OCR Text |
Show ARCHIVES BACK IN CAPITAL Historic Documents Were Hidden at Fort Knox For Three Years. WASHINGTON. On a cold murky evening 19 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, an armorid truck with escort drew up at the Union station here, says the United Press. From the truck, and working with silent speed, men removed half a dozen padlocked containers and , packing cases, while other men stood guard with guns. ' The cases were carried to a compartment com-partment in a Pullman sleeper of the Baltimore & Ohio's National Limited. In adjoining and connecting connect-ing apartments on each side were Secret Service agents. Carefully-Guarded. At 6:30 p. m., the train pulled out of the Union station. At 10:30 a. m., the next day it arrived in Louisville' where it was met by a scout troop of the 13th armored division and four more Secret Service agents. Taken to Fort Knox. The cases were unloaded and placed in an army truck which, preceded pre-ceded by a scout car and followed by an automobile carrying Secret Service men, sped off to the gold bullion depository of the United States mint at Fort Knox. At the .depository, the cases were carried to compartment 24 of a subterranean vault beneath a massive structure of steel and concrete which is considered con-sidered invulnerable to bombing attack. at-tack. At 12:07 p. m. on December 27, the vault was closed and the transfer trans-fer had been successfully completed. For the first time, the Library of Congress revealed the complete story sto-ry of how, and where, the nation's most highly treasured documents were safeguarded when no one could be certain that the capital was safe from bombing. The story was told in the library's quarterly Journal of Current Acquisitions. Historic Papers. The documents involved were the engrossed originals of the Declaration Declara-tion of Independence and the Constitution, Consti-tution, the original Articles of Confederation, Con-federation, the autographed copy of Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Inaugu-ral Address, and the first and second drafts of Lincoln's Gettysburg address. ad-dress. Stored with these treasured papers at Fort Knox were the library's Saint Blasius-Saint Paul copy of the Gutenberg Bible and the British government's Lincoln Cathedral copy of the Magna Carta. The copy of the Charter had been placed with the Library of Congress for safekeeping in 1939 after it was exhibited at the New York World's fair. The documents were returned to the Library in October, arriving with a marine corps guard of honor in attendance. |