items were reprinted regionally or nationalvly
by means of an informal network of printers
who exchanged each others' newspapers. The
distribution of these newspaper reprintings is
indicated in editorial notes and in an informa-
tive tabular compilation published as an ap-
pendix. Another appendix consists of docu-
ments concerning the alleged breakdown of
the informal network whereby newspapers
were exchanged. Antifederalists charged that
the U.S. Postmaster General Ebenezer Hazard
tried to suppress the circulation of Antifeder-
alist newspapers.
This volume also contains more than sev-
enty-five letters written by almost sixty differ-
ent correspondents from all over the United
States and from Europe. These correspon-
dents were local, state, and national office-
holders, American and foreign diplomats,
merchants, planters, lawyers, military officers,
physicians, manufacturers, clergymen, tutors,
newspaper publishers, college presidents, and
artists. This variety offers an excellent perspec-
tive from which to judge the public's attitude
toward the Constitution.
The quality and variety of material and the
editing in this volume maintain the standards
established in earlier volumes of The Documen-
tary History and justify the assertion that the
debate over the Constitution forms the great-
est bod\ ()f political] wr iting( ini American hiis-
T I1 DITORS
JOHN P. KAMINSKI and GAse.i J. SAL.ADINO
have served previously as associate editors of
this documentary history under the late Mer-
rillJensen, from March 1970 toJanuary 1980.
Both hold doctorates from the University of
Wisconsin, where the Documentary History
of the Ratification of the Constitution project
is located. RICHARD I,1FFI+1R iMs Sfer\(l the
project as assistant cditor (itm n(o  iassn ite
((11101) sit e 17".