What punctuation should I use with a quote like this?

Question

I have this sentence:

Executive order 9066 allowed "the Secretary of War and the Military Commanders ... to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military Commander may impose."

My question is should a comma go before this quote? Or should I use a colon? Or does this quote not need punctuation before it? And why?

Answer 1

Punctuation is a matter of style, and as such, you should be guided by your manual of style. I use the Chicago Manual of Style, which advises that you have a run-in, fragmentary quotation, i.e, quoted material that is not typographically distinguished from the surrounding text and that is incorporated into your sentence using proper syntax. In this case, those words that are not your own are enclosed in quotes with omitted portions indicated by ellipses. The entire construct should be treated as an integral sentence and punctuated accordingly. Since no punctuation marks would precede the words the Secretary of War had they not started a quotation, no punctuation is required when they do.