FOREWORD
 The collection of documents contained in this publication is designed to serve
 two basic purposes. The first is to provide a comprehensive and convenient source of
 original materials for scholars and students. The second is to utilize the collection to
 create greater awareness among the general public and students in the Virgin Islands
 of the historical development of their society. To achieve the second aim, a series of
 curriculum workshops will be held for social studies teachers that will both explain the
 significance of the documents and examine methods to incorporate them in class work
 and assignments; presentations will also be made to the community at large.

 When the project began, a committee was formed whose members represented
 local experts in the areas of library science, history, political science and curriculum
 development. Several of the committee members, whose names are listed in the front
 of this publication, also contributed the commentary sections that place the documents
 in a larger context, explain their significance, and summarize their main features. We
 were also fortunate to obtain the cooperation of Professor William Boyer of the
 University of Delaware, who generously agreed to write the commentary for Section II
 and allow his article on the unincorporated territory doctrine to be reprinted in
 connection with the Appendix section. A total of twenty seven (27) documents were
 finally selected for inclusion. This was a considerable expansion from the original list,
 which contained eighteen (18) documents. It was the strong belief of the committee,
 however, that the collection should be as comprehensive as possible, as it would
 serve as a standard reference for some time to come.

 In proceeding with this work, members of the committee were well aware that
 others preceded us, and we acknowledge their contributions. To cite several
 examples, there is the collection of documents contained in the Bough and Macridis
 publication, Virgin Islands, America's Caribbean Outpost: The Evolution of
 Self-Government (1970). There are also several important historical documents
 reprinted in the first volume of the Virgin Islands Code (1967). In addition, works of
 local figures contain important documentary materials, such as Leon Mawson's
 Persecuted and Prosecuted (1987), which includes the transcript of the Rothschild
 Francis free speech trial. However, none of these publications provides the historical
 scope and completeness of the present publication, and all lack more current
 materials, such as the proposed constitutional conventions and the status legislation.

 In presenting this collection to the public, the committee is conscious of its
limitations as well as its value. There is an old saying that history is written by the
victors. That could be amended to indicate that historical documents relating to
constitutional and political change are generally written by the dominant political
elite. The voices of the masses and their leadership may have been responsible for
the conditions that gave rise to the documents, but they often left no written record.
The Emancipation Proclamation of 1848 was as much the creation of Moses
"Buddhoe" Gottlieb and his followers as that of Governor von Scholten, but it is the