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By Zinie Chen Sampson, Associated Press Writer


      RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - History buffs will soon be able to explore
the private thoughts and official writings of George Washington,
Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers in a public, online
clearinghouse of their letters, journals and other documents.
     


 The University of Virginia Press is putting the published papers
of Washington, Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Alexander
Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin on a National Archives website that
is expected to be accessible to the public in 2012.


      When complete, the website will allow users to read, browse and
search the text of tens of thousands of documents from the period.


      "There's great interest in the founding era now, more than
there has been for the last 30 years," said Penny Kaiserlian,
director of the Charlottesville, Va.-based publisher. "People want
to go back to what the founders said, rather than what people say
they said. This will give people the ability to check out
quotations and get documents, and in general, get a picture of the
daily life of the founders."


      Offering the texts online and free of charge helps takes the
Founding Fathers' correspondence out of the scholarly realm and
move it into the hands of the public, including history teachers
and students, said Edward Lengel, editor-in-chief of the Papers of
George Washington, at the University of Virginia.
      

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission,
part of the National Archives, will provide up to $2 million for
the project.


      The archive will give people direct access to primary sources
that tell the stories of the men in the context of the times during
which they lived and helped shape. Some of the collections also
include documents from their childhood and retirement years, giving
fuller glimpses into their lives.


      Among the Founding Fathers' documents is Washington's letter in
April 1777 to Elizabeth Mallam Neil, widow of a captain killed at
the Revolutionary War's Battle of Princeton. At the time,
Washington was commander in chief of the Continental Army and the
Continental Congress hadn't yet enacted any measures to compensate
the families of soldiers killed in the line of duty.


      Washington closes his letter: "In the meantime, as I sincerely
feel for your distress, I beg your acceptance of the Inclosd as a
small testimony of my inclination to serve you upon any future
occasion." His final notation: "Fifty Dollars sent."


      "But he was not just a hero who strutted about performing great
deeds," Lengel said of Washington. "He was a human who had his
foibles, and could be jealous, angry and even crude at times. But
he was a man who, despite all his flaws, walked the road to
greatness."


      The papers also serve as a reflection of American society at the
time, Lengel said.


      "You had thousands of people from all walks of life - slaves,
workmen, pioneers and politicians - showing up" in documented
interactions with the first president.


      James Madison is primarily known as a principal architect of the
Constitution's Bill of Rights. But records and correspondence from
his service as Jefferson's secretary of state, and later as the
nation's fourth president, will offer the public a more thorough
picture of his accomplishments, said J.C.A. Stagg, editor-in-chief
of the Papers of James Madison.


      "He did a lot of significant things after he finished the Bill
of Rights," Stagg said. "It was not downhill after that. The
picture enshrined in the popular imagination is very misleading."


      The U.Va. Press already has published volumes of print editions
of the founders' papers, and a number of the documents appear
online on its subscription-only digital site, 


U.Va.
archivists will use the online documents as the framework for the
National Archives' searchable database. The original documents are
housed at the Library of Congress.


      When complete, the website will include the complete contents of
242 printed volumes, including all of the existing document
transcriptions and editors' explanatory notes.
     

 A prototype website that includes the print editions of the
papers of Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison is expected to
be ready in about a year. 


A full, publicly accessible version that
includes volumes from the Papers of Alexander Hamilton is expected
to go live by June 2012, and by the following year, the collection
is expected to include published volumes of the Papers of Benjamin
Franklin.
           

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The University of Virginia Press is putting the published papers
of Washington, Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Alexander
Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin on a National Archives website that
is expected to be accessible to the public in 2012.

Founding Fathers' papers to be accessible online

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