The Law Practice of Alexander Hamilton: Documents and Commentary

Abstract

New York: Columbia University Press, 1981. xv + 754 pp. Appendix, notes, and indexes. $75.00.) This final volume of the series on Alexander Hamilton's law practice rounds out a large project extending over a long while. In 1964 the first volume, concerning his place in the New York legal profession, appeared and was followed in 1969 with another on commercial and maritime cases. The third and fourth volumes, chiefly on real-property litigation, came in 1980. Heading the present edit oral staff, Joseph H. Smith finished the work begun by the late Julius Goebel, Jr., with the same high level of competence characterizing the whole. Unlike preceding parts of the set, the fifth does not reproduce case materials but includes Hamilton's law register and cashbook for his later years after leaving the cabinet, 1795 to 1804.In the register is a list of cases, with Hamilton's notations on stages of proceedings and quite detailed editorial notes not only of explanation but of helpful directions to the manuscript sources. Most of the cases are civil suits brought in state and federal circuit courts, at law or equity, only a small number being criminal actions. As for subject matter, commercial questions on bills, notes, and other contracts are predominant. Then there are intricate land disputes, controversies on wills, and a good many marine insurance matters. For all categories, one finds Hamilton giving opinions to clients nearly as often as actually going to court.In the cashbook, the reader can learn a good deal about the lawyer's personal finances as well as his professional practice, with frequent entries on household expenses (typically fifty to a hundred dollars to his wife), payments for rent and maintenance of his home, and transactions for his father-in-law, Philip Schuyler. The editors' totals of his annual income from the law office show a range from $2,350 in 1795 to about $13,000 in 1802, which was as much or more than any other New York lawyer made in those days.The value of this series is very substantial, whether to throw light on one famous attorney's career or to open up countless possibilities for fruitful research in legal history.