II2 REPORTS ON INVESTIGATIONS AND PROJECTS. 



"Guide to the archives of the Government in Washington." In the case of 

 the Senate files, special authorization was required, and was obtained through 

 a resolution of the Senate, opening this valuable and well-arranged collection 

 of papers to historical investigation for practically the first time. The files 

 of the two houses, though fragmentary in the earlier years, contain manu- 

 script memorials, petitions, and reports in great profusion, as well as bills 

 which, though printed, have from their rarity the status of manuscript. The 

 portion relating to the Territories made a large and important addition to 

 Mr. Parker's set of slips. His manuscript has been turned over by him to 

 the Department and is now nearly ready for the press. 



TEXTUAE PUBLICATION OE DOCUMENTS. 



During the period from October to March Dr. Burnett was absent from 

 Washington in a northward tour, the object of which was to make the last 

 gleanings of material in that direction for his "Letters of Delegates to the 

 Continental Congress relating to its Transactions." Boston, Hartford, Al- 

 bany, New York, Newark, Trenton, Princeton, Philadelphia, and Haverford 

 were successively visited, and considerable masses of additional material se- 

 cured. With few exceptions, the copies of these letters were collated with 

 the originals by Dr. Burnett in person, and exceptional pains taken to secure 

 accuracy of text. During the summer further searches were made at Rich- 

 mond and among the Lee papers at the University of Virginia. By the 

 kindness of members of the Adams family, the Director was permitted to 

 examine the papers of John Adams. This examination, conducted with the 

 kind assistance of Mr. Worthington C. Ford, added a number of interesting 

 letters to the store now accumulated. With the exception of the material 

 from the library of the South Carolina Historical Society, a body of copies 

 now nearly completed, all the letters and parts of letters to be printed are 

 now in hand. The work of arrangement, comparison, and elimination has 

 been carried nearly to a completion, and other editorial work has been con- 

 siderably advanced. 



Miss Davenport in the first half of the year carried down to 1667 the 

 preparation of her introductions and annotations to the treaties between for- 

 eign powers having a bearing on American history. Early in July she sailed 

 for London, where, in the British Museum, she has been revising her mate- 

 rial for the sixteenth century, discovering new articles, and continuing her 

 work in other ways. 



The "American proceedings and debates in Parliament" has during the 

 year advanced by several stages. Mr. Stock has completed to 1766 his list 

 of items in the Journals of the British House of Commons. A considerable 

 amount of the material so listed has been copied. For the period after 1750, 

 when the American material comes in larger quantities, printer's copy can be 

 more conveniently prepared by cutting up a partial set of the printed Jour- 

 nals, which, along with an unbound set of the Journals of the House of Lords, 



