Secret Proceedings and Debates of the Constitutional Convention, 1787 [Paperback]

Robert Yates (Compiler), John Lansing (Compiler)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1410203638 | ISBN-13: 978-1410203632 | Publication Date: December 27, 2002

One of the most important collections of documents pertaining to the formation of the Constitution of the United States. Notes on the convention taken by Robert Yates, Chief Justice of New York, and copied by John Lansing, Jun. Esquire, late chancellor of that state, members of that convention. Including "The Genuine Information," laid before the Legislature of Maryland, by Luther Martin, Esquire, then attorney-general of that state, and member of the same convention. James Madison thought that Yates and Martin "appear to have reported in angry terms what they observed with jaundiced eyes." It must be added that in many particulars Yates' notes were fuller than Madison's own. Luther Martin's Genuine Information is a general summary of the course of the Debates, with a running criticism on the provisions of the Constitution. Also contains an appendix with documents by Edmund Randolf, and others.

Product Details

• Paperback: 348 pages
• Publisher: University Press of the Pacific (December 27, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1410203638
• ISBN-13: 978-1410203632
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,024,252 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dissenters from the Constitutional Convention of 1787, January 11, 2007

By 

Calvin K. Claus "Mr. Claus, HO HO HO" (Arlington Heights. IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Secret Proceedings and Debates of the Constitutional Convention, 1787 (Paperback)

Fifty five men, representing 12 of the 13 colonies, met in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 to write the U.S. Constitution. Sixteen of them left the Convention before the final signing. This book, SECRET PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, 1787, is a chronicle of that Convention as compiled by three of the dissenters. They were Robert Yates, and John Lansing representing New York, plus Luther Martin from Maryland. This book preceded NOTES OF THE DEBATES OF THE FEDERAL CONVENTION OF 1787, by James Madison, first printed in 1840. Both should be read to get some sense of the early struggle between proponents of State's Rights vs. supporters of a strong Federal, central government. All was not sweetness and light at the founding of our United States of America.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 5 stars for content, but -1 for presentation, April 6, 2010

By 

Joshua A. Schaeffer (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Secret Proceedings and Debates of the Constitutional Convention, 1787 (Paperback)

The font used in this book is blotchy and nerve-grating, as if each of the pages came off a Xerox machine.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most important book about Constitutional Convention, November 2, 2008

By 

Geb Sommer (Lexington, SC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secret Proceedings and Debates of the Constitutional Convention, 1787 (Paperback)

'PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES' is the most important book published about the Constitutional Convention. Luther Martin from Maryland and other delegates to the Convention document the infamous, illegal replacement if the Articles of Confederation by a number of self-serving traitors like Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, George Washington, et. al. Sixty-five men were appointed by their respective States to be members to the Convention; 10 never attended because they 'smelled a rat' as Patrick Henry phrased it; 16 did not sign the Constitution in protest; Rhode Island never sent a representative for the same reason.
Patrick Henry explained: '"I need not take much pains to show, that the principles of this system, are extremely pernicious, impolitic, and dangerous. Here is a revolution as radical as that which separated us from Great Britain." Was he right? Look around you.