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LETTER OF SUBMITTAL.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, Washington, D. C., May 13, 1904.

To the Congress of the United States:

In accordance with the act of incorporation of the American Historical Association, approved January 4, 1889, I have the honor to submit to Congress the annual report of that Association for the year 1903.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ACT OF INCORPORATION.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Andrew D. White, of Ithaca, in the State of New York; George Bancroft, of Washington, in the District of Columbia; Justin Winsor, of Cambridge, in the State of Massachusetts; William F. Poole, of Chicago, in the State of Illinois; Herbert B. Adams, of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland; Clarence W. Bowen, of Brooklyn, in the State of New York; their associates and successors, are hereby created, in the District of Columbia, a body corporate and politic, by the name of the American Historical Association, for the promotion of historical studies, the collection and preservation of historical manuscripts, and for kindred purposes in the interest of American history and of history in America. Said Association is authorized to hold real and personal estate in the District of Columbia so far only as may be necessary to its lawful ends to an amount not exceeding five hundred thousand dollars, to adopt a constitution, and to make by-laws not inconsistent with law. Said Association shall have its principal office at Washington, in the District of Columbia, and may hold its annual meetings in such places as the said incorporators shall determine. Said Association shall report annually to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution concerning its proceedings and the condition of historical study in America. Said Secretary shall communicate to Congress the whole of such reports, or such portions thereof as he shall see fit. The Regents of the Smithsonian Institution are authorized to permit said Association to deposit its collections, manuscripts, books, pamphlets, and other material for history in the Smithsonian Institution or in the National Museum, at their discretion, upon such conditions and under such rules as they shall prescribe.

[Approved, January 4, 1889.]

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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION,

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF THE ASSOCIATION,

Washington, D. C., May 13, 1904.

SIR: In accordance with the act of incorporation of the American Historical Association I have the honor to transmit herewith a general report of the proceedings of the nineteenth annual meeting of the Association, held at New Orleans December 29, 30, and 31, 1903. Several of the papers read and discussed at that meeting are recommended for publication in this report, together with selections by the Historical Manuscripts Commission from the correspondence of the French ministers to the United States, 1791-1797, the Justin Winsor. prize essay on the American Colonial Charter, a paper by Gen. A. W. Greely on Public Documents of the First Fourteen Congresses, and a valuable report by the Public Archives Commission, showing the condition and contents of the archives of several of the States.