REPORT.

Library of Congress, Washington, January 25, 1867.

In pursuance of the unanimously expressed desire of the Joint Committee on the Library, at the close of the last session of Congress, the undersigned has made a thorough examination of the historical library belonging to Peter Force, Esq., of Washington, and has now the honor to submit the following report:

In prosecuting an investigation into the character of so extensive and important a collection of books, with a view to from an intelligent judgment of its extent and value, it was necessary to enter closely into details, and to devote much time and assiduous labor to the work. The undersigned has spent from two to three hours per day, for the term of about two months, in the examination, and every book in the library has passed through his hands. The result is that he is in possession of a virtually complete inventory of the collection, in all its varied departments, which must, however, be greatly condensed for the purpose of this report, so as to embrace only the more important facts and figures.

For the purpose of more convenient and accurate consideration, the contents of the library will be referred to under the following distinct classes: 1. Printed books relating to America. 2. Early American newspapers. 3. Pamphlets relating to America. 4. Maps. 5. Incunabula; or books printed during the infancy of the art. 6. Manuscripts and autographs. 7. MS. materials for the American Archives, or Documentary History of America.

1. In the department of books relating to America, the library embraces the largest private collection ever brought together, having been formed by Mr. Force with special reference to assembling the fullest materials for editing his American Archives. The plan of this work embraced nothing less than a complete publication of all the more important original State papers, letters, narratives, and other documents relating to the settlement and history of the United States, from the discovery of America 0003 4in 1492 to the establishment of the present Government in 1789. His library embraces an immense collection of the early American voyages, in Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch, and English, while in books and pamphlets relating to the politics and government of the American colonies, it stands unrivalled in this country. In the field of early printed American books, so much sought for by collectors, and which are becoming annually more scarce and costly, this library possesses more than ten times the number to be found in the Library of Congress. Not to dwell upon particulars, it need only be mentioned that there is a perfect copy of Eliot's Indian Bible, the last copy of which offered at auction brought $800, and was last year resold at $1,000; forty-one different works of Increase and Cotton Mather, printed at Boston and Cambridge, from 1671 to 1735; a large number of still earlier books and pamphlets by Norton, Cotton, and other Puritan divines; and a very complete representation of the numerous and much sought for publications of the presses of Franklin and the Bradfords. In the Laws and Journals of the early colonial Assemblies, from New Hampshire to Georgia, there are over two hundred volumes, of the utmost interest as showing the legislative policy of the colonies in revolutionary times, and as but few of these have been reprinted in any of the modern collections, they are not in the Library of Congress. When it is remembered that the Congressional Library is for the use of our national legislature, and represents the nationality of the American people, it is plainly of the utmost consequence to render it complete in all that can illustrate our history and progress as a nation. Two predominant ideas should be kept steadily in view: first, at the library of a legislative body, it should be made absolutely complete in all that relates to the departments of law, government, and politics; secondly, as the great national library of the United States; it should contain all publications relating to our own country—its discovery, settlement, topography, history, biography, religion, natural history and polities. In each of these two departments it should be the aim of such a Library to possess every book which has been issued, since the American publicist and historian can make no exhaustive research without having access to all the materials which former writers have accumulated. Especially should an effort be made to acquire as soon as may be all the early publications, whose increasing scarcity and cost are making it annually more difficult to procure them at all.

2. In the department of early printed American newspapers, there are unusually complete files of the leading journals of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and other States, dating from 1735 to 1800, and covering with much fullness the period of the Stamp Act controversy, the revolutionary war, and the establishment of the present Constitution. 0004 5The Library of Congress at present possesses not even a fragment of a file of any revolutionary or ante-revolutionary newspaper, the earliest American journal in its collection being the Boston Centinel of 1789. The Force library has no less than 245 bound volumes of American newspapers printed prior to 1800, besides about seven hundred volumes, bound and unbound, of journals printed from 1800 to the present time. When it is considered how much these contemporancous chronicles of events add to the stores of information in request by the student of history, the great importance of not losing such an opportunity of acquiring them becomes too evident for argument.

3. Pamphlets relating to America. The number, variety, and value of the pamphlets embraced in this library are entirely unrivalled in any American collection, public or private, unless it may be by the rich stores of the Boston Athenaeum. Of pamphlets printed prior to 1800 there are 8,310, while of pamphlets printed between 1800 and the present date, the collection rises to between 30,000 and 35,000. It is now generally admitted that the pamphlet literature, especially of the last century, is full of the most vital materials for political history. They rank next to newspapers in the light they shed upon the characters and events of any period, and, indeed, before the newspaper had assumed its present influence, importance, and frequency of publication, the pamphlet literature of the times was what newspapers now are, strikingly reflecting the political and social spirit which bore sway at the epoch of their publication. The whole number of pamphlets in this noble collection is nearly 40,000, and as Mr. Force was so fortunate as to secure, many years since, five great and unbroken collections, formed by leading politicians of different parties, who arranged and bound up for convenient reference all the pamphlets literature of their time, the collection is not only unmatched, but at this day unmatchable for completeness. Indeed, there are few either of books or pamphlets published in America or in Great Britain upon our affairs which are not to be found here. The Library of Congress at present possesses less than 6,000 pamphlets. Yet the political history of our country cannot be written without them. The great use made of pamphlets by the most philosophical of modern historians indicates how much we may be indebted to those often unconsidered trifles for the most invaluable materials of history.

4. In the department of maps and atlases relating to America, the Force library embraces a collection not only large, but in many particulars unique. Not only the early atlases of Delisle, Jefferys, Des Barres, Faden, and other geographers, with a complete copy of the scare “Atlas of the Battles of the American Revolution,” but an assemblage of detached maps over one thousand in number, and chiefly illustrative of America, are here found. Among these, the most valuable are a series of original military 0005 6maps and plans in manuscript, covering the period of the French war and the war of the Revolution. These are of exceeding interest, and many of them are the work of officers of the British army stationed in America, bearing such inscriptions as the following:

“Plan of the rebel works at West Point,” (a pen drawing.) date 1779.

“Plan of the Rebel Works on Prospect Hill,” also on Winter Hill and Bunker Hill, several distinct maps, date 1775.

The number of these original maps, many of which are unpublished, and therefore presumed to be unique, is over 300, covering the whole country, from Canada to the Gulf.

5. Of books known as incunabula, or specimens of the earliest development of the art of printing, the collection is large and valuable. It embraces a complete series of imprints by the most distinguished of the early printers, representing every year from 1467 to 1500, besides a large number printed in the following century. The number of books printed in the fifteenth century is 161, and there are over 250 more printed prior to 1600. This collection was formed with special reference to illustrating the progress of the art of printing from its infancy, and is one of the best, if not the best, in America.

6. Autographs and manuscripts. Among the manuscript treasures of this library are 48 folio volumes of historical autographs of great rarity and interest, embracing, especially, a collection of revolutionary letters, chiefly military and political, and all of unquestionable authenticity. It need only be added that the National Library now possesses not a solitary specimen of original autographs in the shape of letters or papers of our revolutionary generals and statesmen, to show how greatly this department of the collection would add to the value of that library. The Force collection, embraces two volumes of an original military journal of Major General Greene, covering the years 1781 and 1782; a private journal kept by Arthur Lee while minister to France in 1776-77; thirty or forty orderly books of the Revolution; twelve or more military journals of British officers during the same period; twenty-five manuscript narratives of military expeditions, all unpublished; twelve folio volumes of the papers of Paul Jones while commanding American cruisers in 1776 to 1778; a volume of records of the Virginia Company from 1621 to 1682, mostly unpublished; two autograph journals of George Washington, one dated 1755, during Braddock's expedition, and one in 1787, at Mount Vernon; besides a multitude of others. There is also an unpublished manuscript of Las Casas, in four folio volumes, entitled “Historia Apologetica de los Indias Occidentales,” and an “Historia Antiqua de Nueva Espana,” in three volumes.

The whole number of volumes in manuscript reaches 420; and their 0006 7value to the Library of Congress, which is wholly destitute of MSS., as unpublished materials for history, would be very great.

7. But perhaps the most important part of this collection remains yet to be alluded to. It is the materials in manuscript which form the collection made by Mr. Force for the great work of his life, the American Archives, or Documentary History of the United States. It consists of the whole unpublished materials for that work, including a countless variety of documents transcribed with the utmost care from the originals in the archives of all the old thirteen colonies, as well as many early and unpublished papers relating to American affairs derived from other sources. The originals of some of these have been destroyed by fire since these copies were taken. The whole of these materials would make about 360 folio volumes in manuscript, and they are thoroughly analyzed and classified by States.

As to the numerical extent of this library and its commercial value, the whole number of volumes, by actual enumeration, is 22,529, without reckoning the pamphlets as volumes. If the pamphlets are counted, (as is done in most libraries,) the number of volumes rises to about 60,000. There are not less than 45,000 separate titles in the collection. Out of these, 7,850 volumes are duplicates, already in the Library of Congress. Taken as a whole, (and the Library will not be divided) it is unquestionably true that so extensive a collection of the most rare and valuable books and manuscripts relating to America could not be assembled at so late a period as the present, even with unlimited means.

Mr. Force has not himself put a price upon the collection, and never until within two years has he entertained the idea of parting with this library, which represents the assiduous gatherings of forty-five years' incessant and intelligent devotion to one idea, viz, the history of America. But a price has been put upon it by others. The New York Historical Society, through its librarian, offered Mr. Force $100,000 for his collection, conditioned on its ability to raise the amount by subscription. Mr. Force accepted the offer, but the undertaking failed last winter for lack of funds. A large dealer in American books has offered the same sum for the library for speculative purposes, but Mr. Force refused it, as he will not part with it to be scattered, nor upon any condition except that it be kept together in some permanent and fire-proof public repository. The undersigned has received letters from Mr. Bancroft, Mr. Henry C. Murphy, and other gentlemen whose knowledge of American books and their values is both comprehensive and accurate, all of whom concur in estimating its fair commercial value to be at least $100,000, the sum at which it can now be procured. To secure the possession of the invaluable manuscript materials of the American Archives alone, Congress would be justified in appropriating a very liberal sum. That these sources 0007 8of so much hitherto unpublished history should go into private hands to be scattered, or consumed by fire, could not but be regarded by every intelligent American as a national misfortune. Viewed merely as a commercial transaction, the purchase of this library at $100,000 is considerably cheaper than the average cost of the present Library of Congress, which was mainly purchased before the present expansion of values. But viewed in the more accurate light of an unique and elsewhere unattainable addition to our stores of knowledge respecting the origin of our American civilization and government, the importance of the question far transcends any statement that can be made in dollars and cents. The British Government is now engaged in publishing the materials for the history of that country, as found in its own unpublished archives and in those of foreign nations. On this work it has expended $15,000 annually for the past ten years, or $15,000; about the same amount as our own Government expended on the unfinished American Archives of Mr. Force. Whether Congress should ever complete that publication or not may safely be left to the future to determine; but what cannot safely be left to the future is the possession and control of the documents from which alone such a publication can be made. The British Government expended in 1865 #22,000, or $110,000 for books, manuscripts, and binding for its national library, the British Museum. It has spent over $100,000 per annum for several years past for the same purpose of enriching its collections of books, besides larger sums for salaries, antiquities, and objects of natural history. Congress represents the richest and most liberal people in the world, and may safely be asked to do once in a century what the British Government does every year of its existence, namely, to devote $100,000 to increase its national repository of knowledge. It is not creditable to our national spirit to have to admit the fact—which nevertheless is true—that the largest and most complete collection of books relating to America in the world is that now gathered on the shelves of the British Museum. To repair this deficiency, while the opportunity exists, and to secure the chance of adding to this National Library the largest and best collection of the sources of American history yet brought together in this country, the undersigned confidently appeals to the judgment and liberality of this committee and of Congress. A. R. SPOFFORD, Librarian.