[dixie sass]

Gee, Bostonian, I guess that if I receive a letter from the President of any public official about anything it is declared public property.

POOP!!!!

If something is addressed to you it becomes your property, not the governments. Of course, if FDR hadn't opened his Library to house his documents thus setting precedent, we wouldn't have this problem.

Papers that are passed from generation to generation in one family belong to that family. They are no different than the oil lamp or mixing bowl or Bible or letters that have come through my family since before and after the Civil War. If we want the government to have them, we will donate them, just like other families have done and presumably what others will do.

[BostonianRightist]

This is correspondence between generals conducting affairs for the State, not between a government agency and a private citizen. Just like when a CIA agent files an intel report - it is not his property, it is the government's property.