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A rare letter from George Washington stolen 60 years ago from the state archives was rescued days before it was to go on the auction block, state officials said.

The 1783 letter was returned to Massachusetts and stored safely in a vault last week after a keen-eyed state worker spotted the document in an online notice of an upcoming auction of rare historic documents and artifacts. Now, anyone can see it by making an appointment with the state archives.
Written by General Washington on April 14, 1783, at the end of the Revolutionary War, the yellow parchment requested the states settle their financial accounts with the army before the army was disbanded. Copies of the letter, believed prepared by an aide and signed by Washington, were delivered to Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island.
”Congress have directed that a compleat settlement and liquidation of all their Accouns shall be made,” he wrote. ”. . . I consider it of the utmost importance both for the ease and quiet of the Army, as well as in point of oeconomy to the Public, that this business should be effected with all the dispatch that it is possible to give it . . .”
According to state officials, the letter was one of several stolen in the 1940s when official documents were kept at the State House and accessible to the public. Hundreds of documents still are missing from the archives, and state workers regularly search the Internet and other media looking for them, they said. The archives have since been relocated to Dorchester, where a trove of important documents are stored in a vault.

Posted: 04|17|06 at 8:43 am. Filed under: US News.