116 



National Resources Committee 



Comprising Other Matters Relating to the Government 

 of the Territories. (S. Doc. 148, 56th Congress, 1st 

 sess., 1900.) 



Constitutions Annotated 



Due to the fact that the provisions of the Federal 

 and State constitutions are necessarily set forth in 

 relatively general terms, their scope, precise meaning, 

 and applicability to particular conditions under our 

 jurisprudential system come before the courts for 

 more definite determination. It results, therefore, that 

 a full knowledge of constitutional provisions can only 

 be had by an examination of the constitutional docu- 

 ments themselves, supplemented by an examination of 

 the cases where the provisions of these documents have 

 been passed upon by the courts, and particularly by 

 the Supreme Court of the United States, and the 

 courts of last resort of the States. In recognition of 

 this fact. Congress and most of the State legislatures 

 have caused to be prepared and published what are 

 known as "Constitutions Annotated," that is, copies of 

 the constitutions with notes giving references to all, 

 or the more important, cases where the meaning, force, 

 or applicability of their several provisions has received 

 judicial determination and the dates when each was 

 first inserted in the constitution or subsequently modi- 

 fied by the means of constitutional amendment or 

 revision. 



The Federal compilation of this character, as pre- 

 pared in accordance with the direction of Congress, 

 was issued in 1924 and bears the title: The Consti- 

 tution of the United States as Amended to Decemher 

 11, 192Jf: Annotated: With Citations to Cases of the 

 Supreme Court Construing its Several Provisions, 

 Collated Under Each Provision. (Compiled by 

 George Gordon Payne under the direction of the chair- 

 men of the House Committee on Rules and the Sen- 

 ate Committee on the Judiciary.) (S. Doc. 154, 68th 

 Cong., 1st sess. 1924. )i 



As regards the States, the copies of the constitutions 

 appearing in the State codes or compiled statutes are, 

 in many cases, carefully annotated. 



Proceedings of Constitutional Conventions 



Next in importance to the constitutions themselves 

 as source documents are the published proceedings and 

 records of the various conventions that have been held 

 for the adoption and revision of these constitutions. 

 Their value derives, not only from the fact that they 

 furnish the historical record of the more important 

 steps in the evolution of our political system, but in 



1 Announcement has been made that a new edition of this work, 

 bringing the annotations to date, is In course of preparation and will 

 shortly appear. 



the discussions that they contain of the merits and de- 

 merits of existing constitutional provisions and of pro- 

 posals for their modification or supplementing by new 

 provisions. They thus furnish an unequaled record of 

 political thought at different periods of our history. 



There has been but one Federal Constitutional Con- 

 vention — that which sat in 1787 and framed the exist- 

 ing Constitution. This Convention sat in secret session, 

 though it was known that certain members, notably 

 James Madison, took rather complete personal notes 

 regarding the proceedings and that other documents, 

 in the form of drafts, proposals, letters, etc., were in 

 existence that would throw light upon such proceed- 

 ings. In 1818, Congress, by joint resolution, removed 

 the injunction of secrecy upon the Convention proceed- 

 ings and directed the publication of its papers. This 

 was done in 1819 under the title Journal, Acts and 

 Proceedings of the Convention. . . .Which Formed 

 the Constitution of the United States, 1819. 



Later Congress assisted in the publication of the de- 

 bates in the several State conventions on the adoption of 

 the Constitution and certain other docimients bearing 

 upon the work of the convention by the purchase of 

 copies to be supplied to members of Congress and for 

 other official use. This work, which 'was done by 

 Jonathan Elliot, appeared in four volumes, in 1836, 

 under the title : The Debates in the Several State Cotb- 

 ventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution 

 Wi Recommended iy the General Convention at Phila- 

 delphia in 1787- A second, enlarged, edition of this 

 work was published in 1859 which included a fifth 

 volume, giving Madison's Debates. Still later, in 1927, 

 Congress caused to be published as a public document 

 the work Docwments Illustrative of the Formation of 

 the Union of the Amei'ican States, Selected, Arranged 

 and Indexed by Charles C. Tansill, prepared under 

 the General Supervision of H. H. B. Meyer, Director 

 Legislative Reference Service, Library of Congress, 

 1927 (H. Doc. 398, 69th Cong., 1st sess., 1927). ^ 



As an aid in tracing the movement for the modifica- 

 tion of the Constitution by specific amendments. Con- 

 gress directed the jDublication of a compilation made by 

 M. A. Musmano, entitled: Proposed Amendments to 

 the Constitution: Monograph on Resolutions Intro- 

 duced in Congress Proposing Amendments to the Con- 

 stitution of the United States (H. Doc. 551, 70th Cong., 

 2d sess., 1929). 



2 The most complete compilation of documents regarding the fram- 

 ing of the Constitution and the ratification by the States is tL« series 

 of volumes issued by the Bureau of Bolls and Library of the State 

 Department entitled Documentary History of the Comtituticn, 1894- 

 1905. Other important works are: Debates in the Federal Convention 

 of nS7, edited by Gaillard Hunt and James Brown Scott. Carnegie En- 

 dowment for International Peace, 1920 ; The Records of the Federal 

 Convention of 1787, 3 volumes, 1911, vol. 4, 1937 ; and The Framing of 

 the Constitution of the Vnited States, 1930, both by Max Farrand. 



