CURRENT TOPICS. TO OUR CONTRIBUTORS! WRITE on one side of paper only, letter size preferred, and take special care that PROPER names are written distinctly. As our space is limited make articles brief. All contributions appear as promptly as possible. A careful observance of above is requested. SAVANNAH, November 5, 1896. To the State Regent: You will, of course, recall the fact that on the programme of the last Congress the " 'Reports of the State Regents" were announced for the evening session. After a hard day's work, and with many social obligations to meet, the members, as a general thing, do not find it obligatory or convenient to attend the night meeting of Congress. The result was that the reports that were offered were practically delivered to empty benches, in many cases the Regents returned home without having offered their reports at all. At the first Board meeting immediately following the adjournment of Congress, I offered a resolution, which was carried, to the effect that the reports of the State Regents shall immediately follow those of the national officers. This much seems due the importance of the office and the dignity of the State. The object of my addressing you to-day is to propose that the State Regents meet twenty-four hours prior to the convening of Congress in order to discuss State work and needs, and by interchange of thought and purpose establish, if possible, a plan of concerted action that would enlarge the Regent's field of usefulness, and give added strength and dignity to the office. By this means we will also avoid the charge now often brought against giving time and prominence to these reports of State Regents that they are too long, too full of unnecessary detail and not suggestive and courageous enough. With cordial salutations to my colleagues in office, I am very sincerely, E. B. C. MORGAN, State Regent of Georgia. MRS. MARY S. LOCKWOOD, Editor: Dear Madam: Can you give me with any positiveness for whom George Washington cast his vote in 1796, when John Adams, Federalist, received seventy-one electoral votes and Thomas Jefferson sixty-nine as anti-Federalist, so by the constitutional provision regarding elections, Adams was declared president and Jefferson vice-president, sixteen States voting at the time. There has been so much argument pro and con with which party Washington gave his vote, I would take it as a great piece of information, as I doubt not all the readers of the AMERICAN MONTHLY MAGAZINE would do likewise. (Signed) MARGARET A. D. TOWNSLEY. It is a well-known fact that George Washington was a Federalist. When Genet, the French minister, arrived in this country he took advantage of his popularity and began to abuse his authority and fitted out privateers to prey on the commerce of Great Britain and planned expeditions against Louisiana. The President had issued a proclamation of neutrality yet Genet demanded an alliance with the Government. Washington and his cabinet firmly refused, the minister threatening to appeal to the people. It is enough to say that he was encouraged and sustained by the anti-Federalist party. Washington stood unmoved, and declaring the course of the French minister an insult to the sovereignty of the United States demanded his recall. France heeded the demand. It is not to be imagined Washington voted an anti-Federal ticket. His correspondence will very soon set you right if you will read it. Argument seems hardly necessary but plenty of history can be furnished to establish Washington's Federalism. THE Dolly Madison Chapter stands first in its contributions to the Continental Hall. THE Brownson Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, have erected a monument in memory of Mary Brownson, first wife of Ethan Allen, in the old churchyard at Arlington, Vermont. The Children's Society, "Ethan Allen," Children of the American Revolution, have also erected one in memory of his children, Joseph and Mary, in the same churchyard, Arlington, Vermont. THE usual reduction will be made in railroad fares to the Congress this year. Full particulars in February number. Circulars relating to this will be ready early in January. No THERE is being published by authority of Congress messages and papers of the Presidents. It was resolved by joint resolution also that Hon. James D. Richardson, of Tennessee, be authorized and requested to take charge of the work, and prepare, compile and edit the same. In compliance with the authorization two volumes have already been published. more valuable contributions could be made to the public literature of our Republic. In his prefatory note Mr. Richardson says: "In executing the commission with which I have been charged I have sought to bring together in the several volumes of the series all the Presidential proclamations, addresses, messages and communications to Congress excepting those nominating persons to office and those which simply transmit treaties, and reports of heads of departments which contain not recommendations from the Executive." Mr. Richardson has also incorporated in the first volume authentic copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution of the United States, together with steel engravings of the Capitol, the Executive Mansion, and the historical painting of the signing of the Declaration of IndependSteel portraits of the Presidents are to be inserted in their appropriate places. The two volumes before us show a master hand in compilation, and Congress and the country are to be congratulated that these volumes are being so ably edited. ence. OUR LIBRARY. THIS month I want to beg for some magazine numbers that are needed to complete files. Of our own AMERICAN MONTHLY the National Society, Editor, and Business Manager combined, have only one complete file, and a second one is certainly needed. For this purpose Vol. I, No. 1, and Vol. II, No. 2, are greatly desired, as they are the only ones still required for this second set. Of the Adams Magazine we much need the number for April, 1891, and of the Spirit of '76, Vol. I, No. 4, and Vol. II, No. 3. Also Our Country for April and May, 1896. We possess of the defunct Colonial Magazine the numbers for September, October, and November, 1895. If, as was said, only four were published, the August issue will complete that set. Since the list of our periodicals was given in this Magazine for June last, there have been added the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, beginning with January, 1892, and the Pennsylvania Magazine of History, previous to and including 1894. Cannot Massachusetts and Pennsylvania supply the lacking years? Of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record we have Vol. XXVII (1896), Nos. I and 3 of Vol. XXVI,, and No. 4 of Vol. XXV. No comment is needed on what New York can do here. We have a set of William and Mary College Quarterly, but if some member of the Virginia Historical Society will send us its magazine, it will be a material addition to the records of that State. This appeal is made in the hope that each reader of the Magazine will be able to send some response, as it is so difficult, after lapse of time, to supply the fleeting issues of periodicals. As a final hint, it should be added that we do not have Mrs. Lamb's Magazine of American History. ANITA NEWCOMB MCGEE, M. D., |