News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1910-06-29
SAVING the =
DECLARATION.

| AZ COMPARATIVELY few of the
G present generation know how
| &nJ near to being lost was once
| the most precious of our. ma.
| tionoI documents. the Declaration of
ihuependence 1t was during the war
Vi iol2. The Declaration of lndepend-
ehce hung for many years in frame
IN Tie state department in the room
theh occupied by stephen Pleasonton,
| VINO moved to Washington in 1900
Win the government. Mr.. Monroe,
Wnen he was elected president; created
new Office, which was conferred
upon Mr.. Pleasonton, that of chief
OF the lighthouse establishment, to
winch was added the auditing of the
ministerial and consular accounts. This
ONCE was retained by Mr.. Pleasonton
under all the succeeding administra-
lions until his death, which occurred
in 1865.
AIr. Beaseley. cOmmissary of prison
efs Of war in London, 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
ana 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.
Mr.. Pleasonton purchased some
coarse linen and had it 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
be thought they were unnecessarily
alarming themselves, as he did not
think the British were serious in their
Intentions of coming to Washington.
Fortunately Mr.. Pleasonton was of a
different opinion.
For the papers which Mr.. Pleasonton
had placed in the coarse linen bags
comprised the secret journals of con-
gress, then not published; the CORE
spondence of General Washington, his
commission resigned at the close of
eral Greene and other officers of the
Revolution, as well as laws, treaties
and correspondence of the department
of state from the adoption of the con-
Stitution down to that time.
Mr.. Pleasonton had the bags carted
to gristmill, which he. selected as a
depository, two miles above
Georgetown.
The last load had left and Mr.. Pleas
Onton was just, quitting Che vacant
rooms when, turning back suddenly to
see whether anything had been left
behind, to his CONSERVATION he saw
The Declaration of Independence, which
lad been overlooked, still hanging
lpon the wall. He hastily cut it out
If the frame and carried it away with
he other papers.
He then began to be uneasy about
he place he had chosen, for if the
British took Washington, which he
irmly believed they would do, and
cry soon at that, they would in all
detach a force to destroy
| foundry for the making of cannon
md shot in the neighborhood and, of
curse. would consider a gristmill too
a thing to be left standing
n a country they meant to subdue.
Ir. Pleasonton therefore visited some
# the Virginia farmhouses, whose
'wners were only too willing to lend
lin wagons in which to convey the
documents to Leesburg, distance of
hirty-five miles. There they were de- /
,osited in an empty house.
Worn out with his labors, Mr.. Pleas
nton states in letter, he retired early
o bed that night and slept soundly.
Sext morning he was informed by the |
people of the little tavern where he
lad stayed that evening that they had
cen during the night, the same being |
he Oath of August, large fire in the
Erection of Washington, which proved
o be the light from the public build |
ngs, which the enemy had set on fire |
nd burned to the ground.
When he returned to Washington on |
he Goth he found the public buildings |
I'LL burning and learned that the Brit |
sh army had evacuated the city the
receding evening.