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A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ amlaw/Iawhome.html. Created and maintained by the library of Congress. Reviewed July 2010.
This massive collection covers one hundred years of American history from the formation of the Continental Congress through the Reconstruction era. Its primary focus is on lawmaking, from legislative action ?t??f rhe final publication of the law, and the collection is divided into four major components: the "Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention," "Statutes and Documents," "Journals of Congress," and "Debates of Congress." In addition to state and federal laws, "Statutes and Documents" includes the thirty-eight-volume American State Paper series and the United States Congressional Serial Set. Besides the standard legidative records, the collection indudes other important sources: L·tters of die Delegates to Congress, 17741789, Farmnd's Records of the Constitutional Convention, and Elliots Debates - which indudes state ratifying conventions as well as the standard congressional debate sources from the Annals of Congress, the Register of Debates, the Congressional Globe, and the Congressional Record. Some of rhe collections, especially the material in die U.S. Serial Set, include documents that date to the early twentieth century.
As the product of the Library of Congress, the Web site is designed to be used by researchers with a minimum of technical skill. Visitors can dick on each record to find a short collection description, including prompts to related information sites, and directions on how to use the collection efficiendy. They can browse or search a collection. If using transcriptions, they can click to the origind page image and then move forward or backward in the document. Searches often offer links to other daterelated documents. There are additional tabs to take the viewer back to the collection to undertake a new search or to return...