Appendix to the Congressional Globe, for the Second Session, Thirty-second Congress: Containing Speeches, Important State Papers, Laws, etc.; (New Series, Volume XXVII) [This copy bound for the U. S. House of Representatives Library]

Folio; xii & 387 pages; Bound in red roan leather with a pressed horizontal grain, over marbled boards, flat spine lettered in gilt directly in panels separated by pairs of gilt rules -- at the foot of the spine appears the following, lettered in gilt: "LIBRARY, HOUSE OF REP'S" This remarkable provenance is confirmed by a large circular stamp on the title page: "United States of America. / Library / House of Representatives." The binding is generally fresh and clean, with just a hint of a surface crack along the top two inches of the front outer hinge. There is a modern surplus duplicate stamp from the Library of Congress on the front paste-down endpaper. No other marks. (Surplus books from the United States government all passed through the Library of Congress. This duplicate stamp makes it officially possible to own this copy). The Congressional Globe was the third of the four series of publications containing the debates of the United States Congress. It was preceded by the 'Annals of Congress' and the 'Register of Debates' and succeeded by the 'Congressional Record' -- which is still published. The Globe, as it is usually called, contains the Congressional debates of the 23rd through 42nd Congresses (1833-73). While, initially, the debates were given in summary form -- beginning with this Thirty-second Congress, the 'Globe' printed coverage in very nearly verbatim form. The Appendices to the Globe contain Presidential messages, reports of the heads of departments and cabinet officers, texts of laws, and appropriations. There were also speeches not indexed or referenced on the pages reprinting the debates -- and some of these happen to be the more substantial speeches delivered by members of Congress. This volume would be worth owning just as an example of the unusual provenance of this official Congressional copy of the 'Globe' regardless of content, but, as it happens, there were very interesting matters before the 32nd Congress, with important records in these pages. The first few pages are devoted to President Millard Filmore's final report to Congress. (Sadly, there is a notice of the death of Mrs. Fillmore a few days after Millard Fillmore turned the Presidency over to Franklin Pierce -- see page 309. President Pierce's Inaugural Address appears on pp. 243-5). The Annexation of the Republic of Texas occupies many of these pages, and Senator Sam Houston appears frequently throughout, especially concerning the contentious matter of the assumption of the debts of the Texas Republic, the ongoing Mexican Boundary Survey, and Major Emory's explorations in New Mexico, etc. There is debate about the minting of gold coin in California, and other means of dealing with recent discoveries of gold in the new western State. There is also the official printing of the laws establishing the new Territory of Washington (created out of the Oregon Territories) -- see p. 337. The desireable matter of a potential trans-continental Railroad to the Pacific is discussed for pages and pages. The Clayton-Bulwer treaty is dealt with at length in the accounts of the Special Session of the 32nd Congress. There are debates in depth concerning the Gadsden Purchase treaty and its provision in which Mexico granted the U.S. the right to transport mail and trade goods across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (via a plank road and railroad). An interesting volume, and a rare opportunity to own an example of a rare Congressional provenance for its official record.…