Introduction /9

mented: "We in Montgomery County have some very desirable sections, and we do
not want to run the risk of losing any big atomic energy plant out there"!¹⁷

The discussion on topics such as these helps place the Constitutional Conven-
tion in the proper socio-economic and historical context. The much more numerous
pages in the Debates devoted to other provisions and proposals are equally instruc-
tive, but it must be remembered that all subjects did not get equal consideration on
the convention floor. It is here that the Guide to the Records of the Constitutional
Convention Commission and Constitutional Convention is most valuable. Subjects
mentioned only briefly in the convention Debates were frequently debated exten-
sively by the commission or were the subject of special research reports prepared at
the behest of that body. Since members of both the commission and the subsequent
convention were convinced that the new constitution would become the supreme law
of the state, they were careful to fully document their deliberations. An histor-
ian/archivist was appointed, and arrangements were made early in the proceedings
for all materials to be transferred for permanent preservation to the Hall of Rec-
ords, the state archives, where, in the words of Convention President H. Vernon
Eney, they would be "always available to the public."¹⁸

A word is necessary, perhaps, both about the Index to the Debates of the Con-
stitutional Convention that appears hereafter and about the accompanying micro-
form publication of the full printed text of the Debates of the Constitutional Con-
vention. H. Vernon Eney, presiding officer of both the Constitutional Convention
Commission and the Constitutional Convention, was committed to publishing the
essential documents of both bodies so that the massive research and cumulative ex-
perience of those involved in the constitution-making process would be accessible to
the widest possible audience. As the list of publications under both the Constitu-
tional Convention Commission and the Constitutional Convention in the Guide at-
tests, Eney succeeded in seeing into print several meticulously edited, valuable refer-
ence books relating to the work of both. Transcribing, editing, and proofreading the
Debates of the Constitutional Convention proved a difficult and time-consuming
task, however, and the work remained incomplete at the time of Eney's death in
1980. The text of the entire Debates had been set in type, however, encompassing
3,452 pages and scheduled for publication in four thick volumes. But access to the
information in the Debates could only be gained through an index, and this onerous
job had not even been started.

In early 1981 the Hall of Records Commission of the Department of General
Services was asked by the governor's office to prepare cost estimates and a work
plan to bring to fruition the work begun by H. Vernon Eney. A detailed analysis of
what remained to be done, and updated estimates of the cost of publishing the
Debates with an accompanying index and guide, established that completing the
project in a hardcover edition as initially planned would be prohibitive. The Hall of
Records then proposed as an alternative publication of the Debates in microform,
which offered the advantage of substantially lower initial production and subse-
quent per unit publication costs. The index to the Debates and the Guide to the ar-
chives of the commission and convention would be published in a standard hard-

¹⁷ Del. James V. Bennett, ibid., p. 2741.
¹⁸ Ibid., p. 3294.