The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-07-29
TFrom. the Washington Start

btgO11A t4lG pOSSlDllilg "a ICSlO4 dllOL-
The names of the signers of this great
charter of American liberties are no
longer legible. After a hundred and
eighteen years of careless guardianship,
in various notwithstanding the greater
portion Of which period it was thought
lessly exposed TO the destroying influ-
ences of light and air and needless
handling-now, when the irreparable
havoc is done and the precious archive
has become hardly more than a blank
and wrinkled sheet Of parchment. solicit
tude for its preservation has begun to
be felt and at last it is cared for as it
should have been cared for years ago.
1t was my privilege, some time since
a privilege then accorded to few, and
now, under the strictest prohibition
accorded to nOne-to see and touch this
precious document. It is kept locked
up in steel safe in the library of the
department of state. 1t is spread out
fat in a mahogany portfolio, made to
slide in and out of the safe, and over
1t is a sheet of thick paper and plate
of glass. 1t is now never exposed to
the light and is as little exposed to the
air as is possible without placing it in
a. vessel from which the atmosphere
has beer exhausted.
THE FAMOUS DOCUMENT.
The document is a single sheet of
parchment, Is inches long and 50 inches
wide, and bears no scrolls ordecorations
such as are seen upon many of the
copies that are SO common. The body
of the writing having been evenly and
clearly written when the instrument
was engrossed, has faded evenly, but it
can hardly be made out, while the sig
natures. which were written, perhaps,
with a different ink and another pen,
are faded beyond recognition, many of
them being wholly gone and others
partly so. The heavy stroke Of the pen
in the ]. of John Hancock's autograph
is still visivle, but that is the only line
that is distinct.
The history of the origin of this
great state paper is well known to
most Americans, but is always inter-
esting. The story of the varied and
disastrous fortunes of the document
itself during the past 11S years is less
known, and is here told:
On the 26th of June, ITS, a commit
tee, of which Thomas Jefferson was
chairman, was appointed by the Con-
finental Congress, then sitting at Phil
adelphia, to draft a declaration setting
forth the reasons why the thirteen coll
onies should become independent Of
England. Jefferson was requested by
Inc OAnHI H3ED1O6LS Oh lIe committee u
prepare the draft, and his draft, when
presented, was at once approved by a
majority of the committee. a few YER
bal alterations only being suggested
On July ., a copy of this draft was laid
before Congress, and, after a not de-
bate Of three days, few sentences
were stricken out, and the Declaration
was then adopted. 1t was at once en-
tered upon the journal of the Congress;
but the engrossed copy, on parchment,
was not prepared and signed until
August 9
During the first twenty-four years Of
its existence the Declaration was pre-
served among the archives of the gov
eminent at Philadelphia, and during
ali or a part of that time it was I'M
doubtediy rolled up, as it shows. by
the cracks in the parchment, that it
must have been rolled for q long per-
tod and it is known that subsequent
to that time it was hung up exposed to
public gaze.
BROUGHT TO WASHINGTON.
When, in the year 1900 the national
government was transferred to Wash
ington, the Declaration was carried
there and deposited in the department
of state, where it remained for forty
one years In the year 1S41, a substan-
tial building having been erected for
the use Of the United States patent Of
AlCS- WHICH IlQ lOIDl6IAN Deen III lnS
state department ana the state de-
p9rtment being in a brick building, not
f1re-proof, Daniel Webster, secretary Of
state, addressed a letter to Henry L.
Ellsworth, the commissioner of pat
ents, and requested him to receive the
Declaration and other valuable docu
ments into his custody for their safe
keeping. This request was complied
with, and for the next thirty-five years
the patent Office retained charge of the
precious paper. but it was while there
that it suffered its greatest injury. II
vas hung up, exposed to public view,
behind the glass in one end of a case
of patent office models At certain
hours Of the day the sun shone direct
~ upon ii, and, of necessity, it gradu-
ally faded 1t is amazing almost be-
yon2 the power of belief that of the
dozen commissioners of patents who
had the custody of this document dur
ing those thirty-five years, not one of
them saw that it was being ruined and
no one of them had the forethought to
take it out Of the sunlight and put it
away in darkness. In England, such
treatment of any important state pa
per is heard Of Magma Charta, the
death warrant Of Queen Mary, and
other archives in Lincoln cathedral
and the British Museum four or five
times as old as our Declaration of In
dependence, are still kept in a condi-
ton of perfect preservation.
AN EFFORT TO RESTORE.
IT the year 1875 Congress woke up to
the outrage that was being perpetra-
ted, and appointed a commission con-
sisting Of the secretary of the interior.
the secretary of the Smithsonian insti-
tuition. Professor Joseph Henry and
y -Ainsworth Il. Spofford the librarian of
Congress, ito have resort to such means
as will most effectually restore the
writing Of the original manuscript of
the Declaration of Independence, with
the signatures appended thereto" Ex-
perts were consulted by this commits
sion, and finally, upon the suggestion of
Professor Henry, the matter was re-
ferred to the National Academy of Sci
ences 1t having become known that
the public became interested IN the eff
fort made for its restoration, and the
public press urged the importance of
prompt action, but years went by and
nothing was done The National Acad-
envy Of Sciences reported to the commits
sion that portion OF the writing had alb
solutely disappeared. and that the rest
was so badly faded hiatt restoration was
impossible. Meanwhile, in 1876, Mr.
George w. Childs, Of Philadelphia, and
Mr.. Frank M. Fitting, in charge Of the
historical department OF The Centennial
exposition, requested the government TO
send the document to the exposition TO
be placed on exhibition. The secretary
Of the interior Hon. Zachary Chandler,
addressed Letter to President Grant
setting forth the reasons why this re-
quest ought not to be complied with.
but the request was granted, and on its
hundredth birthday, the great charter,
faded and scarcely legible, returned to