United States Statutes at Large/Volume 5/28th Congress/2nd Session/Resolution 10
No. 10. A Resolution to authorize the Attorney General to contract for copies of a proposed edition of the Laws and Treaties of the United States.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Attorney General Attorney General authorized to contract with Little & Brown.
Proviso, conditions of contract.is hereby authorized and directed to contract, on behalf of the General Government, with Messieurs Little and Brown, for one thousand copies of their proposed edition of the Laws and Treaties of the United States, at a price not exceeding three dollars and fifty cents a volume: Provided, nevertheless, That the contract aforesaid shall be made upon the terms and conditions following, that is to say: First, That the work shall be executed, from stereotype plates, in the style proposed by the said Little and Brown in their memorial presented to Congress at the present session thereof, in volumes, well bound, of not less than eight hundred super-royal octavo pages, with a very wide text, and a syllabus of each section in small type; the text to be on a long primer, the types having a full round face, and being entirely new, and the paper to be of the best quality, sized, so that notes, in manuscript, may be written on the margin of the pages. Second. That the work shall contain the articles of Confederation, the Constitution, all the public and all the private laws and resolves, whether obsolete, repealed, or in force, and whether temporary or permanent, as well those respecting the District of Columbia, as all others, and all treaties with foreign nations and Indian tribes; but the treaties may be printed separately, and the private laws separately, in the same style and in the same order of arrangement with the others; the general laws and resolves to be contained in four octavo volumes, and the private laws and treaties in two additional octavo volumes. Third. There shall be a reference by a foot note, in small type, at the bottom of each page, to all laws passed subsequently or previously to that in the text, on the same subject whether printed in pamphlet or otherwise, with such explanations as may aid in obtaining a knowledge of the changes of Congressional legislation on the subjects of the laws; and in the volumes of the treaties there shall be such reference, and by a similar note, to all legislation of Congress, on the subject of the treaties. Fourth. If part of a law have been repealed, or parts only are in force, it shall be accurately and exactly marked in the margin. Fifth. The laws, resolves, and treaties shall be arranged in strict chronological order; the laws of each session furnishing chapters, designated numerically to the end of each session, and the whole series of laws of each session to be described as one statute; the day of the approval of each act to be stated at the end thereof; a running title at the head of each page, to express the session of Congress, the date and chapter of each act; and at the beginning of each Congress shall be stated the place where the session was held, the name of the President of the United States, of the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Sixth. At the foot of each page, in a note, reference shall be made to all decisions of the supreme, circuit and district courts, construing or applicable to the law or treaty in the text. Seventh. There shall be a full alphabetical verbal general index of all the matters of the laws, resolves, and treaties, at large, under the leading heads, with full reference, under the minor heads, to all the matters, according to the plan and illustration in the memorial aforesaid; and a separate index of the matters in each volume, prepared in the same manner as the general index, shall be subjoined to each volume. There shall be an appendix at the end of each volume, containing a complete list of all the acts, resolves, and treaties, in the volume, chronologically arranges, with a brief and general description of the subject of the act, in this form, that is to say:
Eighth. The said Little and Brown shall stipulate, with good and sufficient and satisfactory security, to furnish the United States with such additional copies of the work, in all respects like the foregoing, as the Government from time to time may require, at prices not to exceed two dollars and seventy-five cents a volume; and they shall stipulate, with such security for the faithful performance of all parts of the contract which the Attorney General is herein authorized to make; and, in addition to such security, they shall execute to the United States a conveyance of the stereotype plates from which the first copies shall be printed, for the purpose of printing the additional copies thereof, in such form that in whosesoever hands the plates may be at any future and distant period of time, the delivery of such additional copies to the United States may be effectually secured; they shall make immediate insurance on such plates, for the benefit of the United States and the proprietors of the plates, against loss by fire; and on the plates of the title page of each volume the interest of the United States as defined by this resolution, shall be printed. Ninth. Before the United States shall be called on to pay for any volume of the work, it shall be submitted to the Attorney General, or to such other officer or officers of the Government as Congress may designate; and on his or their approbation thereof, and his or their decision that it is edited and printed in all respects according to the contract, it shall be paid for from the Treasury of the United States.
Appropriation.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That, for the purpose aforesaid, there be appropriated and paid, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, a sum not exceeding twenty-one thousand dollars.
Approved, March 3, 1845.