or throw additional light upon the proceedings of the Convention, whether anterior or subsequent to it, together with notices of the leading men connected with it. I think the language of the resolution is broad enough to cover all this.

I am, very respectfully,

Your obd't servant,

JAMES Y. SMITH.

For a long time previous to any action on the part of the General Assembly, relative to the publication of the papers alluded to in their resolutions of January, 1864, Mr. STAPLES had been collecting materials for a history of Rhode Island in the Continental Congress, with sketches of the lives of the delegates from this State. Upon receiving the foregoing letter from Governor SMITH, he proceeded in that work, intending to close it with the Journal and proceedings of the Convention that adopted the Constitution. While so engaged he "found by the records," using his own words, "that the General Assembly, instead of appointing him to edit the Journals of the Convention, had authorized His Excellency the Governor to 'employ some suitable person' to do the work, and therefore he discontinued his labors." This was owing of course to a misapprehension of the facts, arising in part from the well known sensitiveness and delicacy of the author in all matters pertaining to himself.

At the January session of 1865, the General Assembly passed the following resolution:

RESOLVED, That the Hon. WILLIAM R. STAPLES, be, and he is hereby requested to edit the Journals of the Convention in Rhode Island for the adoption of the Constitution of the United States ;

also, the proceedings of the towns relative thereto, and other papers connected therewith, within, or which may be put within his control, and to cause five hundred copies to be printed for the use of the General Assembly.

Upon receiving a copy of this resolution, Mr. STAPLES resumed his labors. He embodied in his work the correspondence between the Executive of the State and the delegates in Congress, which had already been published in the "Colonial Records." When completed in this form it made two hundred and forty folio pages of manuscript. Thinking, however, that there might be further correspondence in the office of the Secretary of State, and in the archives of the Rhode Island Historical Society, he made a thorough search, being anxious to obtain and copy all letters pertaining to his subject, that were known to be in existence. The result was five hundred pages more of manuscript. To engraft all this into his original work required a careful recasting of the whole. This was not accomplished until the beginning of March, 1867.

Finding that the work in its enlarged form would greatly exceed in size and cost the one originally proposed by the General Assembly, Mr. STAPLES, in the Spring of 1866, suggested the expediency of appointing a committee to examine the manuscript, or at least to confer with the author on the subject. Such a committee was appointed, consisting on the part of the House of Messrs. GEORGE W. GREENE, GEORGE M. CARPENTER and WILLIAM BINNEY; and on the part of the Senate of His Honor the Lieutenant Governor, ROWLAND G. HAZARD and BORDEN

CHACE.

To Mr. GREENE, the chairman of this committee, Mr. STAPLES addressed a letter, of which the following is substantially a copy:—

PROVIDENCE, March 8, 1867.

DEAR SIR-It is with great pleasure, I assure you, that I came to the last page of my manuscript this morning. It covers about seven hundred and eighty folio pages. It is an attempt at a documentary history of the State in the old Continental Congress, and the Journal of the Convention that adopted the Constitution of the United States; embracing the correspondence between the Executive of the State and its delegates in Congress.

I supposed I had completed my intended work more than a year ago, but on examining the office of the Secretary of State, I ascertained that he had omitted from the Colonial Records, letters to and from the delegates in Congress, copies of which swelled my manuscript from two hundred and forty folio pages, to its present size. I was appalled when I first discovered these letters and ascertained their number and extent, but deeming them important to complete my original plan, I have persevered until now. There are still wanting many letters to complete the series, a part of which, especially of the copies kept by the Executive, are irretrievably lost. Some may be in private collections preserved as autographs.

Of original matter I have used little more than was sufficient as a thread to the letters. I now offer the whole manuscript for your examination. I shall regret, but will find no fault, if you deem it inexpedient to publish it. Since I have ascertained the bulk, I myself begin to doubt. At any rate I shall have one copy of these letters, after the originals are destroyed with the State House.

I have the honor to be,

Very respectfully,

WILLIAM R. STAPLES.

To this letter Mr. STAPLES received no reply, it being near the close of the session, nor did he formally meet the committee, although several of them at

different times called on him in reference to the subject. Thus the matter rested until the January session of 1868, when the new Assembly appointed another committee under the following resolution :—

RESOLVED, That Messrs. SHEFFIELD of Newport, PERRY of Bristol, and BRADFORD of Cranston, of the House of Representatives, and Messrs. ROWLAND G. HAZARD of Kingston, and BENONI CARPENTER of Pawtucket, of the Senate, be a committee to examine the papers prepared by Hon. WILLIAM R. STAPLES, relating to the minutes of the Convention for the adoption of the Federal Constitution.

This committee at once conferred with Mr. STAPLES, and finally submitted to the General Assembly suitable resolutions, which were adopted as follows:

RESOLVED, That the sum of six hundred dollars be allowed and is hereby ordered to be paid to the Hon. WILLIAM R. STAPLES, for editing the History of the Adoption of the Constitution of the United States by this State.

RESOLVED, That the proposition of the State Printers to publish five hundred copies of the work prepared by Hon. WILLIAM R. STAPLES, entitled "History of the Adoption of the Constitution of the United States by the State of Rhode Island," be and the same is hereby accepted, and that the said State Printers be, and they hereby are, directed to furnish the said copies as soon as is practicable, and at a cost to the State not exceeding eight hundred dollars.

I have thus endeavored to give, as briefly as possible, a documentary account of the origin and progress of the present work up to the time of the author's decease. The foregoing resolutions, it will be observed, make no provision for remunerating him for his manuscript, which had cost him much time and labor. The appropriation is simply for editing, etc.

This, in addition to the labor of proof-reading, which, in his enfeebled state of health, he dreaded, decided him for the time not to publish.

A few weeks before Judge STAPLES's death, I called by special appointment at his house, to confer with him in reference to the work which he had prepared for publication, and which he had carefully revised for the last time. He unfolded at length his views and plans, and then requested me to take the manuscript to my home, examine it carefully, revise the title page and preface, and give suitable headings to the several chapters, intimating that in case of publication, about which he was still in doubt, he should rely on me to read the proofs, and make out an index similar to the one in my "Life, Times and Correspondence of James Manning." These suggestions and wishes I have endeavored faithfully to carry out, the General Assembly having, at its January session for 1869, authorized the publication of the work in accordance with the following resolutions :—

RESOLVED, That the sum of seven hundred and fifty dollars be allowed to the heirs of the late WILLIAM R. STAPLES, for the manuscript of a work entitled "Documentary History of Rhode Island in the old Continental Congress, with the Journal of the Convention that adopted the Constitution, in May, 1790," and that the State Auditor is hereby directed to draw his order on the General Treasurer in favor of the legal representative of said heirs, for the said sum of seven hundred and fifty dollars, on receiving from them a receipt in full for all claims against the State on account of said work.

RESOLVED, That the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars be allowed to REUBEN A. GUILD, for editing the aforesaid work of the late WILLIAM R. STAPLES, and that the State Auditor is hereby directed to draw his order on the General Treasurer for said sum in