Government Documents
One of the most important resources for any historian of American political history are the documents produced by the government.
FRUS
For foreign relations and policy there is a series produced by the Office of the Historian of the State Department called the Foreign Relations of the United States or simply FRUS. FRUS is a collection of documents relating to the foreign policy of presidential administrations dating back to 1861. They are edited by the researchers in the Office of the Historian.
Contemporary volumes have been published by the Department of State. The Truman Administration through to the Ford Administration can be found at their website.
Older volumes were more difficult to come by for foreign scholars and those without access to a large library. Again, the advent of the internet comes to the rescue. The University of Wisconsin began making the documents digital in 2001, and currently have 365 volumes spanning 100 years of FRUS' publications.
FRUS at the University of Wisconsin
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
Beyond the editions of FRUS, resources such as the Congressional Record are available. The Congressional Record is a vast official dictation of the events in both houses of Congress. It is currently recorded daily and published on the Government Printing Office's website. This database contains the Congressional Record from 1994 to the present day.
Just like FRUS, the Congressional Record prior to the most contemporary period, is more difficult to find online. Recourse to it is limited to Federal Depositories, which are abundant in the United States, but available only by library loan for foreign scholars. Unlike FRUS, the Congressional Record is much more vast and annual volumes can take up tens of thousands of pages with references to anything from pensions to warfare. At present (to my knowledge) there is no effort to provide an internet compilation of this important resource. This site will publish portions of the Record (in PDF format illustrating the original format) that relate to Anti-Imperialism and Liberty during the 1898-1904 period.
Selected Images of the Congressional Record, 1898-1904.
COMING SOON!!!
PUBLIC PAPERS OF THE PRESIDENT
The Papers of the Presidents are equally of value. These papers are the government offical publishing of the President's speeches, personal writings, public statements, and the State of the Union speech. They are currently published by the Office of the Federal Register. Like other government documents the most contemporary volumes (George H. W. Bush, William Jefferson Clinton, and George W. Bush) can be found online at the Government Printing Office's website.
The Papers of the Presdient are much more conscise than the Congressional Record, and most official publication sections of both foreign and U.S. library's have a copy available. Also, great strides have been taken in creating digital versions of these papers. Two websites have done an excellent job in publishing these. Perhaps the better of the two is the University of California, Santa Barbara's American Presidency Project which allows users to search by keyword, month and year through every volume from Washington to Bush. Project Gutenberg is the other site that compiled the papers by president and although it does not allow surfers to search by year, it does allow a full search by exact words. This is handy if you are look for specific references to liberty, or another such abstract.
UCal Santa Barbara's Papers of the President
Michael Cullinane, Liberty and Anti-Imperialism, June 29, 2007.
