The Principles of Masonic Law / A Treatise on the Constitutional Laws, Usages and Landmarks of Freemasonry

Est enim unum jus, quo devincta est hominum societas, quod lex constituit una; quæ lex est recta ratio imperandi atque prohibendi, quam qui ignorat is est injustus. Cicero de Legibus. c. XV.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by Jno. W. Leonard & Co.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.
Sovereign Grand Inspector General in the Supreme Council for the Northern Jurisdiction of the United States,
I Dedicate This Work,
As a Slight Testimonial of My Friendship and Esteem for Him As a Man, And of My Profound Veneration for His Character As a Mason; Whose Long and Useful Life Has Been Well Spent in the Laborious Prosecution of the Science, And the Unremitting Conservation of the Principles of Our Sublime Institution.
In presenting to the fraternity a work on the Principles of Masonic Law, it is due to those for whom it is intended, that something should be said of the design with which it has been written, and of the plan on which it has been composed. It is not pretended to present to the craft an encyclopedia of jurisprudence, in which every question that can possibly arise, in the transactions of a Lodge, is decided with an especial reference to its particular circumstances. Were the accomplishment of such an herculean task possible, except after years of intense and unremitting labor, the unwieldy size of the book produced, and the heterogeneous nature of its contents, so far from inviting, would rather tend to distract attention, and the object of communicating a knowledge of the Principles of Masonic Law, would be lost in the tedious collation of precedents, arranged without scientific system, and enunciated without explanation.
When I first contemplated the composition of a work on this subject, a distinguished friend and Brother, whose opinion I much respect, and with whose advice I am always anxious to comply, unless for the most satisfactory reasons, suggested the expediency of collecting the decisions of all Grand Masters, Grand Lodges, and other masonic authorities upon every subject of Masonic Law, and of presenting them, without commentary, to the fraternity.