Quotation Marks for a Long Quotation

Most folks know to put a quotation mark at the beginning end of something they’re quoting, such as this: He said “Merry Christmas” with a scowl on his face.

But what about a loooong thing you quote? Like more than a paragraph? The rule is you put a quotation mark at the beginning of each paragraph, but at the end of only the last paragraph.

I recently read an article by a professor of history about the 19th amendment to the US Constitution. She quoted the 15th amendment, and got the punctuation right:

The new amendment was patterned on the Fifteenth Amendment protecting the right of Black men to vote, and it read: 

“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

“Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American from heathercoxrichardson@substack.com for August 26, 2023. https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-26-2023

The article is worth a read. Sorry, no comic for this one.