Evening star., 1924-08-03
Capital Sidelights
NJ WILL KENNEDY.

nations and executive orders-never
| deteriorate into mere scraps OF pa
| per-" for they are carefully preserved
in the State Department and consti-
tute a very interesting collection.
Harry G. Dwight. q cultured gen.
tleman of early New England an
cestry, who served this Government
with distinction for some years In
the Near East and who is author of a
book on Persian Miniatures" re-
Gently succeeded the famous Govern
ment historian. GailIard Hunt. as
chief of this division of manuscripts.
Here are kept the original copies
of all the laws passed by Congress
from the very beginning of the Gov
ernment. Incidentally. the first Fed
eral statute was passed on June l.,
| 1888, and was to regulate the time
and manner of administering certain
oaths. There Is no ofacial record Of
the number of these Federal laws,
but that they reach a stupendous total
is indicated by the fact that the last
session of Congress passed $50 pub
lie laws, 81 public resolutions and 65
private acts.
While Congress is in session these
! original copies are kept in a special
safe in the State Department and at
| the end OF session they are bound
! and stored in steel cases in the SUBJ
basement Of the department.
| The early laws, ornately written by
hand on parchment, and bound in calf
skin. make very large volumes. They
1 1t -
/ the history of the country, for each
act must be signed by the Speaker
of the House, by the Vice President
or ether presiding officer in the SEN
ate and by the President.
| \ < i 4
! The treaties negotiated by the
United States Government with other
nations, numbering 6s3, make another
important historical collection which
the public "wots not Of" Uncle Sam
treasures the original document as
signed by the negotiators. which is
the real treaty. This Ii often q rather
informal and unsightly copy. because
they scratch out and interline, as they
go along. There is also kept what is
known as an exchange copy" or per-
|
| Frequently this Exchange copy" is
beautifully gotten up, engrossed on
parchment and ornately embeliished.
Some of the foreign governments go
into these rehnements much more ex-
! tensively than this country. So, some
of these official copies OF treaties are
| bound in morocco or velvet, and some
of the older ones are in special cabi-
nets Of intricate workmanship. Some
OF the seals Of foreign governments
affixed to these treaties are extremely
huge gold tassels. Some English seals
are five inches in diameter and in
cased in a special silver box to pre-
vent their being broken.
| There have been 1,7oS presidential
proclamations, every one OF which is
preserved in the State Department
archives. These include such histori-
cal documents as Lincoln's emancipa-
tion proclamation.
These proclamations are equivalent
to an act of Congress.
| There have also been Loss executive
| orders, which also are kept in the
manuscript division.
| X
| Hundreds of other interesting his
torical documents are found in these
archives. Formerly the original of
the Constitution of the United States
was kept there, but this was recently
moved to the Library Of Congress-.
where a special shrine was built, be-
cause the State Department did not
have the space or facilities of keeping
it where it could be readily seen by
k;o La
wished to see the corner stone of their
Government.
| There are still many manuscripts
connected with the drafting of the
| Constitution and all the papers rela-
| tive to the 19 amendments to the
Constitution under Mr.. Dwights Gus
tody.
The people of the United States do
not stop to realize that the President
takes no part in the mechanical work
of amending the Constitution. Con-
| gress drafts the proposal, which Is
signed by the Speaker of the House
and the President of the Senate. This
is then sent to the Secretary of State,
who submits it to the governors OF
the 4S States, who in turn lay it be-
fore the State Legislatures.
When these Legislatures have acted.
either approving the proposed amend
ment or rejecting it, notification Of
their action is transmitted to the Sec
retary of State When the Legisla-
lures Of three-fourths Of all the States
have acted favorably upon the pro.
posed amendment the Secretary or
State formally proclaims it as a valid
amendment to the Constitution.
The documents showing the results
in a presidential election are also
preserved in these archives.
The electors of the several States
meet and cast their votes. The re-
suits are transmitted to the Secre-
J tary of State, who lays them before
lCongress. The mechanics of electing
a President is subject which the
public seems to know little about,
even though it is the highest pfivi-
lege of their right of suffrage, and is
set forth in article > of the Constitu-
| tion.
| A large number of documents sub
sidiary to treaties are also In Mr..
Dwight's custody. For example, re-
garding the boundary between the
United States and Canada, which de-
pends chiefly on the Treaty Of Client,
after the War of 1912.
| Under that and other treaties boun-
dary commissions were set up to mark
off and exactly define boundaries. So
the collection Of manuscripts contains
the reports of boundary commissions,
maps and related papers.
| In the same way there have been
preserved the papers relating to the
purchase of Louisiana, Florida, Alas
ka and all papers relating to early
| boundaries in the South.
| One curious fact which Mr.. Dwight
recently discovered is that no one
knew what the exact western boun-
dary of Louisiana was. and the line