Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE GOVERNMENT ARCHIVES AT WASHINGTON. THE WHITE HOUSE. The custom which has prevailed whereby retiring Presidents take with them as personal property all the letters, papers, and other records of their respective administrations, has resulted in scattering abroad much historical material of the utmost value. The papers of many of the administrations thus exist at present as collections in various parts of the country. The Library of Congress, for example, has in its possession several of these collections, while part of the Polk papers is in the library of the Chicago Historical Society, the Adams papers are deposited with the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the Buchanan papers are in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Other papers are more or less scattered. It is true that in the archives of the various executive departments is to be found in large part the correspondence of the Presidents with the respective departments, but this material is so scattered that it would be impossible for the student to use it in any collected form. The only records, other than the papers of the present administration, now to be found in the White House are two volumes of Grant's letter-books. 1. Letter-books of President Grant, 1869-July, 1875 (2 vols.). These books contain copies of Grant's letters to members of the cabinet, to the commissioner of public buildings and grounds, to the public, both individuals and societies, to congressmen, to financiers, etc. They cover such subjects as nominations, resignations, appointments, the detailing of men for duty at the White House, acceptance of cabinet positions, invitations to attend meetings of societies, appointments to the Naval and Military Academies, courtesies of foreign governments, the panic of 1873,...