 In 1859, then Professor George Sharswood published through Childs and Peterson in Philadelphia a two-volume edition of "Blackstone's Commentaries" which weeded and gleaned the notes and commentaries of the prior English editors and added a treasure trove of new notes and observations on the application or divergence of the various sections of the "Commentaries" in America from the founding of the country to the Civil War, collecting American cases and references to "Kent's Commentaries" to illustrate his observations.This effort continued in subsequent editions after he became an Associate Justice, at least through the publication of an 1872 edition by Lippincott & Co. in 1872.He was appointed to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1868, and was named Chief Justice in the court in 1879.