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.
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About This Collection
The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution is a five-volume collection compiled by Jonathan Elliot during the mid-19th century. Often referred to as “Elliot’s Debates,” this collection discusses the activities of the first 13 states after the adoption of the US Constitution on September 17, 1787. It remains the best source for materials about the national government's transitional period between the closing of the Constitutional Convention in September 1787, and the opening of the First Congress in March 1789.
On September 17, 1787, members of the Constitutional Convention signed the final draft of the US Constitution and agreed to distribute the proposed constitution to the states. Each state then held its own ratifying convention to approve or disapprove the new constitution. The Constitution took effect after the ninth state, New Hampshire, ratified it on June 21, 1788.
Elliot's Debates collects the documents pertinent to the discussions on ratification: the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Journal of the Constitutional Convention, (see volume 1) and the debates in the various states (see volumes 2-4).
Browsing Elliot's Debates
Researchers who have not previously worked with Elliot's Debates may want to start by browsing the detailed tables of contents found in the beginning of each volume to find specific items, which are linked here:
Search Functions in Elliot's Debates
Additionally, researchers can search the full text of this collection by entering keywords in the search bar at the upper-right corner of this page. For example, a search for “Alexander Hamilton” (with quotation marks included in the search) will retrieve several results from across the Century of Lawmaking collections, including Elliot's Debates.
To view the results in Elliot's Debates, scroll down to the results from The Debates in the Several State Conventions . . . (the formal title for Elliot's Debates) and select the drop-down menu next to “Resources.” This drop-down menu will display three options for each volume, as described below:
- The first option will list the number of pages where the search term was found in each volume. After clicking on this option, the researcher will be directed to a gallery displaying only those pages containing their search term. To read the full text and locate search terms, select an image from the results list. Here is an example of the results retrieved when searching for “Alexander Hamilton” in Elliot's Debates, volume 1.
- The second option reads “Images with Text.” Selecting this choice will present the researcher with a two-panel display of the volume’s first page. The right-hand panel will display a scan of the page from the relevant volume and the text on that page will be visible on the left-hand panel. Researchers can use the navigation buttons at the top of the screen to jump to different pages. Here is an example of how volume 1 of Elliot's Debates appears when this option is selected.
- Selecting the third option, “PDF,” will take the researcher to a searchable PDF of the full volume. Researchers can look for specific words or phrases within the volume by selecting the magnifying glass at the upper-left corner of the screen. To view volume 1 of Elliot's Debates in PDF, click here.
Further Assistance
If you have a question about navigating Elliot's Debates, please contact the Law Library of Congress through our Ask A Librarian service.