HANOVER STREET, BOSTON, IS THE LARGEST AND BEST ARRANGED HOTEL IN NEW ENGLAND, Possessing all the modern improvements and conveniences for the accommoda tion of the travelling public. LEWIS RICE, Proprietor. Opposite the Head of Franklin Street, OFFER A MOST EXTENSIVE ASSORTMENT OF FRENCH AND AMERICAN PAPER-HANGINGS Embracing the richest Goods Imported, and the choicest and cheapest of American Manufacture. Retailers, and Purchasers for Private Residences or Public Buildings, will fin our Assortment unequalled and our Prices satisfactory. S. H. Gregory, { Import Retailers, C. W. Robinson OCT 14 1913 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 163010 This Book is the Property of the University Press, Cambridge: Printed by Welch, Bigelow, and Company. PREFACE. THE THIRTY-FIRST volume of the American Almanac, being the First volume of the Fourth Series, is now offered to the public. Unwearied pains has been taken to collect full, authentic, and varied information concerning the complex affairs of the general and State governments; and a mass of official documents and private correspondence has been digested relating to the government, finances, legislation, public institutions, internal improvements, and resources of the United States, and of the several States. It is hoped that the present volume will be found equal to its predecessors in fulness and accuracy, and that it will sustain the high character of the American Almanac as a trustworthy manual for reference and a full repository of useful knowledge. The Astronomical Department has been prepared by Mr. George P. Bond, Assistant Observer at the Cambridge Observatory. There are interesting papers upon Donati's Comet of 1858, the Law of Storms, and the Aurora Borealis and Australis. The Table of Occultations, the Eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites, the Ephemeris of the Sun, the True Apparent Places of the Pole Star and the Principal Fixed Stars, Dr. Young's Table of Refractions, and the Sun's Parallax in Altitude, are not given, and it is proposed hereafter to omit them, as the reasons originally making their publication desirable are not now so pressing, and the space heretofore occupied by them can be better filled. In the Second Part of the volume will be found full lists of the Executive and Judiciary of the General Government, including the chief officers and clerks of the several Departments, and of the Court of Claims; of Collectors of Customs, of Postmasters in the principal places, of Army and Navy Pension Agents, and of the Indian Superintendents and Agents; of the Inspectors of Steamboats and their Districts; of the Army, and the various Military Departments and Posts under the new organization; of the Navy, the public vessels, and the Marine Corps; of our Ministers and Consuls in Foreign Countries, and of Foreign Ministers and Consuls in the United States. These lists have been corrected from official sources to the latest dates possible for publication. Later changes are noted in the "Additions and Corrections," at the end of the volume. The titles, Commerce and Navigation, and Revenue and Expenditure, published each year in the Almanac, are full and complete abstracts of the public documents of the same name, and the tables connected therewith, and with the Post-Office, Mint, and Public Lands, show the receipts and expenditures of the Government under their several heads, the public debt, the imports, exports, tonnage, coinage, sales of land, and the operations of the Post-Office Department, for each year since the adoption of the Federal Constitution. The rates of postage, with the inland and foreign mail service, are believed to be complete and correct. The Titles and Abstracts of the Public Laws and Joint Resolutions have been carefully prepared, and are sufficiently full, except for professional use. Among those this year of special interest are the Acts relative to the lien law in the District of Columbia; the keeping and distributing of Public Documents; the admission of Oregon; the incorporation of the Washington National Monument Society; to carry into effect the convention between the United States and China; the care and preservation of the Washington Water-Works; and the resolution in relation to the restrictions on the Tobacco trade. Tables of Railroads in this country and in Canada, and of the surveyed routes to the Pacific; of Telegraphs and Submarine Telegraphs; of Colleges and Professional Schools in the United States; of the Population of the several States at the decennial periods; of the Debts, Property, and Expenses of the States; of the Times of the State Elections and the Meetings of the State Legislatures, and of the Votes at the different Presidential Elections, are given. The alphabetical arrangement of the Individual States has, for obvious reasons, been substituted for the geographical. The information concerning the Individual States is as full as in former years. It is believed that nowhere else can be found collected such full details respecting the Executive and Judiciary, the finances, schools, charitable institutions, and pauperism and crime, of the several States. Should any one note inaccuracies or deficiencies therein, he is urgently requested to correct them. The European part of the work, revised from the best authority to the latest dates, gives the several States of Europe, with their form of government, the name, title, and date of accession of the reigning sovereigns, the area and population of the several countries. It also gives the Royal Family, the Ministry, and the Judiciary of England, and the Ministry of France. The Obituary Notices and Chronicle of Events have been prepared with care. The space is so limited, that many names and events which otherwise would be given are necessarily omitted. The thanks of the Editor are particularly due to the Heads of Departments at Washington, and to his many contributors and correspondents, to whom the work is indebted for a great part of its value. A continuance of their favors is respectfully solicited. A work embracing such a multitude of facts must necessarily contain errors; persons who may detect any are earnestly requested to communicate them to the Editor. It is particularly desirable that these communications should not be anonymous. It is frequently a source of regret to the Editor, that he cannot suitably acknowledge the valuable hints and assistance of anonymous correspondents. It is a matter of some public interest, that a periodical which circulates so widely, both in Europe and America, and which is so universally trusted as a manual for reference, should be rendered as accurate as possible; and this end can be obtained only by the co-operation of many individuals. Communications should be addressed to the Editor of the American Almanac," Boston. Boston, Mass., December, 1859. |