Edward Samuel Corwin

Background

Edward Samuel Corwin was born on January 19, 1878 in Plymouth, Michigan, United States. He was the son of Frank Adelbert Corwin and Cora C. Lyndon.

Education

After graduating from Plymouth High School, Corwin entered the University of Michigan, where Andrew C. McLaughlin stirred his interest in constitutional law. He graduated with the Ph. B. in 1900. For graduate work he went to the University of Pennsylvania, completing his doctoral dissertation in 1905 under the guidance of John Bach McMaster.

Career

Promoted to professor in 1911, Corwin was appointed seven years later to the chair first occupied by Woodrow Wilson, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, which he held until retirement in 1946. When a separate department of politics was formed in 1924, he became its first chairman. Corwin's performance as a teacher led seniors repeatedly to vote his course on constitutional interpretation both the "most difficult" and the "most valuable. " Because of his staccato speech and military bearing, he was affectionately dubbed "the General. " Corwin had a special gift for reaching each student, discovering and eliciting something worthwhile, and encouraging him to follow his own bent. Rare sensitivity enabled him to judge young men not by what they were but by what they might become.

Corwin's first book, National Supremacy--Treaty Power vs. State Power (1913) indicated interest in the intricate relationship between federal and state powers in foreign affairs. A year later The Doctrine of Judicial Review appeared. French Policy and the American Alliance (1916), The President's Control of Foreign Relations (1917), and John Marshall and the Constitution (1919) followed in rapid succession, establishing Corwin as an authority on the Constitution.

Corwin's most successful and widely read book was written at the suggestion of his companions in the Snuff Club, an elite cross-departmental group of Princeton scholars. After hearing one of his papers, Christian Gauss urged him to write an exposition of the Constitution for the general reader. The Constitution and What It Means Today (1920) continues in print after thirteen revised editions, and numerous translations.

During the 1930's and 1940's, Corwin continued to enhance his reputation with a number of penetrating studies on the Supreme Court, the presidency, and the Constitution. When a revised fourth edition appeared in 1958, The President: Office and Powers was still considered the bible in its field. A distinctive characteristic of Corwin's literary style was his penchant for arresting comment, graphic illustrations, and devastating wit. The imaginative and original flavor of his style was illustrated in Twilight of the Supreme Court (1934). Corwin characterized the supremacy clause as the "linchpin of the Constitution, " and judicial review as "American democracy's way of covering its bet. "

Corwin served as visiting professor and held prestigious lectureships at Johns Hopkins, New York University, Boston University, Louisiana State, Yale, and many other universities. In 1928-1929 he was visiting professor at Yenching University, Peiping (Peking), China.

Corwin's expertise and influence eventually extended to the federal government, which he served in 1935 as adviser to the Public Works Administration, and in 1936 and 1937 as special assistant and consultant to the attorney general on constitutional issues.

In 1937, Corwin supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan to enlarge the Supreme Court, but he opposed Roosevelt's breach of the third-term tradition. Corwin's retirement in 1946 ended neither his academic career nor his public service. During the academic year 1947-1948 he was visiting professor at Columbia.

From 1949 to 1952 he served as editor for the Legislative Reference Section, Library of Congress, directing a research project that produced the massive volumes of The Constitution Annotated: Analysis and Interpretation.

In 1954 he became chairman of a national committee opposed to the Bricker amendment to restrict the president's treaty-making power. Although Corwin carried on an active and fruitful career to an advanced age, the latter part of his life was plagued by declining health due to the onset of cancer.

He died at Princeton.

Although he never wrote the single monumental work he had planned, Corwin's writings embrace every significant aspect of his subject.

Achievements

• He stands among the giants of American constitutional commentators--James Kent, Joseph Story, and Thomas Cooley. He was the only nonlawyer among the ten legal writers most frequently cited by the Supreme Court. He was president of the American Political Science Association (1931), and winner of the American Philosophical Society's Franklin Medal (1940) and the Henry M. Phillips Prize in the Science and Philosophy of Jurisprudence (1942).

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Doctrine of Judicial Review, Its Legal and Historical Basis, and Other Essays (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Doctrine of Judicial Review, Its Legal a...)

  • Presidential Power and the Constitution: Essays

    (In this collection of twelve masterly articles, one of th...)

  • The President's Control of Foreign Relations

    (Leopold is delighted to publish this classic book as part...)

  • The “Higher Law” Background of American Constitutional Law

    ( Having written extensively on various aspects of the Am...)

  • Edward S. Corwin's Constitution and What It Means Today

    ( For over seventy-five years Edward S. Corwin's text has...)

  • Corwin on the Constitution: The Judiciary

    (Book by Edward Samuel Corwin)

  • Constitutional Revolution
  • John Marshall and the Constitution: A Chronicle of the Supreme Court by Edward Samuel Corwin (2015-08-11)
  • Liberty Against Government - The Rise, Flowering And Decline Of A Famous Judicial Concept by Edward S. Corwin (2007-03-15)

Views

Quotations: ''Constitution is an invitation to struggle for the privilege of directing American foreign policy. "

"If judges make law, so do commentators. "

"By and large the history of the Presidency has been the history of aggrandizement. "

Membership

He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Personality

He was a man of rare charm and broad culture. His mind was sharp, penetrating, and sometimes astringent.

Connections

On June 28, 1909, he married Mildred Sutcliffe Smith. They had no children.

Father:

Frank Adelbert Corwin

Mother:

Cora C. Lyndon

Spouse:

Mildred Sutcliffe Smith

References

• Corwin and Peltason's Understanding the Constitution