The Historical Register of the United States

the volume. The plan which has been adopted in this section of the work is to present the proceedings of congress digested into a regular narrative, giving a view of their acts, and of the propositions which have occupied their attention, in their natural order, without regard to the time of their occurrence. The advantages of this plan over that of a journal will, it is believed, be sufficiently obvious to every reader. In the proceedings of the first session of the 13th congress, will be found a digested view of the system of internal revenue, which went into operation on the first of January, 1814.

The second volume is occupied by a history of the most remakable events that have occurred from the declaration of war to the commencement of the year 1814, followed by a complete collection of official historical documents for that period, in which will be found a number of interesting official letters which are now for the first time made public. The official documents are so arranged as to show at one view both the British and American statements, and they generally follow the order of the history, of which they may be considered an amplification and elucidation.

The work has been divided into two annual volumes, in compliance with the wish of many of the subscribers, who objected to its bulkiness on the former plan, and suggested that its interest would be much increased, by publishing it twice instead of once a year*.

* To accommodate those who prefer it in its original shape a few will be bound with the two volumes in one. Henceforward one volume will be published as soon as possible after the conclusion of each session of congress; the other about the commencement of the year, probably on the first of February.

It was originally intended that an introductory volume should have been published, containing the speeches or messages of the different presidents, at the opening of each session of congress, and the diplomatic correspondence relative to the infractions of the rights of the United States by the belligerent powers, which it was expected would have contained a compendious view of the Union since the adoption of the Federal constitution. In examining the archives of congress, however, for the purpose of making this collection, it was found, that the presidential speeches and messages would be extremely imperfect unless they were accompanied by the voluminous documents that were at the same time laid before that body, to which numerous references are made. Such a vast mass of other important documents throwing a light on the history of the country was likewise found, as determined the Editor to relinquish this part of his plan for the present, with a view of employing all the leisure that his work would afford, in drawing up such a digest of the proceedings of congress and of the valuable historical documents in the capitol, as, connected with notices of the most remarkable events that have taken place, would form a complete history of the United States. It will be easily perceived that this will be a work of much time and labour. Its extent cannot at present be exactly ascertained, though it most probably will fill at least three or four volumes; it will of course be optional with the subscribers either to purchase these volumes or not.

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