From the Richmond Commercial Bulletin, 9/1/1865, p. 3, c. 1
THE STATE LIBRARY. – We are pleased to observe that Mr. Morris has begun the important work of re-arranging the State Library, and is endeavoring to reduce to order the chaos created by the evacuation and the subsequent acts of Vandalism perpetrated by unprincipled curiosity-hunters and plunderers. Many of the most valuable works have bene carried off, but we hope that a portion of them will be eventually recovered. A few days since a gentleman who observed some of the volumes belonging to the institution put up for sale at auction, bid them in, and returned them to Mr. Morris, an act worthy of a Virginia gentleman, and one which will, we hope, be universally imitated. The man who could retain in his possession or sell for a trifling sum the property of one of the proudest institutions of the State, has little of Southern honor or common honesty, and his name, if known, would become a hissing and a by-word. We earnestly hope and entreat, therefore, that every person having in possession any of the books belonging to the State Library to lose no time in returning them.