Memorandum in re Corpus juris the necessity of creating a great institu tional digest exhibiting the entire Ameri can Corpus junk, and he offered himself to undertake the task if Washington
63
the federal government, an oflicial weight of federal authority would be given to the treatment of state law, which it ought not to have. Then there
are practical reasons why such a work can not successfully be undertaken by representatives of nearly fifty difierent
could secure the support of Congress. Attorney-General Edmund Randolph, believing it unwise for a Justice of the Supreme Court to engage in the task
state governments.
(and then, too, research discloses that
to these practical obstacles, Chief Justice
Randolph himself had on hand a plan to secure the publication of a digest of Virginia law) opposed Wilson's proposi tion to have the work executed under
of Iowa answers those who clamor for immediate legislative codification, by
the authority of Congress. Edmund Randolph in his report to
And in addition
Emlin McClain of the Supreme Court
directing attention to this fact :—
Washington also declared himself in opposition to the suggestion “that a
"It cannot be intrusted to legislation for two reasons, first, because legislation is more immediately concerned with questions of present social and political importance, and
single person should execute the work."
second, because what is desired is not legisla
He expressed his opinion on that point
tion at all, but scientific analysis and exposi tion."
as follows :— "The necessary information can be contrib uted only by a number of able men, differently situated in the United States. These men can be found; and perhaps their reluctance may be overcome, and they may be induced to divide the Herculean task among them."
But Randolph's belief that the project
was one which would ultimately be car ried out is clearly stated, for be de
clared:—
Mr. Carter also declared " The work would wholly fail if enacted into law and made operative upon future cases." I will not take space to discuss this phase more in detail, but Wilson's two letters to Washington make clear the great
importance of a co-ordinated statement of the federal and state law composing our Corpus juris. Wilson, unaided by Congressional sanction, undertook the task as a purely
"I believe that the digest will sooner or later be attempted; yet I am sure that the legislature
individual enterprise, but did not live to complete it.
From that day to this,
will not cordially patronize it, until its neces
sity shall be more obvious."
Randolph furthermore expressed op position to the throwing of the weight
of official character into measures, when no crisis demands it." This same view would in our own day doubtless block any movement to have this work exe
cuted by a. federal commission.
A com
plete statement of our Corpus jun's must
necessarily deal with both federal and state law; many persons would believe, and perhaps rightly, that if the whole were produced under the authority of
the works of Kent and Story are the only substantial efforts which have been made in America along the lines planned by Wilson until Andrews’ American Law was produced. The main thought I would here em
phasize is that Wilson realized even in his day the necessity for a complete, correct statement of “ the whole body of our law in scientific language,” again to quote Mr. Carter, but is the only one who has attempted it on a complete and sufficiently
comprehensive
scale,
for
the productions of Kent and Story were
