The Journal of the Debates in the Convention which Framed the Constitution of

United States. Constitutional ConventionProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.3
Word count
785K words
Chapters
79

Tags

English Originals LawPolitics Constitutional ConventionPolitical DebatePower GameCivic AwarenessLegal ThoughtHistorical RecoveryAcademic StudyPolicy AnalysisWorld OrderSocial Observation

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Journal of the Debates in the Convention which Framed the Constitution ofAuthor: United States. Constitutional Convention (1787),Language: English, Class: KF: Law in general, Comparative and uniform law, Jurisprudence: United States, Release Date: Sep 25, 2012

Editor's review

This is the electronic edition of the original documentary record of the debates in the U.S. Constitutional Convention, made available free of charge by Project Gutenberg. Its value lies not in offering ready-made constitutional interpretation, but in presenting, as they stand, the arguments of the delegates at the 1787 Philadelphia Convention over such core issues as federal power, states' rights, representation, and slavery. Readers can see directly how the framers weighed options, compromised, and even left unresolved tensions—an immediacy that later summary works can hardly replace. As a public-domain historical source, it is suitable as primary material for studying the origins of American constitutional government, and also for readers interested in the history of political thought or legal history to conduct focused study. Note that this is an original English-language record, lengthy and archival in format, with a relatively high reading threshold; it is better suited to consulting with specific questions in mind or reading alongside related scholarly works than to reading straight through from beginning to end.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. First read an overview of constitutional history to build a background framework, then return to the debate record with specific topics to search for corresponding entries.
  2. Read by topic rather than by date, grouping and comparing debates on federal power, representation, slavery, and other issues.
  3. Take notes on delegates' positions and points of compromise while reading, to build your own index of constitutional issues.
  4. Read alongside the text of the U.S. Constitution, observing how the wording of provisions corresponds to the convention debates.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
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FAQ

Is this book the text of the Constitution or a record of convention debates? It is the record of debates at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, recording delegates' speeches and discussions at the meeting, not the text of the Constitution itself. When reading, you can compare it with the text of the Constitution to understand the debates and compromises behind the provisions.
Can readers with average English proficiency read this book? This book is an original English archival document, archival in format, with sentence structures and wording bearing the characteristics of its era; readers with average English proficiency will find it a heavy burden. It is advisable first to have good ability to read long English texts, or to use it alongside a Chinese translation and related scholarly works.
Is it suitable for reading straight through from beginning to end? Not really recommended. The book is lengthy and highly archival; searching by topic or reading in groups is more efficient. For focused research, you can first identify delegates' speeches and key points of controversy, then consult the relevant sections accordingly.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

United States. Constitutional Convention Author

"United States. Constitutional Convention" is not an individual author but a collective attribution referring to the 1787 convention held in Philadelphia that drafted the United States Constitution. Publicly available information is limited; the core facts that can be confirmed are that the convention met in 1787 and produced the U.S. Constitution. The library holds two related works, both titled "The Journal of the Debates in the Convention which Framed the Constitution of...," which belong to the category of debate records documenting the constitution-making process. Such works center on speeches, discussions, and proceedings, and have the character of primary records and historical compilations, making them useful for studying the background and textual origins of the U.S. Constitution. Because the author heading is an institutional body rather than a specific person, the "works" are closer to edited and published collective proceedings and should be read as historical documents rather than personal writings.