The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873. Debates for sessions prior to 1873 are recorded in The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873)

For over a century, from 1854, the year the party was organized, until 1958, Vermonters never failed to elect Republicans to its state and national offices, and every four years they returned a slate of electors pledged to the Republican presidential nominee. The Vermont GOP was trumpeted as the star that never set in the Republican Party's political firmament, until the decline of family farms and the influx of Democrat-leaning urbanites in the 1960s and 1970s eroded the bedrock of Vermont's GOP base. Encompassing the years 1854 to 1974, Samuel Hand's superb historical study documents the rise and fall of Vermont republicanism, exploring the personalities and the religious, political, and social institutions that constituted the Vermont Republican Party. More than simply the authoritative telling of a remarkable century of hegemony for the Vermont GOP, The Star That Set is a compelling story of the waning importance of party in modern American political life.

The seven-volume edition contains 446 constitutional texts, constitutional amendments, failed constitutions and draft constitutions from the United States, all in their original languages and alphabetically ordered by states. The texts, including some rare original versions, have been edited and annotated on the basis of the printed official state documents and conventions, consulting the original manuscripts. The constitutional documents from Vermont to Wisconsin are published in volume VII.