IN publishing the following Laws, the same plan has been adopted that was prescribed in the Joint Resolution of Congress of March 3, 1845, authorizing a subscrip tion to the edition of all the Laws of the United States published by us. A close examination of this volume will disclose some apparent errors in the Laws as here printed; but as we procure a careful collation with the records at Washington by an experienced reader of the Department of State, and scrupulously follow the original, any seeming errors must be attributed to the Rolls, and not to us. Where anything absolutely necessary to the sense is omitted in the Rolls, it is inserted in the text, enclosed in brackets.
We intend to publish annually, and as soon after the close of each Session of Congress as is possible, the Acts of that Session, in a similar form and with a similar arrangement.
It will be seen, by the following extract from the Act of Congress, August 8th, 1846, and Joint Resolution of September 26, 1850, that our edition has been sanctioned by Congress, and is the OFFICIAL EDITION.
"And whereas said edition of the said LAWS AND TREATIES OF THE UNITED STATES has been carefully collated and compared with the original Rolls in the Archives of the Government, under the inspection and supervision of the AttorneyGeneral of the United States, as duly certified by that officer: therefore, Be it further enacted, that said edition of the LAWS AND TREATIES OF THE UNITED STATES, published by LITTLE & BROWN, is hereby declared to be competent evidence of the several Public and Private Acts of Congress, and of the several Treaties therein contained, in all the Courts of Law and Equity and Maritime Jurisdiction, and in all the Tribunals and Public Offices of the United States and of the several States, without any further proof or authentication thereof. APPROVED, August 8, 1846.”
"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of State be authorized and directed to contract with LITTLE & BROWN to furnish their annual Statutes at Large, printed in conformity with the plan adopted by Congress in eighteen hundred and forty-five, instead of the edition usually issued by his order, under the act of Congress of April twentieth, eighteen hundred and eighteen, and which conforms to an edition of the laws now out of use.- APPROVED, September 26, 1850."
LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.