Publisher's Synopsis
Commentaries on the Constitution: Public and Private, a six volume set, is an integral but autonomous part of the Ratification series. The documents in this volume present the day-by-day regional and national debates over the Constitution that took place in newspapers, magazines, broadsides, pamphlets, and private letters. This volume covers the period from 18 December 1787 to 31 January 1788, when news that Delaware and Pennsylvania had ratified the Constitution was spread; New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut adopted the Constitution; and a strongly divided Massachusetts Convention was in the midst of debating the merits of the new form of government. This documentary series is a research tool of remarkable power, an unrivaled reference work for historical and legal scholars, librarians, and students of the Constitution. The volumes are encyclopedic, consisting of manuscript and printed documents-contemporary newspapers, broadsides, and pamphlets-compiled from hundreds of sources, copiously annotated, thoroughly indexed, and often accompanied by microfiche supplements. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Michael Kammen has noted that The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution series "will be of enduring value centuries hence" and described it as "one of the most interesting documentary publications we have ever had." The American Bar Association Journal has stated, "Each new volume now fills another vital part of the mosaic of national history.".
