Shift #15 - Collections Research
Thursday, June 6, 2024 | 8-9:30 pm CST/9-10:30 pm EST (1.5 hrs)
Details
Michelle Hurt, student/intern
Jennifer Gonzalez, practicum supervisor
This is a screenshot from my continued research tonight in the "A Century of Lawmaking" collection. Elliot's Debates is one of the sub-categories under the category of the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention.
Tonight, I continued to look at the "A Century of Lawmaking" collection and I began with Elliot's Debates (these documents were published by Jonathan Elliot, an English-American editor). This sub-category has 5 volumes which speak about the early government of the United States between the end of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and the start of the First Federal Congress in 1789. The documents show debates about approving and formalizing the Declaration of Independence and the drafting of the Constitution, for starters. I also viewed the sub-category of Farrand's Records, published by Max Farrand, a professor and historian. There are three volumes in the Records with notes and documents by many people, but is prominent for James Madison's notes. I viewed a journal entry in the Records that noted how people should conduct themselves (the protocol/etiquette of speaking, not speaking, or not reading a book or newspaper while the President is present/standing/speaking). After this perusal, I moved onto the second category under the "A Century of Lawmaking" collection, which is Statutes and Documents. I began with the first sub-category of Bills and Resolutions but had to do a little bit of side research to remember what a bill and a resolution is. What I understand is that both are pieces of legislation and that before a law can be passed, it is proposed as a bill or as a resolution. Resolutions do not become laws but are more like opinions of the House and Senate.
I then moved onto the second sub-category under Statutes and Documents, which is Statutes at Large and is the source of every law (public or private) passed by Congress between 1774 and 1875. I wanted to make sure I understood the difference between public law and private law so I did a little search on the Internet. According to senate.gov, "public bills pertain to matters that affect the general public or classes of citizens, while private bills affect just certain individuals and organizations." One of the documents I viewed under Statutes at Large is a treaty between the U.S. (New York) and the Mohawk tribe. I don't have a lot of deep knowledge about how Native Americans were treated during the 1800s but from what I know, they were not treated well. Looking at this document, I saw that the Mohawk Indians ceded their lands to New York for $1,000 ("under the sanction of the United States of America"). I wonder, if this was sanctioned by the U.S., is it really a true agreement between the two parties?
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