Government Documents

Govinfo is a service of the United States Government Publishing Office (GPO), which is a Federal agency in the legislative branch. Govinfo provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.

he National Archives preserves and provides access to the records of the Federal Government.

Digital collection of documents relating to Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government Ancient to present.

From University of Oklahoma College of Law includes links to digitized documents from pre Colonial era to the present.

From the Library of Congress American Memory Project includes records of the Continental Congress, the Constitutional Convention, and the United States Congress.

The American State Papers, comprising a total of thirty-eight physical volumes, contain the legislative and executive documents of Congress during the period 1789 to 1838. The collection includes documents that cover the critical historical gap from 1789 to the printing of the first volume of the U.S. Serial Set in 1817. The books are arranged into ten topical classes or series: Foreign Relations, Indian Affairs, Finances, Commerce and Navigation, Military Affairs, Naval Affairs, Post Office Department, Public Lands, Claims and miscellaneous. (source: Library of Congress)

“The Annals of Congress, formally known as The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, cover the 1st Congress through the first session of the 18th Congress, from 1789 to 1824. The Annals were not published contemporaneously, but were compiled between 1834 and 1856, using the best records available, primarily newspaper accounts. Speeches are paraphrased rather than presented verbatim, but the record of debate is nonetheless fuller than that available from the House and Senate Journals.” (source: Library of Congress)

” The Register of Debates is a record of the congressional debates of the 18th Congress, 2nd Session through the 25th Congress, 1st Session (1824-37). It is the second of the four series of publications containing the debates of Congress. It was preceded by the Annals of Congress and succeeded by the Congressional Globe.´(source: Library of Congress)

“The Globe, as it is usually called, contains the congressional debates of the 23rd through 42nd Congresses (1833-73). There are forty-six volumes in the series based on the table found in the Third Edition of Checklist of United States Public Documents 1789-1909, Volume 1B (pp. 1466-69).” Source: Library of Congress