Open debates and their dissemination through-out the nation provided the people of the United States with eyewitness accounts of the speeches and actions of their elected representatives as they struggled with such issues as the federal tariff system, theBill of Rights, creation of the judicial system and executive departments, empowerment of the president, and the location of the capital city. Volumes ten and eleven of the Documentary History of the First Federal Congress begin a five-volume set of House debates which will replace antiquated and incomplete sources, providing accurate, annotated, and--most importantly--indexed texts for early-national scholarship. These new volumes draw on a wide variety of sources edited according to modern standards ofdocumentary editing. Their publication will provide a rich, accessible source for this seminal period of American public life.