Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 18.djvu/385

 The Townaend Library. 385

with this compilation, knowing Mr. Townsend and having had some correspondence with him, and I have looked over the prospectus most carefully. I have arrived at the conclusion that it is very important that the Government should possess this work, from the fact that our librarian here, Mr. Spofford, has endorsed it in the very higest way, and in addition to his indorsement, I find that the Comte de Paris says :

11 ' It is a work of the greatest value, but seems beyond the strength of a single man in the limits of a single life.'

" General Grant says : ' I heartily endorse the sentiments expressed by the Comte de Paris in his letter of July 27, 1883.'

" Governor Horatio Seymour speaks in the highest terms of the work.

' ' Dr. Cogswell, the organizer and first Superintendent of the Astor Library, says : ' As a chronological and synchronous record of the events it is more minute[and more authentic than could be formed in any other way ; and as documentary material for the historian of those events it is absolutely indispensable.

" I need not go over the names of all the eminent men who have indorsed this work, but amongst others there is Colonel Duncan K. McRae, of the Confederate Army, and General Beauregard, and all the great northern newspapers.

" This compilation is formed somewhat upon the principle of the Rebellion Record, but that work deals only with the military ope- rations of both armies during the war, and, of course, a great many papers relating to that subject have been lost ; but this gentleman commenced at the beginning of the war, and he made memoranda of all events that happened, and he has them now embraced in over one hundred volumes. I am satisfied that the history of the Government since the Buchanan administration to the present time cannot prop- erly be prepared without a reference to this work. I hope, therefore, that we may obtain it and put it where it will be entirely safe and accessible in the Library of Congress."

It is felt that when this important subject engages again the atten- tion, of Congress that it will not fail in support from the entire southern representation. The estimate of the value of this great work expressed by the distinguished Confederate chieftain must surely find concurrence.

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