224 On the Correspondence of Governor D. D. Tompkins. 



veto, and to approve of the purchase, which had twice been recom- 

 mended by the Eegents of the L niversity, who are trustees of the State 

 Library. 



Six months elapsed before the State entered into possession of the 

 papers, the delay being occasioned in part by the fact that the sum 

 offered by the State was not considered as an equivalent for their value. 

 The ensuing six months down to the 4th of July, 1885, were occupied 

 in obtaining a quiet and incontestable title to the papers, since it was 

 deemed proper before completing the payment to procure a release from 

 the nearly forty heirs of the governor who had left no will. 



The purchased papers consist of the official copies of 1,800 letters 

 written by him while Governor of the State from 1807, bound in five 

 volumes folio; also of letters written by him while Vice-President of 

 the United States, from 1817 to 1824; also of 2,000 letters received by 

 him during the same two periods, of seventeen years in all. Besides 

 these there are 1,000 miscellaneous papers, making 5,000 manuscripts 

 of all classes. Of the letters received by him, besides the originals, 

 there are careful copies which he had made of large numbers of them, 

 and bound iu six folio volumes. 



The bound volumes make in all fifteen beautifully and closely 

 written folio ledger volumes of about 450 pages each, or 9,000 pages 

 in all. In addition to these there are 2,000 letters and loose papers in 

 their originals. 



And now why was it considered important that these papers should 

 be owned by the Slate. One prominent and sufficient reason is that 

 the greater portion of them constitute a part of the official, civil and 

 military history of the State while the State did not possess either the 

 originals or the copies. The State for scores of years did not possess 

 the official papers of any of its governors, and if to-day she possesses 

 those of Governor George Clinton she has obtained them by purchase 

 from private parties at an expense of several thousand dollars. It 

 needs no argument to sustain the sentiment that it becomes every 

 civilized State to preserve in its archives the record of what the State 

 has done, not only through its legislators, but through its executive 



But a more special and important reason for securing the papers of 

 Governor Tompkins is, that more persons, towns and counties of the 

 Mate are interested in their contents, than in any papers of the State 

 from the revolutionary war until the present time. They cover the 

 whole period of the aggressions of England which culminated in the 

 war of 1812, and continued to 1815. And the chief permanent theatre 



