Polk papers

Eustis papers

bursing the society for the original outlay on the papers, and they were transferred to the Library on July 1, 1910. The eleven volumes average one hundred folios each, but many of the folios contain two or more of Madison's microscopic drafts of his letters. Eight of the volumes are of letters of Madison, 1780-1835; one is of letters to Madison from Joseph Jones, 1780-1804; one from Edmund Randolph, 1781–1812; and one from John Armstrong, 1804-1814. Added to the Madison papers already in the Library, the whole collection is now brought up to 91 volumes, making it one of the most comprehensive in the possession of the government. Mr. Frederick B. McGuire, one of the original owners of the papers, has given the Library the manuscript catalogue of the papers, as well as a printed copy of the catalogue. This will facilitate reference to the papers immediately and be of material assistance in preparing a complete calendar in the near future.

Hardly less gratifying than its action with reference to the Madison manuscripts was the transfer by the Chicago Historical Society of the papers of James K. Polk, which it had acquired in 1901. These constitute 24 volumes of Polk's Diary and a miscellaneous collection of about 450 letters to and from him. In 1903 this Library acquired the main Polk collection, estimated at 10,500 documents, and one volume of the Diary. The propriety of coalescing the Chicago Historical Society's collection with that of the government appealed promptly to the society, and the transfer was effected under arrangements similar to those observed in the case of the Madison papers.

During the year the manuscript collections have benefited by several notable gifts:

Mrs. Anna Parker Pruyn, of Albany, the widow of the Hon. John Van Schaick Lansing Pruyn, LL. D., in the course of her life collected about 500 letters to and from her great uncle, William Eustis, of Massachusetts. Soon

after her death, on October 7, 1909, her daughters, Mrs. Eustis papers William Gorham Rice, of Albany, N. Y., and Mrs. Charles S. Hamlin, of Boston, Mass., agreed to deposit the collection with the Library for the use of students under its rules. An important accession to the Library's historical manuscripts has thus been gained from a most gratifying source, for Mrs. Pruyn's activities in collecting were well known, and the Library takes satisfaction in adding her name to the list of those who have enriched its stores.

William Eustis was born in Cambridge, Mass., June 10, 1753, graduated at Harvard, and was a pupil of Dr. Joseph Warren before the Revolution. He entered the army in 1775 as surgeon in Knox's regiment, and served till the end of the war, being hospital physician and surgeon from 1780. After he left the army, he was much engaged in political and diplomatic affairs, but he retained a high rank in medicine, as the letters in this collection show-one in particular, dated New Rochelle, N. Y., October 8, 1808, being from Theodosia Burr Allston, the gifted daughter of Aaron Burr, in which she says: "You are my oracle, my 'magnus Apollo' the bare idea of being under your care raises my spirits and relieves me from all doubt and suspense."

Doctor Eustis embraced the Republican creed in politics and was a staunch follower of Jefferson and Madison, and many of the letters throw interesting light upon the progress of political affairs in Massachusetts. On March 7, 1809, he became Secretary of War in Madison's Cabinet. When the war of 1812 was precipitated the equipment of the War Department was totally inadequate to the task of managing an army which had suddenly been enlarged to a war basis, but no increase in the department force was provided for by Congress. Doctor Eustis resigned December 3, 1812, but the President's confidence in him remained unimpaired, and in 1814 he was appointed this country's representative at The Hague. In 1818 Doctor Eustis returned to the

United States. He was in Congress in 1821 for the second time, and in 1823 was elected governor of Massachusetts. He died in Boston, February 6, 1825.

His papers, collected by Mrs. Pruyn, extend over a period of nearly fifty years, from 1775, soon after he entered the Revolutionary army, to 1823. Among the papers written by him are: A letter to his medical preceptor, Dr. Joseph Warren, in 1775; his rules for business in the office of the Secretary of War; many of his military instructions while he was Secretary of War, and of his official despatches to the Secretary of State when he was minister at The Hague; and private and political letters up to the time he became governor of Massachusetts, in 1823. Of the letters addressed to him, a few groups may be mentioned: Those from John Quincy Adams, before and while he was Secretary of State, relative to political and diplomatic affairs; thirty-one letters from Sylvanus Bourne, 1813-1817, relative to American diplomatic and consular affairs in the Netherlands; several from Richard Cutts, 1814, relative to political affairs; from Samuel Dana, 1814, on political and financial subjects; nineteen from Gen. Henry Dearborn, 1802-1815, on political and military subjects; a number from Alexander Hill Everett, 1816-1819, about politics in Europe; seven from Albert Gallatin, 1802-1817, on diplomatic and personal subjects; several from George Joy, 1815-1818, dealing with personal and diplomatic questions; from Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, 17821803, relative to the Medical Department of the army in the Revolution and political affairs; from Levi Lincoln, 18031820, on national and local political conditions; from Mrs. Madison, 1815, on personal subjects; from Samuel Latham Mitchill, 1805-1817, on political questions; from James Monroe, 1815-16, official instructions; from Baron de Nagell, 1815-1818, on personal and diplomatic questions; from William North, 1802-1816, on personal and political subjects; from Robert Smith, 1803-1808, on official subjects; from

Gen. Alexander Smyth, 1811-12, on military affairs; and from Gen. Joseph Bradley Varnum, 1808–1815, on political affairs.

The Stevenson papers represent a generous donation from Mrs. Mary W. Stevenson Colston, of Cincinnati, the daughter of John W. Stevenson and the granddaughter of Andrew Stevenson.

Andrew Stevenson was a Representative in Congress from Virginia from 1823 to 1834, and Speaker of the House from 1827 to 1834. From 1834 to 1841 he was minister at the Court of St. James. His papers relate chiefly to his activities while resident in London, and are especially rich in autographic specimens from famous characters, political and literary, of the period, including an autograph poem of Wordsworth's and an unpublished poem by Thomas Moore.

John W. Stevenson was a Representative in Congress from Kentucky from 1857 to 1861, a delegate to the Philadelphia Union Convention of 1866, and governor of Kentucky from 1867 to 1871, when he entered the United States Sen ate, serving for one term. He was a leader among the conservative Democrats of his time, and his correspondence with other public men throws important light upon political history from immediately preceding the civil war up to his death in 1886. Owing to the recent date of many of the letters and the fact that some of the writers are still alive, they are not open to unrestricted examination.

Stevenson ра

pers

del's diary

Dr. Moses Waddel's diary, 1824-1826, with miscellaneous, Dr. Moses Wadsermon briefs, is a gift from Miss Elizabeth H. West. At the time the diary was written Doctor Waddel was president of the University of Georgia. He was the preceptor of John C. Calhoun, Hugh S. Legaré, James Louis Petigru, George MacDuffie, and other leading characters of South Carolina, and was regarded as the father of classical education in Georgia and South Carolina. His diary is an interesting record of his life for the time it covers and shows his methods of sermon making.

Burton Harrison collection

Jefferson Davis letters

Margaret Bayard Smith papers

letter-book

The Burton Harrison collection was described in last year's report. Since then Mr. Harrison has made important additions to it of letters of Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay, and Alexander Porter (a Senator from Louisiana), and notes of conversations with James Madison (1827) by Jesse Burton Harrison; correspondence of Burton N. Harrison, relative to the defense of Jefferson Davis, 1866–67; and letters showing the disposition made of the specie in the Confederate treasury after the surrender in 1865.

Mr. C. W. Higgins, of Chicago, has given two important original letters and copies of eight letters from Jefferson Davis to his friend, Gen. Crafts W. Wright, relating to Mr. Davis's capture at the close of the civil war and the charges against him (1876–1878).

The papers of Margaret Bayard Smith have been given by the heirs of her daughter, Miss Margaret Bayard Smith: Mrs. Harold Dillingham, of Honolulu, Mrs. Baldwin Wood, and the Misses Alice and Henrietta Smith, of San Francisco. Mrs. Smith came to Washington in 1800 with her husband, Samuel Harrison Smith, the founder of the National Intelligencer, and was an active leader in the life of the city until her death in 1844. During all of this time she carried on a voluminous correspondence, chiefly with her sisters, Mrs. Jane Kilpatrick, of New Jersey, and Mrs. Anna Boyd, of New York, describing people and events in the political and social life of the city. As her pen was ready and her observation keen, the letters, of which there are several thousands, constitute a rich mine of information of that intimate personal character which is usually so difficult for an historical investigator to obtain.

The De Berdt Mr. and Mrs. Gherardi Davis, of New York, have presented the original letter-book of Dennys (or Dennis) De Berdt, 1765-1770, covering nearly the whole period of his agency in England for the colonial legislature of Massachusetts. Except for a few letters of De Berdt in the Massachusetts