104 REJPORTS OF INVE;STIGATI0NS AND PROJECTS. 



Texts. — After the completion of the London Guide, now to be published, 

 Miss Davenport will, as far as is possible, devote her time entirely to the 

 finishing of her collection of treaties between foreign powers having a bear- 

 ing on the history of the United States. It is desirable that the scope and 

 purpose of this volume should be more fully explained than has hitherto been 

 done. It is proposed to include all international treaties and conventions 

 which have a direct bearing on the history of the United States or of any 

 region now a part of the United States, exclusive of those to which the 

 United States was a party. Certain early papal bulls, having in international 

 law an authority similar to that of treaties, and a few capitulations resembling 

 treaties in importance {e. g., Montreal, 1760; Pensacola, 1780) will also be 

 included. The definition given above, it will be seen, embraces not only 

 the treaties negotiated by European powers, but those made by the Republic 

 of Texas and independent Hawaii. It includes asiento treaties, though 

 their bearing is rather on the economic and social than on the political his- 

 tory of the United States, and perhaps, for the same reason, certain other 

 treaties respecting the slave trade. It is not intended, however, to print 

 whole treaties in cases in which only a part has relation to American history, 

 but, in such instances, to print only the relevant portions. Proper historical 

 introductions and annotations will be supplied by the compiler. 



The bearing of such a series of texts on the study and teaching of Ameri- 

 can history is plain. Aside from that obvious value, there are several reasons 

 for making up such a collection. The main reason is that most of these 

 treaties can not be consulted except in very expensive general collections of 

 treaties, which only a few libraries possess. Two of those discovered by 

 Miss Davenport in London have never been printed, either in the original 

 or in English translation ; of several interesting German treaties the origi- 

 nal has never been printed. Moreover, the printed texts can seldom be 

 relied on as accurate and complete. The texts in our collection are nearly 

 ready for the printer ; the remaining work is mainly that of preparing intro- 

 ductions and notes. 



The series of Letters from Delegates to the Old Congress is intended to 

 supplement the "Journals of the Continental Congress" by printing those 

 letters or parts of letters, and only those, in which members of the Congress 

 convey contemporary or nearly contemporary information about the doings 

 of that body, not to be found in its journals. Such information sometimes 

 has the character of a record of the debates ; more often it consists in less 

 formal statements, addressed to the officials or political characters of the 

 State represented by the writer, and recording the actions of Congress as 

 seen from his personal point of view. When all brought together, in chrono- 

 logical order, this mass of correspondence should afford much fresh light 

 on the course of Congressional transactions. Since the Continental Con- 

 gress, which was much more than a merely legislative body, frequently 



