Woodward Code
From Judgepedia
The Woodward Code was the first published set of the laws governing the then Territory of Michigan. It has, for some time, been considered a "very rare book."
The book itself is a "small octavo volume of 179 pages, printed at Washington, D.C., in 1806. Judge Woodward had been the leading spirit in the preparation and enactment of the laws adopted from July to October, 1805, at which time he and Governor Hull left for Washington to secure some much needed legislation from Congress on territorial subjects. Woodward remained at Washington and in the East for nearly a year, and obtained authority from the Secretary of State to have the laws printed."[1]
While technically not a "code," since it didn't attempt to recite the whole body of the law, it consisted of thirty-four legislative acts, printed in the order in which they were adopted. The included enactments were those that the new territorial government found most essential.
Judge Woodward wrote a preface through which he explains the construction which Governor Hull and the presiding judges "had given to the clause of the Ordinance of 1787 empowering them to 'adopt' laws."[2]
