In its infinite wisdom, the United States Congress no longer sees fit to keep this manuscript in print. It was reprinted by one publisher (Spencer, Judd) in 1984, and occasionally others concerned with the preservation and knowledge of our national heritage does likewise. So long as the document is faithfully reproduced, it absolutely belongs on the shelf of every American. I acquired a Spencer, Judd reprint in the 1980's, and have referred to it regularly ever since. If there is one book in my library that under no circumstance whatsoever will I loan, this is the title.
When reviewing anything coming from modern Capitol Hill, to see if any propriety, necessity, or authority exists within the constitution for the act, one needs reach no further than this tome. With all of James Madison's notes on the 1787 convention, the entire legislative intent of the Constitution can be seen through the eyes of its authors.
We have found a PDF of it, and are making it useful in some of our History and Constitutional Law courses at Sherman Institute. And while not the totality of Constitutional History as is contained in Jonathan Elliot's work (which we also use) [found here: [...] this particular single volume contains the meat needed to understand most aspects of our getting it together as a nation. Elliot's work adds all the state ratification debates along with overlapping items from this Formation of the Union title. It weighs in at 5 volumes, with this being a single book. I recommend both for a well-stocked library.
From this Formation of the Union title, you can study Parliamentary Procedure (seeing that Madison was the Secretary of the Convention). You can study Constitutional Interpretation. You can study general American legal principles. You can study the defects of the Articles of Association/Confederation documents. You can create compare/contrast writings of government types. You can study how a modern convention would likely operate, seeing the history of the only precedent we have to go by.
But most importantly, you can line by line, word by word, see how the Constitution was written, rewritten, amended, reconsidered, changed again, and perfected -- right down to the order of the words used to convey the clear, precise intention of the framers to establish a strictly limited general government that would do, and only do, those things thought best to delegate to the national head to prevent utter confusion throughout the states.
If this book cost $500 to acquire, it would be worth every penny to anyone involved in modern political action, historic research, nullification movements, or the like. If you do not have it, and have questions about what something in the constitution really means, you need to acquire it WHILE YOU CAN. Historians tend to gobble them up when this scarce book surfaces.
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