REPORTERS' PREFACE.

IN relation to the execution of this volume, the undersigned consider a few words of explanation necessary.

1st. The work not having been ordered till the business of the conven tion was considerably advanced, the debates which occurred during the early part of the session, are not as full and complete as they would have been, had the publication of a sketch of the debates, in connection with the journal, been anticipated.

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2nd. The resolution by which the work was ordered, provided that any member, who should not wish's remarks to be reported for publi cation, might have them suppressed giving notice to the reporters, Messrs. WHITON, JUDD, and BEALL gave notice that they did not wish to have their remarks reported for the volume; which will explain the brief notices taken of the part they took in debate-notice of the fact of their speaking upon particular questions being necessary to preserve the chain of debates, and to make the allusions of other speakers understood. Occasionally, members, for the sake of accuracy, prepared their remarks with their own hands, These can usually be distinguished by the style, from those furnished by the reporters employed.

3rd. Owing to the difficulty, even with experienced reporters, of making an accurate application of the different tenses, in reporting debates, and the arduous and hurrying nature of the duties of a reporter, some errors of this kind, have, in spite of our vigilance, found their way into the volume. As the debates are interspersed through the entire journal, great care and labor were necessary to preserve the letter entire and in the proper form, and to secure the accurate arrangement of both. Still, some slight verbal alterations of the journal at the connecting points, were indispensable. But these alterations are only verbal, and in no way affect the substance of the journal.

The proceedings in committee of the whole, when deemed of suffi cient importance to warrant reporting, will be found under a distinct head, and the intelligent reader will find no difficulty in discriminating the journal from these informal proceedings. When members had taken the trouble to write out their own remarks, we have in all cases made use of them, instead of our own sketches.

4th. At the suggestion of the committee of publication, we have, in addition to a full copy, in due form, of the constitution adopted by the people, appended a copy of the rejected constitution, for prescrvation in a more permanent form than has yet been given to it. This the committee deemed the more necessary as constant reference was made to it in the course of the debates.