Malcolm Freiberg

Notes & Documents

All's Well That Ends Well
A Twentieth-Century Battle over the Declaration of Independence

THE DOCUMENTS THAT FOLLOW illustrate some of this compiler's favorite conceits: documents are the stuff of history and tell the essence of a situation better than any gloss on them; the stuff of written history is argument; and, often, all's well that ends well.	1
These documents were found quite by chance in the search for other materials, or, to use a highfalutin' term, their discovery was serendipitous. They surfaced in a Massachusetts Historical Society collection of manuscripts known as Adams Office Papers, Unit II: Papers of HA2, Box 4, Folder 29. The bulk of that collection, contained in some seventeen cartons, was the gift in November 1973 of Thomas Boylston Adams, then the Society's president. Consisting mainly of twentieth-century materials, especially those of Henry Adams II (HA2), the collection earned its prosaic catalog designation since those Adamses involved with family financial activities had generated them in their downtown Boston suite of offices. In addition, the name of the collection served to distinguish it from the vastly larger corpus of family papers in the Society, 1639–1889, all now reproduced in microfilm and in process of publication in a selective printed edition by Harvard University Press.	2
Most of the following documents are printed in their entirety; for those that are not, ellipses indicate omissions. As readers will soon discover, the documents relate to manuscripts borrowed from the Adams Manuscript Trust at the M.H.S. by the Library of Congress; they appeared in a display celebrating the nation's greatest document, the Declaration of Independence, on the occasion of the 200th birthday of its principal architect, Thomas Jefferson, on April 13, 1943.	3
(Readers will discover for themselves the relative swiftness of surface mail delivery in the United States in the middle of World War II, surface mail delivery that appears to have been faster then than airmail delivery today!) Archibald MacLeish to Henry Adams¹ March 2, 1943 Dear Mr. Adams:	4
The Library of Congress and the National Gallery have planned certain exhibits in honor of the celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson which falls, as you know, upon the 13th of April this year.	5
The central exhibit at the Library of Congress will be devoted to the development of the Declaration of Independence. To that end, we hope to gather in Washington, in addition to ... [items in our own collections] certain other contemporary drafts or copies of the great document. One of the most important of these is the earliest extant copy of the document in the handwriting of John Adams which is, as we understand, a part of the Adams family papers, of which you and Mr. Charles Francis Adams are custodians....	6
Needless to say, we should be only too happy to accept any conditions as regards transportation, guardianship, or security while on exhibit, you may wish to make. The Declaration of Independence exhibit in the Library will be under twenty-four hour guard by the Marine Corps, who will serve in addition to the protection of the building by our own guards, and we should be only too happy to send someone to Boston to bring the draft down by hand, should you wish us to do so. We should also be happy to arrange any insurance you thought necessary....	7
I quite recognize that this is an unusual request, but the event, coming as it does at this particular moment in American history, is also an unusual event. It is our feeling that the great documents of the nation's history may, perhaps, have a meaning to the people of this country at this moment which will make the exhibit important and significant not to scholars alone but to the country as a whole. Henry Adams to Archibald MacLeish March 16, 1943 My dear Mr. MacLeish:	8
Mr. Forbes,² the librarian of the Massachusetts Historical Society, has just told me that he has forwarded the copy of the Declaration of Independence in John Adams's handwriting, which belongs to the Adams Manuscript Trust, so that you will receive it together with the rest of his shipment.... Archibald MacLeish to Henry Adams March 21, 1943 Dear Mr. Adams:	9
I hasten to reply to your letter of March 16 which comes just as Mr. Boyd,³ the Librarian of Princeton University, who is working with us on the Jefferson exhibit, has delivered to me the Adams copy of the Declaration, together with other materials from the Massachusetts Historical Society. Mr. Boyd has wired Mr. Forbes of the safe arrival, and Mr. Forbes has undoubtedly informed you....	10
May I take this occasion to thank you again for your great kindness and for the trust you have reposed in us. Allyn B. Forbes to Archibald MacLeish April 26, 1943 Dear Mr. MacLeish:	11
Very shortly after my first reply to your letter of April 24⁴ was mailed, Mr. Henry Adams came into my office hopping mad, to put it mildly, carrying in his hand a Christian Science Monitor [sic] columnist's version of the story about the Adams draft of the Declaration of Independence. It is only due to my insistence that I be allowed to write you first that Mr. Adams is not at this moment descending upon you like a ton of bricks. The Christian Science Monitor version of the tale is as follows: Rare Document Friends of Congressional Librarian Archibald MacLeish are telling how he asked the Adams family of Boston for a rare Jefferson document for display in connection with the Jefferson Memorial dedication. He offered to send an armed guard for it and to insure it for a grand sum. In return, he finally received a penny postcard saying the document was on the way. It came in a manila envelope, insured for $25. Mr. Adams is of the opinion that you are the person who was in the first instance responsible for the story. As I see it the finger of suspicion points very strongly at Boyd. In any case I think such idle tittle-tattle as this is quite unnecessary, and any responsible person should have known better than to indulge in it. A great deal of harm has been done. If there had been as good a story in the fact that this Society loaned a Jefferson document and shipped it in the same package with the Adams document, I also might be getting a lot of undesirable publicity. In your letter to me you spoke of the newspaper stories being childish. I think the charge of childishness might well be laid elsewhere.	12
Now that I know what the story is, I do not think your letter to Mr. McNaughton⁵ at all satisfactory. The fact is that the three documents from this building were sent to Boyd at Princeton in a perfectly ordinary package insured for only a nominal sum. Whether it was actually $25.00 I do not, at the moment, recall. The whole point is, however, that it was shipped in that way because I had an express understanding from Boyd that the package would be adequately insured by the Library of Congress from the time it left the building until it reached its destination. In fact I have all along assumed that the three documents are still so covered by insurance and will continue so until they arrive back here again. If you were going about to straighten anyone out on the subject, you might well have done a thorough job instead of going only half way.	13
Perhaps I should be blowing up Boyd rather than you with this letter, but I am sure that Mr. Adams will not be satisfied with anything less than some further statement from you. I hope that you really have not dismissed the matter as merely a childish newspaper story, and that some attempt will be made to find out where the responsibility lies.⁶ Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams⁷ April 28, 1943. Charles:	14
As you know, I sent down to the Congressional Library the copy of the Declaration of Independence in John Adams' writing for the Jeffersonian Exhibition. Last Friday [April 23, 1943] I saw in the Christian Science Monitor a newspaper story that the Adams family had sent down a priceless document to the Congressional Library in an ordinary hemp envelope by ordinary mail with $25 insurance.	15
As this copy of the Declaration had been sent down by the Massachusetts Historical Society with other valuable papers, thoroughly insured, I knew this item was false. It was attributed to MacLeish, the librarian of the Congressional Library. As it held me up to ridicule as handling priceless documents in an incompetent way I showed the newspaper clipping to Mr. Forbes, the librarian. He said he had just received a letter from MacLeish asking him to pay no attention to silly newspaper stories when he saw them, but not saying what they were. When Forbes had read the newspaper item he immediately wrote to MacLeish asking for an explanation as he had sent the document off and had not sent it by ordinary mail. I attach a copy of Mr. Forbes' letter. He pitched in even stronger than I would have.	16
We are waiting to see what MacLeish will say. Having called MacLeish's attention to the injury done me and the falseness of his statement he should either acknowledge it or deny it to me. In any event I do not care to go any further. Whatever harm is done is done, and I would be unwilling to ask him to make a public retraction for it would only cause a newspaper notoriety and if we let it go it will soon be forgotten.	17
I have outlined the situation to you for possibly some newspaper man may get wind of it and come to find out what you have to say. If I were you I would say you knew nothing about it and refer the newspaper man to MacLeish himself, who started the rumor, or to Mr. Forbes who sent the document. Archibald MacLeish to Henry Adams April 28, 1943 Dear Mr. Adams:	18
My attention has been drawn to the publication in the Christian Science Monitor of an item purporting to describe the transfer of the Adams copy of the Declaration of Independence to the Library of Congress. I have written the Editor of the Christian Science Monitor a letter, a copy of which is enclosed. My letter, I think, speaks for itself.	19
The Christian Science Monitor item was apparently taken from a paragraph in a gossip column published by the Washington Times Herald and the New York Daily News—papers which have consistently blackguarded me over the course of many months past. The tone of the News-Times Herald story may be guessed from the fact that it expressed the hope that I would hang myself in the Library of Congress in place of the Declaration of Independence. As soon as I saw the original item, I communicated with newspaper men in an effort to set them straight on the facts. It was a great surprise to me to find a paper of the distinction of the Christian Science Monitor picking up an item of this dubious origin, but since the Monitor has repeated the publication of the item, I am asking its Editor specifically to make a correction.	20
I regret profoundly that your act of generosity in permitting us to exhibit the Adams copy of the Declaration should have resulted in annoyance to you. The pettiness of the incident does not alter the fact that you may well have been annoyed, and I should like to express as earnestly as I can my profound regret. We are deeply in your debt for your kindness to us. Archibald MacLeish to the Editor of the Christian Science Monitor April 28, 1943 Dear Sir:	21
My attention has been drawn to a recent item in the Christian Science Monitor purporting to tell how the Adams copy of the Declaration of Independence was delivered to the Library of Congress for exhibit. Since the story as published is inaccurate, I would appreciate it if you would give equal prominence to the actual facts.	22
In connection with its celebration of the Jefferson Bicentennial, the Library of Congress undertook to exhibit the original documents illustrating the development of the text of the Declaration, together with the various contemporary drafts made by Jefferson and his colleagues.... The original manuscripts involved in the project had never been exhibited together and some of them had never been publicly exhibited before. One of the most important of these documents—indeed one of the most important documents bearing upon the history of this country—was the Adams copy of the Declaration held by the Adams Manuscript Trust in Boston....	23
The delivery of the Adams copy of the Declaration to the Library, which was the subject of your paragraph, was actually accomplished as follows: the document was shipped, through the Massachusetts Historical Society, to Mr. Julian Boyd, the Librarian of Princeton University, who is also the Historian of the Thomas Jefferson Bicentennial Commission. Mr. Boyd brought the document to the Library of Congress, accompanied by an armed Library guard, who was sent to Princeton for that purpose. The document was insured by the Library of Congress. Its journey to the Library of Congress was without incident, and it was delivered to me personally in my office by Mr. Boyd and the guard who accompanied him....	24
I doubt that any exhibit of American materials was ever treated with greater respect or more continuous care. I doubt also whether any exhibit of American materials ever deserved such care more completely.... [T]his was, perhaps, the most important single exhibit of basic American documents ever assembled.	25
The Library is profoundly obligated to the officers of the Adams Manuscript Trust and to the Massachusetts Historical Society for their part in a common labor of American scholarship of the first importance, and I most earnestly regret that an incorrect and distorted account of any part of this common labor should have been published in a newspaper of the distinction of yours. Henry Adams to Archibald MacLeish April 30, 1943 My dear Mr. MacLeish:	26
I wish to thank you for your letter of the 28th with enclosure to the CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR.	27
Your straightforward statement of the actual facts corrects the newspaper misstatements in a way that permits no contradiction....	28
After reading your clear statement, which is so different from the newspaper article, I think that if there was any leakage it was not through you or Mr. Boyd. It was probably through some obscure employee who saw a chance to give a newspaper reporter a story. A sort of leak that in a large organization it is impossible to stop.	29
Anyway you have straightened the matter out to my satisfaction. And when once straightened out, if ignored thereafter these newspaper stories are soon forgotten. Newspapers want to start a controversy, and when that fails drop the matter. Archibald MacLeish to Henry Adams May 4, 1943 Dear Mr. Adams:	30
I very much appreciate your letter of the 30th....	31
I assume, as you do, that the newspapers will let the story drop, though I hear rumors that the Times-Herald will continue its attack on me in this connection, as it has done for many months past in other connections. I believe, however, that you are familiar with newspaper practice in such matters and that you know how much credit should be given newspaper statements that "it is said" or that a man's "friends" say, etc. etc.	32
Again with my thanks for your letter.	33
We end where we began, reaffirming that documents are the stuff of history, that the stuff of written history is argument, and that, in the instance set out above, all's well that ends well.	34
MALCOLM FREIBERG is Massachusetts Historical Society Editor of Publications, emeritus. NOTES ^1. Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982), since 1939, was librarian of Congress; Henry Adams II (1875–1951), since 1927, was junior trustee of the Adams Manuscript Trust, 1905–1955, a self-perpetuating family entity that supervised non-Adams access to the Adams papers, a collection on deposit at but not then owned by the Massachusetts Historical Society. ^2. Allyn Bailey Forbes (1897–1947), librarian, editor, and since 1940, director of the Massachusetts Historical Society. ^3. Julian Parks Boyd (1903–1980) was the first editor of the Papers of Thomas Jefferson. ^4. Neither Forbes's "first reply" nor MacLeish's April 24 letter has been found. ^5. MacLeish's letter to "Mr. McNaughton" has not been found. ^6. Both Forbes and MacLeish were M.H.S. members; Forbes, elected in 1934, was one of two members sponsoring MacLeish's 1941 election. ^7. Adams (1866–1954), third of that name in the presidential Adams line, since 1905 was a trustee of the Adams Manuscript Trust and since 1927 its senior trustee.

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Notes & Documents

All's Well That Ends WellA Twentieth-Century Battle over the Declaration of Independence

MALCOLM FREIBERG

All's Well That Ends Well
A Twentieth-Century Battle over the Declaration of Independence