"
I respectfully recommend that such action be taken by Congress as
may be deemed appropriate with reference to a gift to the nation
so precious in its history and for the memorable associations which
belong to it.
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
WASHINGTON, D.C., _April 14, 1880_.
His Excellency RUTHERFORD B. HAYES,
_President of the United States_.
MY DEAR SIR: I have been privileged to bring with me from Boston, as a
present to the United States, a very precious historical relic. It is
the little desk on which Mr. Jefferson wrote the original draft of the
Declaration of Independence.
This desk was given by Mr. Jefferson himself to my friend, the late
Joseph Coolidge, of Boston, at the time of his marriage to Jefferson's
granddaughter, Miss Randolph, and it bears an autograph inscription
of singular interest, written by the illustrious author of the
Declaration in the very last year of his life.
On the recent death of Mr. Coolidge, whose wife had died a year or
two previously, the desk became the property of their children, Mr.
J. Randolph Coolidge, Dr. Algernon Coolidge, Mr. Thomas Jefferson
Coolidge, and Mrs. Ellen Dwight, who now desire to offer it to
the United States, so that it may henceforth have a place in the
Department of State in connection with the immortal instrument which
was written upon it in 1776.
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