Vols. 1-18 paged continuously.
Colored plates accompanied by guard sheets with descriptive letterpress; most of the portraits accompanied by illustrated guard sheets.
Prefatory note signed: James D. Richardson.
"The pages of the 'The messages and papers of the presidents' have been renumbered from page one to the end, and the division into volumes has been altered. The plan is required by the addition of new matter and the desirability of keeping the volumes as nearly uniform in size as possible."- v. 1, p. xiii.