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EDITOR’S NOTE

The published texts of the debates of the three conventions are of uneven quality. That of the Virginia convention is unquestionably the fullest and the best. Thomas Ritchie, editor of the Richmond Enquirer, employed Arthur Stansbury to report the debates. Because Stansbury was both skilled in shorthand and experienced in legislative proceedings, as a recorder of Congressional debates, he was able to offer a superb stenographic transcription of everything said and done in the convention. The Massachusetts volume, the least satisfactory of the three, was composed from the day-to-day reports published in the Boston Daily Advertiser. Reprinted in 1853, this edition is used here. Two newspaper editors compiled the New York volume with the object of preserving in more regular and durable form than the fugitive columns of public journals a full and accurate record of the convention proceedings. They were assisted by a stenographer.

The selections from the texts have been reprinted literally. In the effort to provide a rounded view of each convention within the scope of this volume, it has been necessary to abridge most of the selections from the debates. Where one paragraph or more has been deleted from a speech, ellipses appear at both the beginning and end of the part deleted. Editorial insertions in the text are bracketed. The editor’s footnotes are clearly designated by the use of “[Ed.].”

The editor has provided a general introduction and historical introductions to each of the conventions, chronologies, headnotes to speeches or issues, a number of analytical tables, and a selective bibliography.