PREFACE. The purpose of this edition of the Constitution of the United States is to furnish to the bar of the Nation a complete digest of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, wherein is called in question any of the provisions of the Constitution, arranged under the headings of the several articles, sections and clauses upon which the decisions are predicated; thereby making a complete and ready reference to the case, and giving the exact point decided in each case, so as to save the labor of searching through numerous and long opinions to find the exact question desired. Persons unfamiliar with litigation would naturally and ordinarily suppose that after more than a century of judicial history these constitutional questions would all be settled and determined, so that they would rarely arise in litigated cases. Experience teaches a different lesson; and the facts are that never during the history of the Nation were there so many grave constitutional questions brought before the courts as during the last decade; and they are still arising, and will continue to arise under our increasing wealth and commerce. The multiplication of corporations in the conduct of all lines of business, and the diversity of operations attending them, the extending and consolidating of the numerous lines of railroad, and the transportation of freight and passengers interstate thereon; the privileges and exemptions granted by states and municipalities to corporate bodies, and the questions of contractual obligations arising therein; the questions growing out of the late civil war and the reconstruction of |