George Washington's library book returned, 221 years later. (The Guardian, 2010)

Just read about this -- ran across it while reading about Vatel's treatise on international law, cited in U.S. Supreme Court decisions on the Second Confiscation Act.  I've paid library fines, but I never had one as large as the one that was graciously forgiven by the New York Society Library (some $300,000).

George Washington's library book returned, 221 years later

By Alison Flood, May 21, 2010

Book on international affairs that first US president borrowed in 1789 finally replaced

Alison Flood

Thu 20 May 2010 11.51 EDTFirst published on Thu 20 May 2010 11.51 EDT

 This article is over 7 years old

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 Er, put that back, won't you? ... detail from The Inauguration of George Washington, by Ramon de Elorriaga. Photograph: AP

It was over two centuries late, but a copy of a library book George Washington borrowed was returned yesterday to a New York library.

The former president borrowed The Law of Nations by Emer de Vattel on 5 October 1789, according to the records of the New York Society Library.

Staff discovered it was missing when they conducted an inventory of books in the library's 1789-1792 ledger earlier this year. Washington had never returned the book – an essay on international affairs – to the library, which shared a building with the federal government at the time and was used by members of Congress and the cabinet as well as the president. The former president's overdue fines, it has been calculated, would theoretically amount to $300,000 (£209,000).

After staff at Mount Vernon, Washington's former home in Virginia, learned of the situation, they got in touch with the library – New York's oldest – offering to replace the book with another copy of the same edition. A ceremony yesterday saw Mount Vernon staff present the book to the library.

Two hundred and twenty-one years later, The Law of Nations has finally come home, with – fortunately for Mount Vernon's coffers – no mention made of the fine.