Gibbons v. Ogden, Law, and Society in the Early Republic

Acknowledgments

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I    that I acknowledge the following individuals for their contributions to this book. I am particularly grateful to my doctoral dissertation adviser , Richard E. Ellis, whose sound advice and patience guided this project to completion. Michael H. Frisch, Tamara Plakins Thornton, and Donald M. Roper helped me to place Gibbons v. Ogden within the greater context of American social , cultural, and legal history. Doron Ben-Atar, Michael Les Benedict, Patricia Cline Cohen, Edward Countryman, Richard Demarjian, Songho Ha, Richard Hull, Victoria Jackson, Charles McCurdy, Harry Scheiber, Sandra Van Burkleo, and Edward C. Walterscheid also lent their insight to this book. The staff of Ohio University Press has been a pure joy to work with. Tremendous thanks go to Gillian Berchowitz for her support in bringing this project to fruition. My external reviewers, Daniel W. Hamilton and Richard Hamm, provided a number of excellent comments that have greatly enhanced the quality of my work. Rick Huard, my editor at Ohio University Press, likewise labored for long hours to make the manuscript detailed, nuanced, and accessible to a popular audience. My thanks also go to Richard Comfort for creating the index for this book. I am particularly indebted to Paul Finkelman, whose scholarly advice and encouragement proved invaluable in the completion of this book. Jim Folts, director of the New York State Archives, and Jean Schoenthaler, of Drew University Library, helped me to mine the rich collections of their institutions . My colleagues at the State University of New York at Buffalo, University of Nebraska at Kearney, and Sam Houston State University were very supportive of my work. Kersten Biehn, Terry Bilhartz, Ty Cashion, Caroline Crimm, Brian Domitrovic, Ken Hendrickson, Nick Pappas, and Robert Shadle commented on several chapters of this book. Jeffrey Littlejohn helped secure the illustrations that adorn the following pages. Herbert A. Johnson provided advice on several early chapters of my work. And Gregory Witkowski offered a Europeanist perspective on every chapter. I am particularly indebted to Jim Olson for proofreading this manuscript and adding his wit and wisdom to its contents. H. Robert Baker offered guidance and a sympathetic ear as well as feedback on the entire manuscript. A special note of thanks goes to Jeremy Schneider for critiquing every line of this book, often several times over. I was fortunate to receive funding from several sources for this project. Two Larry J. Hackman Research Residency Awards from the New York State Archives xv Partnership Trust and a Gilder Lehrman Dissertation Fellowship from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History helped me to access the rich historical resources of New York State. Stipends to attend the  Supreme Court Historical Society Summer Seminar on Federalism, the  Law and Society Graduate Student Workshop, the  Institute for Constitutional Studies Summer Seminar , and the  Fulton-Livingston Steamboat Bicentennial Symposium at Bard College afforded me opportunities to discuss my research with fellow scholars: my special thanks go to Maeva Marcus for her extraordinary efforts to sustain such sorely needed scholarly gatherings. A Clements-DeGolyer Research Grant from the Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University allowed me to research the development of steam travel in the southern United States. I also received generous support from the State University of New York at Buffalo in the form of a College of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Writing Fellowship and a Graduate Student Association Mark Diamond Research Grant. The State University of New York at Buffalo History Department also provided generous funding through a Milton Plesur Dissertation Fellowship and two Thomas B. Lockwood Dissertation Fellowships. A generous Faculty Enhancement Grant from Sam Houston State University and a Library Research Grant from Princeton University allowed me to conduct vital, last-minute research on Gibbons v. Ogden and to gather additional material for a forthcoming biography of Thomas Gibbons. Finally, a yearlong position at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, first inspired me to pursue a career in American constitutional and legal history. Throughout my career, I have been sustained by a wonderful group of friends and colleagues. J. David Fraley, David Furber and Diana Dimitrova, Songho Ha, Edward S. LaMonte, Patricia Mazon, Kenneth Moore, Erik Seeman, Samuel Shepherd, and Michael Vorenberg have provided excellent advice over the years. After spending so much time with the Livingston, Fulton, Ogden, and Gibbons clans, I have learned to appreciate the importance of family. My own has been very supportive of my passion for history. William and Johanna Horton...