The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-07-01
ODD PLACES IN WASHINGTON.
UNCLE SANS BIG COLLECTION OF
AUTOGRAPHS.

The Curious and Priceless Papers to
he Found in the Departments.
Letters From Martha Washington,
John Quincy Adams, Aaron Burr,
Alexander Hamilton and other
NotabIes of IL By-G0ne Century.
Bushels of Bibles and Confederate
Records LineOIn's Land-CIaim
= and Other CInims-TOns of DOcu-
ments Worth Their Weight In
GOId-Other Matters of Interest.
Washington. June "a great many Of
Uncle Samuers most interesting posses
sions are never seen or heard of by the
thousands of strangers who annually Wis
it his capital-nor indeed are they known
anything about by the average resident
of the District of Columbia. For example:
in the line of curious documents alone,
and old autograph papers describing the
inside history of every important event
that has occurred during the last hun
dred years-some of them priceless and all
growing more and more valuable as time
goes on-there are enough filed away in
the various departments of cur govern
ment to carpet any state in the Union, or
to stretch across-country In a straight
line from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The
war department has every telegram sent
cut from the White House during the
Mexican, the civil and the Spanish wars.
Looking over great book of these the
other day. 1 found some very interesting
reading Including characteristic messages
from Abraham Lincoln. in several of
which he mentions his son Tad" Gath
cred together in one room is the monu-
ment of a dead nation, or rather the
mournfu picture of a colossal failure
the Lost Cause for which some true pa
triots squandered their hearts blood-in
all the papers of the Confederate govern
ment, they were captured at Rich
mond. There are several of George Wash
ngton's diaries-to think that the Fa-
Their of his country was addicted to such
schoolgirl foolishness all written in an
extremely neat and careful hand, with
somewhat stilted phraseology, according
to the fashion of the time, but not always
grammatical, nor even correctly spelled!
There are Thomas Jeffersons almanacs,
too, dozens of them, all crowded with
quantity worded marginal notes, written
by himself II even the sin of covetous-
ness is excusable, it is right here, for ones
fingers fairly itch to appropriate one of
those almanacs or diaries There are let
ters, not few, which ought TO be con-
signed to the mer of eternal oblivion.
for. if publ shed they would indenbly
smirch the characters of some of our
popular heroes of long ago. and drag
them down from the high pedestals they
occupy in the hearts of their country
men.
The archives of the pension office are
particularly rich in curious mementoes.
There are claims for government land,
signed by A. Lincoln. Jefferson Davis,
Ulysses S. Gran. and John A Logan, all
for services in the Mexican war; together
with hosts Of others, pertaining to dates
ranging all the way from Revolutionary
days to '61-'65. on will find among the
unique collection a paper showing that
James CT. Blaine's great grandmother got
pension for the service of her husband
in 1872; and if of patriotic ancestry, you
may come across forgotten data concern
ing your own forbears. There are bush
els upon bushels of soldiers diaries. from
the revolution down, sent by their des-
cendants to prove the validity of pension
claims; and many family Bibles, which
have served the same purpose.
In the earlier records of the Supreme
Court you find the frequent signatures of
Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, Henry
Clay. Daniel Webster, Calhoun, Marshal,
fancy, Chase, and other great lawyers
of the past. Then there is the little book
in which all of them signed their names