what it should exclude because included under other titles; and concise statements of the result were prefixed in the form of scope notes to each principal title in the projected work. All the cases in the Reports were then examined; and the cases having been collected, those on each subject were re-examined in chronological order, and arranged in a manner to show as far as pos sible not only the separate rulings, but the history of the law as developed by them. The statutes of the State were also for the first time introduced in a Digest to com plete the view of the law, and to show the modifications which legislation had intro duced into judicial principles; and in order to make the character of each decision the more clear, the method was adopted as a general rule, and followed as far as the limits of space would permit to give not only the point decided, but the reason assigned by the court; and if the case was decided upon authority, to interject a citation of that authority in brackets, and if upon authority of a statute, to interject a concise statement of the material clause. These features, with the close analytic arrangement of the points which naturally resulted, and the catchwords introduced to aid in reference, gave the Digest a wide circulation in all the other States as well as in New York, and have been largely approved by the labors of sub sequent compilers of Digests, particularly in reference to methods of analysis and classification. Mr. Abbott's National Digest, presenting in the same general method the Acts of Congress and the decisions of the Federal courts, followed several years afterward. In June, 1870, he was appointed by Presi dent Grant one of three commissioners to revise the statutes of the United States, — a work that occupied three years, and re sulted in the consolidation of sixteen vol umes of United States laws into one large octavo. In this work he was assisted by Charles P. James and Victor C. Barringer, who were also appointed commissioners for
this purpose. 'l he energy and system with which Mr. Abbott entered upon the com plex and laborious compilation involved in this work were characteristic of the man. In connection with his brother Austin, he prepared also a Digest of the law of Corpora tions (noticed in the last edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica as the leading work on that subject). Among his other works are " A Treatise on the Courts of the United States and their Practice" (2 vols., New York, 1877); Dic tionary of Terms in American and English Jurisprudence (2 vols., Boston, 1879), &e" ports of Decisions of the Circuit and Dis trict Courts of the United States (2 vols., New York, 1870-1 871). For the general reader he prepared a volume entitled "Judge and Jury" (New York, 1880), and another for more juvenile readers, entitled " Travelling Law School, and Famous Trials" (Boston, 1880). In the early years of his practice he was appointed Secretary of the New York Code Commissioners, and personally drafted, under direction of the Board, the Report of a Penal Code which was submitted to the Legisla ture in 1865, and which afterward became the basis for the present New York Penal Code. He was also a contributor on legal topics to the editorial columns of a number of the daily journals at different times and on a variety of religious and social topics in the weekly press. He had a taste and apti tude for music, which was almost his only recreation, and a vein of dry humor, which gave a certain sparkle to his demeanor and conversation. He was thoroughly absorbed in his work, which was congenial to his tastes, and lived quietly without taking active part in public life. In 1853 he married Elizabeth Titcomb, daughter of John Titcomb, of Farmington, Maine, a pioneer in the early antislavery and temperance movements in that State. At the time of his marriage he be came a resident of Brooklyn, where most of his life after that time was spent. He died in Brooklyn, Feb. 17, 1890.
