From an examination of over forty files of newspapers and many thousand separate issues, scattered in various public and private libraries, from Boston to Charleston, the editor has selected a series of these essays, and reprinted them in this volume. From various sources he has obtained the name of the writer of each. All here reprinted are the work of well-known men. Five of the writers were Signers of the Declaration of Independence; seven were members of the Federal Convention; many were members of the State Conventions, and there discussed the Constitution. All had had a wide experience in law and government. Their arguments are valuable, not merely for their reasoning, but from their statement of facts. New light is thrown upon the proceedings in the Federal Convention, so large a part of which is yet veiled in mystery; and personal motives, and state interests, are mercilessly laid bare, furnishing clues of both the support of and opposition to the Constitution. Subsequently most of the writers were prominent in administering this Constitution or opposing its development, and were largely responsible for the resulting tendencies of our government. PAUL LEICESTER FORD. _Brooklyn, N. Y., April, 1892._ THE LETTERS OF CASSIUS, WRITTEN BY JAMES SULLIVAN. Printed In The Massachusetts Gazette, September-December, 1787. Note. The letters signed Cassius were, at the time of publication, generally accredited to the pen of James Sullivan, and this opinion is adopted in Amory’s _Life of James Sullivan_. The letters themselves bear out this opinion, being clearly written by a partisan of the Hancock faction, of whom Sullivan was a warm adherent, and constant newspaper essayist. The first two letters were printed before the promulgation of the proposed Constitution in Massachusetts, and chiefly relate to the differences between the two parties headed by John Hancock and James Bowdoin; but are included here to complete the series. The letters are of particular value as giving the position of Hancock, of whom Sullivan was the particular mouthpiece, proving him to be a supporter of the adoption of the Constitution, though the contrary has often been asserted. The early letters were commented upon by “Old Fog,” in the _Massachusetts Centinel_ of Sept. 22 and Oct. 6, 1787. Cassius, I. The Massachusetts Gazette, (Number 367). TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1787. For the Massachusetts Gazette. It is a great pity that such an able writer as Numa(1) should take up the pen to distribute sentiments, which have a tendency to create uneasiness in the minds of the misinformed and weak, (for none other will be influenced by them) especially at this time when the state is hardly recovered from those convulsions,(2) it has so recently experienced.