ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 7

York and gave them to us. We were lent the first volume of St. Mary's
County Orphans' Court Proceedings and some early tax rolls which had
long since disappeared from the courthouse. (We have film copies now
but the anonymous lender has the originals.) The Congress of the
United States has on occasion quietly resolved to return records to
other states, principally Southern. But the bulk of our strayed records
are securely maintained where they do not belong. Should they be
returned by duress if necessary? I think so.

It has always been held that the records of a government belong
to that government and unless it voluntarily divests itself of title it is
still owner of the records no matter how far and for how long they
have strayed. Unfortunately, there has been no clear case in the Amer-
ican Courts to test this principle. The oft-cited Manning t¹. Anderson
Galleries (222 N. Y. Reports Supplement) proved nothing because
Judge Staley held that the State of Georgia could not prove the con-
troversial record had ever been an archive of the State of Georgia. In
the case of United States v. First Trust Company of St. Paul the court
held that the Lewis & Clark records in contest had not been proved
to be official records and that, therefore, ownership of the United States
government had not been established. In other cases there have been
special circumstances to consider: In May 1785, George Washington
made an address in the form of a letter to the Mayor and Aldermen of
New York City. (We have an estray of the same kind addressed by
Washington to the General Assembly and retrieved by purchase). At
the death of John Allan a book collector, in 1863, his collection was
sold. The Washington holograph was knocked down to DeWitt C.
Lent for $2,050. The city brought suit against Lent for the return of
the document. The case was settled in the Supreme Court of New York.
The court insisted that "Its style, address and responsive character to a
legislative act, should of itself be regarded as having imparted notice
to all, that from the moment of its reception and sending it became
the property of the corporation to whom it was addressed." Judgment
was rendered for the Mayor and Aldermen of New York City.

For the most part, however, where it can be clearly established
that the origin of a document is governmental, cases do not come to
judgment. There is the famous case of the will of Martha Washington.
Years after it was removed by a Union colonel from the Fairfax County
Virginia Courthouse, it reappeared in the Library of J. P. Morgan. Mr.
Morgan after some badgering, offered to return the document to