papers, especially the proclamations and Executive orders. In the
Prefatory Note to Volume I, I said: "I have sought to bring together
in the several volumes of the series all Presidential proclamations,
addresses, messages, and communications to Congress excepting those
nominating persons to office and those which simply transmit treaties,
and reports of heads of Departments which contain no recommendation
from the Executive." But after the appearance of Volume I, and while
preparing the contents of Volume II, I became convinced that I had made
a mistake and that the work to be exhaustive should comprise every
message of the Presidents transmitting reports of heads of Departments
and other communications, no matter how brief or unintelligible the
papers were in themselves, and that to make them intelligible I should
insert editorial footnotes explaining them. Having acted upon the other
idea in making up Volume I and a portion of Volume II, quite a number of
such brief papers were intentionally omitted. Being convinced that all
the papers of the Executives should be inserted, the plan was modified
accordingly, and the endeavor was thereafter made to publish all of
them.

In order, however, that the compilation may be "accurate and
exhaustive," I have gone back and collected all the papers--those which
should have appeared in Volumes I and II, as well as such as were
unintentionally omitted from the succeeding volumes--excepting those
simply making nominations, and shall publish them in an appendix in the
last volume. While this may occasion some little annoyance to the reader
who seeks such papers in chronological order, yet, inasmuch as they all
appear at their proper places in the alphabetical Index, it is not
believed that any serious inconvenience will result.

The editor and compiler has resorted to every possible avenue and has