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Thursday, September 20, 2007

The New York Times Archives

When it abandoned the disastrous TimesSelect program the other day, the New York Times also made its older archives freely available. It's not exactly the most user-friendly system around, but it's valuable nonetheless.

Some time ago, for example, I was trying to document the fact that the Times had fully reported on Senator Jacob Howard's May 23, 1866 speech introducing to the Senate the Joint Committee on Reconstruction's proposed amendment to the Constitution, which ultimately became the Fourteenth Amendment. I understood that the May 24, 1866 edition of the Times had quoted the speech at length, including those portions in which Senator Howard had asserted that the "privileges or immunities" referred to in Section 1 included the rights contained in the first eight amendments.

For some reason, using the term "Howard" did not produce the article, but the term "immunities" did. Sure enough, the article includes lengthy quotes from Senator Howard's speech, including his assertion that "to these privileges and immunities may be added the personal right [sic] guaranteed by the first eight amendments of the United States."

You can see the article for yourselves here; then click on "view full article."

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