Thanks to Congressman Gregg Harper, a couple of my friends from the radio station and I were able to go behind-the-scenes at the National Archives (no, I did not run into Nicolas Cage trying to steal the Constitution). We went several stories up to a secure room to get a brief tour of some incredible historical documents. (I figured we were safer there than almost anywhere in Washington.) The National Archives has the billions of pages of documents produced by Congress throughout the history of this country.
Here are a few of the amazing items we got to see:
1. The handwritten inaugural address written by George Washington.
2. The original proposed draft of the Bill of Rights, marked up by the Senate.
3. Thomas Jefferson’s letter to Congress informing them he had just bought the Louisiana purchase and justifying the Constitutionality of the move.
4. A petition for relief from Andrew Jackson about having to pay taxes on whiskey that had burned up in a fire.
5. The official Electoral College tally from the 1824 Presidential election (the one that Andrew Jackson lost even though he had won the popular vote) — it gave birth to the Democratic Party.
6. A short letter to Congress from President Lincoln (written on “Executive Mansion” stationary) informing them that General Grant had been promoted to commander of the Army of the United States.
7. The Articles of Impeachment of Andrew Johnson. It’s literarily a scrap of paper.
8. Two original cartoons of Clifford Berryman of Speaker of the House Cannon.
9. Two letters from Congressmen kissing up to Speaker Cannon.
10. The radar plotting map used by the two radar operators on Hawaii as they tracked the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It was declassified in 1980 (and was haunting to look at. They thought it was a flight of U.S. B-17’s coming in from the mainland).
11. The copy of the “Day that will live in Infamy” speech that President Roosevelt gave to Congress after Pearl Harbor. It was misfiled after the speech (he left it on the podium) and it was lost for 30 years.
12. A copy of the State of the Union Speech given (and signed) by Reagan.
Of course, we got to see the actual Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights in the rotunda. We also saw a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt from a 12-year-old Fidel Castro. In it, the young dictator asked the President to send him $10.
When we asked about how the important documents would be protected in case of an attack, of course, there was an official “no comment.” How you see it done in National Treasure is how it USED to be protected.
