Newly Found Ledger Offers History Lesson
From Times Wire Reports
The handwriting is a fastidious cursive, the signatures include those of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson and the columns record an era when senators were paid the lofty wage of $6 a day.
Had Senate aides not stumbled upon the unassuming brown ledger a week ago, lying on a shelf in a Capitol basement storage room, workers clearing space for construction of a visitors’ center would have tossed it into the trash two days later.
It contains notes written during the early 1830s from the Treasury Department’s auditor.
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