. 
PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 
HELD AT PHILADELPHIA FOR PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. 
Vou. XXXIX. SEPTEMBER, 1900. No. 163. 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW AS ILLUSTRATED BY 
THE DECISIONS RELATING TO THE POLICE 
POWER OF THE STATE, 
BY W. G. HASTINGS, ESQ., 
OF WILBER, NEBRASKA. 
The Crowned Essay for which the Prize of two thousand dollars was awarded, on 
June 19, 1900, from the Henry M. Phillips Prize Essay Fund, by the Committee 
of Judges appointed by the American Philosophical Society held at Philadel- 
phia for Promoting Useful Knowledge. 
(Read June 19, 1900. ) 
Es ist an einem andern Orte dargelegt dass das Recht seinem 
Inhalt nicht aus der Entwicklung des Rechtsbegriffes, sondern aus 
dem Leben empfangt fiir welches es gilt. Dieses Leben ist daher 
die rechtsbildende Kraft.—Steiz, ‘‘Handbuch,” S. gr. 
Platon remercioit le ciel de ce qu'il étoit né du temps de 
Socrate; et moi je luirends graces de ce qu’il m’a fait naitre dans le 
gouvernment, ou je vis, et de ce qu'il a voulu que j'obéisse, a ceux 
qu'il m’a fait aimer.— Montesquieu, “L' Esprit des Lots,” Preface. 
CHAPTER I. 
INTRODUCTION OF THE TERM THROUGH EARLY FEDERAL 
DECISIONS. 
The Police Power is a well recognized if not yet fully defined 
department of constitutional law. It is also the newest one of 
anything near equal importance. The 1808 edition of Bouvier’s 
Law Dictionary says that the law on this subject is all of recent 
growth, and most of it is in the last half of the nineteenth century. 
It could not consistently say otherwise. The work as originally 
published in 1839 did not define the phrase ‘‘ Police Power’’ nor 
even contain it. The thirteenth edition in 1867 did not have it. 
It was only in 1883 that this standard dictionary of law first ex- 
1 Copyrighted, 1900, by W. G. Hastings. 
PROC. AMER, PHILOS. 80C, XXXIx. 163. X. PRINTED SEPT. 22, 1900. 
