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ORGANIZATION
Supplements to Ratification of the Constitution by the States.
The supplemental documents for Massachusetts, New York, Rhode
Island, Maryland, and all future volumes are no longer placed on mi-
crofiche. The Maryland supplemental documents can be found on the
web site of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries at http://
library.wisc.edu.
Much of the material for each state is repetitious or peripheral but
still valuable. Literal transcripts of this material are placed in the sup-
plements. Occasionally, images of significant manuscripts are also in-
cluded.
The types of documents in the supplements are:
(1) newspaper items that repeat arguments, examples of which are
printed in the state volumes,
(2) pamphlets that circulated primarily within one state and that are
not printed in the state volumes or in Commentaries,
(3) letters that contain supplementary material about politics and
social relationships,
(4) images of petitions with the names of signers,
(5) images of manuscripts such as notes of debates, and
(6) miscellaneous documents such as election certificates, attendance
records, pay vouchers and other financial records, etc.
Commentaries on the Constitution: Public and Private (Vols. XIII-XVIII).
This series contains newspaper items, pamphlets, and broadsides that
circulated regionally or nationally. It also includes some private letters
that give the writers' opinions of the Constitution in general or that
report on the prospects for ratification in several states. Except for
some grouped items, documents are arranged chronologically and are
numbered consecutively throughout the six volumes. There are fre-
quent cross-references between Commentaries and the state series.
The Bill of Rights.
The public and private debate on the Constitution continued in sev-
eral states after ratification. It was centered on the issue of whether
there should be amendments to the Constitution and the manner in
which amendments should be proposed-by a second constitutional
convention or by the new U.S. Congress. A bill of rights was proposed
in the U.S. Congress on 8 June 1789. Twelve amendments were adopted
on 25 September and were sent to the states on 2 October. These vol-
umes will contain the documents related to the public and private de-
bate over amendments, to the proposal of amendments by Congress,
and to the ratification of the Bill of Rights by the states.
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