so we have a lot to thank jared sparks and his friends for. the washington papers were deposited, eventually, in the library of congress. but what was there was only a portion of the original. and we found letters all over the world as far away as russia and japan and in private homes all over the country. you see the other george washington letter before. this looks like washington, but it isn't. this is a forgery. by a man named robert spring. the loss of washington's letters made it easy to create a new washington because the document was scattered. it was no longer there. but another thing that it enabled was the growth of forgeries. now, i mentioned mason locke weems as being the guy who saw the dollar bill in george washington. there were many, many, many who followed. in the 1830s and 1840s, george washington letters and founding father letters became big business. people still had this yearning to touch them, to feel the founders, to feel that they were there. and this there was this craze tn a piece of washington and washington's lega