Prefatory Note to Last Edition

The original intention of the scope of the Work as carried out in the previous editions of the compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, contemplated closing with the administration of President Cleveland. While the compilation was in progress the events of the Spanish-American War induced the editor to enlarge the plan by the addition of those official papers that pertained to that period alone. That idea is still further enlarged in this edition. All the papers of both the McKinley and the Roosevelt administrations to date have been supplied in order that the proper perspective for the study of the incidents which have so powerfully affected the history of the United States during that time may be afforded, and in order that completeness may, as far as possible, be secured to a work that has proved so useful and has met with such deep appreciation. It has, of course, also been necessary to revise the Index and encyclopedic portion in points of census, new events, and statistics.

GEORGE RAYWOOD DEVITT

WASHINGTON, D. C.,

September 15, 1902

William McKinley

March 4, 1897, to September 14, 1901

Messages, Proclamations, Executive Orders, and Last Public Utterance to the People at Buffalo

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