correspondence. Most of the records relating to negotiations are filed with the diplomatic correspondence among records of the Department of State (see RG 59). The unperfected treaties, 1803-1949, are those that have not gone into effect. Some signed treaties never reached the stage of ratification and the exchange of instruments of ratification; some have been rejected by the legislative body of another country; some have been approved by the Senate with stipulations to which the President could not assent; and some were never submitted to the Senate. Documents in the unperfected treaty files are similar to those in the perfected treaty files. As early as 1792 the Postmaster General was authorized to conclude agreements with foreign postal officials regarding the transportation of the mails, and in 1872 he was empowered by the President to negotiate postal treaties or conventions. These do not require Senate approval. There are some postal agreements among the treaty files and others among the records of the Post Office Department (see RG 28). Filed separately are postal conventions, 1853-97, including draft conventions with France in 1853, with Italy in 1877 and 1880, and ratifications by the signatory countries of the Universal Postal Convention of 1897. See David Hunter Miller, ed., Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America (8 vols., 1931-48). The first volume contains tables and lists, a bibliography, and other important data regarding treaties; the other volumes contain the texts in the original languages of those treaties that went into force from 1776 to July 1863, together with extensive editorial notes on the background of negotiations and procedural history. The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations directed the compilation by William M. Malloy of Treaties, Conventions, International Acts, Protocols and Agreements Between the United States of America and Other Powers, 1776-1909 (2 vols., 1910); a third volume, dealing with the period 1910-23, was compiled by C. F. Redmond and published in 1923; a fourth volume, for the 1923-37 period, was compiled by Edward J. Trenwith and published in 1938. These will be superseded by a new 15-volume compilation by Charles I. Bevans of the Department of State, Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America, 1776-1949. Texts of treaties and other international agreements that took effect before 1950 were printed contemporaneously in the United States Statutes at Large; a complete list is in volume 64, part 3. Those that took effect after January 1, 1950, are printed in United States Treaties and Other International Agreements, a continuing publication prepared by the Department of State. TREATIES WITH INDIAN TRIBES AND RELATED PAPERS. 1778-1868. 8 lin. ft. Indian treaties were negotiated on behalf of the colonies and the British Crown during the colonial period and on behalf of the Continental Congress and the Congress of the Confederation during and after the Revolutionary War. This treatymaking power continued as a prerogative of the Federal Government under the Constitution. From 1789 to 1849 Indian treaties were negotiated by special commissioners acting for the President under supervision of the War Department. In 1849 responsibility for negotiating the treaties was transferred to the Office of Indian Affairs and the Department of the Interior, created in that same year. An act passed in 1871 prohibited further negotiation of treaties with Indian tribes but provided that existing treaties would stand. The Department of State continued to preserve the treaties. Although most Indian treaties in this record group were ratified, there are some that were not. Most of the unratified treaties are among the records of the Senate (see RG 46) or of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (see RG 75). Although the first original treaty is the one concluded with the Delawares at Pittsburgh on September 17, 1778, the records also include a few contemporaneous handwritten and printed copies of treaties concluded as early as 1722 that were used as precedents for later treaties. The last treaty is with the Nez Perces, Indian treaties have been published in Charles PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATIONS, EXECUTIVE Proclamations, many having the effect In 1907 the Department of State began to number the Executive orders and proclamations previously issued, and later it assigned numbers as the orders and proclamations were received and printed. The Executive orders in this record group form part of the "numbered series"; most of the Executive orders issued before 1929 are in the "unnumbered series" distributed among the records of other Government agencies. In 1936 the Office of the Federal Register was assigned the duties of numbering and supervising the promulgation of all Executive orders and proclamations, and those in the custody of the Department of State were transferred to the National Archives. Other Presidential documents are those that are not numbered Executive orders or proclamations and include Presidential reorganization plans, military orders, regulations, administrative orders, designations of officials, interpretive letters, and other executive documents. The records consist of Presidential proclamations, 1791-1968, with card indexes and lists, 1789-1947, and drafts and worksheets of proclamations, 193042; Executive orders, 1862-1968, with card indexes and lists, 1862-1947, and drafts of Executive orders, 1929-42; and other Presidential documents, 1945-68. Other card indexes and lists are in the Office of the Federal Register of NARS. Many proclamations and orders are printed in James D. Richardson, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents (1896-99 and later editions). Most proclamations are printed in the United States Statutes at Large. Numbered Executive orders are both listed and indexed in Presidential Executive Orders Numbered 1-8080; 1862-1938, compiled by the New York Historical Records Survey (2 vols.; New York, 1944); some of the unnumbered Executive orders are noted in the List and Index of Presidential Executive Orders (Unnumbered Series), 1789-1941, compiled by the New Jersey Historical Records Survey (Newark, 1943). Proclamations having general applicability and legal effect that were in force as of March 19, 1936, and orders as of March 13, 1936, are printed or cited in the Code of Federal Regulations, while those issued after that date appear in the Supplements and annual volumes of the Code. Beginning March 14, 1936, all proclamations and orders having general applicability and legal effect have also been printed in the Federal Register. See also U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Government Operations, Executive Orders and Proclamations: A Study of a Use of Presidential Powers (Dec. 1957), 85th Cong., 1st sess. RULES AND REGULATIONS OF Before the passage of the Federal Register Act of July 26, 1935, no provision existed for the central filing and publication of administrative rules, regulations, notices, and similar documents that have general applicability and the force of law. This act created the Division of the Federal Register of the National Archives to receive, file, and register such documents; make them available for public inspection; publish them in the Federal Register; and codify and publish at regular intervals those documents remaining in effect. The Office of the Federal Register has also received documents for filing only. The records consist of originals of administrative rules, regulations, orders, notices, and other documents, 1936-68, arranged by chronological groups and thereunder alphabetically by Government departments and independent agencies; and a photostatic copy of the register of documents filed with the Division of the Federal Register, 193641 (2 vols. and unbound sheets). ELECTORAL RECORDS. 1888-1968. Article II of the Constitution stipulates that "Electors shall meet in their respective States . . . make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each," sign and certify the lists, and transmit them to the President of the Senate. For the elections before 1888, these lists are among the records of the Senate (see RG 46). By an act of February 3, 1887, the Secretary of State became part of the electoral system. He was required to receive from each State Governor a certified list, known as a final ascertainment of electors, showing the names and total votes of all persons receiving votes for electors and indicating the persons chosen. The Secretary was required to transmit a copy of each ascertainment to each House of Congress and to have the ascertainments published in a newspaper of his choice. This procedure was modified in 1928 by an act that provided that in addition to receiving the ascertainment from each Governor, the Secretary was to receive two copies of the ascertainment for each State directly from the electors of that State, each copy to be accompanied by a certified statement of the votes of the electors for President and Vice President. He was required to hold one copy of each document subject to the call of the President of the Senate and to keep the other copy for 1 year. The same act discontinued the requirement for the newspaper publication of the ascertainments. In 1950 functions concerning the ascertainments of electors were transferred from the Secretary of State to the Administrator of General Services. Records consist chiefly of certified copies of ascertainments of electors, 1888-1968, correspondence and memorandums concerning selection of electors, newspaper clippings of the ascertainments as published through 1924, statements of electoral votes, 1928 and 1932, and some miscellaneous correspondence and records, 1904-42. Many of these records are duplicates of electoral records among the records of the Senate (see RG 46) and the House (see RG 233). THE GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES. 1782-1909. 1 lin. ft. A design for the Great Seal of the United States, submitted by Secretary of the Continental Congress Charles Thomson, was adopted in 1782. On September 15, 1789, the Secretary of State became custodian of the seal. Several dies of the obverse of the seal have been cut for authentication of documents, but the reverse of the seal has never been cut for use. Early in its history the United States followed procedures of European countries by attaching large wax seals to treaties. In 1825 the Department of State made and used an oversize Great Seal for this purpose, but since 1871 the regular die of the Great Seal has been used on treaties as well as other documents. A die of the 1825 oversize seal was cut in 1854 for embossing the skippets (metal boxes containing the wax seals that were attached to treaties). After 1871 the skippet also went out of use. Today the Great Seal is affixed to the following kinds of documents after they are signed by the President and countersigned by the Secretary of State: ratifications of treaties; papers granting power to negotiate treaties; exequaturs; Presidential warrants for extradition of fugitives from justice; commissions of Cabinet officers, ambassadors, ministers, and other Foreign Service officials; commissions of other high ranking civil officers appointed by the President; and envelopes containing letters of recall and credences. There are six dies of the Great Seal in this record group. See Gaillard Hunt, The History of the Seal of the United States (1909); and The Seal of the United States, Department of State Publication 6455 (Apr. 1957). CARTOGRAPHIC AND AUDIOVISUAL RECORDS. 1818-67 and 1909. 9 items. A published copy of the 1818 edition of the John Melish map of the United States, referred to in the 1819 treaty with Spain; a published copy of the 1847 edition of J. Disturnell's map of Mexico used in preparing the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848; a manuscript map of the harbor of Simoda (Shimoda), Japan, compiled in 1854 by surveyors with Commodore Perry's fleet, to accompany the American treaty with Japan; and a manuscript plan of Sitka, Alaska, compiled in 1867 and later published in H. Ex. Doc. 125, 40th Cong., 2d sess., Serial 1337. There are also photographs (5 items) of the naturalization convention of July 22, 1909, between the United States and Paraguay. See Ralph E. Huss, comp., Preliminary Inventory of United States Government Documents Having General Legal Effect, PI 159 (1964). This is the former title of Record Group 11. Microfilm Publications: Ratified Indian Treaties, 1722-1869, M668, 16 rolls, DP; Certificates of Ratification of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, Including Related Correspondence and Rejections of Proposed Amendments, 1787-1792, M338, 1 roll; and Enrolled Original Acts and Resolutions of the Congress of the United States, 17891823, M337, 17 rolls. |