The Historical Register of the United States

of the arts and manufactures, &c.; the second to recording events more strictly historical.

But though the main object of the Register, is the collection and arrangement of documents respecting American history, its pages will not be exclusively devoted to that purpose. It is expected that sufficient room will generally be found for recording the most important events occurring in other countries, and particularly in Europe. The importance of the transactions of the United States for the last eighteen months, however, and the anxiety of the Editor to give the documents of that interesting period complete and entire, have induced him to devote the first volumes exclusively to American affairs, and to postpone a number of inferesting articles which had been prepared, among which are a history of the campaigns in Russia and Germany, in 1812–13, and a history of the revolution in Spain, up to the present time.

The Register commences with a “ Review of the Political Institutions of the United States.” This review contains short comparative notices of the various provisions of the different state governments, with a more ample detail of the institutions of the federal government. It is believed that this essay will be found generally interesting, as comprising in small compass much useful information, not to be otherwise attained without a great deal of labour and research.

The history of the proceedings of congress during the two sessions held since the declaration of war, with a complete collection of the state papers laid before them by the executive, copied from the originals printed for the use of congress, occupies the remainder of 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 occu. pied 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 suffi. ciently 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 remarkable 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.

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,..

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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 like. wise 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; but its extent cannot at present be exactly ascertained. It will of course be optional with the subscribers to purchase these volumes or not,

February, 1814.

A second edition of the first two volumes of this work has been called for within six months from the publication of the first, a degree of success which is extremely flattering to the Editor, and which far surpasses his ex. pectations. This increased circulation, by diminishing the expence of the publication, will enable the Editor to increase its size, a circumstance which he will gladly take advantage of in order to introduce a greater variety of subjects into his subsequent volumes.

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