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GEORGE W. CHILDS, 628 & 630 CHESTNUT ST.
LONDON: N. TRÜBNER & CO., 60 PATERNOSTER ROW.
PARIS: HECTOR BOSSANGE.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: A. ROMAN & CO.

1864.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by

GEORGE W. CHILDS,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

ELECTROTYPED BY L. JOHNSON & CO.
PHILADELPHIA.

O. SHERMAN & SON, PRINTERS.

LENCX LIBRARY

NEWYORK

PREFACE.

As a companion-book of reference for facts, statistics, and other data, in constant demand, the National Almanac for 1863 took a long stride in advance of any preceding work of the same general description. It therefore proved to be a most acceptable and popular book, the sales amounting to fifteen thousand copies. But just as that volume surpassed its predecessors of the same type, as a source of popular information, the present volume is believed to be in advance of the first. It has been the subject of more labor and more care; its scope is much broader, and its statistics, to a very large extent, are much better and fresher. It is, therefore, anticipated with confidence that it will meet with a still more favorable reception by the public.

As examples of the freshness and value of the matter of this volume, the reader should turn to the tables, now first published, showing the operations of our Internal Revenue system; or to the pages exhibiting the condition of our Navy, and its captures during the war; or to the full and recent presentations of the affairs of the great Bureaus of the Interior Department. Referring to the first of these instances, the reader will find copious tables, showing the results of our system of Internal Taxation, still so new to the present generation of Americans. They exhibit in detail the amount of Internal Revenue paid during the last fiscal year by every article and class of articles subject to duty; they also show the amount contributed to the national Treasury by classes of individuals, as Bankers, Brokers, Doctors, Lawyers, Brewers, Distillers, Dealers, Peddlers, etc.; they exhibit, further, the proportions of taxes paid by the great interests of the country, Manufactures, Agriculture, Railroads, Banks, etc.; and, still further, the proportions paid by the several States, and by the great geographical and political divisions of the country. The tables on these subjects are not only important and valuable to all citizens, from the tax-payer to the law-maker, but they are exceedingly curious and instructive in their relation to the resources of the United States. They are, moreover, so recent that, at the date when this is written, they have never been made public in any form, not even for the purposes of the Government.

With regard to the second instance, turn for proof to the statements exhibiting the name, the description, the tonnage, the guns, and the whereabouts, of each of the ships of our magnificent Navy; the distribution of the fleet actively cruising; the condition of the vessels in course of construction; what the Navy is doing, and what it has done, in the way of captures. Pursuing the examination to the third instance, let the reader examine the details under the head of the "Interior Department;" the information concerning our rich inheritance of public lands; the progress of American genius, as shown in the tables concerning the Patent Office; the facts concerning the important and growing subject of Pensions; the interesting tables giving the numbers and location of the Indian tribes; and the valuable tables showing the nativities of the free population of the United States.

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