The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1909-03-19

by special permission of Chief Justice
Fuller. The moulds were destroyed as
soon as the busts were made SO that
they could not be duplicated and these
are the only reproductions in cxis-
tcnce.
One of the most interesting exhibits
of the department of justice will con-
sst of original documents and photo
graphs in the celebrated Pcralta Rea
Wis case, in the United States court of
private claims, in 1895. The history
of this case reads like a romance, the
of an alleged grant from the king of
Spain of nearly l2500,000 acres in
Arizona, and the skillful creation by
the claimant Of an apparently perfect
chain of dumentary evidence as well
as the requisite ancestors and rec
| ords from Spain, have marked this
case as probably the greatest fraud
ever attempted against Il government
| in its own courts, and made it one
of the most formidable cases which the
icontest.
There will also be placed on exhib-
| ton Il collection of old and interesting
papers and records from the files of
the department of justice, among them
being the following:
| An acceptance by General Winfield
Scott of an invitation to dinner with
Attorney General Legare, in 1912; an
Autograph letter by John G. Whittier
a request for an opinion by the secre-
tary of state, with copy of summons
for the president to attend court
martial at Philadelphia, in 1878; call
for Il cabinet meeting by President
Monroe, in 1919; autograph letter
signed by Commodres Perry, Hull, De
catur and Porter in 1915; autograph
letter by John c. Calhoun, as secretary
of war, 1918; letters with autograph
signatures of John Quincy Adams
Daniel Wester, Edward Everett, Jo-
siah Quincy, Andrew Jackson, and
many others; sample of letter paper
used by the government as mourning
! for Lincoln; the commission of james
Nj. Buchanan as deputy postmaster at
Baltimore, 1916; payroll of the depart
mcnt of justice, 1865, showing tho
amount of income tax with the sigma
ture of Walt Whitman as 4 temporary
clerk at 200 per annum.
Among the new features will be Il
series of charts showing the organiza
ton of the Federal judiciary; wall
maps showing the judicial circuits OF
the United States and the places OF
holding court, also large charts giving
statistics of business transacted in the
United States courts during the ycal
1908.
There will also be an interesting eX.
hibit of oil portraits of attorneys gen
cral of the United States; engraved
portraits of the chief justices of tn,
United States, and a collection of pic
lures and objects illustrating the me-
thods of confinement, treatment ant
labor of United States prisoners, in
lcluding wooden keys made from broom
llanulcS anu saws maze from KNIVES
with which prisoners have effected
their escape also Il small steel SAT,
made by prisoners from steel eel
doors of the old military prison at Fort
Leavcmworth, Kan. This exhibit is
Railways interesting to the casual Wis
itor.
Among the interesting photograph,
IeXhibited will be photograph of the
original charter to the Massachusetts,
colony by King Charles !, in 1880 ant
a photograph of land patent procla
nation by King James in 1850.
These and many other items of in
terest will be features of the de
partment of justice exhibited at tn,
Alaska Yukon Pacific exposition al
Seattle, Wash, from June | to Oct
Is, 1909.