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ORDS OF THE COLUMBIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 Volume 2, pages 1-13 
 
 THE LIFE AND LABORS 
 
 OF 
 
 PETER FORCE, Mayor of Washington 
 
 BY 
 
 ALNSVVORTH R. SPOFFORD 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY 
 
 May, 1898 
 
 P^ 
 
 r 
 
r o 
 
 1(^936 
 
 
From iihotograjili b.v Alexander GarJucr about i'-i'iii 
 
 PETER FORCE 
 
 BORN 1790. NOVEMBER 26 — DIED 1»68. JANUARY 23 
 
RECORDS OF THE COLUMBIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 VOLUME 2, pages 1-13 MAY 20, 1898 
 
 THE LIFE AND LABORS OF PETER FORCE, MAYOR 
 
 OF WASHINGTON 
 
 7!Y 
 
 AiNSWORTH R. Spofford 
 
 [Read before the Societ}^ June S, I'^n?] 
 
 " The world knows nothing of its greatest men," sang the 
 poet of Philip Van Artevelde, sixty years ago ; and in these 
 days of cheap reputations we may truthfully reecho the sen- 
 timent. The life of such a man as Peter Force, who died in 
 Washington at the ripe old age of seventy-seven years, was 
 worth more to American letters and to human history than 
 that of almost any forty of the generals and other notables, 
 whose names are blazoned on the scroll of fame. Yet he was 
 suffered to pass away with a brief "obituary notice" in the 
 corners of the newspapers, while the names of ignorant and 
 presumptuous nobodies, whom some accident had elevated 
 into notoriety, filled the public eye. But notoriety is not true 
 fame, and the appeal continually lies from the days to the 
 years, and from the years to the centuries ; and in the high 
 court of the centuries, where all the errors of the courts below 
 are reversed, the cause of those " unaccredited heroes " and 
 unobtrusive workers, like Peter Force, who raise no ripple 
 on the sea of current history, Avill be adjudged, and they will 
 be elevated to a place in the temple of fame as lofty and illus- 
 
 1— Rec. Col. Hist. Soc. (I) 
 
2 llccorcU of the Columbia Historical Society 
 
 trions as the iVuits of tlieir nn])roten<Iing lal)ors, enjoyed and 
 used ])y mankind at large, can jnstly entitle them to. 
 
 Peter Force Ii\-cd for more than half a centnry in Wash- 
 ington, having removed here in 1S15 from New York. He 
 found Washington a straggling village of wood, and left it a 
 stately city of brick and marble. He filled various public 
 and I'csponsible positions in nunucipal affairs and national 
 associations. He was, during nine years of liis busy life, 
 editor ami [)roprietor of a daily journal, which enjoyed the 
 confidence of Henry Clay and John (^uincy Adams; but it 
 is not as mayor of Washington, nor as editor of a ])olitical 
 paper, that he will best be remembered. His characteristic 
 merit, which dilferences him from the Ritchies, the Duff 
 Greens^ and the F. P. Blairs, who also bore an active part in 
 political journalism at the National Capital, is that he was 
 more than a journalist — he was a historian. 
 
 Born near Passaic Falls, N. J., on November 2G, 171)0, his 
 father, William Force, being one of the veterans of the 
 Revolutionary War, Peter Force was by lineage, as well as by 
 native tastes and talents, a worthy exponent of that l)rancli 
 of American history to ^vhicll he dedicated so many years. 
 Removed to New York in early boyhood, he became a jour- 
 neyman in the printing office of William A. Davis, and made 
 such progress in the art that at sixteen he was intrusted with 
 the direction of the office. When the Avar of 1812 with Cxreat 
 Britain came, he served with honor in the army as sergeant 
 and lieutenant. In LSI."), his employer having secured a 
 contract for the printing of Congress, removed to Washing- 
 ton, and Peter Force, at twenty-five j^ears of age, became also 
 a resident and a printer in this city. Here he soon became 
 known as an active and })ul)lic-spirited citizen, whose judg- 
 ment and sagacity made an impress upon all who were 
 brought into contact with him. In the seventh vear of his 
 residence he was elected to the city council, then to the board 
 of aldermen, being chosen president by both bodies, and in 
 1836 he was elected mayor of Washington, and served l)y re- 
 election four years — until 1840. Besides thus fdling with 
 
 2 
 
A. B. Spofford—The Life and Labors of Pdcr Force 3 
 
 signal ability and dignity the higliest civil offices in the gift 
 of his fellow-citizens, lie was also honored with the highest 
 military office, having been made successively captain, lieu- 
 tenant-colonel, colonel, and major-general in the militia of 
 tlic District of Columlna. He was also for some years pres- 
 ident of the National Institute for the promotion of science. 
 
 But tlie great distinctive service rendered by Peter Force 
 to his countrymen was far above the province of the highest 
 official station or military rank. Very early in life he evinced 
 a zealous interest in historical investigations, and four years 
 after coming to Washington he originated and published an 
 annual devoted to recording the facts of history, witli statis- 
 tical and official information of a varied character. This 
 " National Calendar and Annals of the United States," as he 
 called it, antedated by ten years the publication of the old 
 American Almanac, and was continuously published here 
 from 1820 to 1836, except the years 1825, 1826, and 1827, 
 when none were printed. In 1823 Force established a semi- 
 weekly newspaper, the National Journal, which became a 
 daily in 1824, and was continued until 1831. This journal 
 was independent in politics, with moderate and conservative 
 views upon puljlic questions, and it drew to its columns 
 some noted contributors, among them John (^uincy Adams. 
 
 The high-minded conduct of this paper in doing justice to 
 the op})onents of the administration once led to a committee 
 of the ruling party (which it then supported) waiting upon 
 Colonel Force and asking him to })erniit them to edit or re- 
 vise the political columns with a view to more thorough 
 partisan effect. They little knew the independent character 
 of the man with whom they had to deal. Colonel Force 
 drew himself uj) to his full height (lie was six feet tall) and 
 with that dignity of bearing which sat so naturally upon 
 him, with his clear gray eyes fixed upon his visitors, he said : 
 " I did not suppose that any gentleman would make such a 
 proposition to me." 
 
 Among Mr Force's publications of greatest value to the 
 students of history were th,e series, in four octavo volumes, 
 
 3 
 
4 licvortls oj the L'ulniiibia lli,slurlcal Socldij 
 
 of I^'orcc'.s " 1 1 istoiical Tracts." These were re})rints of the 
 ■rarest early ])ani[)hlets eoiu'erniiit;' Aiiu'riea, long out of }»riiit, 
 and some of which he could not i)rocure or else could not 
 allord to own, hut ])orrowed them iVom lihraries for the })ur- 
 j)ose of reproducing them. " Whenever," said he, "I found 
 a little more money in my i)urse than I ahsolutely needed, 1 
 printed a volume of Tracts." Many of the rarissirni of early 
 American history or exploration owe to Peter Force their 
 sole chance of preservation. 
 
 The series of American Archives, the great monumental 
 work of his life, was puhlished at intervals from 1837 to 1853. 
 It embraces the period of history from 1774 to Decemher, 
 177G, in nine stately folio volumes, printed in double column 
 and most thoroughly indexed. These archives constitute a 
 thesaurus of original information about the two most mo- 
 mentous years of the Revolutionary struggle, and especially 
 concerning the Declaration of Independence, of inestimable 
 value. To this work, the bold conception of his own mind, 
 to contain notliing less than the original fountains of Amer- 
 ican history, reproduced in systematic chronological order, 
 he dedicated his long and useful life. For it he assendjled, 
 with keen, discriminating judgment and unwearied toil, that 
 irreat collection of historical material which now forms an 
 invaluable ["art of the Congressional Librar}^ 
 
 Nor was tlie literary and historical zeal of the subject of 
 our sketch l)y any means confined to the early histoi-y of 
 America. He dignified and adorned his })rofession of })rinter, 
 as did iJenjamin Franklin before him, l)y original author- 
 ship in many fields. He was profoundly interested in the 
 annals of the art of })rinti]ig and the controversies over its 
 true inventor. He gathered by assiduous search a small 
 library oiincunahula, or books printed in the inftincy of the 
 art, representing every year from 14(17 (his earliest black- 
 letter imprint) uj) to 1500 and later. He studied tlie sub- 
 ject of Arctic explorations, collecting all books published in 
 that field, and himself writing u])on it. He was the first 
 to discover and ])ul)lish in the columns of the National In- 
 
 4 
 
^1. R. Spofford — The Life and Labors of reter Force 5 
 
 teUigenccr the true history of the Mecklenhurg " Declaration 
 of Independence " of May, 1775, proving by contein])oraneGus 
 newspapers he had acquired that tlie true resolutions were 
 of date May 31, and that tlie so-called declaration of Ma}^ 
 20, was sijurious. 
 
 Mr Force as a Collector of Books 
 
 No man living can fully tell the story of that devoted, })a- 
 tient, assiduous lifedaljor spent in one fixed spot, surrounded 
 Ijy the continually growing accessions of books, pamphlets, 
 periodicals, manuscripts, maps, and engravings wliich con- 
 tributed to throw light upon some period of his vast inquiry. 
 To say that his library alone filled seven commodious rooms 
 to overflowing ; that it embraced, besides the largest assem- 
 blage of books ever then accumulated by a private citizen in 
 this country, thirty thousand pam})hlets and eiglit hundred 
 volumes of newspapers ; tliat it was rich in Revolutionary auto- 
 graj)hs, maps, portraits, and engravings, and that it embraced 
 between forty and fifty thousand titles — all this is to convey 
 but a mechanical idea of the life-long and unintermitted labor 
 which Mr Force expended upon his favorite subject. He 
 began to collect American books long before the birth of the 
 extensive and mostly undiscerning mania of book-collecting 
 which has of late years become the rage, and he continued 
 the unceasing pursuit until the very week before he was laid 
 in his coffin. He carried off jirizes at auctions which no com- 
 petitor had the knowledge or the nerve to dispute with him. 
 He ransacked the book-shops of the United States from Bos- 
 ton to Charleston for rare volumes. 
 
 He had agents to pick up " unconsidered trifles " out of 
 the garrets of New England housewives, and he read eagerly 
 all the multifarious catalogues which swarmed in upon him 
 of books on sale in London and on the continent. On one 
 occasion he was a bidder against the United States for a large 
 and valuable library of bound pamphlets, the property of an 
 early collector, which were brought to the hammer in Phila- 
 
 5 
 
6 Records of flic CoJinithin Illslorlcdl iSocidij 
 
 (Iclhhiii. 
 
 riic Lil)i'iii'v of Coimi'css li;i(l sent on ;i hid (a limited 
 OIK") for the covc'tcMl volumes; l)ut IVrr l^'orce's order (iiiti'iisicd 
 (o his a^ciil attciidiiiL!,' the sale) was pci'ciiiploiT and unlini- 
 i(c(l, '■ lUiy nu' those paniphlets in an unhrokeii lot." They 
 were bouii:ht. I le knew well enough liow to make a bargain, 
 and his [lUi'diases were often made at priees which would now 
 seem fahulously cheap ; yet he never boggled at a high price 
 wdien once ]\c was satisfied that he had an oj)})ortuiiity to 
 procure a rare or uni([ue volume, which might never again 
 be olfered to com})etition. Thus, he used to tell how he 
 had once tried to buy two thin foolscaj) volumes containing 
 Major rreneral (ireene's original manuscri})t letters and dis- 
 p)atches during the Southern Revolutionary campaign of 
 17Sl-'82. The price demanded was two hundred dollars. 
 Mr Force offered one hundred and fifty dollars, which was 
 refused. He then offered fifty dollars for the privilege of 
 taking a copy. This was also declined. Seeing that he could 
 not otherwise possess himself of them, he wisely pai<l the two 
 hundred dollars, and marched off with the })recious volumes 
 under his arm. 
 
 Out of his multitude of pamphlets he had many which 
 could not have cost him sixpence each, but there were others 
 for which he had readily })aid from two to twenty dollars 
 apiece, rather than go without them. He carried oft' from an 
 antiquarian bookseller in Boston the only file of Boston Rev- 
 olutionary newspapers which had been ofi'ered for sale in a 
 (piarter of a century, and when good-naturedly reproached 
 by some Yankee visitors for thus stripping New England, he 
 conclusively replied : " Why didn't you buy them yourselves, 
 then? " To the last he was untiring in his efforts to secure 
 complete and unbroken files of all the AVashington news- 
 papers. These were carefully laid in ])iU's day by day, after 
 such perusal as he chose to give them, and the mass of jour- 
 nals thus accumulated for thirty years or u[)ward filled the 
 larsre basement of his liouse nearh' full. His file of the 
 printed "Army orders" issued liy the War Department was 
 a miracle of completeness, and it was secured only by the 
 
 6 
 
A. R. Spofford — The Life and Labors of Peter Force 7 
 
 same untiring vigilance which he applied to all matters 
 connected with the increase of his library. With tlie weight 
 of seventy-five winters on his shoulders, he would drag him- 
 self up to the War Department regularly to claim from some 
 officer who knew him and his passion the current additions 
 to the printed series of Army orders promulgated in all 
 branches of the service during the civil war. Ho thus secured 
 for his private collection, now become the historic heirloom 
 of the American people, articles which librarians and other 
 functionaries, trusting to official channels of communication 
 alone, seek in vain to secure. 
 
 But Mr Force was no mere collector of books. He Avas 
 a man who knew how to use them. Every volume which 
 he added to his richly laden shelves was added with a pur- 
 pose. Every pamphlet, hand-bill, or newspaper was hailed 
 as it contributed to throw some light upon the history or 
 politics of the past or to illustrate some character in the long 
 picture-gallery of departed American worthies. The greater 
 portion of the volumes in his library, especially the Revolu- 
 tionary newspapers and pamphlets, were filled with marks 
 and memoranda indicating his careful study and repeated 
 examination. References to other and collateral authorities, 
 notes showing where further information had been published 
 or was to be found, references to catalogues of early j)rinted 
 works, where any volumes of ancient typography had been 
 described — all these and similar elucidations were scattered 
 through the WT-ll-thumbed and dusty volumes. 
 
 It was not alone with reference to Revolutionary history 
 that Mr Force's zeal as a historical student was enlisted. He 
 had a passion for the art of printing — his own early chosen 
 profession — and had collected a larger library of books printed 
 in the infancy of the art than any public library in the United 
 States could then boast of 
 
 He became widely known as a collector, and books, pam- 
 phlets, and periodicals, with frec|uent offers of manuscripts, 
 came j^ouring in upon him. He culled from all what he 
 wanted, and by the steady accretion of years the long, ramb- 
 
 7 
 
8 Records of the Columbia Historical Society 
 
 lino- mansion on tlio corner of 'I'cntli and D streets became 
 lillcd l(^ overflowing with tliis great library of facts and docn- 
 nients. 'PI icre dwelt the sage among bis books IVom an early 
 boiii' ill tlic moniiiig mitil lafc a( niglib 
 
 The Ifi^forical Stiidoit at Jlis Work 
 
 Let ns end(>a\'or to |)ictnre our departed friend, who lived 
 to l>c the woi'tliy mentor ol' more than a generation of his- 
 torical students. As a printer be was devoted to bis art, and 
 many volumes or [)am})blets remain to ns bearing the im- 
 print of Peter I'oi-ee, or of Davis & Force, the former bis 
 accompbshed })artner in the noble art preservative of all 
 other arts. After he ceased to print, and grew to be a devotee 
 to the single aim of historical inqniry, bo became more of a 
 recluse than in earlier years. He saw no company save a 
 few chosen friends, and alike to curiosity-lmnters and to an- 
 tograph fiends he turnecl a justly deaf ear. It was my good 
 fortune in tliose closing years to sec bim daily, and in bis 
 company to go through all the more precions stores of liis 
 vast collection. At eight o'clock each morning I found him 
 always immersed in work, collating or writing amid heaps 
 of bistoi'lcal lore — 
 
 Books to the risht of him, 
 Books to the lol't ol' liiin, 
 Books lichiiiil him 
 Vollcycil ami tiiml)|i'i|. 
 
 No luxurious library appointments, no gla/cd book-cases 
 of walnut or mahogany, no easy chairs inviting to soft repose 
 or slumber were there; but only plain, rough })ine shelves 
 and [)ine tables, heaped and piled with books, pamphlets, 
 and journals, which overllowed seven spacious rooms and 
 littered the tloors. Among them uiovimI familiarly two or 
 more cats and a favorite old dog, for the lonely scholar was 
 fond of pets, as be always was of children. He bad near bits 
 of I) read or broken meat or a saucer of milk to feed bis favorites 
 in the intervals of his work. Clad in a loose Avoolen wra])per 
 or dressing-gown, the sage looked u[i IVom his books with a 
 
 8 
 
A. R. Spofford — The Life and Labors of Peter Force 9 
 
 placid smile of greeting, for (like that of many men of leonine 
 and somber aspect) his smile was of singnlar sweetness. As 
 we went through the various treasures of tlie collection, en- 
 abling me to make the needful notes for m}^ report to Con- 
 gress, he had frequent incidents to tell — how he had picked 
 up man}'- a gem on neglected and dust-laden shelves or from 
 street book-stalls; how he had competed at auction for a 
 coveted volume and borne it away in triumph ; how he had 
 by mere accident completed an imperfect coj^y of.Stith's Vir- 
 ginia by finding in a heap of printed rubbish a missing signa- 
 ture, and how precious old pamphlets and early newspapers 
 had been fished by him out of chests and barrels in the gar- 
 rets of Virginia and Maryland. In the rear of his work-room 
 was a little garden(now all built over by the brick edifice erected 
 for the Washington Post by Stilson Hutchins) in which he 
 had planted trees, then grown to stately size, interspersed with 
 grass and rose bushes and box and tangled shrubbery. This 
 green retreat or thicket he called liis " wilderness," and here 
 he took delight in walking when resting from his sedentary 
 work. His manners were gravely courteous and simple, his 
 conversation deliberate rather than fluent, his tones modu- 
 lated and low. His talk was often enlivened by an under- 
 current of genial humor. AVithout egotism or pretension, he 
 was ever ready to impart to inquirers from his full stores of 
 wisdom and experience, while cherishing a wholesome horror 
 of pretenders and of bores. So hospitable was his intellectual 
 attitude that what a simple Scottish swain said of Sir Walter 
 Scott might well be applied to him : " He always talks to me 
 as if I was equal to him — and to think tJiot of a mon that has 
 such an awful knowledge o' history ! " 
 
 In his physical aspect Peter Force was a man of marked 
 and impressive personality. Of stalwart build, his massive 
 head covered to the last with a profusion of curling hair, his 
 erect bearing, keen vision, and dignity of port impressed the 
 most casual beholder. Once seen, he was not one to be for- 
 gotten, for the personal impress was that of a man cast in a 
 heroic mould. Addicted to study as he was and living a 
 
 2— Reo. Col. Hist. Soo. 9 
 
10 Records of the Columbia Iii.'<forical Society 
 
 singularly lal)orioiis life, he yet took active exercise in long 
 w.ilks, and liis fn miliar aspect and courteons recognition was 
 an cver3'-day hciiison in Washington streets, for ho had the 
 res[)e('t of all men. His domestic life was singnlai'ly fortn- 
 nate. \\v hrouglit n|» and (Mlncated a family of seven well- 
 gifte<l children, some of whom inherited the paternal zeal for 
 historical investigation and produced writings of recognized 
 value. 
 
 Plan of the American Archives 
 
 The one great ohject which overshadowed all other objects 
 with Mr Force was to amass tlie materials out of which a 
 com})lete documentary history of the United States could he 
 compiled. His labors as a historiogra])her are known to com- 
 paratively few, since the great bulk and cost of the published 
 volumes of his "American Archives " confine them chiefly to 
 the large libraries of the country ; but by all students of our 
 Revolutionary history and all writers upon it, especially, his 
 work is estimated at its true value. The plan of it comprised, 
 in the language of its prospectus, " a collection of authentic 
 records. State papers, debates, and letters, and other notices 
 of public affairs, the whole forming a documentary history of 
 the origin and progress of the North American colonies, of 
 the causes and accomplishment of the American Revolution, 
 and of the Constitution and Government of the United States 
 to the final ratification thereof." 
 
 His contract with the Department of State (executed in 
 pursuance of an act of Congress) was to embrace about twenty 
 folio volumes. He entered into the work with such zeal that 
 the fourth series, in six volumes, was completed and pub- 
 lished in the seven years from 1837 to 1844. Three more 
 volumes, forming the commencement of the fifth series, and 
 bringing the history down to the close of 1776, were also 
 printed, when Secretary Marcy arbitrarily sto])ped the work 
 by withholding his approval of the contents of the volumes 
 submitted to him for the continuation. This was about the 
 year 1853, and this sudden and unlooked-for interruption of 
 
 10 
 
A. R. Sjmfford — llie Life and Labors of Peter Force 11 
 
 bis clicrislifd })hiii and demolition of the fair and perfect 
 historical edifice which was to be bis life-long labor and his 
 monument of fame was a blow from which he never fully 
 recovered. It was not alone that he had entered upon a 
 scale of expenditure for materials commensurate with the 
 projected extent of the work ; that he had procured at great 
 cost thousands of pages of manuscript, copied from the orig- 
 inal archives of the various colonies and the State Depart- 
 ment ; that he had amassed an enormous library of books 
 and newspapers which filled his whole house and encroached 
 so heavily upon his means that he was driven to mortgage 
 his property to meet his bills ; but it was the rude interrup- 
 tion of a great national work by those incompetent to judge 
 of its true merits ; it was the petty and vexatious and unjust 
 rescinding by an officer of the Government of a contract to 
 which he had reason to believe that the faith of the Govern- 
 ment was pledged. Mr Force was already over sixty years 
 of age when this event happened. He never renewed his 
 labor upon the archives ; the unpublished masses of manu- 
 script remained in the very spot where his work upon them 
 had been broken off, and he could never allude to the sub- 
 ject without some pardonable bitterness of feeling. Friends 
 urged him to appeal to Congress ; to try to prevail with new 
 Secretaries of State to renew the work ; to sue for damages ; 
 to petition for relief. Not one of these things would he do. 
 He had a sensitive pride of character, joined to a true stoic 
 loftiness of mind. An ordinary man would have besieged 
 Congress with his claims and' enlisted all his friends in 
 clamorous efforts for some reparation. Not so Peter Force ; 
 he could suffer, but he could not beg. There was an assur- 
 ance of dignity in his very look, which repelled all idea that 
 he would ever be engaged in a scramble for filthy lucre, 
 however unjustly it might be denied him. He never ap- 
 proached a member of Congress upon the subject, nor asked 
 a favor where he might have justly claimed a right. He 
 bore his heavy burdens manfully, cheered by no hope of 
 recompense, struggling with debt, but still enduring, still 
 
 11 
 
12 Records of the Cohunhia Jfidorkal Society 
 
 laboring day by (biy amidst bis l)()()ks, and liospitably receiv- 
 ing Mud answering all persons vvbo called for information 
 and bistorical aid. Vov tliis unrecompensed service, wbicli 
 became a constantly increasing tax upon bis time, be got 
 only tbanks. lie never made any overtures to sell bis 
 library to tbe Government, nor did be, until two or tbree 
 years before bis decease, entertain any idea of parting witb 
 it in bis lifetime. 
 
 Many proposals bad been made to bim to Ijuy bis collec- 
 tion, eitber as a wbole or by })ortions, and tempting oilers of 
 money had been steadily refused. Finally, in 1866, tbe mat- 
 U'v was taken up in earnest by tbe Librarian of Congress, wbo 
 sbared in the strongest manner tbe conviction of tbose wbo 
 knew its value, tbat it would be a national misfortune and 
 disgrace if tins great bistorical library sbould go tbe way of 
 all otlier libraries and be bopelessly dispersed ; and Mr Force 
 consented to part wdtb tbe entire collection for tbe price tbat 
 bad been put upon it by parties wdio sougbt to buy it for New 
 York, namely, $100,000. Tbe press of tbe country warmlj^ 
 seconded tbe effort, and tbe appropriation went tbrougb Con- 
 gress witbout a word of objection in eitber House — a rare ex- 
 ample of wise and liberal legislation effected on its own merits, 
 witbout a dollar being expended by anybody or a particle of 
 " loliby " influence in any direction in its favor. 
 
 Tlie transfer of tbe library to tbe Capitol took place in tbe 
 s})ring of 18()7. It was watcbed witb careful interest by its 
 venerable owner, wbo was left to bis desolated sbelves, and 
 \vould often lament tbat be never felt at bome witbout bis 
 old and cberisbed companions around bim. He was given 
 free access to tbe Library of Congress, and invited to take a 
 desk tbere and continue bis studies, but tbougli be often came 
 to tbe Library, be could not bring bimself to sit down and 
 work tbere. He greatly enjoyed tbe visits of bis cbildren to 
 Wasbington, and wf)uld always insist on walking witb tbem 
 to tbe Ca})itol, wbere be several times ascended tbe dome — 
 two bundred and eigbty feet — "witb all tbe ardor of a yontb. 
 
 His life seemed good for eiglity or ninety years, until witbin 
 
 12 
 
A. R. Spofford — The Life and Labors of Peter Force 13 
 
 three niDutbs before his death, when liis digestive powers be- 
 gan to f\iil him. He soon reached the point wliere he could 
 no longer take solid food, from which his strength failed 
 slowly and steadily, and he grew more and more emaciated, 
 though free from pain, until the 23d of January, 1868, when 
 his spirit passed quietly away. 
 
 His remains were borne to the grave in the beautiful Rock 
 Creek Cemetery by Richard Wallach, mayor of Washington ; 
 George W. Riggs, Thomas Blagden, Dr John B. Blake, Prof. 
 Joseph Henry, Dr William Gunton, J. Carroll Brent, and 
 James C. McGuire — all now departed from the world. 
 
 On his grave his children erected a marble monument, on 
 which is carved above the name of Force, as a beautiful and 
 appropriate device, a shelf of books bearing nine volumes, 
 inscribed "American Archives," with a civic crown of laurel. 
 
 But his library and his unfinished historical archives are 
 his fitting monument, and these will preserve his name to 
 the future ages of the great Republic as a pure and unselfish 
 patriot and sage, who knew how to labor and to wait. 
 
 13 
 
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