The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-13
WILLS OF PRESIDENTS
SIX OF THEM ON FILE IN WASH.
 INGTON.
They Reveal Interesting Side Lights on Character of Early Execu- tives-Washington's in
 a Glass Case.

Special to Brooklyn Eagle.
 Washington n.-Interesting eide lights on the characters of the early Presidents Of the United States are revealed by study of the wills made by those distin- guished individuals. The originals or cop ies of the last testaments of six of our Presidents are on file in the dingy rooms of the Recorder of Deeds of the District of Columbia. All the labor in- volved in searching the records to locate them is fully repaid by the revelations disclosed in perusing their musty pages.
 The original of the will of President James Monroe is on deposit with the To- cal register of wills. who is also the custodian of copies of the last testa- ments of Presidents Washington, Madi- son, John Quincy Adams, Jackson and Pierce. The copies are all duly certi- fled and were filed here in order to make good the titles to real estate described in them. Among the original wills de- posted with the local register are the famous declarations of the Polish pa- triot, Thaddeus Kosciusko. They are three in number. and there was litiga- ton for upward of forty years. the fight for the property involved being carried to the United States Supreme Court be- fore it was finally decided. One of the instruments was made in 179S at Abe marie, Virginia, and named Thomas Jeff ferson as the executor. The latter was charged to employ the whole of Koscius- kos estate in purchasing the freedom of negroes and in giving to them "an education in trades or otherwise. and in having them instructed for their new condition in the duties of morality whichs may make them good neighbors, good fathers or mothers, husbands or wives in their new duties as citizens. teaching them also to be defenders of their lber- ty and that of the country"
 Another will made in 1877 gave the bulk of his property to the daughters of Swiss family with whom he resided for fifteen years. The fight was to estab- fish rthe validity of this will.
 The last testament of James Monroe Is short instrument. written on cheap brown paper, which now shows the marks of time It covers but a single sheet of paper, which is pieced in a number of places to prevent it falling apart. The signature is that of a man apparently weak and faint fro ma long illness, or possibly approaching death It runs up hill at an acute angle, and while the word James is clear and distinct, the Monroe is scarcely legible. ending in an indefinite wave. the whole being badly smeared. President Monroe had com paratively. smal lestate to dispose of. and it did not require many words to be- Queath 1t. He made provision for an equal division of his estate among his daughters. charging his son-in-law. Sam uel l.. Gouverneur. with the preparation and publication of ''the works in which I am engaged" and giving to Gouver- neur one-third of the profits from the sale of the book for his trouble. One of the witnesses to this will was Finch Ringgold.
 By far the most interesting will of the early Presidents was that left by George
 Washington A splendid insight into the character of thee man may be gained
 by reading 1t, and any one doing so Is sure to be profoundly impressed by the pure and lofty sentiments which actuat- ed our first President not only in his active life but in his later years. It is remarkable document for two reasons
 First, because or the great detail. al- most wordy detail. with which he describ- ed every bequest and the manner of its bestowal ;and, secondly, because of the fine feelings and elevated thoughts of the testator which are reflected in every line of the will The original is now in a glass case at Fairfax Court House. Virginia. It is a voluminous instrument covering some twenty-four pages of man. uscript. It provides first that 'all my debts, of which there are but few, and none of magnitude" are to be paid. His whole estate, real and personal, was be- queathed to his dearly beloved wife, Martha Washington, with certain ex- captions. General Washington required that after the death of his wife all his servants should receive their freedom, and he gave the following reason for not freeing them at once. "To emancipate them during her life (his wifes) would, though earnestly wished by me, be at- tended with such insuperable difficulties on account of their intermixture by mar riages with the dover negroes as to ex- cite the most painful sensations. if not disagreeable consequences from the lat ter while both descriptions are in the oc- cupancy of the same proprietor"
 Washington gave immediate freedom to his body servent. William Calling him. self William Lee), and a life annuity of 80 monthly because of his "attachment to me and for his faithful services dur ing the Revolutionary war" He left a donation to the town of Alexandria in the shape of twenty shares in the Bank of Alexandria.
 A characteristically patriotic declara- tion was made by General Washington in connection with the custom of certain parents of those days of sending their boys to Europe to be educated. custom that worried Washington greatly.
 He protested against this practice of sending our boys abroad "even before their minds were formed, or they had i'm bibed adequate ideas of happiness of their own. contracting too frequently not only habits of dissipation and ex-