MARTHA WASHINGTON'S WILL.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 263, 10 December 1914, Page 5

MARTHA WASHINGTON'S WILL.

The last will and testament of Martha Washington, wife of General George Washington, is proving a bone of contention between the State of Virginia and J. Pierpont Morgan, the American millionaire. The will is in the latter's possession, and the people of Virginia want to recover it. Recently the Attorney-General, John Garland Pollard, announced that an action would be begun during the present term of the United States Supreme Court at Washington for the recovery of the historic document.

The action will be in accordance with an Act passed by the last General Assembly, which authorised Governor Stuart to use diplomatic tactics to regain the valuable paper, and if these efforts failed, for the State to then institute legal proceedings. The document in question was stolen from the archives of the Court House of Fairfax County during the Civil War, and later came into the possession of Mr Morgan. The Board of Supervisors of Fairfax County has selected Attorney John S. Barbour to represent that county in the suit, and Attorney Barbour and Attorney-General Pollard will hold a conference before instituting the suit in the Supreme Court.

Governor Stuart has been in correspondence for several months with Mr Morgan relative to the return of the historic and valuable document, but no decision was reached. The best proposition Mr Morgan would make was to give the will as a present to the Congressional Library at Washington, to be held in trust there for the whole people of the United States.