Page:Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789 (IA journalsofcontin01unit).pdf/13



The Journals and Records of the Continental Congress have never been printed in full. The entries made from day to day by Secretary Charles Thomson were far from complete, and were subjected to revision by committees before publication; but the contemporary issues of the Journals have served as the basis of all subsequent reprints, and the original manuscript has remained almost unused, except by the curious bent upon studying the course of a certain measure. For the first time these valuable records of consultation and legislative action are now to be printed as written and as they were kept by the office of the Secretary of Congress. The entries will be supplemented by information gathered from the indorsements made upon papers and reports laid before Congress, which often note action not entered upon the Journals, and from such other sources as will aid in reconstituting the proceedings of this Revolutionary body.

The Congress of 1774 stands by itself. The first step toward common measures, carefully taken by the committees of correspondence and more or less popular assemblies of the localities, easily led to a general or Continental Congress, whose powers were but ill defined, and whose acts were largely tentative. It was not prepared to take any radical step, and an assertion of the