at Philadelphia in 1787, the characters who
composed it, the Constitution which resulted from their deliberations,
its effects during a trial of so many years on the prosperity of the
people living under it, and the interest it has inspired among the
friends of free government, it is not an unreasonable inference that a
careful and extended report of the proceedings and discussions of that
body, which were with closed doors, by a member who was constant in his
attendance, will be particularly gratifying to the people of the United
States and to all who take an interest in the progress of political
science and the cause of true liberty."

This provision bears evidence of the value he set on his report of the
debates in the Convention, and he has charged legacies on them alone to
the amount of $1,200 for the benefit of literary institutions and for
benevolent purposes, leaving the residuary net proceeds for the use of
his widow.

In a paper written by him, and which it is proposed to annex as a
preface to the Debates, he traces the formation of confederacies and of
the Articles of Confederation, its defects which caused and the steps
which led to the Convention, his reasons for taking the debates and the
manner in which he executed the task, and his opinion of the framers of
the Constitution. From this I extract his description of the manner in
which they were taken, as it guarantees their fullness and accuracy:

"In pursuance of the task I had assumed, I chose a seat in front of the
presiding member, with the other members on my right and left hands.
In this favorable position for hearing all that passed I noted down,
in terms legible and in abbreviations and marks intelligible to myself,
what was read from the chair or spoken by the members, and losing not
a moment unnecessarily between the adjournment and reassembling of
the Convention, I was enabled to write out my daily notes during the
session, or within a few finishing days after its close, in the extent
and form preserved in my own hand on my files.

"In the labor and correctness of this I was not a little aided by
practice and by a familiarity with the style and the train of
observation and reasoning which characterized the principal speakers.
It happened also that I was not absent a single day, nor more than the
casual fraction of an hour in any day, so that I could not have lost
a single speech, unless a very short one."

However prevailing the restraint