Lincoln : Constitutional History of New York 395, states to the successful administration of our national government is not yet generally understood. Yet many questions that have been decided at the state capitals must again arise at Washington ; and an opinion thereupon by a state court or an unbroken line of state legislative or executive precedents will frequently be more logical and in closer har- mony with the spirit of the Constitution, than a decision when it first arises in a high condition of party spirit at Washington. But many such precedents have never been published, or are reported only in the newspapers of the day; Congressional and state libraries have not done their duty in collecting them ; and the searcher for them must dive blindly into a mass of biographies, state histories, annuals, files of newspapers, official documents, and manuscript records with too often no clue to aid him. Until the constitutional history of all the states is written, the Constitution of the Union cannot be adequately understood. The writer has advantages rare in a historian. He has studied his subject for his own practical use, and he has himself played a part in some of the events that he describes. He was a member of the last constitutional convention. He practised law for twenty years under the previous constitution. For six years he was chairman of the com- mission appointed to revise the state codes and statutes, and the official adviser upon constitutional questions of three successive governors, Morton, Black, and Roosevelt: and has therefore been enabled to en- rich the book by valuable new matter concerning the recall of bills by the legislative houses after their passage, the action of the state execu- tive in the approval and the disapproval of bills, the exercise of the active veto and the pocket veto. His practical experience, however, has not, as too often happens, blunted his zeal and capacity for research into matters which most men of affairs consider of importance only to the antiquarian. The colonial history of the subject is well told and has been thoroughly investigated. Many unprinted manuscripts, in- cluding Governor Jay's correspondence, the records of the executive council of the colony, and a number of other documents in the State Library and the rooms occupied by the state officers, have been examined by him. The commission and instructions given Governor Tryon by George HI., a copy of the latter having been procured from England, are printed for the first time; and so are the original and the revised draft of the constitution of 1777, the first adopted in the state. The author has thus produced an interesting and valuable work. The narrative is clear and, even when it describes the party conflicts in which he was actively engaged, is apparently impartial. Expressions of his own opinion on questions of law and conduct are rare and usually sound. There are few accessible authorities which have not been ex- amined and digested. The work is in five volumes. Although long, it contains little matter that might usefully have been omitted. The first volume, after an intro- duction summarizing the whole subject, sets forth in full a translation
