What were the Founding Fathers really thinking when they gathered in the Pennsylvania State House to draft the United States Constitution? This book explores this question and more. Organized thematically, each chapter covers a crucial Constitutional issue: the respective roles of the executive, the judiciary, and the legislature; the balance between the federal government and the states; slavery; and war and peace.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1864. For proposing amendments to the constitution of the United States, held at Washington, D. C., in February, A. D., 1861.

Reproduction of the original: A Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the Secret Sessions of the Conference Convention for Proposing Amendments to the Constitution of the United States by Lucius Eugene Chittenden