THE GOVERNMENT LIBRARY AT WASHINGTON. WHEN the Library of Congress was founded, April 24th, 1800, by the modest appropriation of five thousand dollars for the purchase of such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress, at the said city of Washington," there was no library in the United States exceeding fifteen thousand volumes. The Library Company of Philadelphia, founded by Franklin and his associates in 1731, had absorbed the Loganian Library in 1792, and thus ranked as the largest American collection. Harvard College came next, with about ten thousand volumes; and the Society Library of New York ranked third, with some sixty-five hundred. Besides these, we have traces, more or less obscure, of some fifty libraries numbering from one hundred to three thousand volumes each. In 1800, the paucity of the collections and the poverty of their literary stores marked the infancy of a country whose rapid progress in wealth and intelligence has been such as now to exhibit a roll of more than 3,700 libraries, numbering upwards of 12,000,000 volumes. It is noteworthy that the Library of Congress was the first one created by statute for the use of a legislative body in this country. While small collections of books, chiefly law and documentary, existed at the State capitals for legislative use and reference, there is no record of the creation of any State library by law, until that of Pennsylvania was formally established in 1816. The New York State Library was founded in 1818, that of Massachusetts in 1826, and the other States of the Union have followed, until none is now without a library. The early American Congresses, before the adoption of the Constitution, were dependent for works of reference upon private collections mainly, though we find the Continental Congress tendering a vote of thanks to the Library Company of Philadelphia for the gratuitous use of books. A more permanent provision for the express use of Congress became necessary upon the removal of the government to Washington, a nascent city in the wilderness, then containing less than five hundred souls. The Act of April 24th, 1800, “making provision for the removal of the Government of the United States," which appropriated the first sum of five thousand dollars for books for the use of Congress, was followed by the more systematic statute of January 26th, 1802, entitled An Act concerning the Library for the use of both Houses of Congress.' This Act, out of which was to grow that vast institution which will hand down to future generations the literature not only of a nation, but of the world, did not pass Congress without vigorous discussion. There were then in the Union sixteen States, with a Senate composed of thirty-two members, and with one hundred and forty-one Representatives in the House. The provisions of the bill concerning the library for the use of both Houses of Congress were debated December 21st, 1801, when Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, proposed the annual appropriation of one thousand dollars for ten years for the purchase of books. Other members objected to any continuous appropriation. Mr. John Randolph advocated the closest economy in expendting the public money. Mr. Bayard said, in urging the formation of a library, "It has been claimed that we were the most enlightened people on earth; if that be not altogether true, let it be as much so as possible." Mr. John Bacon, of Massachusetts, startled the House by declaring himself in favor of ten thousand dollars annually. He thought it a moderate sum and a necessary appropriation. The Act as ultimately passed appropriated one thousand dollars, in addition to an unexpended balance of twenty-eight hundred dollars, for books; created a joint committee, consisting of three Senators and three Representatives, to have charge of the expenditures; restricted the use of books outside of the library; and provided for a librarian, to be appointed by the President of the United States. The clerks of the House of Representatives were successively appointed to take charge of the library until 1815, when President Madison appointed Mr. George Watterston librarian. In that day of small things the growth of the Library of Congress was slow; and in 1814, when the Capitol was burned by the British army under General Ross, three thousand volumes only had accumulated, and all these were destroyed in the conflagration of the Capitol. And now came the opportunity which was embraced by Thomas Jefferson, who was then living in retirement at Monticello, six years after leaving the Presidential chair. Congress had been convened in special session on the 19th of September, 1814. The destruction of the Capitol having occurred on the 24th of August, Jefferson wrote, under date of Monticello, September 21st, 1814, to his friend Samuel Harrison Smith, founder of the National Intelligencer, in the followings terms: DEAR SIR: I learn from the newspapers that the vandalism of our enemy has triumphed at Washington, over science as well as the arts, by the destruction of the public library, with the noble edifice in which it was deposited. Of this transaction, as of that of Copenhagen, the world will entertain but one sentiment. I presume it will be among the early objects of Congress to recommence their collection. This will be difficult while the war continues and intercourse with Europe is attended with so much risk. You know my collection, its condition and extent. I have been fifty years making it, and have spared no pains, opportunity, or expense to make it what it now is. While residing in Paris, I devoted every afternoon I was disengaged for a summer or two in examining all the principal bookstores, turning over every book with my own hands, and putting by everything which related to America, and indeed whatever was rare and valuable in every science; besides this, I had standing orders, during the whole time I was in Europe, in its principal book-marts, particularly Amsterdam, Frankfort, Madrid, and London, for such works relating to America as could not be found in Paris. So that in that department particularly such a collection was made as probably can never again be effected, because it is hardly probable the same opportunities, the same time, industry, perseverance, and expense, with some knowledge of the bibliography of the subject, would again happen to be in concurrence. During the same period, and after my return to America, I was led to procure also whatever related to the duties of those in the highest concerns of the nation; so that the collection, which I suppose is of between nine and ten thousand volumes, while it includes what is chiefly valuable in science and literature generally, extends more particularly to whatever belongs to the American statesman: in the diplomatic and parliamentary branches it is particularly full. It is long since have been sensible it ought not to continue private property, and had provided that, at my death, Congress should have the refusal of it, at their own price; but the loss they have now incurred makes the present the proper moment for their accommodation, without regard to the small remnant of time and the barren use of my enjoying it. I ask of your friendship, therefore, to make for me the tender of it to the Library Committee of Congress, not knowing myself of whom the committee consists. I inclose you a catalogue which will enable them to judge of its contents. Nearly the whole are well bound-abundance of them elegantly, and of the choicest editions. They may be valued by the persons named by themselves, and the payment made convenient to the public; it may be, for instance, in such annual instalments as the law of Congress has left at their disposal, or in stock of any of their late loans or any loan they may institute at this session, so as to spare the present calls of our country, and await its days of peace and prosperity: They may enter, nevertheless, into immediate use of it, as eighteen or twenty wagons would place it in Washington in a single trip of a fortnight. I do not know that it contains any branch of science which Congress would wish to exclude from their collection. There is, in fact, no subject to which a member of Congress may not have occasion to refer. But such a wish would not correspond with my views of preventing its dismemberment. My design is either to place it in their hands entire, or preserve it so here. Accept the assurance of my great esteem and respect. THOMAS JEFFERSON. The Senate readily passed a bill for the purchase of Jefferson's library, October 10th, 1814. A week later the bill was discussed in the House of Representatives, and considerable opposition was manifested. Some of the objections were highly curious, one being the extent of the library; another, the cost of the purchase; a third, that there were too many works in foreign languages; a fourth, that some of them were of too philosophical a character. On the other hand, those who advocated the purchase of the collection contended that so valuable a library, one so admirably calculated for the substratum of a great national library, was not to be obtained in the United States; and that although there might be some works to which gentlemen might take exception, there were others of very opposite character; that this, besides, was no reason against the purchase, because in every library of value might be found some books to which exceptions would be taken, according to the feelings or prejudices of those who examined them. Mr. King, of Massachusetts, moved an amendment "authorizing the Library Committee, as soon as said library shall be received at Washington, to select therefrom all books of an atheistical, irrelıgious, and immoral tendency, if any such there be, and send the same back to Mr. Jefferson without any expense to him.' This motion Mr. King thought proper afterward to withdraw. Says the record: Those who opposed the bill did so on account of the scarcity of money, and the necessity of appropriating it to purposes more indispensable than the purchase of a library; the probable insecurity of such a library placed here; the high price to be given for this collection; its miscellaneous and almost exclusively literary (instead of legal and historical) character, etc. To those arguments, enforced with zeal and vehemence, the friends of the bill replied with fact, wit, and argument, to show that the purchase, to be made on terms of long credit, could not affect the present resources of the United States; that the price was moderate, the library more valuable from the scarcity of many of its books, and altogether a most admirable substratum for a national library. The debate is very imperfectly reported in the Annals of Congress, which naïvely records the following: "The debate before its conclusion became rather too animated, and being checked by the Speaker, the question was permitted to be taken.' Finally, the bill for the purchase of the library passed the House of Representatives by the close vote of 81 yeas to 71 nays. The sum of $23,950 was appropriated for the collection, which contained not quite 7000 volumes. The catalogue of the collection thus purchased, a thin quarto volume of 208 pages, prepared by Mr. Jefferson himself, bears the comprehensive title, Catalogue of the Library of the United States." The books he classified into divisions, on the basis of Lord Bacon's classification of knowledge-a system which, applied to any collection of books, is productive of singular results. Thus, in the chapter of "Moral Philosophy were classified Clarkson's "History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade," Thomas's "Essai sur le Caractère des Femmes," a work on the Evidences of Mohammedanism, Kames's "Art of Thinking," Montaigne's Essays, Vattel's "Droit des Gens," and Ochino on Polygamy. The Baconian classification is but poorly suited to a bibliographical system, however well adapted it may be to mark the divisions of knowledge. This classification, however, with all its defects, was perpetuated in the successive catalogues of the Library of Congress, and in the arrangement of books upon the shelves, until 1861, when it was abandoned for a strictly subjective system of classification. The catalogue system of the library is alphabetical, the original or official catalogue being upon written cards, arranged in a series of cases, and the accessions from all sources kept up to date by daily intercalation of new titles. It may be noted, as illustrating Mr. Jefferson's methodical care of his books, that every volume in the collection of seven thousand has his private mark, consisting of his initials, incorporated with the signatures of the book. Thus, he would turn to signature I (anciently the same as J), and write the initial T before it, always in ink. Then turning the leaves to signature T, he placed the letter J after it. He could thus identify his literary property on whatever shelves any stray volume of his collection might be found, and he spared the title-pages the indignity of being defaced by the written name of the owner. In rare instances, the books have notes elucidating the text or correcting errors, and some of the anonymous books and pamphlets bear the name of the author in Mr. Jefferson's clear, neat, and small chirography. As early as 1802, the special supervision of the Library of Congress, with the expenditure of moneys appropriated for book purchase, was placed in charge of a joint committee of both Houses of Congress on the Library. This committee has always consisted of three Senators and three Representatives, appointed at the commencement of each successive Congress. Many men of distinction in our political history have been members of the Library Committee, and among these may be named John Randolph, Samuel L. Mitchill, W. C. Preston, John Quincy Adams, Joseph R. Chandler, Lewis Cass, J. M. Berrien, Gulian C. Verplanck, Levi Woodbury, Caleb _Cushing, John M. Clayton, John G. Palfrey, Thomas H. Benton, Horace Mann, James A. Bayard, George P. Marsh, Henry C. Murphy, W. P. Fessenden, Wm. C. Rives, Reverdy Johnson, Charles Francis Adams, E. B. Washburne, Edward McPherson, E. D. Morgan, John Sherman, L. M. Morrill, T. O. Howe, S. S. Cox, Geo. F. Edmunds, Rutherford B. Hayes, and W. A. Wheeler. The Jefferson library was an admirable selection of the best ancient and modern literature up to the beginning of the present century. By no other method than its purchase en bloc could Congress have acquired so valuable and comprehensive a library of reference, and it was offered and accepted in an emergency which it was well suited to meet and to relieve. The Jefferson library was lodged in the post-office building at Washington for three years, until the north wing of the Capitol was rebuilt for the use of Congress, when it was removed thither, remaining until 1824 in the upper story, in rooms now occupied by the Senate library. When the central building approached completion, the library was removed to the long hall occupying the whole western front of the Capitol, where it has ever since remained, with the exception of the law-books, which fill the entire room on the lower floor of the Capitol, formerly occupied by the Supreme Court. The sum appropriated for the increase of the Library of Congress was $1,000 a year from 1805 to 1815, This was increased to $2,000 per annum after the acquisition of the Jefferson collection, continuing until 1824. when the annual appropriation for books was made $5,000. To this was added in 1832 $1,000 specially appropriated for law-books, and continued for many years. being in creased in 1850 to $2,000 a year, which has continued annually up to the present time. In 1864, the sum of $7,000, previously devoted by Congress to the annual enlargement of the library, was increased to $10,000; in 1875, to $13,500; and in 1877, reduced to $9,500. The collection had grown by steady but moderate accretion until it num bered 55,000 volumes in 1851. On the 24th of December of that year, a fire broke out in the library room through a defective flue which speedily consumed the greater portion of the books, or left them in a charred and ruined condition. There were saved only 20,000 volumes, including, fortunately, the whole division of juris prudence and political science, as well as American history and biogra phy. The Congress which sustained this sudden loss appropriated with praiseworthy liberality $85,000 in one year for the purchase of books, and $72,500 for the restoration of the library room. The latter was rebuilt in fire-proof material, the walls, ceiling, and shelving being wholly of cast-iron-the first instance, it is said, of the employ ment of that material exclusively for the interior of any public edifice in America. The pilasters, panels, and architraves are ornamented throughout with consoles, shields, grape clusters, and other chaste designs, the whole library being painted a delicate buff tint, heightened occasionally with gold leaf. The general effect is pleasing, though in parts somewhat too ornate; and it is to be regretted that in an ambitious attempt to display a splendid ceiling, supported with enormous consoles of floriated iron, an opportunity for a whole gallery of alcoves for books was thrown away. So perfectly has the original tint of the walls and alcoves been preserved that no repainting has been necessary for more than a quarter of a century—an instance of economy rare in any public building. In 1865 and 1866, the library had so encroachea upon the narrow space it occupied as to render an enlargement imperatively necessary; and two wings were constructed, cach capable of containing 75,000 volumes, by absorbing rooms in the Capitol which had been devoted to clerks' offices, committee-rooms, and storage. Yet these spacious wings were no sooner completed than they were almost entirely filled by two great acquisitions of books brought to the Capitol in a single twelvemonth, through the legislation of Congress. In the development of most public institutions are to be traced events which mark certain distinctive epochs in their history. In the growth of the Library of Congress, there may be said to be five clearly marked epochs, each defining a long step forward in its progress. The first of these was the accession of the Jefferson library in 1815. The second was the appropriation by Congress of $85,000 to enlarge the collection immediately after the conflagration of 1851. The next epoch was marked by the accession of the great scientific library of the Smithsonian Institution in 1866, simultaneously with the completion of the new fire-proof wings added to the library. Fol lowing this in the next year, 1867, was the purchase, for the sum of $100,000, of the historical library collected by Peter Force, a citizen of Washington. The fifth notable epoch was the institution of the present copyright system, through which the Library of the Government is made the sole depository of the records of copyright, and the sole recipient of all publications registered and protected by law. The features connected with the Jefferson library and the enlarge |