3732. HISTORY, Records of.—
Time and
accident are committing daily havoc on the
originals of the valuable historical and State
papers deposited in our public offices. The
late war has done the work of centuries in this
business. The last cannot be recovered, but let
us save what remains; not by vaults and locks
which fence them from the public eye and use
in consigning them to the waste of time, but
by such a multiplication of copies, as shall
place them beyond the reach of accident.—
To Mr. Hazard. Washington ed. iii, 211.
(Pa.,
1791)
