and papers, remaining in the office of the late Secretary of the United States in Congress assembled.

We know also that strangely enough — Jefferson was appointed the first Secretary of State, and was confirmed, September 26th.

M:Kean, in his letter of January, 1814, to John Adams, as we have seen, tells us :

In the manuscript journal, M Pickering, then Secretary of State, and myself saw a printed half sheet of paper, with the names of the members afterwards in the printed journals, stitched in. We examined the parchment where my name is signed in my own hand-writing.

This examination doubtless took place just previous to the writing by M:Kean of his letter (August 4, 1796) to Dallas; for, in that letter 5, he says that he

signed the declaration after it had been engrossed on parchment where my name, in my own hand-writing, still appears . . .

. . . The manuscript public Journal has no names annexed to the declaration of independence, nor has the secret Journal; but it appears by the latter, that on the 19th day of July, 1776, the Congress directed that it should be engrossed on parchment, and signed by every member, and that it was so produced on the 2d August, and signed. This is interlined in the secret Journal, in the hand-writing of Charles Thompson, Esquire, the Secretary. The present Secretary of State of the United States and myself have lately inspected the Journals, and seen this.

Indeed, also, in his letter (June 16, 1817) to Messrs. Wm. M'Corkle & Son, he says:

Afterwards, in 1797, when the late A. J. Dallas, Esq. then Secretary of the Commonwealth, was appointed to publish an

edition of the laws, on comparing the names published as subscribed to the Declaration of Independence, he observed a variance, and the omission, in some publications, of the name of Thomas M'Kean; having procured a certificate from the Secretary of State that the name of Thomas M'Kean was affixed in his own handwriting to the original Declaration of Independence ...

Of course, we may safely assume that the Declaration on parchment was among the papers which were transferred from Philadelphia to Washington, in 1800, when the seat of government was changed, of which John Adams, in his message to Congress, November 22d of that year, says: "[D] Immediately after the adjournment of Congress [May 14th] at their last session in Philadelphia I gave directions, in compliance with the laws, for the removal of the public offices, records, and property. These directions have been executed, and the public officers have since resided and conducted the ordinary business of the Government in this place."

In 1814, the British, under Admiral Cockburn and General Ross, visited the city (Washington) and burned the Capitol and other public buildings. Most of the citizens fled from their homes, and many of the records of the government were carted into the country to save them from destruction. Madison was President, and Mrs. Dolly Madison, it seems, was among the last to flee from the White House after the news of the defeat of the Americans at Bladensburg.

Lossing tells us that, "snatching up the precious parchment on which was written the Declaration of Independence and the autographs of the signers, which she

had resolved to save also, she hastened to the carriage with her sister (Mrs. Cutts) and her husband, and two servants, and was borne away to a place of safety beyond the Potomac."

For this beautiful story, however, we regret that we have been unable to find any authority.

Indeed, General S. Pleasonton directly assures us that the Declaration was in the Department of State and that it was taken thence to the Virginia side of the Potomac. In a letter to William H. Winder at Philadelphia, dated Washington, August 7, 1848, he says:

9I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 5th in

stant

After a lapse of 34 years I may not be perfectly accurate in my recollection of all the circumstances. . . but I will, with great pleasure, state them as they now occur to my memory

Soon after learning that the British fleet were in the Chesapeake, we learned also that they were ascending the Patuxent, evidently with the view of attacking this city. Upon receiving this information, which was about a week before the enemy entered Washington, Col. Monroe, then Secretary of State, mounted his horse, and proceeded to Benedict, a small village on the Patuxent, where the British forces were being landed. he sent a note 10, either to Mr. John Graham, the chief clerk of the office, or myself, (I do not remember which,) by a vidette, advising us to take the best care of the books and papers of the office which might be in our power. Whereupon I proceeded to purchase coarse linen, and cause it to be made into bags of convenient size, in which the gentlemen of the office, assisted by me, placed the books and other papers, after which I obtained carts, and had them conveyed to a grist mill, then unoccupied, belonging to Mr. Edgar Patterson, situated a short distance on

the Virginia side of the Potomac, beyond the chain-bridge, so called, two miles above Georgetown.

Whilst engaged in the passage way of the building with the papers, the Department of State being on one side, and the War Department on the other side of the passage, General Armstrong 11, then Secretary of War, on his way to his own room, stopped a short time, and observed to me, that he thought we were under unnecessary alarm, as he did not think the British were serious in their intentions of coming to Washington. I replied that we were under a different belief, and let their intentions be what they might, it was the part of prudence to preserve the valuable papers of the Revolutionary Government 12, comprising the declaration of Independence 13, the laws, the secret journals of Congress, then not published, the correspondence of General Washington

Considering the papers unsafe at the mill, as, if the British forces got to Washington, they would probably detach a force for the purpose of destroying a foundry for cannon and shot in its neighborhood, and would be led by some evil disposed person to destroy the mill and papers also, I proceeded to some farm houses in Virginia, and procured wagons, in which the books and papers were deposited, and I proceeded with them to the town of Leesburg, a distance of 35 miles, at which place an empty house was procured, in which the papers were safely placed, the doors locked, and the keys given to Rev. Mr. Littlejohn, who was then, or had been, one of the collectors of internal

revenue.

Being fatigued with the ride, and securing the papers, I retired early to bed, and was informed next morning by the people of the hotel where I staid, that they had seen, the preceding night, being the 24th of August, a large fire in the direction of Washington, which proved to be a light from the public buildings the enemy had set on fire, and burned them to the ground.