration in Labor Disputes, The Forum , June, 1886. 
 
 18. The influence of Habits of Thought upon our Institutions. 
 Address before the South Carolina Bar Association, 1886. 
 
 19. The Acquisition of Louisiana. Address before the Indiana 
 Historical Society, 1887. 
 
THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JUDGE COOLEY. 
 
 377 
 
 20. The Uncertainty of the Law. Address before the Georgia 
 Bar Association, 1887. 
 
 j/^21. The Interstate Commerce Law : Its Operation and Results. 
 Address before the Commercial Club of Boston, 1888. 
 
 22. On the Promulgation of the Constitution of Japan. Address 
 at Johns Hopkins University, 1889. 
 
 23. Comparative Merits of Written and Prescriptive Constitu¬ 
 tions. Address before the New York Bar Association, 1889. Printed 
 in Harvard Law Review. March, 1889. 
 
 24. The Place of the Federal Supreme Court in the American 
 Constitutional System. Address before the Political Science Asso¬ 
 ciation of the University of Michigan, 1889. 
 
 25. Methods of Appointing Presidential Electors, Michigan 
 Law Journal, Vo!.'I, No. 1, February, 1892. 
 
 26. PYderal Taxation of Lotteries, Atlantic Monthly, April. ’92. 
 
 27. Sovereignty in the United States, being a lecture delivered 
 in a course on “Rights” to a class of Postgraduates in the Law 
 Department of the University of Michigan. Printed in Michigan 
 Law Journal, April, 1892. 
 
 28. State Bank Issues in Michigan. Publication of the Michigan 
 Political Science Association, No. I, May, 1893. 
 
 29. Federal Taxation of State Bank Issues, Idem . 
 
 30. The Power to amend the Federal Constitution. Michigan 
 Law Journal, April, 1893. 
 
 31. Grave Obstacles to Hawaiian Annexation, The Forum, April, 
 1893. 
 
 32. The President’s Power to enforce Federal Laws. Letter to 
 the President, 1893. 
 
 33. The Administration of Justice in the United States in Civil 
 Cases. Address before the World’s Fair Congress Auxiliary. Also 
 in Michigan Law Journal, September, 1893. 
 
 34. What the Senate should do to break the Deadlock over the 
 repeal of the Sherman Bill, N. Y. Evening Post , October, 1893. 
 
 35. The Influence of Thought upon our Institutions. Rewritten 
 and read at Ann Arbor, November 13, 1893. 
 
 36. Independence of the Legislative Department of Government. 
 Argument before the Supreme Court of Michigan, 1893. 
 
 37. The Fundamentals of American Liberty, Michigan Law 
 Journal. June, 1894. 
 
 38. The Lawyer as a Teacher and a Leader, being a portion of 
 the President’s address read before the American Bar Association, 
 
378 
 
 MICHIGAN LA W JOURNAL. 
 
 at the 17th annual meeting at Saratoga Springs, August 22, 1894. 
 Printed in Michigan Law .Journal, September, 1894 and in Amer¬ 
 ican Law Review, Sept .-Oct. 1894. 
 
 39. An address on Compulsory Arbitration, at Ann Arbor, Nov. 
 17, 1894. 
 
 40. The Founding of the Law Department of the University of 
 Michigan. To Wit: Senior Law Class Annual, 1894. 
 
 41. Nullification. An address in University Hall, Ann Arbor, 
 April 24, 1895. 
 
 42. The Webster-Hayne Debate. Res Gestae, Senior Law Class 
 Annual, 1895. 
 
 43. A Lawyer’s Obligations to the Public, American Magazine of 
 Civics, November, 1895. 
 
 44. Biographical Sketch of Judge Campbell. Res Gestae, 1896. 
 
 The labors of Judge Cooley in law schools have by no means 
 
 been limited to the University of Michigan. He delivered two full 
 courses of lectures on the law of Municipal Government and the 
 evils connected therewith, to the students in Johns Hopkins Uni¬ 
 versity in the years 1878 and 1879, and a course of lectures on the 
 Interstate Commerce Law in Yale University during the latter year. 
 Also at different times lectures on different phases of legal-political 
 institutions in Johns Hopkins University that have never been pub¬ 
 lished, spending considerable time in the City of Baltimore and 
 watching the development of that institution in which he was much 
 interested. 
 
 He was President of the American Bar Association in the year 
 1893-94, and wrote the usual annual address directing his attention 
 mainly to peculiar features of legal development going on at that 
 time. His health at this time had become so bad that he was 
 unable to be present at the annual meeting, and his address was 
 read by another. 
 
 While in conformity with the plan adopted at the beginning of 
 this contribution, we will not enlarge upon those faculties of Judge 
 Cooley which have endeared him to all who have been so fortunate 
 as to meet and hear him, yet we can not, in conclusion, but quote 
 from a biography of Judge Cooley contributed by President Angell 
 in the To Wit: 
 
 “His simple, but pure and noble character left its impress on 
 every student who was capable of being inspired by purity and noble 
 ability. The elevating influence which he exerted upon the personal 
 and professional life of thousands of students who were under his 
 care cannot be measured.” 
 
How long does it take 
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 On the annotation of the single subject of‘‘Injunctions 
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 trained lawyer with an assistant and the best library 
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 the result is a presentation of the subject not ap¬ 
 proached in any publication or series of publications. 
 It is absolutely exhaustive. 
 
 The Ratio of 16 to 1 
 
 often represents less than the ratio of time you other¬ 
 wise must spend, to the time actually used in preparing 
 a brief from a note in point, in the Lawyers Reports 
 Annotated, because there is no need of hunting further 
 authorities. 
 
 Although he had only recently received the books, 
 a subscriber writes: “I am having great luck with the 
 books. I found a point all briefed in the last number, 
 which is involved in a pending case that I have in 
 court.” This is only the last one of thousands of 
 similar letters We could show. Almost every appellate 
 court from the U. S. Supreme Court down, uses them 
 and has endorsed them formally and officially, or in¬ 
 dividually. They save time, money and effort which 
 can be diverted to profitable ends. 
 
 We would be glad to have you test the annotation 
 in a sample number which will be sent free on request. 
 
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