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THE CAPITOL DOME but left the Capitol to arrange for his own family. Machen tracked down the wagon driver, who now refused to lend the vehicle, given that the owner, a "Mr. Scholfeld," was absent and unable to offer consent. Machen countered that he had the power of impressment. e declaration worked. Not only did the waggoner yield the wagon and horses, but he travelled with Machen back to the Capitol to help remove the records. Machen, the unnamed waggoner, and the office mes - senger, whom Machen identified as "a black man named Tobias," packed all the books and papers Machen found most valuable. As the sun set, and the wagon could hold no more, they headed to Machen's country residence in Prince George's County. Along the way, they faced two difficulties. While still within the city borders, a wagon wheel broke. "Without leave from the owner," they "borrowed" a wheel from a blacksmith's shop. en, two miles from Machen's home, the wagon over - turned, delaying the group several hours before they reached their destination. e next morning, McDonald joined Machen and con- vinced him to move the records to a more secure location in Brookeville, Montgomery County, about 35 miles from the Capitol. 43 ere, the records remained until the Senate met at its temporary headquarters, Blodget's Hotel, on Eighth and E Streets, in Northwest Washington. 44 According to Machen, those papers included the names and positions of every mem- ber of the American military forces, as well as the first twenty- five years of the Senate's confidential executive proceedings. At the end of his account, Machen wondered how one would feel to lose the Senate's executive history, had it been "blotted forever from the knowledge and memory of man"? e same question could be asked regarding the history of the House, if Burch had been unable to obtain furlough. Indeed, given circumstances less "providential," every congressional record, House or Senate, could have perished in the Capitol blaze. On the other hand, the records may not have survived their new locations, like the committee reports at the George Washington house. In removing confidential papers from the "place of their legitimate deposit," the clerks courted disaster, with "eternal opprobrium" resting on their names. 45 is, then, was the dilemma that Colonel Magruder faced on the battlefield. Was it better to risk losing the records to an uncertain invasion or send them out in a rickety cart with the threat of a roadside ambush? In an atmosphere of "doubt, confusion, and dismay," the Capitol's clerks and messengers, ultimately, chose the risks of the road, and as a consequence, saved much of the early history of Congress. JANE ARMSTRONG HUDIBURG, M.A., is the student programs coordinator for the Maryland General Assembly and a freelance writer, specializing in the history of the Senate and congressional biographies. She has been published in e Washington Post Magazine and several reference books, includ - ing e Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History. Formerly, she worked as a tour guide for the Capitol Guide Service, as a writer/researcher for the U.S. Senate Historical Office, and as an American history college instructor. Notes 1. Lewis Machen to William Rives, Sept. 12, 1836, Rives Papers, Library of Congress. 2. Samuel Burch and J.T. Frost to Patrick Magruder, Sept. 15, 1814, American State Papers (hereafter Am. St. P.), 13th Cong., 3rd sess., Misc., 2:245; Machen to Rives, ibid. 3. "Adjustment of the Contingent Account of the Clerk of the House of Representatives," Jan. 16, 1815, Am. St. P., 13th Cong., 3rd sess., Misc., 2:263-65; Tobias Simpson Resolution, Mar. 1, 1815, Senate Journal, 13th Cong., 3rd sess., p. 677. 4. e Magruder family, which included Revolutionary War heroes and prominent merchants, has a long history in Montgomery County, Maryland. e children of Revolution - ary War Major Samuel Wade Magruder, Patrick Magruder and his siblings were born on "Locust Grove," an estate in north Bethesda. e house is one of the only eighteenth- century residences remaining in the county. "Locust Grove I. (Samuel Wade Magruder House)," Inventory Form for State Historic Sites Survey, Maryland Historical Trust. Magruder lost his election to the Federalist, Philip Barton Key. Martin K. Gordon, "Patrick Magruder: Citizen, Congressman, Librarian of Congress," Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress 32 (July 1975):155-71. 5. British Ambassador August John Foster, a Federalist sympathizer, observed Magruder's campaign against Key. When Magruder remarked that his "blood" was allied to the whole district, Key apparently retorted, "if the Question were about a Steed that argument might be good," but it was about who would make the best member of Congress. Margaret K. Latimer, ed., "Sir Augustus J. Foster in Maryland," Maryland Historical Magazine 47 (1952):286; Frederick-Town Herald (Frederick, Md.), Oct. 11, 1806. 17