Page:The general principles of constitutional law in the United States of America.djvu/11



the preparation of the third edition of this work, I have been guided and aided by the results of ten years' experience in using the book with my classes. While I have endeavored to leave the text unaltered as far as seemed consistent with a careful revision, I have made occasional alterations, usually by expanding condensed statements, sometimes to correct a principle altered or modified by recent decisions. Because of the great development of some branches of constitutional law, for example, the law of interstate commerce, I have found it necessary to rearrange, and in large measure rewrite, some pages of the earlier editions. I should have preferred to leave the text as it was written by its distinguished author; but inasmuch as the book is widely used by students in colleges and law schools, it seemed unwise simply to use footnotes to call attention to new and important decisions which have modified the statements of the text. Besides new matter inserted in the pages of the earlier edition, I have added a chapter dealing with State Constitutions. This chapter is in large measure a condensation of Chapters III. to VI. of Judge Cooley's Constitutional Limitations, and where possible I have used the language of that treatise in preference to my own.

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