Thomas McIntyre Cooley (January 6, 1824-September 12, 1898) was admitted to the bar in 1846 and commissioned by the legislature of Michigan to compile the state statutes in 1857. The following year he was chosen as reporter for the state Supreme Court.
During his seven years in that position he edited 8 volumes of previous reports.
In 1859, he became one of 3 professors at the law school of the
University of Michigan, where he also was secretary and dean of the department. Thomas Cooley was appointed to the state Supreme Court in 1864 and served until 1885. At that time he became professor of history and Constitutional law at the university. He was the first chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission, 1887-91.
Thomas Cooley was elected President of the American Bar Association in 1893. His writings include: A Treatise on the Constitutional Limitations Which Rest upon the Legislative Power of the States of the American Union, 1868; edited versions of Blackstone's Commentaries, 1871; Joseph Story's Commentaries on the Constitution, 1873; The Law of Taxation, 1876; The Law of Torts, 1879; and The General Principles of Constitutional Law, 1890. In The General Principles of Constitutional Law, he wrote:
<It was never intended by the Constitution that the government should be prohibited from recognizing religion, or that religious worship should never be provided for in cases where a proper recognition of Divine Providence in the working of government might seem to require it, and where it might be done without drawing an invidious distinction between religious beliefs, organizations, or sects.
The Christian religion was always recognized in the administration of the common law of the land, the fundamental principles of that religion must continue to be recognized in the same cases and to the same extent as formerly.> 1824TC001
In Cooley, Constitutional Limitations, Eighth Edition, Volume Two, p. 966, 974, it is stated:
<While thus careful to establish, protect, and defend religious freedom and equality, the American constitutions contain no provisions which prohibit the authorities from such solemn recognition of a superintending Providence in public transactions and exercises as the general religious sentiment of mankind inspires, and as seems meet and proper in finite and dependent beings.
Whatever may be the shades of religious belief, all must acknowledge the fitness of recognizing in important human affairs the superintending care and control of the great Governor of the Universe, and of acknowledging with thanksgiving His boundless favors, of bowing in contrition when visited with the penalties of His broken laws.> 1824TC002
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1824TC001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Thomas Cooley, 1898, The General Principles of Constitutional Law in the United States of America (Boston: 1898), pp. 224-225. Charles E. Rice, The Supreme Court and Public Prayer (New York: Fordham University Press, 1964), p. 47. John Whitehead, The Rights of Religious Persons in Public Education (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, Good News Publishers, 1991), p. 46.
1824TC002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Cooley, Constitutional Limitations, Eighth Edition, Volume Two, p. 966, 974.