This transcript of the Minutes of the Salem Monthly Meeting is not intended to be an exact copy of, to use a fancy word, the original holograph. In accordance with recent methods of editing historical documents, e.g., The Papers of Benjamin Franklin (Yale University Press), The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (Princeton University Press), and The Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman (Oxford University Press), spelling, punctuation and use of capitalization have been corrected to conform with modern practice. In no instance, however, do these changes affect the meaning of the original. The Center for Editions of American Authors of the Modern Language Association suggests that every change in punctuation, capitalization and spelling be noted. To do so in this instance, when the text contains so many variances from modern standards, is not only impractical but serves no useful purpose.

Except for corrections in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and hyphenation the edited text appears exactly as it was written without addition, substitution or omission of any words. The edited text preserves original paragraph and sentence divisions.

In some cases the text of the microfilm was unreadable or only partially readable. For example, the final words on lines 11 and 13 on page 1 are unreadable on the microfilm. Question marks within parenthesis are used to indicate the presence of unreadable or questionable text.

In some cases the text in the microfilm was partially readable or partially decipherable. For example, on page 4, line 19 (in the holograph), the word seems to be "talebearing". The first part of the word is clearly "tale' but since the second part of the word is nearly unreadable and subject to dispute it is placed within parenthesis and question marks indicating that there is some question concerning the accuracy of the transcription.

Other differences between the original text and the edited transcript include the following revisions:

(a) Mo. Meeting is transcribed as Monthly Meeting;
(b) '&' is transcribed as 'and';
(c) two sentences that are written as one sentence have been separated;
(d) instances of duplicate words , e.g., "with respect, with respect" have been edited by dropping the duplicate words;

Lastly, additions made to the original text to clarify meaning have been enclosed in brackets and British spellings, when they occur in the original text, are retained in the edited transcript.

This transcript of the Minutes of the Salem Monthly Meeting is derived from a microfilm copy of the minutes available at the Ohio Historical Society Library in Columbus, Ohio. The Microfilm Number is MIC 170 Roll 6.