―iii―PREFACE.
WE at length present to the public the first volume of the ame-
rican register. The Editor dismisses it from his hands with no small de-
gree of diffidence and apprehension. He is sensible that the work will be
justly chargeable with many omissions and errors, and is conscious that
some of these may be owing to his own incapacity or ignorance. There are
some objections, however, to which he may have exposed himself, with-
out any demerit on his own part. In extenuation of these, he trusts to the
candour and forbearance of the reader, who will duly reflect upon the diffi-
culties unavoidably attending the commencement of a work entirely new in
this country. In properly distributing and proportioning the materials of a
work of this nature, the compiler can only be guided by experience, and he
must make several trials before his collections completely settle and adjust
themselves to the mould designed to receive them.
The Editor had made much larger collections, for every department of
the present volume, than he afterwards found it possible to provide room for.
The progress of the press, which he was obliged to feed, in some degree,
at hazard, left him the power of curtailing, but not of selecting. As it is,
in order to admit some of the departments, he has been obliged to extend
the volume upwards of fifty pages beyond the number properly belonging to
it. In the Chronicle of Memorable Occurrences, and in the Register of
Deaths, he was obliged to stop short of the proper period, and reserve a
considerable quantity of matter for the ensuing volume. He had carefully
translated and digested, with much pains, from genuine originals, a complete
series of French bulletins, detailing the war in Prussia, as likewise several
official accounts of the same transactions published by the Russian and Prus-
sian governments: documents that are omitted or deplorably mutilated and
perverted, through ignorance or haste, in the common papers of the day.
He had likewise drawn up a narrative, and prepared the illustrating docu-
ments, relative to Miranda's expedition; but all these he has been obliged
to omit for want of room, and confine himself to a summary narrative of the
affairs of Europe, and with a view of those of America, merely preliminary
to a narrative of passing events. A very ample account which he had drawn
up of the operations on the frontiers of Louisiana, the latest transaction of
―iv―
this kind in our own country, he was, on the same account, obliged to com-
press into a small compass. The historical portion of the present volume
the reader must, indeed, regard as merely designed for a preliminary essay.
The Abstract of the Laws and Public Acts of the United States was made
with peculiar care; and he hopes that it will be found of some value to the
lawyer and political enquirer. The session of the legislature in which these
were passed, was the latest of whose acts an authentic copy had been pub-
lised, when this abridgement was made.
It may be necessary to remind the reader, that this compilation was made
before the end of the month of July last, and, consequently, before any in-
telligence had arrived of the latest contests, and of the peace between France
with Russian and Prussia. This will explain many passages in which we
speak of events as pending, or future, which are now past.
In the ensuing volume the Editor hopes to profit by the experience he
has already gained, and to make a more judicious distribution and selection
of his materials than he can boast of on the present occasion. He will then
have an opportunity of discussing our domestic history in a more ample and
satisfactory manner.