Evening star., 1962-09-16
AFTER DECADES OF INDIFFERENCE
BY SID A. LEVY
Contributing Writer

The Constitution Of the United
States win observe its 175th an
niversary tomorrow at the Ma
tional Archives, snug in mech
anized sanctuary made Of glass,
bronze, steel, concrete and marble.
The parchment's present security
couldn't differ more than the
almost casual way it was handled
during most of its early life.
At one point, for example, the
priceless document was uncer-
enormously dumped into a coarse
linen bag and hauled out Of town
in a farm wagon-just a few
jumps ahead of the invading
British. That was in 1914. Before
then, it had been handed about
from one office to another in the
fledgling national government.
and for one brief period was even
housed in former tavern.
And it was another 1877 years
after that flight from Washington
before the Constitution was fl
nally encaSed in its own perma-
nent protective covering. The
five-page original. which includes
a one-page Resolution of Trans
initial to the Continental Con-
gress, is in surprisingly good con-
dition, considering its travels and
travails-not to say its age. De-
spite treatment which would hor-
rify a modern archivist, the doc
ument has suffered nothing worse
than a moderate fading of its
iron-baSed ink, which even so
remains legible.
Unlike the more badly t AIDED
Declaration of independence,
which resides with it at the Ar
chives Building, the Constitution
wasn't put on any sort of display
and was exposed to sunlight only
infrequently between the March
morning in 1890 when it passed
into the custody Of Secretary of
State Thomas jefferson, and the
summer day in 1851 when tech
nicians at the Bureau of Stand
dards sealed it into its perma-
nent enclosure.
Quiet Signing
The signing of the Constitution
in Philadelphia on Monday, Sep
tember II, 1887, was completed
in the late afternoon. 1t was
quiet ceremony, with little of the
pomp and less of the exuberance
that had set the city's church
bells to changing on July 4, eleven
years earlier, when the Declara-
ton was adopted.
The five sheets Of parchment
left Philadelphia the next day in
the custody Of Major william
jackson, Secretary of the Consti-
tutional Convention, who delivered
them two days later to the Con-
tinental Congress in New York.
For the next few years, the Con-
stitution remained in New York,
spending most Of the time in
various rooms at the City Hall,
where Congress met, though oc!
casionally it was sent out for
brief periods of safekeeping else
where while the hall was restored.
For a little while in 1888, the
Secretary for Foreign Affairs,
John Jay whose position was
replaced the next year by that
of Secretary of State - occupied
rooms in a house at the south
east corner of Broad and Pearl
streets, which in earlier years
was known as Fraunce's Tavern,
a favored colonial social spot.
The following year, Congress
established the Department of
State and assigned it the job of
keeping custody Of the basic
State papers. When President
Washington signed the new law
on September Is, 1889, the Con-
stitution, along with the Declara-
ton, was turned over to Secretary
Jefferson. The documents trav-
eled in his luggage to Philadel-
phia again, where he established
his office, and remained there
until 1900, when the capital was
moved to the District of Columbia.
Grated along with other State
documents, the Constitution ar
rived by ship at Lear's Wharf
near the foot Of G street West
on May 81, 1900, and was carted
off to the Treasury, then located
at the south end of its present
site. 1t was the only building
suitable for storing them in the
still uncompleted new Capital.
That August, the State papers