The Press., 1910-07-06
SAVING THE DECL LARATION.

OM EL1 lew OA NhC
 present. generation know how near to being- lost was once
 <. the most precious of our na- Nonai documents. the Declaration of Independence It was during the war of 1912. The Declaration of Independ- ence hung for many years in a frame In the state department in the room then occupied by stephen Pleasonton,' who moved to Washington in 1900 with the government. Mr. Monroe, when he was elected president, created ! a new office, which was conferred upon MT. Pleasonton, that of chief of the lighthouse establishment, to 1 which was added the auditing of the ministerial and consular accounts. This office was retained by MT. Pleasonton under all the succeeding administra- lions until his death. which occurred In 1855. | MT. Beaseley. commissary of prison CTS of war in LondonT forwarded to the state department some London news papers stating that. the English fleets and transports were receiving troops at Bordeaux France. with the inten- ton of operating against Washington and Baltimore Soon after it was learned that the British fleet was in the Chesapeake bay and that it was ascending the Patuxent. The officials and citizens of the little Capital City were hourly expecting an attack.
 MT. Pleasonton purchased some coarse linen and had 1t made into bags of suitable size, in which he, assisted by the others of the office. placed the books and other papers.
 While engaged in this work General Armstrong, then secretary of war, passing the state. department on his way to his own office, remarked that he thought they were unnecessarily alarming themselves. as he did not think the British were serious in their Intentions of coming to Washington. Fortunately Mir Pleasonton was of a different opinion.
 For the papers which Mir. Pleasonton
 had placed in the coarse linen bags comprised athe secret Journals Of con
 gress, then not published; the core
 spondence of General Washington. his
 commission, resigned at the close of
 the war; the correspondence of Gen.
 eral Greene and other officers of the
 Revolution, as we'll as laws. treaties
 and correspondence of the department
 of state from the adoption of the con
 stitution down to that time.
 MT. PleasontOn had the bags carteG
 to a gristmil. which he selected as
 suitable depository, two miles above
 Georgetown. ;A
 The last load had left. and Mir. Pleas
 onton was just quitting the vacant
 rooms when, turning back suddenly U
 see whether anything had been lef
 behind, to his .constetuatien he saw
 the Declaration of Independence, whicf
 had been overlooked, still hanging
 upon the wall He hastily cut it ou of the frame and carried 1t away witt : the other papers. s
 . He then began to be uneasy abou , the place he had chosen. for if th' British took Washington, which h. firmly believed they would do, ant very soon at that, they would in al } probability detach a force to destro! } foundry for the making of cannon ! and shot in the neighboFhood and, o course, would consider gristmill to- valuable thing to be left stand1ni ] in a country they meant to subdue [ MT. Pleasonton therefore visited som ? of the Virginia farmhouses. who's I owners were only too willing 10 len, him wagons in which to convey tn 2 l'documents to Leesburg, distance ] thirty-five miles. There they were de 7 posted in an empty house. &t 5 Worn out with his labors. MT. Pleas . onton states in a letter, he retired earl 7 to bed that night and slept soundly a Next morning he was informed by tn t people of the little tavern where h F had stayed that evening that; they ha F seen during the night. the. same. bein 7 the 24th of August. a large. fire in tn n1 direction of Washington. which prove q to be the light from the public builC ? ings, which the enemy had set on nr q and burned to the ground.
 q When he returned to Washington o i the 26th he found the public building !. still burning and learned that the Bri n ish army had evacuated the city th
 preceding evening.