Exhibit showing the names of the clerks employed in the Navy Commissioners' office during the year 1831. The undersigned, clerks in the Navy Department, respectfully represent to the honorable Secretary of the Navy, that the compensation which they receive is unequal to the services they perform, and altogether inadequate to the support of such of them as have large families to maintain. They further represent, that their compensation is much smaller, in proportion to their duties, than that allowed to the clerks in any other department of the Government, in proof of which they would refer the Secretary to the accompanying comparative view. The undersigned, not doubting the disposition of the Secretary to do justice to the claims of those who are associated with him in official labors, however subordinate in rank, respectfully ask that he will present the subject to the attention of the ensuing Congress, in such manner as he may deem proper, and most likely to attain the desired object. NAVY DEPARTMENT, 22d October, 1831. THOMAS R. MILLER, Comparative view of the number of clerks employed in each of the principal Departments, and their compensation. NOTE--The salaries were as above stated in January, 1829; it is believed that since that time some of them, except those of the Navy Department, have been augmented. 1st Session. REPUBLICATION OF CONGRESSIONAL DOCUMENTS. REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE SENATE, AND CLERK OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Of their proceedings, under the act of 2d March, 1831, directing a republication of Congressional documents. JANUARY 4, 1832. Read, and referred to the Committee on the Library. To the Hon. ANDREW STEVENSON, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States: SIR: Enclosed is the report of our proceedings, under the act of the last session, directing a republication of Congressional Documents, which we ask the favor of you to lay before the House. Very respectfully, sir, Your obedient servants, Secretary of the Senate. MW. ST. CLAIR CLARKE, Clerk House of Representatives, U. S January 3, 1832. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States: The Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of the House of Representatives, respectfully make report of their proceedings, under the act of Congress of 2d March, 1831, directing a subscription to the compilation of Congressional documents proposed to be published by Gales & Seaton. Immediately after the adjournment of Congress, we commenced the discharge of the duties imposed by the act of Congress. At the very outset, however, we found great difficulty in ascertaining the extent of the duties required of us. Messrs. Gales and Seaton, of their own accord, had submitted to Congress a subscription paper, proposing to republish the Congressional documents for the first 13 Congresses; the volume, the type, and the size of the page, were designated, as well as the specific sum for each volume when delivered. With these proposals before them, Congress di rected the Clerk of the House of Representatives to subscribe for 750 co pies, on two conditions: 1st. The documents to be selected under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of the House of Representatives. 2d. The price paid for the printing to be at a rate not exceeding that of the price paid to the Printer of Congress for the printing the documents of the two Houses. At the first view, it does not appear difficult to ascertain the specific duties required from us. The documents are to be selected by us. It would therefore seem that when we had given the publishers a list of the papers to be re-printed, our agency was at an end. Circumstances, however, which we will now explain, rendered it impossible that our duties could stop here. The great mass of these documents were to be found only in the archives of the two Houses. No complete set of them existed in any other place. They were contained in 160 octavo and folio printed volumes, 80 large folio manuscript records, and in some hundred large files of documents. Charged as we are with the care and preservation of all these important documents, we could not for a moment permit them to go into the hands of others over whom we had no control. To make the separation of those to be published, without producing disorder, required the knowledge and experience, and the most patient, persevering industry of the most able of our assistants, and of ourselves. Had any one without that knowledge of these things, which can only be obtained by long experience, undertaken to separate and arrange these documents, he would have been in great danger of reducing the whole to a heap of confusion. In addition to this, many of these documents exist only in the manuscript records of the two Houses, consisting of large folio volumes substantially bound, and in the best state of preservation. We could not suffer these valuable records to be taken apart, and the portions selected sent to the printing office. We were also unwilling either to permit them to be taken from the office to be copied, or to permit strangers to come into the office, and occupy our desks and tables in copying them. From these considerations (and others of a similar nature not here detailed,) it was evident to us that it was our duty, not only to select these documents, but also to prepare them for the press. Another question then arose, What arrangement should be given to these documents in the proposed publication? Two modes were suggested. 1st. An arrangement strictly chronological; or 2d. A division into classes, and each class to preserve its chronological order. After much examination and reflection, we decided on the second mode, and finally adopted the following arrangement: I. FOREIGN RELATIONS. II. INDIAN AFFAIRS. III. FINANCES. IV. COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION. V. MILITARY AFFAIRS. VI. NAVAL AFFAIRS. VII. POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT. VIII. PUBLIC LANDS. IX. CLAIMS. X. MISCELLANEOUS. Each of these tea series to have its own number, running from one up ward, and to be printed chronologically. I. FOREIGN RELATIONS. This will embrace our entire foreign relations. It presents a subject of much unity; and, from the importance of its interest, will be the first series. The annual messages of the President of the United States, from their importance, claim a prominent place in this compilation; and their proper place is the first of foreign relations, to follow each other in chronological older. II. INDIAN AFFAIRS. 1st. All documents accompanying Indian treaties. 2d. Indian massacres and depredations. 3d. Indian wars. 4th. Efforts made for their benefit in civilization, agriculture, and the mechanical arts. III. FINANCES. This series embraces more variety, consisting of 1st. Public debt and public credit. 2d. Revenue, direct and indirect taxation, embracing manufactures. 3d. The currency. 4th. The Mint of the United States. 5th. Bank of the United States, and State Banks, so far as connected with the United States. 6th. General principles of the annual estimates. 7th. General principles of the expenses of collecting revenue. 8th. One table of receipts and expenditures. IV. COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION. All external matters of this class to be embraced in foreign relations. 1st. Imports and exports, and all communications and reports containing general principles and reasoning. 2d. The fisheries, and all communications and reports containing general principles and reasoning. 3d. Light house establishment. 4th. Improvement of harbors, rivers, roads, and canals. 5th. Tonnage, and all communications and reports of committees containing general principles and reasoning. 6th. Coasting trade, and all communications and reports of committees containing general principles and reasoning. This presents a subject of much unity. VII. POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT. This is also a subject in which there is little or no variety. VIII. PUBLIC LANDS. This will embrace the whole subject of the public domain, including all claims of individuals and corporations for land. IX. CLAIMS. Embracing all claims against the United States, except claims for land, and claims in which foreign relations or finances are directly embraced. X. MISCELLANEOUS. Embracing all documents proper to be reprinted, not included in the aforegoing. Each subject to be arranged as follows: 1st. Chronolo gically. Messages of the President U. States to both Houses, and documents. Do do do Reports from Departments to both Houses. Do Do to House Representatives. 2d. Reports of committees of the Senate, the entire session together. 3d. Reports of committees of the House of Representatives, the entire session together; and preceded, if necessary, in each House by the petition. This arrangement to be made for each session; and the separate documents of each item are to follow each other chronologically. In all cases where a report of a committee, of either or both Houses, is founded on a message from the President of the United States, or on a report from a Department, a reference is to be made from the one to the other. This There are many advantages attending this arrangement, which are quite apparent. The class on Indian affairs, for instance, (the printing of which has been finished,) is contained in a single volume, and, in chronological order, presents our entire Indian relations unmixed with other matter. Foreign relations, military affairs, naval affairs, and the public land, each present distinctions strongly marked from all the others; and the advantage of having each of these great interests in a separate series is very great. Occasionally, however, documents were met with, partaking so much of two or more olasses, that it was difficult to give them a satisfactory arrangement. was more particularly the case with the series of finance and commerce. Some single documents referred less or more to both classes. So also of the class of claims. Some of them involved extensive correspondence with foreign Governments. These were placed with foreign relations. Some of them involved our commercial relations; others, the regulations for the sale of public lands. The cases thus described, however, were not numerous, and, in every instance of their occurrence, our best judgment was exercised in giving them the proper arrangement. After we had decided on the foregoing as the principles by which the publication should be regulated, we had an interview with Messrs Gales and Seaton. They stated to us at once, that they considered the proviso, that the printing should be done at the rate of public printing, as, in a great measure, rescinding the details of their proposals, and that they stood in regard to Congress, in something of the relation of public printers. That every thing performed by them, besides the printing, would of course be a charge against the Government, to be settled and adjusted as Congress might direct. That as we had the care of the archieves of the wo Houses, they could not expect that we would entrust them to others either in the selection, copying, |