Professors Alvord of the University of Minnesota, Becker of Cornell, Coupland and Egerton of Oxford, Merk and McIlwain of Harvard, and Van Tyne of Michigan have given the editor valuable suggestions which he gratefully acknowledges. The documents are reproduced from the manuscript, or, in the case of those already printed, from the best available edition, without change in spelling. Conformity to modern use of capitals and italics has, however, been attempted. Authors' foot-notes are indicated by asterisks or daggers; the editor's, by numbers. The Introduction is not a history of the Revolution, but a guide to the documents. Somewhat fuller treatment than this principle would permit has been given to the Western problem, which has received scant notice in the books that undergraduates are likely to read. Of such books the following are recommended: Carl Becker's The Beginnings of the American People (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1915) is a sound and brilliant essay on the colonial and revolutionary period. His Eve of the Revolution, in the Chronicles of America' (Yale University Press and Humphrey Milford, 1921, 267 pp.) is slightly more restricted in scope. H. E. Egerton's Causes and Character of the American Revolution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923, 207 pp.) is the best compendium; by an English scholar who has a thorough knowledge of similar issues in the later British Empire. E. Channing's History of the United States, vol. iii, 1761–89 (Macmillan, 1912, 585 pp.), is the best single volume covering the whole of the Revolutionary period, by the greatest living authority on American history. C. H. Van Tyne's Causes of the War of Independence (Houghton, Mifflin, and Constable, 1922, 499 pp.) presents the results of important research during the last decade. Sir G. O. Trevelyan's American Revolution, 6 vols. (Longmans, 1917), is the final issue of a work first published in many parts and titles. Covering the period 1766-82 in great detail, its literary quality is pre-eminent. CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD, I July 1923. S. E. MORISON. From the Royal Proclamation on North America, 7 October 1763. From James Otis's Rights of the British Colonies, 1764 A Remonstrance from the Pennsylvania Frontier, 1764 The Virginia Resolves on the Stamp Act, 30 May 1765: 1. Patrick Henry's Speech, from different sources Soame Jenyns's Objections to the Taxation of our American Colonies by the Legislature of Great Britain, briefly From Daniel Dulany's Considerations on the Propriety of imposing Taxes in the British Colonies. . . by Act of Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress, 19 October 1765 I The Acts of Trade and Navigation. Instructions by the 74 Additional Instructions to the Colonial Governors, 1774 From James Wilson's Considerations on the Authority of Joseph Galloway's Plan of Union, 28 September 1774 Declaration and Resolves of the Continental Congress, 1774 The Association. 20 October 1774 · From John Adams's Novanglus, No. VII. Franklin on the Galloway Plan and North Resolution, 1775 Letters of Joseph Warren to Arthur Lee, Virginia Bill of Rights, 12 June 1776 Constitution of Virginia, 29 June 1776 Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776 PAGE Ordinance of Congress on Public Lands, 20 May 1785 Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty, October 1785 The Background of Shays's Rebellion, 1786: (a) Petition from the Town of Greenwich, Mass. . (a) John Jay to Washington, 27 June 1786 (b) Washington to John Jay, 1 August 1786 (c) Washington to Henry Lee, 31 October 1786. (d) The French chargé d'affaires at New York to the (b) Democracy and the Lower House, 31 May (Madison) (c) Monarchy and the Executive, 1 June (Madison) (d) Safety and the Senate, 7 June (Madison) (e) The New Jersey Plan. Small States v. Large States, (f) Alexander Hamilton's Ideas, 18 June (Yates) (i) Sectional Interests and the Federal Ratio, 11 July (j) Qualifications for Suffrage, 7 August (Madison) |
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