The debates of Congress have been accruing for near seventy years, and fill more than an hundred volumes, and cannot be purchased for less than $500, nor advantageously used, on account of the quantity of superfluous matter which they contain. They are printed in full by Congress, and ought to be so, and a small distribution is made among the members; but this distribution cannot reach the community, and would be nearly useless if it did, from the quantity of obsolete, local and transient matter which overloads them. In the mean time, these debates contain the history of the working of our Government from its foundation—preserve and hand down to posterity the wisdom of ages—show what has been done, and how it was done—and shed light upon the study of all impending questions; for there is not a question of the day, and will not be while the Government continues, which will not be illustrated by something previously said in these debates.

All works consisting of periodical accumulations require periodical abridgment, in which, being relieved of what is superfluous, the residuum becomes more valuable from the disencumbrance—of easier use to the reader—and more accessible to the community, from the diminution of price and quantity. Even the reports of the Supreme Court of the United States, though comparatively free from redundant or obsolete matter, have undergone abridgment—three volumes reduced to one—and become more valuable from the reduction. The same may be done with these debates, and with a far greater license of reduction, from the very nature of popular debating. Some fifteen or sixteen octavo volumes, double columns, are expected to contain all that retains a surviving interest in the (more than) one hundred volumes, now surcharged with the full debates.

The abridgment will not be restricted to the speeches of the celebrated orators, but extend to those of the business men, and to the plainest speakers—who are often the members who give the most useful information. Full speeches are not expected to be given, there being none, after a short time, which do not contain much matter that has lost its interest. Many entire heads of reported proceedings and discussions would be omitted: as—The morning presentation of petitions, often the same for ten or twenty years, and presented in both Houses at the same time: discussion on private bills, which have no general interest: mere personalities: the endless repetition of yeas and nays, sometimes recorded an hundred times in contests about the same bill, when three or four sets would be sufficient to show the opinion of every member upon every material point: repetitions of speeches, for it is impossible that a member speaking for ten or twenty sessions on the same subject, (tariff, internal improvement, national bank, &c.) should not repeat the same thing over and over again.

The work is intended to be national, such as would commend itself to the study, and come within the reach, of all who aspire to a share in the public affairs, either State or Federal; or who wish to understand the history and working of their own Government. It is the only way in which the wisdom of the earlier generation of our statesmen who put the Government into operation—the Madisons, Gallatins, John Marshalls, William B. Giles, the Fisher Ames, Roger Shermans, &c.—can be made known to the present or future ages; and it is the best way in which the speeches of those who have lived in our own day, even the most eminent, can be diffused. For the speeches of no one, published in mass and alone, can have more than a local circulation; while judicious selections from a whole debate, enlivened by the vivacity of contention, going into a general work of this kind, must have a general circulation, and carry the name of the speaker, and the best of his speaking, into every part of the Union.

Some notes, or commentaries, will be added by the author, discriminated from the text, to mark great starting, or turning points, in our legislative history, with a view to assist the reader in making the practical applications which give utility to knowledge. For example: At the beginning of the first tariff debate in the first session of the first Congress, he will show that Mr. Madison compressed into twenty-two short lines, of eight or nine words each, all the principles of impost and tonnage duties which have governed all wise legislation upon the two subjects from that time to the present—namely: Specific duties the rule—ad valorems the exception: revenue the object—incidental encouragement to home industry the incident: specifics on all the leading and staple articles—ad valorems on the inferior remainder: discrimination between articles of luxury and necessity, so as to put the burthen on the former—and between articles made, or not made, at home, so as to give encouragement to the home article: and all these duties moderate, so as not to shackle trade or agriculture. These were his principles on impost duties. Those on tonnage consisted of discriminations in favor of our own ships, and in favor of nations having treaties of commerce with us, so as to encourage our own ship-building and navigation, and also to stimulate all nations to make commercial treaties with us. And thus, every object of impost legislation was provided for:—revenue for the Government, encouragement to home industry, exemption from burthen to trade and agriculture.

Then, at the end of that debate, (which began in April, and ended in May,) it will be shown that a rate of duties was established, corresponding with these principles—all moderate, and adapted each to its object: five per centum on the lowest class of ad valorems, seven and a half on the next, and fifteen for the highest, and it of luxuries. The specific duties, applicable to the mass of the importations, at the same low rate; and this low rate, on the small importation of that time, and with the economy of that time, producing seven times the amount of revenue necessary for the "support" of the Government! leaving six sevenths to go to the public debt and Indian wars. The same rates of duty, with the same economy, ought to be equally sufficient now upon a sevenfold importation of dutiable goods.

The Emperor Justinian, in compiling his Institutes, commended their study to the liberal-minded youth of the empire who aspired to employment in the government; for that emperor, although a great and victorious general, yet placed the arts of peace and government above the exploits of war, and wished to see law and order, more than arms, studied and cultivated in his dominion. The great Emperor Napoleon had the same appreciation of legal and civil studies; and hence the Four Codes, at the digest of which he personally assisted, and the conception and execution of which do so much honor to his memory. In our own government the career of public employment is open to all, and should be prepared for by all who aspire to enter it. Of elementary political works we have many, and excellent; but most of them only teach principles, and that abstractly, without practice. Practical works are wanted to complete the study, and of these the most ample and least ungrateful may be a well-considered and impartial abridgment of the Debates of Congress.

And here the Author discharges an obligation of gratitude and justice to the earlier generation of our statesmen. He owes what he is to them. His political principles were learnt in their school—his knowledge obtained from their works—his patriotism confirmed by their example—his love of the Union exalted by their teaching.

THE AUTHOR.
Washington City, May, 1856.