DEPARTME;nT of historical research. III 



From January to July Mr. Parker had been occupied with the continua- 

 tion and completion of the calendar of papers in Washington archives relat- 

 ing to the Territories, the beginning of which was noted in last year's report. 

 Under the designation Territorial papers, or papers relating to the Terri- 

 tories, as then explained, it is not intended to include all papers relating to 

 all transactions in the Territories of the United States — military papers, 

 Indian papers, and the like — but rather to furnish a calendar of all those 

 papers, scattered through various Departmental and Congressional reposi- 

 tories in Washington, which concern the Territory as a unit, its government 

 and administration, and its relations to the Federal Government. The his- 

 tory of the Territories is the early history of many States, whose historical 

 societies and students are exceptionally eager in the pursuit of early mate- 

 rials. While the necessary materials for the early history of the older States 

 are to be found within their own borders or in London, the newer States 

 naturally look to Washington for their original sources. Scattered, how- 

 ever, as these are, in the present condition of archival organization at the 

 national capital, the search for them is always difficult, expensive, and un- 

 certain. To have the search made once for all, for all the Territories alike, 

 upon a comprehensive and uniform plan, will provide the active Western 

 historical inquirers with a manual guide which, it is deemed certain, will be 

 of great value. 



Having in the preceding year covered by his searches the masses of Terri- 

 torial material in the Bureau of Rolls and Library and the Bureau of Indexes 

 and Archives in the Department of State, Mr. Parker in the present year 

 devoted himself to the Territorial papers in the Division of Manuscripts at 

 the Library of Congress, to the files of the Senate and House of Representa- 

 tives, and to the archives of the Treasury Department, Post Office Depart- 

 ment, Land Office, and Indian Office. The archives of the War Department 

 are, it is well known, rigidly closed against historical investigators. Some 

 of the other offices mentioned, though abounding in manuscript materials for 

 the history of certain events which occurred in Territorial areas, contained 

 little of that material for the constitutional, political, and administrative his- 

 tory of the Territory as a whole, which was the main subject-matter of the 

 proposed volume. In the case of highly important papers some latitude was 

 allowed beyond the limits which the strictest interpretation of that design 

 would have imposed, but in general the limitation was maintained, for preser- 

 vation of unity and for avoidance of undue size in the book. Neither was it 

 deemed desirable to include papers of later date than 1873, the year in which 

 the administration of the Territories was assigned to the Department of the 

 Interior. 



Of the archives searched in the present year, the House files and Senate 

 files proved to be much the most rich in valuable materials for the purpose. 

 Both indeed are almost virgin soil to the historical investigator. No full ac- 

 count of them could be given in either edition of Van Tyne and Leland's 



