8vo. pp. 219.C., M., B. A. 97
Reported by Benjamin Russell, printer of The Massachusetts Centinel. His own account is given in Buckingham’s Specimens of Newspaper Literature, ii, 49.
Massachusetts Debates. Boston: 1808.
Debates, / Resolutions and other proceedings / of the / Convention / of the / Commonwealth of Massachusetts. / Convened at Boston, on the 9th of January, / 1788, and continued until the 7th of Februa-/ ry following, for the purpose of assenting / to and ratifying the Constitution recom-/ mended by the grand Federal Convention. / Together with the / Yeas and Nays / on / the decision of the grand question. / To which / The Federal Constitution is prefixed; / and to which are added, / the Amendments / which have been made therein. / Boston: / Printed and sold by Oliver & Monroe, / and Joshua Cushing, State-Street, / 1808.
12mo. pp. 236. H.98
Massachusetts Debates. Boston: 1856.
Debates and Proceedings / in the / Convention / of the / Commonwealth of Massachusetts, / held in the year / 1788, / and which finally ratified the / Constitution of the United States. / Printed by authority of Resolves of the Legislature, 1856. / Boston: / William White, / Printer to the Commonwealth. / 1856.
8vo. pp. (16), 442.99
Edited by Bradford K. Pierce and Charles Hale. It contains not only the debates as printed in the two former editions, but the ante and post proceedings of the General Court; Gerry’s official letter; the Journal of the Convention; Judge Parsons “Minutes” of the debates; an account of the reception of the news of the ratification, and of the procession which followed; the “Letters of an American;” Speeches of Franklin in the Federal Convention, and Wilson in the Pa. Convention; 4 “Letters of Brutus,” and a series of personal letters relating to the proceedings in Massachusetts, mostly taken from Spark’s Writings of Washington.
It is a most valuable volume for the history of the struggle over ratification in Massachusetts, but it is a little strange that the editors should pass over the essays on the Constitution from Massachusetts pens and select the letters of “An American” and of “Brutus”—the first a Pennsylvania series, by Tench Coxe, and the second by a New York writer.