Opinions upon the Corpus juris Project in all possible directions, and the further thought that this can be reached to a cer
tain degree, at least, if courts, in deciding a question of first impression in any particular state, would follow the Supreme Court if it had decided the question, and not, as now,
merely add another decision to one side or the other of a conflicting line of cases. The work that you contemplate would emphasize this thought, and that alone would make it
worth the doing, I thoroughly approve of that part of your plan which entrusts the ultimate headship to three, aided by a large advisory body. Whether the advisory body should be quite as large as you make it, I perhaps doubt; but it certainly ought to be large. Perhaps fifty would be enough. It would be difficult to find one hundred men of equal, or anything like equal or average value, and the average ought to be high, both for good work and for the eflect it would have on the profession. Hon. William N. Lanning, judge of the United States Circuit Court 7or Pennsylvania, New jersey and Delaware : I am greatly interested in the plan outlined by you for the preparation of a philosophical work on the whole of our American law. The spirit which prompts men like yourself, Dr. Andrews and Dean Kirchwey to join in an effort to carry out such a plan inspires the hope that even in our day the country’s greatest need in the science of the law may be supplied. The few philosophical treatises on law we now have deal only with isolated subjects. We have nothing dealing with the whole of our law as a unitary structure. Difficult of execu tion as may be the work of co-ordinating and systematizing the fundamental principles of our forty-six state governments and our federal government, the task can be ap proached with the certain knowledge that these principles are the timbers of a single great structure.
The work you have in mind is monumental, but I believe it to be practicable. The need of it, also, is becoming more and more impera tive. One takes too narrow a view of such a work if he thinks of it as helpful only to the legal profession. All are interested in good government; good government is conditioned not only on good laws but on their intelligent administration; and intelligent administra tion of a country’s laws ispromoted by a
103
clear philosophical statement of the prin ciples on which those laws are based. The man who will establish a sufficient financial basis for the execution of your plan will save the work from the “perils of com mercialism," add to its value by his spirit of patriotism and philanthropy, and materially aid in giving to the world what will be, if the work is done by such a force of experts as your plan contemplates, one of the most useful and helpful literary productions of modern times. Hon. George Gray, judge of the United States Circuit Court; formerly United States Senator from Delaware: I can add nothing to the weight of com mendation set forth in the Memorandum, as
coming from the most distinguished men in our profession. I think I can appreciate the importance of so stupendous an undertaking, and I agree with the late James C. Carter, that fortune and fame sufficient to satisfy any measure of avarice or ambition would be the due reward of the man or men who should succeed in conferring such a boon. It would seem that the fullness of time had come for such an institutional work as an expository codifi cation of the body of our low, as distinguished from a legislative code. I wish abundant success to the learned and courageous entre preneurs of this great work. Hon. Peter 8. Grosscup, judge of the United States Circuit Court for Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana:— A great work like this does not always appeal to men with whom the first considera tion is, what profits can be reaped. The work is too great for immediate large profits, for in its very nature it could not be brought within the purchasing power of a large number of purchasers. . . . I believe that the Corpus juris, when pub lished, will be one of the greatest influences put forth by this generation of men. We have come to a time when, for the sake of civilization, as well as the practical administration of the law, the body of the law should be put into scientific form.
This work does that, and its loss to
the world would be a distinct loss, and per haps an irremediable one. Any word that I can say to anyone who is interested in a statement of the law, not as a commercial venture but as one of the avenues through which civilization moves forward, I will be glad to say.
