4. Libraries of Sources in American History

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TO library has anything approaching a complete set either of originals or of reprints of the historical writings of colonial and revolutionary times. Nevertheless, one who examines the books in a special library of Americana is amazed at the number, variety, and interest of the material. Six great libraries deserve special mention, all growing collections, and several of them purchasers of rarities at great prices : 1. The John Carter Brown Library at Providence, kept up as a private collection, but under the direction of a trained specialist librarian. 2. The Lenox Library at New York, also brought together by a private man, but now a part of the great New York Public Library. 3. The Boston Public Library, containing the Prince Collection and other valuable accumulations of many private gifts, supplemented by purchases. 4. The Harvard College Library, which contains a well classified collection, abounding in rarities. 5. The Library of Congress, containing great treasures of early books and manuscripts, as yet uncatalogued and almost unexplored. 6. The library of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester, especially rich in colonial and later newspapers.

Of many early prints there are but half a dozen copies extant, and it is almost impossible for later libraries to secure sets equally complete with the older collections. Nevertheless, there are numerous and valuable Americana in the libraries of Cornell University, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Wisconsin Historical Society. In each state a special historical society is likely to collect early printed works, newspapers, and reprints on the history of that state. Some libraries will lend rare books directly, or through a local librarian who makes himself responsible.

Abroad, the largest collection of Americana is that of the British Museum, containing some unique pamphlets not to be found in America ; and there are also rare pamphlets in the Bodleian Library of Oxford. In England is also a great reservoir of colonial manuscript material, chiefly in the Public Record Office. Transcripts of many of these documents have been made and transferred to America, as, for example, the Minutes of the Lords of Trade, which are in the Pennsylvania Historical Society. Continental archives have also material on discovery and colonization, especially those of Simancas in Spain, and those of France, Genoa, and Venice.

5. Reprints of Collected Sources on the Colonies and the Revolution

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TEARLY all the important early works have been reprinted, sometimes verbatim, oftener with corrections of spelling and grammar. Many such reprints are made by historical societies; others are gathered in series, as Rider's Rhode Island Historical Tracts, and Munsell's Historical Series. Others appear in special reprint editions, with introduction and notes by a special editor. A few have been facsimiled, notably the Declaration of Independence (Force, American Archives, Fifth Series, I, 1597, and elsewhere). For making transcripts or for verifying a passage, the original edition is always preferable even to a careful reprint.

For many of the separate colonies there are collections of documents, which may be found through Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, II-V, and Channing and Hart, Guide to American History, §§ 23, 29. There are also several valuable collections of related documents, some of which are enumerated below. The colonial collections specially mentioned contain many documents concerning all the colonies. The titles in this list do not include collections of sources bearing exclusively on the history of a single colony, nor do they contain colonial archives, or the many valuable collections of state and local historical societies. Such material may be found through Channing and Hart, Guide, §§ 23, 29, 31, 34, 77-130, and through A. P. C. Griffin, Bibliography of American Historical Societies (in American Historical Association, Report for 1895). Tyler, in his American Literature and Literary History of the Revolution (No. 15), gives lists of sources.

John Almon, A Collection of Interesting Authentic Papers, relative to the Dispute between Great Britain and America, shewing the Causes and Progress of that Misunderstanding, from 1764 to 1775. London, 1777. — Always

cited as the Prior Documents.

John Almon, The Remembrancer, or Impartial Repository of Public Events. 17 vols. London, 1775-1784.-Vols. XII-XVII edited by John Debrett.

The Annual Register, or a View of the History, Politicks, and Literature, for the Year 1758. London, 1759-- This series has been continued annually, to the present time. It includes a narrative history of the year, and republications of contemporary letters and other material.

Alden Bradford, Speeches of the Governors of Massachusetts from 1765 to 1775; and the Answers of the House of Representatives to the same. Boston, 1818. These documents describe many of the controversies leading up to the Revolution.

Congress of the United States, Journals of Congress. Containing the Proceedings [1774-1788] (contemporaneous edition). 13 vols. Philadelphia, 1777-1788. Also a reprint in 13 vols. (Philadelphia, 1800-1801), and another in 4 vols., under the title Journals of the American Congress: From 1774 to 1788 (Washington, 1823).

Congress of the United States, Secret Journals of the Acts and Proceedings of Congress. 4 vols. Boston, 1821. Extracts omitted in making up the public journals, especially on the history of the Confederation and on foreign affairs.

Evert Augustus Duyckinck and George Long, Cyclopædia of American Literature; embracing Personal and Critical Notices of Authors, and Selections from their Writings. From the Earliest Period to the Present Day. 2 vols. New York, 1856.

Peter Force, compiler, American Archives: Fourth Series. Containing a Documentary History of the English Colonies in North America [17741776]. 6 vols. Washington, 1837-1846.- Fifth Series. Containing a Documentary History of the United States [1776–1783]. 3 vols. Washington, 1848-1853

Albert Bushnell Hart and Edward Channing, editors, American History Leaflets. 30 numbers (to be had separately). New York, 1892–1896. — Includes many colonial documents.

George P. Humphrey, American Colonial Tracts. Rochester, May, 1897-. -Published monthly; to be had separately.

Thomas Hutchinson, A Collection of Original Papers relative to the History of the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay [1628-1750]. Boston, 1769. — A

useful set.

Edwin Doak Mead, editor, Old South Leaflets. 75 numbers (to be had separately or bound in 3 vols.). Boston, 1883-1896. Many historical pieces; texts not carefully collated. Valuable for schools. Frank Moore, Diary of the American Revolution. From Newspapers and Original Documents. 2 vols. New York, etc., 1859-1860.- A well-chosen series of extracts arranged chronologically, covering the years 1775-1781. Frank Moore, editor, Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution. New York, 1856.

Hezekiah Niles, Principles and Acts of the Revolution in America. Baltimore, 1822; also a reprint, New York, 1876. - This is a very useful volume, though many of the selections are very dull. It covers the period 1765

Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan and Berthold Fernow, editors, Documents relative to the Colonial History of the State of New-York. 15 vols. Albany, 1856-1887.- Much matter not relating exclusively to New York; includes a useful index volume. Vols. IV-VIII, X, XI on the period after 1689. William Stevens Perry, editor, Historical Collections relating to the American Colonial Church. 5 vols. Hartford, 1870-1878.- A very small edition, and therefore rare.

Ben. Perley Poore, compiler, The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and other Organic Laws of the United States. 2 parts. Washington, 1877. A much-needed reprint is in preparation (1897).

Winthrop Sargent, editor, The Loyalist Poetry of the Revolution. Philadelphia, 1857.

William L. Saunders, editor, The Colonial Records of North Carolina (10 vols.), and Walter Clark, editor, The State Records of North Carolina (4 vols.). 14 vols. Raleigh and Winston, 1886-1896.- Very inconveniently arranged, without contents or index, but abounding in general material. Covers the period 1662-1780; still in progress.

Jared Sparks, editor, Correspondence of the American Revolution. 4 vols. Boston, 1853. Interesting and valuable letters, addressed chiefly to Washington. May be picked up at second hand for a small sum.

Jared Sparks, editor, The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolu tion. 12 vols. Boston, 1829-1830.- Arranged rather clumsily; much of the same matter appears in better form in Wharton's edition.

Edmund Clarence Stedman and Ellen Mackay Hutchinson, editors, A Library of American Literature, from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time. II vols. New York, 1888-1890.- Part of Vol. II and Vol. III on the period 1689-1783; very well chosen, though not with immediate reference to the historical value of the pieces. An excellent set for a school library, and often found at second hand.

Anthony Stokes, A View of the Constitution of the British Colonies, in NorthAmerica and the West Indies, at the time the Civil War broke out on the Continent of America. London, 1783. — Contains many writs and forms from colonial procedure.

John Wingate Thornton, The Pulpit of the American Revolution: or, the Political Sermons of the Period of 1776. With a Historical Introduction, Notes, and Illustrations. Boston, 1860.

Francis Wharton, editor, The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States. 6 vols. Washington, 1889.- Official edition, arranged chronologically, with a valuable introduction.

William A. Whitehead, Frederick W. Ricord, and William Nelson, editors, Documents relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey. 19 vols. Newark, 1880-1897.- One of the most valuable collections of colonial sources; it includes several volumes of reprints from rare newspapers; still in progress.

6. Select Library of Sources on Colonization

HIS volume contains examples of many colonial writers, but only a

THIS volume contains

short extract from most of them, and many important writers do not appear here at all. For careful study of colonial history, and for extensive topical work, the student or pupil needs a greater range of material; hence every library and high school ought to have at least a few of the sources in complete editions.

The purchase of such books, many of them long out of print, is a work of time. Any library or school may on application receive the catalogues of second-hand dealers, or put a list of desiderata in the hands of a book-seller. The Publishers' Weekly inserts (gratis) lists of books sought for by dealers. Often people will give old books of value to a permanent collection, if requested.

First in importance are the general printed collections mentioned in the preceding section (No. 5), or so many of them as the library can afford. Next may come selections from the records of one colony and state out of each of the three groups of southern, New England, and middle colonies. Virginia, Massachusetts, and New York or Pennsylvania were the most important in each group, and have the completest literature. Next to them in general historical interest come the Carolinas, Maryland, and Connecticut. Rhode Island and New Hampshire also have important records.

Below will be found a list of some of the most useful sources. Most of the volumes may be readily purchased new or at second hand, though the large sets are expensive. To these should be added such other colonial records, laws, collections, and histories containing documents as the most available library may be willing to buy (see lists in Channing and Hart, Guide, §§ 23, 29, 95-130), especially those of that colony which has the closest relation with the state or the place in which the library is situated. The local records (if printed) should of course be included; and a few of the typical town records, as those of Boston, Worcester, Lancaster, Watertown, Providence, East Hampton (L.I.).

CONTEMPORARY HISTORIANS

Throughout the colonial period, and especially from 1740 to the end of the Revolution, there were writers who set out to make formal histories of one colony or of a group of colonies; and though—with some