Valdez daily prospector., 1914-01-31
SPOT LIGHT IS ON
 HISTORIC FAIRFAX
Virginia In Fight to Regain
 Martha Washington Will
INSISTS MORGAN GIVE IT UP

Testament Cut From the Records of
 Fairfax County During Civil War and
 Discovered In Fathers Library Six
 Years Ago Is Prized Beyond Price In
 the Old Dominion.
 The stage is being set for bitter battle between the state of Virginia and J. Pierpont Morgan in Virginia's avowed intention of recovering "at all costs" the will of Martha Washington, which was stolen from the records of Fairfax county, Va, during the civil war; This historical document is in the possession of the New York inan- cier, who has declined to accede to the request of the state that he sur. render it.
 Representative Charles c. Carlin who represents the Fairfax district, has come forward to aid the state and county officials to recover the will.
 "rhe people of Virginia are aroused over this natter" said the congress- man recently. "rhe will is ours, and we are going to have it restored to where it belongs"
 Virginia will recover the will of Martha Washington at all costs" declared Crandall Mackey, common wealth attorney for Alexandria county.
 Until MT. Morgan persisted in his refusal to return the will to the ar- chives from which it was purloined the fight was one between him and the people of Fairfax county, to whom the document belongs, but now it has become a state wide question:"
 Will Lost For Fifty Years.
 The will of Martha Washington, wife of the first president of the Unit ed States, was cut from the records of Fairfax county while the war between the states was raging in that part of Virginia. Virginians believe that one of General McDowelps soldiers car ried off the Martha Washington will along with other records, but how it got into MT. Morgan's possession no one seems to be able to guess.
 For more than fifty years the people of Fairfax county have searched for the Martha Washington will, which they prized very highly as a relic. Not long ago some one who saw the will among MT. Morgan's collection notified a friend in Fairfax. and an effort was made to have the document returned to where Virginians say 1t rghtfuly and legally belongs.
 Mrs. John S. Barbour. regent of the Falls Church (Va1 chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolu- ton. acting for her organization, wrote and asked Mir. Morgan to return the will. which. she said, had been taken from the records of Fairfax county, Va."
 An unfavorable reply was received from Mr. Morgan's librarian.
 Futile Appeals to Elder Morgan.
 The report that the Washington will was in the Morgan collection first was heard six years ago. Several letters were sent to the elder Morgan, but he never replied to any of them. so it is said
 After his death the Fairfax people became interested in the will again. The Daughters of the American Revo- lution and the Falls Church chapter joined forces in an effort to recover the testament. When gentler means failed it was decided to, enlist the aid of the State
 The suit planned to recover the will is unique in that the state ofVirginia sues an individual before the supreme court of the United States. It is one of the few instances where state has sued citizen in the supreme court.
 Ferdinand D. Richardson. father of the present clerk of Fairfax county. was clerk of the county when the will was taken.
 Mrs. Washington's estate at the time the will was made was one of the largest in the south.