Documents in the Statutes At Large

Public Laws and Resolutions

Casual users may be most familiar with the Public Laws (or "Acts") found in the Statutes. This is a chronological cataloguing of all Public Laws ever passed by Congress, complete from the 1st Congress in 1789 through the most recently concluded session of Congress.

Private Laws and Resolutions

Less familiar may be the Private Laws passed by Congress, quite numerous during certain periods in the past, but less so today. They did not appear in the Statutes until Volume 6, where Little and Brown collected all Private Acts from the first 28 Congresses.

Concurrent Resolutions

Concurrent Resolutions first appear in Volume 28, during the 53rd Congress, 1885 (28 Stat. 5).

Presidential Proclamations

These are announcements now submitted by the President for publication in the Federal Register. At times in the past, the Statutes occasionally included other Presidential Documents, such as Executive Orders, Executive Agreements, and Recommendations of the President, but this is not the practice today.

Reorganization Plans

These are included for the years when they were in use, beginning with Volume 60 in 1946 through Volume 93 in 1979.

Indian Treaties

In Volume 7, Little and Brown collected the "Treaties Between the United States and the Indian Tribes," 1778-1842. Subsequent volumes, up to Volume 18, included such treaties as they occurred. New treaties with the Indian Tribes were prohibited by Section 2079 of the Revised Statutes of 1878 (18 Stat. 364).

Foreign Treaties

In Volume 8, Little and Brown collected the "Treaties Between the United States of America and Foreign Nations," 1776-1845. Later treaties were published in the Statutes as they occurred until 1950. These treaties are typically presented in English, in the language of the treaty partner, and at times, in French, as the diplomatic lingua franca of the day.

Declaration of Independence, Constitution, etc.

Volumes 1, 18 and 44 all contain the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, The Constitution of the United States, and Amendments to the Constitution.

Revised Statutes

Volume 18 contains the Revised Statutes of 1878, one of the early attempts at "subject compilation," and a forerunner of today's United States Code. Volume 44 contains the Revised Statutes of 1925.

Lists

Each Volume contains lists of the documents, as for example, a "List of the Public Acts and Resolutions in this Volume."

Indexes

Starting with Volume 5, each Volume contains a Subject Index compiled by its editors. Volume 65 (82nd Congress, 1951) introduced an Individual Index, and Volume 105 (102nd Congress, 1991) introduced a Popular Name Index.