The original treaty with Turkey is a curious document. It consists of a number of long slips of parchment, covered with columns of Turkish characters. Near by it hangs a bag, in which it was conveyed to this country. The bag is its legal covering, or case, and is provided with a huge ball of red wax, by way of a seal. Next to it is the first treaty of alliance with France—the famous one of 1778—which gave the aid of the French king to the cause of the suffering and struggling States of the new republic. It is signed by the unfortunate Louis XVI. The “Louis” is written in a round, phlegmatic hand; but the lines are delicate, as if the pen did not press the paper with the firmness of a strong will. The French treaty, of 1822, bears the autograph of Louis XVIII.; and that of 1831, the signature of Louis Phillippe. Don Pedro I., Emperor of Brazil, has affixed his hand to the Brazilian treaty, and the name of Ferdinand (the last, and least) is affixed to that of Spain.
In the glass cases with the treaties are several Oriental articles,—a Persian carpet and horse-cover, presented to President Van Buren, by the Imän of Muscat; and two magnificent rifles, presented to President Jefferson, by the Emperor of Morocco. These rifles are finished in the highest style of Eastern art, and are really beautiful. In the same cases are collections of medals, some of European sovereigns, and others of American celebrities. Among them is a copy of the medal, awarded by Congress, to the captors of Major André. Near these are several splendid Eastern sabres, presented by the great Ali Pacha, the Bey of Egypt, to Captain Perry and the officers of the U. S. ship-of-war, Concord, at Alexandria, (Egypt,) in 1832.
The next cases contain the Washington relics, which are amongst the greatest treasures of the nation. They consist of the camp-equipage, and other articles used by General Washington, during the Revolution. They are just as he left them at the close of the war, and were given to the Government, for safe keeping, after his death. Here are the tents which constituted the head-quarters, in the field, of the great soldier. They are wrapped tightly round the poles, just as they were tied when they were struck for the last time, when victory had crowned his country’s arms, and the long war was over. Every cord, every button and tent-pin is in its place, for he was careful of little things. His blankets and the bed-curtain, worked for him by his wife, and his window-curtains, are all well preserved. His chairs are perfect, not a round being broken; and the little square mirror in his dressing-case is not even cracked. The wash-stand and table are also well kept. His knife-case is filled with plain horn-handle knives and forks, which were deemed “good enough for him,” and his mess-chest is a curiosity. It is a plain wooden trunk, covered with leather, with a common lock, the hasp of which is broken. It is divided by small partitions of thin wood, and the compartments are provided with bottles, still stained with the liquids, tin plates, common knives and forks, and other articles pertaining to such an establishment.
In these days of luxury, an ordinary sergeant would not be satisfied with so simple and plain an establishment. His cooking utensils, bellows, andirons, and iron money-chest, all of which went with him from Boston to Yorktown, are in the same case, from the side of which hangs the suit of clothes worn by him upon the occasion of his resignation of his commission as Commander-in-Chief, at Annapolis, in 1783. A hall lantern, and several articles from Mount Vernon, a “travelling secretary,” Washington’s sword and cane, and a surveyor’s compass, presented by him to Captain Samuel Duvall, the surveyor of Frederick county, Maryland, are in the same case, as are also a number of articles taken from Arlington House, and belonging formerly to the Washington family.
A coat worn by Andrew Jackson, at the battle of New Orleans, and the war-saddle of the Baron De Kalb, a bayonet used by one of Braddock’s soldiers, and found on the fatal field upon which that commander met his death-wound, together with the panels from the state-coach of President Washington, make up the collection. The original draft of the Declaration of Independence, with the signatures of the Continental Congress attached, is framed and placed near the Washington case. It is old and yellow, and the ink is fading from the paper. Near it hangs Washington’s Commission as Commander-in-Chief of the American army, bearing the characteristic signature of John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress.
In the same case is a plain model, roughly executed, representing the frame-work of the hull of a Western steamboat. Beneath the keel is a false bottom, provided with bellows and air-bags. The ticket upon it bears the memorandum, “Model of sinking and raising boats by bellows below. A. Lincoln, May 30, 1849.”
By means of this arrangement, Mr. Lincoln hoped to solve the difficulty of passing boats over sand-bars in the Western rivers. The success of his scheme would have made him independently wealthy, but it failed, and, twelve years later, he became President of the United States. During the interval, the model lay forgotten in the Patent Office, but, after his inauguration, Mr. Lincoln got one of the employés to find it for him. After his death, it was placed in the Washington case.
The opposite case contains another memento of him—the hat worn by him on the night of his assassination.
In a couple of cases, filled with machinery for making shoes, we see a number of handsome silk robes and Japanese articles, of various kinds, presented to Presidents Buchanan and Lincoln, by the Tycoon of Japan. The remainder of the hall is filled with models of machines for making leather harness and trunks, models of gas and kerosene oil apparatuses, liquor distilleries, machines for making confectionery, and for trying out lard and fat. Also, methods of curing fish and meat, and embalming the dead. A splendid model of a steel revolving tower, for harbor defence, stands near the door, and is one of the most conspicuous ornaments of the room. The other halls are devoted exclusively to models of patented machinery, and other inventions. The cases above and below are well filled; models of bridges span the spaces between the other cases, and those of the larger machines are laid on the floor of the hall.
Models of improved arms, clocks, telegraphs, burglar and fire alarms, musical instruments, light-houses, street cars, lamps, stoves, ranges, furnaces, peat and fuel-machines, brick and tile-machines, sewing-machines, power-looms, paper-making machinery, knitting-machines, machines for making cloth, hats, spool cotton, for working up hemp, harbor cleaners, patent hooks-and-eyes, buttons, umbrella and cane-handles, fluting-machines, trusses, medical instruments of gutta percha, corsets, ambulances and other military establishments, arrangements for excluding the dust and smoke from railroad cars, railroad and steamboat machinery, agricultural and domestic machinery of all kinds, and hundreds of other inventions, line these three immense halls. Among the most remarkable is a machine to force a hen to lay eggs, and a silver worm hook, invented to fish worms out of the human stomach.