estates general shall be declared a traitor to his country, guilty of the crime of lèse-nation." (Sic!) "In the intervals between the sessions of the estates general only provisional regulations may be issued in execution of that which has been decreed in the preceding estates general, nor can these regulations be made laws, except in the following estates general." Many more examples might be given to illustrate the similarity between this sketch and the plan ultimately adopted. The cahier claims that "the constitution which shall be drawn up in the present estates general, according to the principles which have just been set forth, shall be the property of the nation, and may not be changed or modified except by the constituent power; that is to say, by the nation itself, or by its representatives elected ad hoc by the whole body of citizens for the single purpose of supplementing or perfecting this constitution." 1 There was an attempt made during the week preceding the Tennis Court Oath to induce the National Assembly, as it now called itself, to pass a decree in which the formation of a constitution was designated as one of the great objects to be attained. Mirabeau claimed that the King himself had recognized "the necessity of giving France a fixed method of gov ernment," and consequently regarded the laying of "the foundations of the wise and felicitous constitution" as the inevitable and obvious duty of the Assembly. Rabaut de Sainte Etienne, in a series of resolutions offered on the 15th of June, occupies the same position. On the 17th of June the Assembly finally defined its constitutional functions in a vaguer form as "the determination of the principles of the national regeneration."4 Thus, although the representatives of the third estate were chiefly occupied before June 20 with a question of the method of voting and its precise relation to the other two orders, the great question of the constitution was not lost sight of. If, then, the Tennis Court Oath was the first official declaration of the purpose of the Assembly, it was the inevitable outcome of preceding conditions, and is really only a restatement of a resolution adopted by the Assembly several days before (June 17). 1 Histoire Parlementaire, Vol. I, p. 445. 3 Ib., Vol. I, p. 457. XXVIII.-WHAT THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT HAS DONE FOR HISTORY. By A. HOWARD CLARK. It was not till about 1875 that the Government and people of the United States seemed to realize that our country has a history. Until then we had been growing so fast-so multiplied were the political and economic problems incident to the amalgamation of the millions of all nations that had flocked to our shores-that we could hardly stop to study our history. The nation suddenly awakened to the fact that a hundred years had passed since the struggle for independence began, and throughout the land every citizen, poor and rich, every State, small and great, felt in lesser or greater degree a desire to commemorate the first century of our existence as a united people, and, aided by the Federal Government, there was held in Philadelphia, where the United States was born, the great International Centennial Exposition, where we showed to one another and to visitors gathered from all lands what a century had done for us and what we had accomplished in those years. The year 1876 was a year of history and an historical year. There sprang up then all over the country local historical socities, and ever since they have continued to multiply, till now the State and local organizations engaged in historical work number more than 250. One of the most important concentrations of this general interest in American history was effected in Saratoga ten years ago, when the American Historical Association was formally instituted. The United States Government has spent more than $2,000,000 in the acquisition and publication of records pertaining alone to our country's history. It has spent many millions more in the erection of historical memorials, in preservation of historical places, and in celebrations of historical events, and is annually expending more than $250,000 directly in behalf of American history. No nation ever undertook such a magnificent historical work as is now approaching completion under charge of most efficient bureaus of the War a Navy Departments. What war has ever been officially recorded in such detail and with such absolute accuracy as the late civil war-140 volumes of 100,000 pages of authentic documents, with half a thousand accurate maps of battlefields and plans, telling the tragic story of the armies, both Union and Confederate, during those eventful years; and 25 volumes more, telling in like manner of the operations of the navies, North and South, during that war. To record the history of the colonial period belongs primarily to the original colonies and not to the Federal Government, yet our Government has collected a mass of material pertaining to that era. The patriotic Peter Force, a citizen of the District of Columbia, brought together a storehouse of authentic information concerning the colonial, the Revolutionary, and the earlier constitutional periods, and under his direction the Government, between 1833 and 1855, published 9 folio volumes of American Archives gathered by him, aud covering the doings of 1774 and 1775. Unfortunate opposition arose from some unknown source and blocked this magnificent work so well begun. Mr. Force was greatly discouraged at the failure of the Government to continue this valuable series, and in 1867 he sold to the United States for $100,000 all his papers and library, forming a collection of 360 folio volumes of manuscripts and 60,000 books and pamphlets' relating entirely to American history; and these records are now preserved in the Library of Congress, where also are carefully stored more than 5,000 original manuscripts pertaining to early periods of our history. The question of completing the publication of Force's American Archives, estimated to make 30 printed volumes, is well worth careful consideration at an early day, and thus fill up the printed records of those interesting years from 1775 to 1789, when the series of the State Papers begins with the First Congress under the Constitution. Special report of the Librarian of Congress to the Joint Committee on the Library concerning the historical library of Peter Force, esq., Washington, 1867, 8vo., pp. 8. During the second session of the present Congress two meas ures of great importance to American history were enacted. The first measure requires that all military records, such as muster and pay rolls, orders, and reports relating to the personnel or the operations of the armies of the Revolutionary war and of the war of 1812 now in any of the Executive Departments shall be transferred to the Secretary of War, to be preserved, indexed, and prepared for publication. A force of trained experts is now industriously employed in carrying out the provisions of this act, and the record index of service of the soldiers of the American Revolution and the war of 1812 will soon be completed with the same degree of precision as already applied to the two and a half million enlistments of the civil war, so that the personal record of each patriot of the first wars of our nation may at once be shown. The second measure of equal if not greater interest to students of American history directs the Secretary of State to cause the Revolutionary archives, now deposited in his Department, to be carefully examined, and to ascertain what portions are of sufficient importance and historical value to publish, and the number of printed volumes they would make and the reasonable cost of their publication and editing, and report the result to Congress with such recommendations as he may deem proper.2 In response to this order the Secretary of State recommended to Congress that the documents in question be printed in 50 volumes, estimated to cost $100,750, and submitted a list of the manuscript volumes of Revolutionary records, which is presented herewith as an appendix. During the last eighteen months the Bureau of Rolls and Library of the Department of State has published "blue books," consisting of calendars of the 300 volumes of papers of the Continental Congress and of some of the 600 volumes of the manuscripts of Washington, Madison, and Monroe; also a documentary history of the Constitution and the Federal Convention, all of them of great value as reference books for stu 1 Sundry civil act, Fifty-third Congress, second session. Approved August 18, 1894. 2 Ibid. Letter from the Secretary of State, Fifty-third Congress, third session, Senate Ex. Doc. No. 22. |