Nineteen addresses from the nineteen Meetings of the Deputies of the Anti- Revolutionary Electoral Associations that were held under Kuyper’s chairmanship. Pages 13–37 and 75–81 reproduce the text of the nine speeches from 1879 to 1888 and the speech of 1894 as they were reported in De Standaard. Only five of these ten reports contain detailed accounts of the speeches, and only one gives a nearly literal transcript (see 1894.04). The full text of the other nine speeches, each of which had been published separately, is also reprinted in this collection (see 1889.07, 1891.05, 1897.05, 1901.07, 1909.08, 1913.07, 1916.07, 1917.12, and 1918.04). The speeches have been furnished with explanatory notes. A brief table of contents has also been added to each speech.

The national meetings of deputies were classified as either ordinary or extraordinary meetings. Regular or “ordinary” meetings were held during the lead-up to scheduled elections for the Second Chamber. Extraordinary meetings were called to deal with particular matters of concern (see 1889.07, 1894.04, 1916.07, and 1917.12).

The former chairman of the Doctor Abraham Kuyperstichting, K. Groen (1904–1985), and two consecutive librarians of the Kuyperstichting, D. Langedijk and M.C. Smit (1911–1981), were responsible for editing and arranging this collection of Kuyper’s speeches.