Wisconsin Historical Collections, Volume XII (1892)

              a rare wisconsin book by theodore lee cole when beginning my study of the bibliography of amer ican statute laws some years ago my attention was attracted by the resolution passed by the wisconsin legis lature january 19 1838 directing " that the following entitled acts selected from those now in force in this terri tory be printed and published as an appendix to the pamphlet laws of the present session and giving the titles thereof a hundred and twenty-five in number.1 there being no appendix of any kind to the current volume of the laws of that session it occurred to me that possibly this publication had been made in some other form i carefully examined all those libraries public and private both within the state and elsewhere likely to contain it i also in quired in person or by letter of everyone likely to have or to know of such appendix but so far from finding it i could not find any one who had even heard of it in the meantime i had been searching the journals and laws of the legislature and discovered there so interesting a thread of legislative history in the matter of early official print ing and printers in wisconsin that i venture to give some account of it the second session of the legislative assembly of the ter ritory of wisconsin was held at burlington now in iowa from november 1837 to january 1838 and is known as the " winter session of 1837-38 on december 29 1837 a joint committee was appointed — messrs foley smith and sweet of the council and shoales quigley and chance of the house — to make a selection for publication of laws 1 acts of legis of wis winter session of 1837-38 burlington iowa 1838 p 329 reprint thereof 1867 p 529