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Collection A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates 1774 to 1875

Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention

This section includes texts from the building and creation of the United States of America, 1774-1789. Collections include Journals of the Continental Congress, Letters of Delegates to Congress, Elliot's Debates, and Farrand's Records.

Journals of the Continental Congress The Journals of the Continental Congress (1774-1789) contain the records of the daily proceedings of the Continental Congress, and include the text of ordinances, such as the Northwest Ordinance, reports to Congress, and correspondence with the colonies, states, foreign powers, and others.
Letters of Delegates to Congress Letters of Delegates to Congress includes all the documents written by delegates that bear directly upon their work during their years of service in the First and Second Continental Congresses, 1774-1789, as well as some diaries, public papers, essays, and other documents.
Elliot's Debates The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution is a five-volume collection compiled by Jonathan Elliot in the mid-19th century.
Farrand's Records Published in 1911, Max Farrand's The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 gathered the documentary records of the Constitutional Convention, making it easier to study the workings of the Constitutional Convention.