VT PREFACE. 



the operations of the Government with which it has had direct or inci- 

 dental connection. 



The proceedings of each Congress are given successively, the first 

 volume containing those of the Twenty-fourth Congress to the Forty- 

 ninth and the second volume those of the Fiftieth to the Fifty-fifth 

 Congress. 



Under each Congress the subjects are arranged according to the 

 date of their introduction, all action in that Congress on each subject 

 following in chronological order, excepting that estimates and appro- 

 priations are placed at the end of each subject. 



In the preparation of this work an examination was made of every 

 page of the Congressional Globe and Congressional Record, of the 

 journals of the Senate and House, the Statutes at Large, the Con- 

 gressional documents and reports from 1835 to 1899, together with 

 other printed and manuscript material in the Institution and elsewhere; 

 and the table of contents and index are as comprehensive and minute 

 as possible the latter being alphabetical, analytical, and chronological. 



The formal details of legislation in most cases are abbreviated, and 

 the quotations from the statutes giving dates and amounts appropri- 

 ated are always given in figures and not in words. 



Thanks are due to the intelligent and efficient aid of Miss Helen 

 .Munroe and Mr. Edward L. Springer, of the Smithsonian Institution. 



WILLIAM J. RHEES. 



WASHINGTON, D. C., May, 1901. 



