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262 published the diplomatic correspondence of the country since 1776 and many volumes on American state papers, mostly relative to foreign relations. It has undertaken and carried on the publication of the historical archives of the department, consisting of journals of the Continental Congress, the Senate journal, the journal of the Federal Convention, and a work, in nine volumes, entitled "American Archives." By an act of Congress passed March 2, 1833, the Secretary of State was authorized to contract with Matthew St. Clair Clarke and Peter Force for the publication of a work entitled "Documentary History of the American Revolution." It is this history that is known as the "American Archives," just referred to. As originally projected it was to comprise six series, consisting of authentic records, state papers, debates, and letters and other notices of public affairs, the whole forming a documentary history of the origin and progress of the North American colonies, and of the causes and results of the American Revolution, covering the period from the discovery and settlement of North America to the ratification of the present constitution of the United States. Of this work only the fourth and a portion of the fifth series have been published. The fourth contains six volumes, relating to the period from the king's message of March 7, 1774, to the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was intended that the fifth series should cover the period from 1776 to the definitive treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1783, but of this series only three volumes were compiled, extending from July to December, 1776.

The State Department has published another valuable series of documents in thirty-eight volumes, entitled "American State Papers." This series of documents was published by Gales and Seaton under the provisions of an act of Congress passed March 3, 1831. They comprise the most important executive and legislative documents of the United States and were selected by the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives with great care from the mass of manuscripts and printed papers in the offices of the two houses of Congress and