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
spared no effort to procure all public Presidential papers from the
beginning of the Government to March 4, 1897. He has looked out for
every reference to the work in the public prints, has endeavored to read
all the criticisms made because of omissions, and has availed himself of
all the papers to which his attention has been called by anyone; has
diligently and earnestly sought for same himself, and has, as stated
above, inserted all omitted papers in the Appendix, so that he feels
warranted in saying that if he has given to the country all he could
find and all any critic or reviewer has been able to find he has done
his whole duty and reasonable complaint can not be made if any paper is
still omitted. In view of the inaccessibility of many of the messages by
reason of their not having been entered on the journals of either House
of Congress, and of the fact that the Government itself does not possess
many of the proclamations and Executive orders, it may be that there
yet can be found a few papers omitted from this work; but with much
confidence, amounting to a positive conviction, I feel that assurance
may be safely given that