The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-07-01

when they were first admitted to practice
in the Supreme Court of the United
States. Get the clerk to show 1t to you
he viii do so readily enough: and IL yoa
feel no yearning of the soul to break the
command. thou shalt not steal" there
is too little human nature left in yen for
this world-you belong to the better one
without delay! II is an ordinary-looking
blank book. about foot and a half long
by six inches wide; It's covers rusty with
years and its parchment-bound covers
eaten through by "the insidious tooth OF
time" The paper inside is rough and
unruled, of poorer quality than that now
used by corner grocers to wrap soap ana
cod fish In; its ink has faded and pink
blotters between the leaves have discol-
ored it in many places. But who would
not rather own it to-day than the new
est and finest gilt-edged triumph of the
modern bookmakers art? The Supreme
Court record is exactly one hundred and
ten years old; and besides the priceless
autographs it shows the rise and progress
of one of the greatest institutions in our
country. You note that in the first twen-
ty years of the Supreme Courts existence
IL had little work to do. During the first
year, not single admission 10 its bar
was recorded, and the next year only
two. Alexander Hamilton. one of the most
enough of the Supreme Court 10 apply
for entrance to it, till 1t had existed thlr-
ty-one years. Allen G. Thurman's name
is read among the few compare lively early
ones, on the thirty-ffth page; and after
that admissions begin to multiply amaz-
ingiy, and soon fill volumes instead OF
pages. Thus the Supreme Court work
sprung from absolutely nothing, Into the
busiest and best-paying practice in the
,trxr O1, Lon T,-.-
Harrison, and many others equally web
known, often receiving single fees that
run into tens, even hundreds of thousands
of dollars.
Most interesting of ALL so far as orig
inal papers are concerned are the file
rooms of Congress. The House of Rep
resentatives preserves the original docu-'
ments of all the papers connected with
its history from the very first-including
every bill that has ever been introduced
every petition that has been presented,
every message that any President has sent.
and the autograph report OF the cabinet
ministers, away back to the days when
Washington was President and Alexander
Hamilton managed the treasury! Imagine
what an exhauStless mine of history and
wealth is here. These countless papers,
each fully worth its weight in gold" fill
thousands of bound manuscript volumes.
The only man in the United States who
has any adequate idea of what is in them,
is the file clerk of the House. He has had
charge of them for many years, and has
brought them out of chaos into something
like order; but one human life Is not long
enough to become familiar with all these
millions of documents. They are now
classified as completely as can be, room
after room being walled with them. You
may climb story after story OF narrow
iron stairs surrounded by the dead bones
of past administrations, and finally, away
up under the dome of the great capitol
building. where the light comes in only
through a glass-covered hole in the roof;
and still the dry bones follow
you. Packed closely, on every
side, are ledger-like volumes, contain
ing the messages of earlier Presidents to
earlier Congresses-al1 the persons con-
cerned in them long since gone to glory
together. Strange. isn't it?-how the works
of mems brains. the paltry ink and paper
with which they set forth their Thoughts
viii endure for centuries after the hands
that wrote them have turned to dust! Take
any one of these books at random from its
dusty niche and you are sure to find some
thing well worth an antiquarian'S re-
search. In half an hour, cleaning hap
hazard, here and there, / found historical
data enough to furnish writing material
for year.
In the early days, not nearly so much
ceremony has observed in the writing of
state papers as now. Parchment was not
used, aud the rough, brown. unruled pa
per, of all shapes and sizes, resembled
such as the parcels of to-day are wrapped
in. If you ask for it, the file clerk will
know Just where among these old state
papers to put his hand on an autograph
letter which Martha Washington wrote 10
Adams, shortly after her husbands death,
and which Adams submitted to Congress.
II relates to the proposed removal of
Washington's remains from Mount Yer
non to the National Capital; and as you
read the trembling lines you can almost
see the lonely widow OF our first Presi-
dent, sitting in her little attic room. from
whose one window she could overlook her
husbands grave. with only her faithful
cat for company. You know she retired
to this room after her husbands death
and kept il until she died, through sum-
mer's heat and winters cold because its
window was the only one in the house
from which she could see the beloved
tomb. In this room she wrote the letter
which Is dated Dec. 81. ,1799-the same year
in which Washington went I'D higher"
The paper Is nearly square, originally yell
low, but faded after more than century
and slightly torn at the top AS every
body knows, the worthy widow Custis,
whom Gen. Washington married, was no
speller and her peculiar grammar was
never learned from any book; but this let
ter is so well spelled ana put together
that it is probable Tobias Lear, Washing
tons private secretary had a hand in it
that he corrected Martha's first draft and
she copied 1t afterwards. Here is verba-
ton copy of the letter which the file clerk
kindly permitted me to make for readers
of the Savannah News:
Mt Vernon, Dec. 81, 1799.--5ir: While
l feel with keencst anguish the late dis
pensation of divine Providence, i cannot
be insenslble to the mournful tributes of
respect and veneratfon which are paid to
the memory of my dear deceased husband
and as his best services and most anx-
ious wishes were always devoted to the
welfare and happiness of his countryside
know that they were fully appreciated
and gratefully remembered. affords no In
considerable consolation. Taught by the