History, Formation of the Constitution - United States of America #261127

Very many years have gone by since I conceived a hope of one day writing a history of the forma tion of our federal constitution. The congress of the confederation and the federal convention having sat with closed doors and under injunctions of se crecy, materials for the work lay almost exclusively in manuscripts widely dispersed. I have visited the archives of more than half the thirteen states, and have never neglected an opportunity of taking copies of papers relating to the subject wherever I could find them.