Twenty Years of Congress Volume I Part 45

The progress of the country, referred to so frequently in the text, is strikingly ill.u.s.trated and verified by the facts contained in the several appendices which follow.

The appendices include a variety of subjects, and they have all been selected with the view of showing the progress and development of the Nation in the different fields of enterprise and human labor.

The tabular statements as to the population and wealth of the country will be found especially accurate and valuable. The statistics relating to Education and the Public Schools, to Agriculture, to Railways, to Immigration, to the Army, to s.h.i.+pping, to the Coal and Iron Product, to National and State Banks, to the Circulation of Paper Money, to the price of Gold, and to the Public Debt, will be found full of interest.

Thanks are due and are cordially given to Mr. Joseph Nimmo, Jr., Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, and Mr. Charles W. Seaton, Superintendent of the Census, for valuable aid rendered in the preparation of the appendices.

For courtesies constantly extended, and for most intelligent and discriminating aid of various kinds, the sincerest acknowledgments are made to Mr. Ainsworth R. Spofford, the accomplished Librarian of Congress.