A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897

Excerpt from A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897, Vol. 10
In pursuance of the plan originally adopted certain papers were omitted from the earlier volumes of this work. Referring to these papers, the following statement occurs in the Prefatory Note to Volume I In executing the commission with which I have been charged I have sought to bring together in the several volumes of the series all Presi dential proclamations, addresses, messages, and communications to Con gress excepting those nominating persons to ofice and those which simply transmit treaties, and reports of heads of Departments which con tain no recommendation from the Executive. In the Prefatory Note to Volume IX the statement was made that this course was a mistake, and that the work to be exhaustive should comprise every message of the Presidents transmitting reports of heads of Departments and other communications, no matter how brief or unintelligible the papers were in themselves, and that to make them intelligible I should insert editorial footnotes explaining them. Having acted upon the other idea in making up Volume I and a portion of Volume II, quite a number of such brief papers were intentionally omitted. Being convinced that all the papers of the Executives should be inserted, the plan was modified accordingly, and the endeavor was thereafter made to publish all of them. In order, however, that the compilation may be 'accurate and exhaustive, ' I have gone back and collected all the papers - those which should have appeared in Volumes I and II as well as such as were unintentionally omitted from the succeeding volumes - excepting those simply making nominations, and shall publish them in an appendix in the last volume. These omitted papers, with editorial footnotes, have been inserted in the Appendix, and appear in the Index in alphabetical order, so that no serious inconvenience will result to the reader.
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