president of the New York Typographical Society, an organization
which still exists.

Then the war of 1812 began. Like his father before him, he served in the
army, first as private, then as sergeant, then as sergeant-major, then
as ensign, finally as lieutenant. The war ended. He went to Washington
as foreman of a printing office, and at Washington, as printer, editor,
publisher and collector, he lived the rest of his long and honorable
life; never rich, as I have before remarked, though never without a
share of reasonable prosperity. The most important work of his life was
the publication of the American Archives, in which he was aided by
Congress; he furnishing the documents and the labor, and Congress paying
the cost of publication. Through the nine volumes of this work a great
number of the most curious and interesting records and memorials of
American history are not only preserved, but made accessible to all
students who can get near a library. He had all the state-houses of the
country ransacked for documents, and a room was assigned him in the
Department of State in which his clerks could conveniently copy them.

All went well with the work until William Marcy became Secretary of
State, whose duty it was to examine and approve each volume before it
went to the printer. When Peter Force presented the manuscript of the
tenth volume to Secretary Marcy he received a rebuff which threw a cloud
over several years of his life.

"I don't believe in your work, sir," said the secretary. "It is of no
use to anybody. I never read a page of it, and never expect to."

"But," said Mr. Force, "the work is published in virtue of a contract
with the government. Here is the manuscript of the tenth volume. If
there is anything there which you think ought not to be there, have the
goodness to point it out to me."

"You may leave the papers, sir," said the secretary.

He left the papers; but neither Marcy nor his successors ever found time
to examine that tenth volume, though on the first day of every official
year the compiler called their attention to it. For seven years he was a
suitor on behalf of his beloved tenth volume, and then the war occurred
and all such matters were necessarily put aside. He was now seventy-one
years of age, and his great desire was to dispose of his library in such
a way that its treasures would not be scattered abroad, and perhaps lost
forever to the country. At length, Congress having sanctioned