| Background: |
The first bicameral congress was held in 1789. Congress is composed of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Annals record the daily proceedings in both houses of congress.
Annals of Congress were formerly known as The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States; with an Appendix. The Annals of Congress are a record of the United States Congress from the First Congress in 1789 through the First Session of the Eighteenth Congress in 1824. The Annals are a summary rather than a transcription, compiled after 1834 from newspaper accounts. They are succeeded by the Register of Debates, the Congressional Globe, and the Congressional Record. |
| Contents: |
Some or all of the material is available digitally; see Electronic Finding Aid section.
These records contain the debates and proceedings of Congress. They are documented in chronological order and read similar to other formal documents of the time, such as court records. They include resolutions, accounts, bills, laws, petitions, claims, legal cases, and amendments. At the end of each record are various appendices, often comprising of the documents and acts passed during each session.
Topics found within the records include, but are not limited to: settlements (land), the navy, natives/indigenous people, the military, education, elections, financial concerns (such as stocks), legal proceedings, foreign relations, transportation (roads), privateering, politics and trade.
The material provides a glimpse into international relations of the time. Documents dealing with United States relations with British North America (Canada), Britain, Spain, France, and South America are prominent within the records. Other documents relate to the suppression of piracy. Of particular interest to researchers of the American Revolution are debates and proceedings relating to surviving officers, soldiers, and widows of the Revolutionary War.
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