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Annals of Congress
The Annals of Congress,
formally known as The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of
the United States, cover the 1st Federal Congress under the US Constitution through the first
session of the 18th Congress, from 1789 to 1824. The Annals
were not published contemporaneously, but were compiled between 1834
and 1856, using the best records available. Speeches are paraphrased rather than presented verbatim,
but the record of debate is nonetheless fuller than that available
from the House
and Senate
Journals. The Annals of Congress were immediately succeeded by
the Register
of Debates, and subsequently by the Congressional
Globe and Congressional
Record.
Description mainly provided by Library of Congress.
Congressional Globe
The Congressional Globe
contains the congressional debates of the 23rd through 42nd Federal
Congresses under the US Constitution (1833-73). The Congressional Globe is
the third of the four series of publications containing the debates
of Congress. It was preceded by the Annals
of Congress and the Register
of Debates and succeeded by the Congressional
Record. The first five volumes of the Globe (23rd
Congress, 1st Session through 25th Congress, 1st Session, 1833-37)
overlap with the Register of Debates. Initially the Congressional Globe
contained a "condensed report" or abstract rather than a
verbatim report of the debates and proceedings. With the 32nd
Congress (1851), however, the Congressional Globe began to provide
something approaching verbatim transcription. The contents of the
appendix of each volume vary from Congress to Congress, but
appendixes typically contain presidential
messages, reports of the heads of departments and cabinet
officers, texts
of laws, and appropriations.
Description mainly provided by Library of Congress.
Congressional Record
The Congressional Record
began publication in 1873. Printed by the Government Printing Office,
it is the fourth and final series of publications containing the
debates of Congress under the US Constitution. (It was preceded by the Annals
of Congress, Register
of Debates, and Congressional
Globe.) The Record is far more comprehensive than
its predecessors in reporting Congressional debates. Appendixes
appear in most volumes, the earlier ones limited mainly to speeches
of members.
Description mainly provided by Library of Congress.
Early U.S. Congress House Journals
The Early United States House of
Representatives Journal collection from 1789-1875. From its inaugural session,
the United States House of Representatives has kept an official
journal of its proceedings in accordance with Article I, Section 5 of
the Constitution, which provides that: Each House shall keep a
journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same,
excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy; and
the yeas and nays of the members of either House, on any question,
shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the
journal. The House of Representatives Journal notes the matters
considered by the House as well as votes and other actions taken. It
does not record the actual debates.
Description mainly provided by Library of Congress.
Early U.S. Congress Senate Executive Journals
Early Senate Executive Journal collection from 1789-1875. From its
inaugural session the United States Senate, in addition to its
legislative journal, has maintained a separate record of its
executive proceedings. These proceedings relate to its functions of
confirming presidential nominees and consenting to treaties. The
Senate Executive Journal was not made public until 1828, when the
Senate decided to print and publish the proceedings for all the
previous Congresses and thereafter to publish the journal for each
session at its close. In early sessions, the entries are much
shorter than those in the legislative journal. A special feature in
volume 1 of the Senate Executive Journal is a seven-page list
entitled An Alphabetical List of the Senators of the United States
From the commencement of the Government to the termination of the
Nineteenth Congress.
Description mainly provided by Library
of Congress.
Early U.S. Congress Senate Journals
The Early United States Senate
Journal collection from 1789-1875. From its inaugural session,
the United States Senate has kept a journal of its proceedings in
accordance with Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution, which
provides that: Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings,
and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may
in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the
members of either House, on any question, shall, at the desire of
one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. The Senate
Journal notes the matters considered by the Senate as well as votes
and other actions taken. It does not record the actual debates.
Description mainly provided by Library
of Congress.
Elliot's Debates
The Debates in the Several State
Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution is a
five-volume collection compiled by Jonathan Elliot in the
mid-nineteenth century. The volumes contain materials about the
national government's transitional period between the closing of the
Constitutional Convention in September 1787 and the opening of the
First Federal Congress under the US Constitution in March 1789. Elliot's Debates
collect the documents pertinent to the discussions on ratification:
the Declaration
of Independence, the Articles
of Confederation, the Journal
of the Constitutional Convention, the text of the
proposed
Constitution, and the debates in the various states.
Description mainly provided by Library of Congress.
Farrand's Records
Max Farrand's The Records of the
Federal Convention of 1787. Published in 1911, Farrand's work
gathered the documentary records of the Constitutional Convention
into four volumes. The notes taken at that time by James Madison, and
later revised by him, form the largest single block of material other
than the official proceedings. The volumes also includes notes and
letters by many other participants, as well as the various
constitutional plans proposed during the convention.
Description mainly provided by Library of Congress.
Journals of the Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress met from
September 5 to October 26, 1774. The Second Continental Congress ran
from May 10, 1775, to March 2, 1789. The Journals of the Continental
Congress are the records of the daily proceedings of the Congress as
kept by the office of its secretary, Charles Thomson. The Journals
were printed contemporaneously in different editions and in several
subsequent reprint editions. None of these early editions, however,
included the confidential sections of the records, which were not
published until 1821. This edition, which is complete, was published
by the Library of Congress from 1904 to 1937, and is based on the
manuscript Journals and other manuscript records of the Continental
Congress in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress.
Further information on how this edition was assembled, as well as
notes explaining features introduced by the editors, may be found in
the Prefatory Note to volumes 1 and 2.
Description mainly provided by Library of Congress.
Letters of Delegates to Congress
The twenty-six volumes of the Letters
of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789 aims to make available all
the documents written by delegates that bear directly upon their work
during their years of actual service in the First and Second
Continental Congresses, 1774-1789. The current twenty-five volumes
of text include approximately twenty thousand entries gathered from
institutions throughout the world, accompanied by a single cumulative
index. Although letters from delegates comprise the preponderance of
the entries, there are many diaries, public papers, essays, and other
documents. Together with the Journals
of the Continental Congress, the volumes provide the means
for a comprehensive, in-depth examination of the operations of the
Continental Congress during the critical years of the founding of the
United States. Further information on how this edition was
assembled, as well as notes explaining features introduced by the
editors, may be found in volume 1.
Description mainly provided by Library of Congress.
Maclay's Journal
Journal of William Maclay, United
States Senator from Pennsylvania, 1789-1791. William Maclay was one of the first two
senators from Pennsylvania. He drew a two-year term in the allotment
of term lengths for the 1st Congress. Within two months of the
opening of the first session, he had begun to keep a diary, which he
continued almost daily for the three sessions of the 1st Congress.
Because Senate sessions were closed to the public until 1795, his is
one of the few accounts of Senate floor activity in the early
Congresses. This edition of the diary is published in 1891, and is
edited by Edgar S. Maclay, a descendant of William.
Description mainly provided by Library of Congress.
Register of Debates
The Register of Debates is a
record of the congressional debates of the 18th Congress, 2nd Session
through the 25th Congress, 1st Session (1824-37) under the US
Constitution. It is the second of the four series of publications
containing the debates of Congress. It was preceded by the Annals
of Congress and succeeded by the Congressional
Globe. While each volume consists of an index, more
complete access to the information may be obtained indirectly by
using the indexes of the House and Senate Journals during
the relevant session of Congress, which provide the dates on which
action was taken. These dates can then be consulted in the Register
of Debates. Appendixes include, but are not limited, to
presidential messages and the text
of laws. The Register of Debates is not a verbatim
account of the proceedings, but rather a summary of the "leading
debates and incidents" of the period. It was published
contemporaneously with the proceedings by a commercial printer, Gales
and Seaton. The Register of Debates and its successor, the
Congressional Globe, overlap for a period of time (23rd
Congress, 1st Session through 25th Congress, 1st Session; 1833-37).
Description mainly provided by Library of Congress.
Congressional Record For Current Years
US Congress Current Legislative Activity
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