156 INTRODUCTION. 



ture authorized the appointment of an agent to visit Europe, and select and tran- 

 scribe documents in the archives of European states, which might tend to illus- 

 trate our colonial history. John Romeyn Brodhead, who was appointed to per- 

 form that duty, has, through the liberality of the governments of the Netherlands 

 and of Great Britain, explored the archives of those countries, and collected a 

 mass of valuable official papers, commencing with the discovery of the colony, 

 and reaching to the close of the revolution. The agent is now in Paris, and is 

 improving the generous permission given him by the king of the French to ex- 

 plore the public offices in that city, for materials for perfecting that part of our 

 history which relates to the wars between the English and French, many scenes 

 of which occurred in the western and northern parts of this state. The legisla- 

 ture also, on the suggestion of the Historical Society, has, within the present 

 year, completed the publication of the legislative history of the state, by giving 

 to the press the journals and correspondence of the revolutionary provincial con- 

 gress, the council of safety and committee of safety. But the attention of our 

 historians has not been exclusively confined to our own state. Francis L. Hawks, 

 under the title of " Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of the United 

 States," has written the history of the church in Virginia and Maryland. J. Fen- 

 nimore Cooper's History of the Navy of the United States, is justly regarded as 

 a national work. " Notices of the War of 1812," by John Armstrong, late 

 secretary of war, were published in two volumes. 



The life of Philip Schuyler is yet unwritten, if we except the sketch con- 

 tained in chancellor Kent's historical discourse. We have also only a brief eulo- 

 gistic notice of chancellor Livingston. The fame of John Jay has been mere 

 fortunate, the life of that christian statesman having been fully, impartially 

 and elegantly written by his son, William Jay, of Westchester county. We are 

 indebted to that indefatigable national biographer, Jared Sparks, for ample 

 volumes giving us the personal and political history of Gouverneur Morris. John 

 C. Hamilton has produced two volumes, bringing down the life of Alexander 

 Hamilton to the period when the federal constitution was formed. The work is 



