Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 16.djvu/2



In publishing the following Laws, the same plan has been adopted that was prescribed in the Joint Resolution of Congress of March 3, 1845 (Vol. V.,  798), authorizing a subscription the edition of all the Laws of the United States published by us. A close examination of this volume will disclose some apparent errors in the Laws as here printed; but as we procure a careful collation with the records at Washington by an experienced reader of the Department of State, and scrupulously follow the original, any seeming errors must be attributed to the Rolls, and not to us. Where anything absolutely necessary to the sense is omitted in the Rolls, it is inserted in the text, enclosed in brackets.

We intend to publish annually, and as soon after the close of each Session of Congress as is possible, the Acts of that Session, in a similar form and with a similar arrangement.

It will be seen by the following extracts from the Act of Congress, August 8, 1846 (Vol. IX., p. 76), and the Joint Resolutions of September 26, 1850 (Vol. IX., p. 564), and March 31, 1866 (Vol. XIV., p. 352), that our edition has been sanctioned by Congress, and is the .

"And whereas said edition of the said Laws and Treaties if the United States has been carefully collated and compared with the original rolls in the archives of the Government, under the inspection and supervision of the Attorney-General of the United States, as duly certified by that officer: therefore, Be it further enacted, that said edition of the Laws and Treaties of the United States, published by Little & Brown, is hereby declared to be competent evidence of the several public and private acts of Congress, and of the several treaties therein contained, in all the courts of law and equity an maritime jurisdiction, and in all the tribunals and public offices of the United States and of the several States without any further proof or authentication thereof"—, August 8, 1846.

"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of American Congress assembled, That the Secretary of State be authorized and directed to contract with Little & Brown to furnish their annual Statutes at Large printed in conformity with the plan adopted by congress in eighteen hundred and forty-five instead of the edition usually issued by his order, under the act of Congress of April twentieth, eighteen hundred and eighteen, and which conforms to an edition of the laws now out of use."—, September 26, 1850.

"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of State be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to renew the contract of October thirty-first eighteen hundred and fifty, between the Department of State and Little, Brown, and Company, of Boston, Massachusetts, for the annual publication of the Statutes at Large of the United States until otherwise ordered by Congress, in conformity with the joint resolutions approved respectively March third, eighteen hundred and forty-five, and September thirtieth [twentysixth], eighteen hundred and fifty."—, March 31, 1866.

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.

, July, 1871.

[N. B. The references in the margin of this volume to Vol. XVII. are to the Pamphlet of the Session Laws of the First Session of the Forty-second Congress, which will make a part of Volume XVII. of the Statutes at Large.]