The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-10-26
Tor pc Library Division Of Manuscrr,s)

them all over to the government about
/ five years ago. In addition to this coll
lection. there were a large number
. of Jackson's letters and papers in the
hands OF his adopted sons widow
bought these manuscri.:. from her
about two years ago, that alto
gcther we have now u remarkably com
I plcte collection of the Jackson papers
I They number about 10000 documents
or items. They begin with .Tackson's
carly youth and run on down To his
death"
How about your collections of Van
Buren,. Tyler and Polk?
Van Buren, did not leave great
many papers" said Mr.. Hunt He was
4 Very cautious man and he destroyed
many OF his letters. Still we have {;
large collection which was presented
To the library about six years ago by
his descendants. We have very many
papers of James Is. Polk which the
government bought from his descend
ants. Polk was careful and methodi-
cal He saved letters and papers. and
we have altogether thirty or forty
thousands of his documents. Among
these is his diary. which we bought
/ from the Chicago Historical Society.
AS TO the Tyler papers. the most of
them are in the hands OF his descend
ants at Williamsburg. and have no
doubt but that they will in time come
to the library. Lyon G. Tyler. the
| president OF William and Mary Col
leee. has charge of them. sand he has
promised to give them to us"
What other collections of presiden-
! tial papers have YOU"
we have scattering papers Of Will
liam Henry Harrison, Zach Taylor and
4 Willard Fillmore. but we have no col
Elections of these presidents The Fill
more papers are in the custody of the
Buffalo Historical Society, and they
viii probably be sent here after a
while. They are not very important
but Fillmore himself was not impor-
tant. He was not nearly as strong as
Tyler. John Tyler was Il personality.
Fillmore was in many respects a nom
entity. AS TO the papers of Zachary
Taylor, after his death they remained
in the hands of his son on the old
Taylor plantation in Louisiana. Then
the house was burned down and all the
papers destroyed. The papers of Will
liam Henry Harrison were lost In the
same way at the time his house was
burned. and so there are collections OF
neither Taylor nor Harrison.
I'VE have the papers of Franklin
pierce. such as they are. They are not
many and they do not amount to much.
President Pierce was q charming man,
and do not think full justice has
been done him. BY the way. there is
an interesting story told about him
in connection with Bucnanan's inaug-
uraiion This comes from Mr.. Gam
BILE. who was boy at the time Young
Gamble and his father had gone to the
Inauguration and after the parade were
walking home. They had come about
half way from the Capitol when gen
4 tleman came up behind them and ask ed
I permission to walk along with them
They tourned around and discovered II
was Franklin Pierce going home or
foot from the Inauguration of his sue
anan. his papers are In the hands OF
the Pennsylvania Historical Society
and are now in Philadelphia. They
ought to he here"
In looking over the papers Of the
l Presidents. Mr.. Hunt showed me som'
! Interesting letters i papers o.
Andrew Jackson relating to his duel:
Z and as 10 how he raced horses. There
I is one memorandum made by Andrew
jackson as boy. which gives full
! details of how 10 feed a cock before
1 you fight it." This says that yoi
4 should give the chicken some picked
! beef cut fine. three times day. ant
! let him have sweet milk instead o.
water to drink. Give him dry Indian
corn and little white bread soaked
in sweet milk. Feed him much n:
he can eat for eight days. and he VIII
J then he ready to fight" l saw also
receipts signed by Jackson showing
that he was a good churchgoer while
he was President He rented pews II
4 three different churches and probably
took the whole family with him. Mr.
Hunt tells me. however that Andrew
4 Jackson did not stop racing horse!
1 when he became President He merely
I raced them under another name. The
| last thing he did as President wa:
to make n bet about Van Burens cleo
q ton. He. never composed single
4 State paper that went out under hi
q owr name. Such things were writer
a for him by Edward Livingston, Amo.
Kendall. James *. Polk and others
They wrote more strongly than the,
would have written for themselves