Several of these immensely valuable projects are about Virginians and in
Virginia:

David McCullough: Testifies that the US should double funding for the
founding fathers paper projects

Source: Sen. Judiciary Committee (2-7-08)

Mr. Chairman, I wish to thank you for the chance to speak before this
committee in support of the Founding Fathers Project. What has been achieved
thus far with the publication of the papers of the Founders is all of an
exceedingly high order. I want to attest to that emphatically, as one of the
many -- the countless number of historians, biographers, scholars, and
students -- who have drawn again and again on the great wealth of material
to be found in these incomparable volumes. Their value is unassailable,
immeasurable. They are superbly edited. They are thorough. They are
accurate. The footnotes are pure gold -- many are masterpieces of close
scholarship.

Over the past twenty years and more I have worked with -- depended on in
particular -- the volumes of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson papers. I
could not have written my last two books, John Adams and 1776, without them.
I know how essential the papers are to our understanding those great
Americans and their time.

Just this past week, for my current project, I wanted to find out what all
was contained in the 80-some crates that Thomas Jefferson shipped back home
to Virginia, in the course of his five years of diplomatic service in France
-- all the books, art and artifacts, the scientific instruments, and the
like. The range and variety of the inventory would, of course, reflect much
about the mind of the man. So I turned to the Jefferson papers hoping there
might be something. And, sure enough, there it was, in Volume 18, the whole
sum total in a footnote that runs nearly six pages in small type. I know
what work had to have gone into that footnote, the care and attention to
detail. There have been times when I've spent a whole day on one paragraph
just trying to get it right, to be clear and accurate.

The men and women who have devoted themselves to the publication of the
papers are not skilled editors only, they are dedicated scholars. Their
standards are the highest. Their knowledge of their subjects often surpasses
that of anyone. I have worked with them. I know them. I count them as
friends. Several in particular have guided and helped me in ways for which I
am everlastingly grateful.

They are the best in the business and the high quality of the work they do
need not, must not be jeopardized or visciated in order to speed up the rate
of production. There really should be no argument about that.

As you know publication of the Papers began with Volume I of the Jefferson
Papers in 1950, when Harry Truman was president. With this in mind, and
given the opportunities we have, I would like to offer an analogy from that
distant time of the Cold War.

The Russians had sealed off Berlin and the urgent question was what to do
about it. A massive airlift was proposed. But it was calculated that given
the number of planes available, and the volume of cargo each could carry,
and the number of landings that could be made per day, given the number of
airfields available, supplying the daily needs of food and fuel for a city
of two and a half million people would be impossible.

So somebody suggested building another airfield.

We need to build another airfield. We need to double the investment in the
project, double each staff, and thereby pick up the pace with no change in
quality. We know it will work, and effectively, because it is already
working with the post-presidential Jefferson Papers being edited at
Monticello and the Adams Papers being edited at the Massachusetts Historical
Society.

And what worthy work it is! Imagine, of all Jefferson's post-presidential
papers, thus far, less than a third have appeared in print. What
discoveries, what insights are still to come!

The value of the Papers of Founding Fathers goes far beyond their scholarly
importance, immense as that is. These papers are American scripture. They
are our political faith, the free and open exchange of ideas, the often
brilliant expressions of some of the most fertile minds, the greatest
statesmen, patriots, and seers in our history. No one body of private and
public correspondence, official papers and pronouncements, tell us more
about that founding time, or more about who we are and what we hold dear.

The Papers of the Founding Fathers are the ultimate national treasure and
their importance to the people of America, especially in such times as
these, could not be greater.

Mr. Chairman, you can tell a lot about a society by how it spends its money.
Here is our chance, and it's long overdue, to show what we care about, what
we value, and what we're proud to pay for.

Posted on Monday, February 11, 2008


-- 
Jon Kukla
www.JonKukla.com

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