HISTORICAL RESEARCH — M'LAUGHLIN. 235 



f 



have proved to be valuable for historical purposes. Schoolcraft's 

 long residence on the frontier, his study of ethnography, and his 

 extended acquaintance with public men account for the value of 

 his correspondence to investigators, especially to those interested in 

 western history. The collections are of chief significance for Mich- 

 igan history, and an arrangement has been made with the Michigan 

 Pioneer and Historical Society to print at least all the important 

 materials relating to the history of the State, if not all of the materials 

 of historical interest. This publication will make a fresh and helpful 

 contribution to the available sources for the history of the West and 

 will have in many cases more than merely local interest. It may be 

 said that the careful examination of such collections as the School- 

 craft papers seems to be a desirable activity for the bureau, even if 

 the publication of the papers is not undertaken, because it is of 

 service to know what they contain and whether they should be used 

 by persons engaged in particular problems of research. 



VIII. When the report of the bureau was made, in 1904, work of 

 examining the diplomatic archives of the Department of State was 

 well under way. This task, which consumed several months of 

 time, and of course could not by any means exhaust the resources 

 of the Department, was not finished until December (1904). The 

 purpose was to discover the extent of the diplomatic correspondence 

 from 1789 to 1840, to ascertain with some approach to exactness 

 the amount printed in the American State Papers, and to get a clear 

 idea of the character of the documents and their usefulness for his- 

 torical research. While it was well known that they contained a vast 

 amount of material unknown and unused by historical workers, no 

 one could form without such an examination a very adequate notion 

 of how large a proportion was of more than mere administrative 

 interest. A paper on the "Diplomatic Archives of the Depart- 

 ment of State" was read by the director of the bureau before the 

 American Historical Association at the Chicago meeting (December, 

 1904) and a more extended paper was printed by this Institution.* 

 Acting on the suggestion of the bureau, the Secretary of State 

 asked Congress for a small appropriation to begin copying these 

 documents for publication, and an effort was made to induce Con- 

 gress to pass such an appropriation. Efforts to this end, however, 

 were fruitless, although it may well be hoped that at no distant day 

 Congress may see the usefulness of having these papers in print, 

 so that they may be easily used, not alone by writers of history, but 



*The Diplomatic Archives of the Department of State, 1789-1840. Publica- 

 tion No. 22. Washington, 1904. 



