That any of John Adams' legal papers appear in print is a tribute to the energy and devotion of many more people than the names which happen to appear on the title page. In the preparation of these volumes, more perhaps than in any earlier productions in The Adams Papers, the principle of the iceberg has applied. It is a double pleasure, therefore, to mark the end of the editing, and the beginning of the text, with a modest recognition of encouragement and aid received from many sources.

Mark DeWolfe Howe, Professor of Law, Harvard University, is, more than anyone else, responsible for the publication of this edition. It was he who successively steered the present editors toward the editor-in-chief when each was still a student at the Harvard Law School; it was he who fanned the editors' tentative spark and initiated arrangements not only for funds to fuel the editorial fire, but for a proper hearth for it at Harvard; and finally, as the material has taken semi-literate shape, he has continued to afford the editors the privilege of submitting their drafts and proofs to him for criticism and improvement.

Lyman H. Butterfield, editor-in-chief in every sense, has conferred on the editors in bountiful measure his meticulous attention to detail, his matchless understanding of the craft of editing, and, most important of all, his confidence. They can only hope that they have been able to approach his standards.

Wendell D. Garrett, associate editor of the Adams Papers, has, with unfailing good taste and humor, guided the editors through a mass of intricacies.

Dean Erwin N. Griswold of the Harvard Law School is hors concours at encouraging young lawyers to hurdle difficulties apparently insurmountable; thus it has been with this work.

The trustees of the William Nelson Cromwell Foundation have in their collegiate capacity generously stimulated the production of this edition with two grants, sine qua non.

Stephen T. Riley, Director of the Massachusetts Historical Society, has read and criticized the galley proofs and has at all times eased the cxvieditors' burden by sharing with them his special knowledge of the Papers of Robert Treat Paine.

Clifford K. Shipton, Director of the American Antiquarian Society, Archivist of Harvard University, and Sibley Editor of the Massachusetts Historical Society, has read and criticized the galley proofs and has at various times in the course of the project added blue pencil and removed red tape.

Other contributory critics and proofreaders included John D. Cushing and Malcolm Freiberg of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Professor Robert E. Moody of Boston University, and Professor Samuel E. Thorne of the Harvard Law School.

Walter M. Whitehill, Director of the Boston Athenaeum, graciously increased the editors' knowledge of John Adams' Boston; he and his assistant, Jane N. Garrett, also made the Athenaeum's volumes and manuscripts freely available.

No project of this sort could long exist without a talented, understanding editorial assistant. To say that the functions of Mrs. Daniel J. Burton (who started with us as Miss Judith A. Diekoff) encompassed documentary transcription and historical and bibliographical research is only to give the barest suggestion of her value to the venture. Mrs. Burton, Michael E. Hager, Esq., and Deborah B. Zobel also provided most of the Latin translations, for which the editors have taken credit—and responsibility.

Mrs. Carl A. Pitha lent us her exceptional talents as an indexer; dealing with unfamiliar material, she was nonetheless able to reduce the task first to manageable size, and then, assisted by Mrs. Douglas Craib, to smooth order. Miss Virginia Casey, Mrs. James Nichols, Mrs. Paul Norton, and Mrs. Philip R. Peters patiently typed and retyped large portions of the manuscript. Mrs. William Foresta and Miss Susan I. Hitchcock provided outstanding secretarial support.

It is customary for editors to thank their wives last, but Susan C. Wroth and Deborah B. Zobel contributed not merely the traditional uxorial encouragement, aid, and comfort, but also essential clerical and investigatory skills.

Advice and consent, both equally important to the edition, came from many sources, of which the editors wish particularly to mention: Professors Bernard Bailyn, Stanley N. Katz, Arthur A. Maass, and Frank Michelman, Harvard; Professors Carl Bridenbaugh, James Hedges, William G. McLoughlin, and Lawrence C. Wroth, Brown; Professor George A. Billias, Clark; Professor Katherine Turner, Wellesley; Dean Benjamin W. Labaree, Williams; Professor William Hedges, cxviiGoucher; Professor Thomas C. Barrow, University of Missouri; Seymour P. Edgerton, Esq., and Robert J. Hallisey, Esq., Bingham, Dana & Gould; Marcus A. McCorison, American Antiquarian Society; and Mrs. Katherine A. Kellock, Washington, D.C.

Dean Edward S. Godfrey and the faculty and staff of the University of Maine School of Law demonstrated limitless patience during the travail necessary to bring forth these volumes.

The staff of the Massachusetts Historical Society and The Adams Papers assisted materially in various ways and at all times; the editors wish particularly to thank: The Misses Winifred Collins, Amber Cox, Anna Moses, and Marjorie Sprague; Mrs. David R. Riggs Jr.; and (especially) R. Tenney Johnson, Esq., whose ground breaking in the Legal Papers and the Suffolk Court Files made the editors' road not merely passable but possible.

Through the efforts of the staff of the Harvard Law School and its Library, the editors were able to establish and maintain a collection of 18th-century law books which even John Adams might have envied. This happy circumstance depended on the friendly cooperation of Librarian Earl M. Borgeson, Miss Edith G. Henderson, Philip Putnam, and George Strait. Vice Dean Louis A. Toepfer and Miss Mary Conlan assisted the editors in the solution of countless administrative dilemmas.

The editors have received, in the course of their work, much more than the usual courtesies from the respective staffs of Widener Library; Houghton Library; the Harvard University News Office; the Harvard University Archives; the Massachusetts Archives; the Essex Institute; the Office of the Collector of Customs, Boston; the National Historical Publications Commission; the Manuscript and Interlibrary Loan Divisions of the Library of Congress; the New-York Historical Society; the New York Public Library; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Portland, Maine, Public Library; the Maine Historical Society; Fogler Library, University of Maine; and the University of Maine Law School Library.

We wish to express thanks to the Council of the Massachusetts Historical Society for permission to print several important items from the Robert Treat Paine Papers, and to the Public Record Office, London, for allowing us to reproduce certain documents from the Treasury and Colonial Office Papers. Crown Copyright material in the Public Record Office is printed by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office.

Hon. Raymond S. Wilkins, Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial cxviiiCourt, and Hon. G. Joseph Tauro, Chief Justice of the Superior Court, encouraged the editors by their interest in the project and their willingness to favor the editors' use of court sources.

Chester Dolan, Esq., Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County during most of the work on these volumes, has always shown the deepest interest in and understanding of the historical value of the old papers entrusted to his care. Mr. Dolan obtained funds and personnel to commence microfilming each document, and he also arranged for the restoration and preservation of the Superior Court Minute Books, which were starting to disintegrate from age and neglect. To the present editors, he always gave ready assistance and earnest encouragement. It is a particular pleasure to state our gratitude to him and to his assistants, Richard McLaughlin (now Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for the Commonwealth), Daniel Donnelly, and Misses Virginia Lynch, Eileen Kennedy, Theresa McLaughlin, Rita McMillan, and Dorothy Viano. And it is also a pleasure to note that the present Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County, John E. Powers, Esq., is continuing Mr. Dolan's work.

The editors wish also to thank Thomas Dorgan, Esq., Clerk of the Suffolk Superior Court, Deputy Clerk Michael Sclafani, and acting clerk John Donahue; and Edward Sullivan, Esq., Clerk of the Middlesex Superior Court, for courtesies extended during the search among the papers of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas.

This enterprise depended heavily on the contribution of numerous students and scholars of law, history, biography, and geography: John W. Bethell; Miles Bradbury; Burnell Hersey, Esq., Dale Hershey, Esq., Justin Kimball, Esq., and William B. Parks Jr., Esq. On the basis of Cornelius Minihan's preliminary research, Mrs. Lovell Thompson and Susan C. Wroth prepared rough drafts of many of the sketches in the Register of the Massachusetts Bench and Bar.

In various matters of art, photography, and bibliography, the editors received abundant aid from John E. Alden of the Boston Public Library; Mrs. John W. Bethell; George M. Cushing Jr. (whose magnificent photographs of the courthouse materials enlighten as they delight); the staff of the Fogg Art Museum; Thomas Maytham and Miss Laura Luckey of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Miss Emma Papert of the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts; Professor Jules D. Prown, Yale (whose generous willingness to share his knowledge of matters pertaining to John Singleton Copley made possible the portrait gallery which leavens these legalistic volumes); and Mildred Steinbach and the staff of the Frick Art Reference Library.