From its inception, the United States Senate has maintained a record of its proceedings in executive session. Known as the Senate Executive Journals, these publications capture the minutes of floor action on military events, judicial appointments, foreign affairs and other important issues, providing an essential record of American congressional and political history over nearly 200 years. Readex’s comprehensive digital edition brings these valuable historical documents online in a fully searchable collection.

Senate Executive Journals, 1789-1980 features the deliberations of American Senators on a wide variety of events, issues, organizations and people, with a strong focus on international treaties and nominations across military, judicial and executive branches. Ideal for students and scholars of U.S. history, political science and foreign policy, this extensive collection illuminates key moments in American history as they occurred and influential government decisions as they were made. It also enables researchers to track the careers of military and naval senior officers, bureaucrats and others in the federal sphere.

A variety of historically significant topics
When the first Senate Executive Journals were published in 1828, only 50 copies were printed. These rare records of early U.S. history provide insight into treaties with Native American nations, as well as Western territories, Spanish-American relations, the Monroe Doctrine, the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark’s expedition and much more. Later proceedings continue to cover the Senate’s exercise of its powers of advice and consent as mandated by the U.S. Constitution.

An essential addition to any American history collection
Readex publishes many widely-used American history collections of primary source research materials, including Early American Imprints (Evans and Shaw-Shoemaker), Early American Newspapers, and the U.S. Congressional Serial Set. Senate Executive Journals can be easily cross-searched with these and related collections using Readex AllSearch.