Catalog 59

THE RAAB COLLECTIONCa t a l o g 5 9

All mater ia l is guaranteed to be genuine, without t ime l imit , to the originalpurchaser. We want you to be sat is f ied, so any item not purchased onlayaway may be returned (in the same condit ion as received) for a ful l refundwinin 5 days of receipt . We accept Mastercard, Visa , American Express , checkor money order. A layaway plan is also avai lable and can be customized to f i tyour needs. The cost of shipping and insurance is $40 on invoices under $10,000.

George Washington at the Turning Point at Valley Forge

While his troops endure privation, he hatches an audacious plan to attack the Britishstronghold in New York.

"General Howe intends an early Campaign; to take advantage of our weak state.""What is to be done? We must either oppose our whole force to his, in this Quarter, ortake the advantage of him in some other."

With the original Free Frank from Valley Forge still attached

In September 1777, the Conti-nental Army lost the Batt le ofBrandywine and was forcedto retreat before a strongBrit ish force led by LordWill iam Howe. The victori-ous Brit ish then occupiedPhiladelphia, forcing Con-gress to flee the city. Afteranother unsuccessful engage-ment at Germantown thenext month, the Americansfled to Valley Forge, a moredefensible location from

which they could keep an eye on the foe. After an exhausting march, the undermannedAmerican force arrived there on December 19, and they were in a miserable state ( justfour days later nearly 3,000 men were reported sick or incapable of duty) . The wintercame on and the men suffered badly from the cold. Except for off icers, they slept in six-foot square tents made of canvas, which were weak and cracked and didn't provide suf-f icient protection from the snowy and stormy weather. These shortages were especial lybad from January to March 1778, mitigating only at the very end of the latter month.The entire American Army thereafter consisted of some 6,000 men huddled aroundcampfires on wet, icy ground. Brit ish general Howe, by way of contrast , had some15,000 well-supplied men in and around Philadelphia, and many more available innearby New York.

Alexander McDougall was active in the appointment of delegates to the first Continen-tal Congress in 1774, and when the Revolution broke out was named colonel of the 1stNew York Regiment. On August 9, 1776, he was made a brigadier-general , and in the re-treat from Long Island he superintended the successful embarkation of the troops. Inthe batt le of White Plains he was conspicuous, and in October 1777 he was promoted tomajor-general . MacDougall was in the batt le of Germantown, and remained with thearmy at Valley Forge. On March 16, Washington sent him to lead the American forces onthe Hudson River north of New York, and thus to keep an eye on the Brit ish in NewYork City. “Upon your arrival at the Highlands,” Washington wrote, “you are to takeupon you the command of the different posts in that Department.” Gen. Samuel Par-sons, in command at West Point , would assist him.

On March 24, with ice an inch thick on the ground and the troops cold, there was a sud-den break in the weather that lasted a few days and gave the encampment a brief fore-taste of spring.

With his army at Valley Forge in a weakened state, Washington fears a British attackand conceives a daring move to the offensive

On March 28 and 29, stormy Winter weather returned, and word of two important

Ca t a l o g 5 9 THE RAAB COLLECTION

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events reached ValleyForge. The first was thenews that on February 6,France and the UnitedStates had signed a Treatyof All iance in Paris . Thismeant recognit ion of Ameri-can independence, as wellas the eventual arrival ofsupplies, munitions andFrench troops to participatein the war. Even more ur-gent at the encampment wasinformation that fourBrit ish regiments were be-l ieved to have left New

York by ship, possibly bound for Philadelphia. Washington wrote McDougall about this ,saying “I am informed that two Regiments of Brit ish and two of Hessians were em-barked at New York, and by accounts from Rhode Island it was imagined that theEnemy were about evacuating Newport . This makes me suspicious that General Howe isdrawing his reinforcements together to attack us. . .”

On March 31, Washington and the Continental Army confirmed that the Brit ish shipsfrom New York were headed to Philadelphia, buttressing the American concern. Wash-ington aimed to divert attention away from his defensive and weakened posit ion byproposing an offensive. According to Ordeal at Valley Forge by John Stoudt, knowingthat he must act on both the offensive and defensive, and soon, Washington “busieshimself late into the night with plans for the next campaign.” He outl ined his plan,which took advantage of the apparent diversion of Brit ish troops from New York toPhiladelphia to have Continental Army forces on the Hudson launch an attack on NewYork itself . This was Washington’s f irst major offensive plan since the ContinentalArmy arrived at Valley Forge the previous fal l . In fact , March 31 was the pivot point ,when Washington shifted from thinking about defense and turned his attention to theoffensive, and when the storied encampment turned from despair to hope.

Letter Signed , Valley Forge, PA., March 31, 1778, to McDougall , discussing Howe’s of-fensive, the weakness of American forces, his idea for an attack on New York, and hispurpose of dividing the enemy. “That part of the Troops at New York have le f t that place ,admits of no doubt . The accts . o f their number di f fer, some say four Regiments (two Brit ishand two Hessian) , some 2300, and others 2500 Men, al l o f which, there is reason to bel ieve arearrived at Phila . ; as a f leet consist ing of near 50 Transports (the same number that le f t NewYork passed Wilmington about f ive days ago. By report , Rhode Is land was to be evacuated (ason the 20th. Instt . ) and the Garrison brought to Phila . This , i f true, evidently proves thatGeneral Howe intends an early Campaign; to take advantage of our weak state .

What is to be done? We must either oppose our whole force to his , in this Quarter, or take theadvantage of him in some other, which leads me to ask your opinion of the pract icabi l i ty of anattempt upon New York, with Parsons's Brigade, Nixon's , and the Regiments of Vanscoick ,Hazen, and James Livingstons; aided by Mil i t ia from the States of New York and Connect icut ;such I mean as can speedi ly be drawn together. On this Subject , and the advisabi l i ty of such anenterprize , I would have you consult Govr. Clinton and Genl . Parsons, and them only. In con-sidering of this matter, Provis ions wil l be found a capital object ; not merely on Acct . o f thequantum necessary for the support of such force as may be thought adequate for your own op-erat ions, but inasmuch as it respects this Army, which must depend, material ly, upon theEastern States for Beef and Pork; and must , at al l events , be attended to as a primary object .


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I f in viewing of this matter in every l ight the Importance of i t deserves , you shal l be of opinionthat it can be undertaken with a fair prospect of Success , I shal l not withdraw any part of theaforementioned Troops to this Army; i f on the other hand, too much danger and dif f icultyshould appear to warrant the attempt, I desire that Vanscoicks Regiment (which has been or-dered to Fishki l ls) may be directed to march without delay to join me. It is unnecessary I amsure, for me to add, that the most pro. found secrecy should attend your operat ions, i f thescheme is adopted; and to drop hints of such a measure being in agitat ion i f i t is not , in orderto divide the attention of the Enemy.” This letter st i l l has its original signed free frank at-tached. Our research of records over the past thirty years discloses only three other let-ters of Washington from Valley Forge during December 1777-March 1778, the time ofthe greatest desperation and patriotism, and only one had content of this quality.

When the Brit ish ships unloaded in Delaware the first week of April , they contained farfewer troops than expected. Because of these factors, the assault on New York wasnever made, though the misinformation campaign proposed by Washington was likelyput in place. The plan provides a fascinating insight into General Washington’s leader-ship qualit ies , showing how he mixed careful , practical assessments with a streak ofdaring and surprise. $185,000

King George II I Implements an Act of Parl iament Integral to the EnglishConstitution

Standing armies increased the powers of a ruler and the danger ofmili tary despotism, so the English Constitution took decisivesteps to meet these threats . I t required the annual consent of thepeople’s representatives in Parl iament to fund the army, atwhich time they also reconfirmed the imposit ion of punish-ments on military personnel who acted outside their appointedspheres. This was constitutionally important because it l imitedthe King’s absolute authority, which marked the primary dif-ference between England and the continental monarchies, andwas the core of the idea of the liberties of Englishmen that so

motivated the American revolutionaries. The act had a practicalas well as constitutional aspect , as back then troops were often

quartered in the homes of the people. A military that conducted itselfimproperly risked destroying the confidence of the cit izenry inboth the mili tary and state, which would be a very seriousmatter, as was proved in Boston in 1775.

Will iam Blackstone’s “Commentaries on the Laws of England” were long regarded asthe leading work on the development of English Constitutional law and played a keyrole in the development of the American legal system. It formed the basis of the Com-mon Law, and the U.S. Supreme Court quotes from Blackstone's work when it wishes todiscussing the intent of the framers of the Constitution.

Blackstone writes that “To prevent the executive power from being able to oppress, saysBaron Montesquieu, i t is requisite that the armies with which it is entrusted shouldconsist of the people, and have the same spirit with the people. . .To keep this body oftroops in order, an annual act of Parl iament l ikewise passes, ‘ to punish mutiny and de-sert ion, and for the better payment of the army and their quarters. ’ This regulates themanner in which they are to be dispersed. . .and establishes a law martial for their gov-ernment. By this , among other things, i t is enacted, that if any officer and soldier shallexcite , or join any mutiny, or, knowing of it , shall not give notice to the commandingofficer ; or shall desert , or l ist in any other regiment, or sleep upon his post , or leave itbefore he is rel ieved, or hold correspondence with a rebel or enemy, or strike or use vi-olence to his superior off icer, or shall disobey his lawful commands; such offender shall


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Will iam Blackstone

suffer such punishment as a court martial shall infl ict . . .”

Part of this annual act provided funds, which would affect the Exchequer, and part re-confirmed court martial procedures, which concerned the Judge Advocate General ofthe mili tary. From 1771-1806, this off icial was Sir Charles Gould, the first lawyer tohold the post . In June of 1783, while the American Revolution was sti l l formally sti l longoing, Parl iament passed the annual two-part act for the upcoming year - June 24,1783 to June 25. King George III promptly gave his approval of the act , an approvalconsistent with the English Constitution though it l imited his own prerogatives.

Document Signed , London, June 25, 1783, to Gould, containing the King’s acknowl-edgement of the act of Parl iament and containing detailed instructions for the courtmartial procedures it required. This is the first order of a monarch of Great Britain im-plementing an act of Parl iament we have had, and directly relating to the essence of theConstitution, is of the highest importance. $3,500


Robert Morris Juggles Funds For His Purchase of the Genessee Lands

Financier of the Revolution, Morris served as a U.S. Senator fromPennsylvania from 1789 to 1795. As Senator, he generally sup-ported the Federalists and backed Hamilton's economic propos-als . Hamilton's proposals were, in actuality, a rework ofMorris 's report "On Public Credit" , submitted some 10 yearsearl ier. Morris is credited with helping to bring the FederalGovernment to Philadelphia for 10 years as the Federal Dis-tr ict was under construction. During this period he movedfrom his home and allowed it to be used by Washington as his

residence.

During his t ime in the Senate, Morris began purchasing western landsfor speculation, and in 1791 he bought much of what is now western New York from itsthen owner, Massachusetts . He borrowed heavily to finance it , and soon began havingfinancial problems.

Letter Signed , Philadelphia, March 13, 1792, to James Carey, who had lent him moneyto use as security in that land acquisit ion, authorizing Carey to sell some of Morris 'land in Balt imore, probably in lieu of receiving a cash payment on the debt. "I am fa-vored with yours of the 4th instant and I real ly am anxious to do something with my land near

Balt imore which I am sure is dai ly suf fer ingand I would wil l ingly dispose of i t for f ivepounds an acre ready money at 5 pounds 10shi l l ings, part cash part credit . I beg leaveto trouble you with the enclosed copy of aletter from a Mr. Robert Long [asking i f hisBalt imore land was for sale] . I f you canmake any agreement with the person hementions, or any other on the above or bet-

ter terms I authorize you to makethe sale which I wil l conf irm. Mr.Vanbibber has been lucky indeedto get payment of his debt fromMr. Braxton and I wish I was aswel l c lear of him." He adds a holo-graph P.S. - "Pray del iver the en-closed to Mr. Long whom I refer toyou for my terms. I f credit iswanted for the purchase moneyundoubted security must be givenand interest to be paid annual ly."Carter Braxton, signer of theDeclaration of Independence,had financial dealings withMorris . The two ended up in lit-igation, and here Morris ex-presses his distaste for him.

Morris sold much of his NewYork land in December 1792.His financial problems onlyworsened, however, and in afew years he would be insol-vent. The enclosed letter fromLong is included. $1,350


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In a Warm Letter as Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton Bids Farewell to aRising Star of the New Government

Rare ALS as Secretary of the Treasury with address leaf intact

At the inauguration of the constitu-t ional government in 1789, AlexanderHamilton (1757-1804) , George Washing-ton's former mili tary aide and arenowned financier, became the firstSecretary of the Treasury and thus thearchitect of the structure of the Depart-ment. He designed a Treasury Depart-ment for the collection and disbursingof public revenue, but also for the pro-motion of the economic development ofthe country. In doing so, he assembledfrom around the country able-bodiedyoung men to perform the duties of thedepartment.

Daniel Brent was recognized early as aremarkable talent at America's f ledglinggovernment, and was selected byHamilton to serve as a functionary inthe new Treasury Department. In 1793,he announced to Hamilton his intentionto leave the Treasury.

Autograph letter signed , as Secretaryof the Treasury. Philadelphia, December 26, 1793, bidding farewell to Treasury Depart-ment employee Daniel Brent. “I have received your letter, announcing to me your intentionto change your situation. It is with regret I look forward to the loss of your services in the de-partment, as your conduct has been in every sense agreeable to me; though I wil l not attemptto engage your continuance contrary to what I dare say wil l be your interest . I beg you how-ever to be assured that you wil l carry with you my ful l approbation and cordial esteem and toconsider yoursel f as at al l t imes intit led to my good of f ices , whenever they can be useful toyou. Wishing you success I remain with true regard, Your obedient servant , Alexander Hamil-ton.”

He left Treasury but not government. As Hamilton hinted at, Brent 's star was on therise. He went on to become one of America's f irst stars at the State Department, serv-ing decades there as Clerk, Acting Secretary of State, Consul to Paris and the influentialChief Clerk posit ion. He would in this capacity testify at the Supreme Court of theUnited States during the Marbury v. Madison trial . $8,000


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Napoleon Issues Orders Setting in Motion the Invasion of Egypt

He sends instruct ions to ready his principal points of embarkat ion

French forces are to be ready for "final marching orders for al l the expedit ion.”

In 1797, the young general Napoleon Bonaparte, freshfrom the conquest of the substantial Austrian territoriesin the Netherlands and northern Italy, proposed to the Di-rectory (the French government) an expedit ion to seizeEgypt, then a province of the Ottoman Empire. His pur-pose was to protect French trade interests , obtain influ-ence in the Middle East , and undermine Britain's accessto its rich colony of India. The Directory, although trou-bled by the scope and cost of the enterprise, agreed to theplan in March 1798, in part to remove the popularNapoleon from the center of power but also because theidea of an assault on England had been rejected as prema-ture. The invasion of Egypt was, the Directory stipulated,to be kept as a closely guarded secret .

Bonaparte moved quickly to set his plan in action andwrote the Mediterranean Armaments Commission (in

charge of naval mili tary affairs in the Mediterranean) on March 21 that al l must beready for sail on April 9. This seemed not practicable, however, as transport and escortvessels were lacking, the fleet was not properly prepared for the invasion, and theships were not in place. Nonetheless, on March 30, the energetic Napoleon proceededanyway, and informed the Chief Army Quartermaster that the expedit ionary force toEgypt would be comprised of five army divisions, each division embarking for Egyptfrom one of five ports : Toulon, Marseil les , Genoa, Ajaccio [Corsica] , and Cittavecchia.General Dommartin was to take command of the arti l lery, General Vaubois would leadthe expedit ion from Corsica, and Admiral Bruey would lead the transport and naval op-erations for the entire expedit ion. All hinged all the arrival of vessels to transport hisarmy from Europe to Africa.

On April 2, nine large vessels under the command of Admiral Bruey arrived in Toulon,and his arrival was an indication that things were ready. News was immediately sentto Napoleon, who, after obtaining the formal consent of the Directory's Navy Minister( in whose name he had to act) , responded with this letter to the Mediterranean Arma-ments Commission, sett ing in motion the tactical movements that would soon see himconquering Malta and Egypt. Here he marshals his forces to strengthen and prepare hismain points of embarkation while simultaneously managing the preparation at his threeprincipal points of embarkation.

Letter Signed "Bonaparte ," April 10, 1798, Paris , at 1 am, to the Mediterranean Arma-ments Commission, the members of which he addressed with the Revolutionary greet-ing of "Cit izens." "The Minister of the Marine orders a fr igate to hasten to Genoa to escortthe Convoy which must embark there , as wel l as the general who commands it . The Ministeralso orders nine of the large transport vessels now at Toulon to head for Ajaccio [Corsica] totake on board the troops set to embark from there . I anxiously await my messenger, LeSimple ,in order to send the f inal marching orders for al l the expedit ion. Please forward to GeneralVaubois in Corsica the enclosed letter by postal boat . Three mil l ion in si lver have arrived inLyon and are headed to Toulon to cover the remaining expenses . General Dommartin must notforget to include in his plans the number of carts necessary." I t has been docketed by thecommission: "Received the 17th at 6pm."

Napoleon set sai l on May 19 with 50,000 soldiers; but as a member of the French Acad-


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emy of Sciences, he also took a group of 167 scientists and scholars, including mathe-maticians, naturalists , earth scientists , chemists , historians and linguists . He capturedMalta on June 11 and landed in Alexandria on July 1, soundly defeating the Ottomanarmy a week later at the Batt le of the Pyramids. Three days later the French enteredCairo. They were to control Egypt for three years, during which time they spreadFrench influence, but of perhaps even greater signif icance, discovered the Rosetta Stone(leading to the deciphering of hieroglyphics) , and found and brought to public atten-t ion a priceless hoard of Egyptian antiquit ies (start ing the fashion for Egyptian art , ar-chitecture and dress) . In the midst of this , on November 9, 1799, Napoleon successfullytook over France in a coup d'Etat in which the Directory was replaced by a three mem-ber Consulate, with Napoleon as First Consul.

This is an important document in both French and Egyptian history. $11,000


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Rare Document of Napoleon During His 100 Days, Rewarding One of the MenResponsible For His Return From Elba

In the spring of 1814, the all ied forces of Europe defeatedNapoleon Bonaparte. The Treaty of Fontainebleau, signed April11, 1814, laid out the terms they imposed, and pursuant to oneof them, Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba, off the coastof France. During his imprisonment there, his supporters clam-ored for his return, combining his populist l iberalist spirit witha strong nationalism. No publication did more to foster thepro-Napoleon unrest than the Nain Jaune, or Yellow Dwarf, ananonymous publication which opened its doors in December1814 to give voice to anti-Royalist sentiments. In reali ty, thepublication was edited by a small handful of Napoleon sup-

porters who were intent on bringing him back to the Continent to resume his leader-ship. They were a thorn in the side of King Louis and his agents and gave crucialsupport to Napoleon during his exile . They were there to keep the Emperor 's name onthe tip of the tongue of the populace and be a ready organizing entity for his return.

The head of this publication, M. Dirat , was a functionary in the province of Nerac andwas openly loyal to Napoleon. He was fired from his posit ion after the Treaty ofFontainebleu and set about creating the Yellow Dwarf publication, i tching forNapoleon's return. In late 1814 and early 1815, Dirat so greatly irri tated the Royalistsand was so effective with his pen that he was looked upon by his enemies as one of thefew who could contribute most to Napoleon's return from Elba. In fact , he did just that .

On February 26, 1815, Napoleon escaped from Elba with the help of loyal soldiers andreturned to the mainland on March 1, 1815. He marched to Paris on March 20 and gov-erned for the famed "100 Days." Less than two weeks after arriving in Paris , Napoleonset about reorganizing his government to bring his loyalists back into power and to re-ward those who had helped him most. Dirat was at the very top of his l ist .

Document Signed , Paris , April 1, 1815, to his Secretary of the Interior, the first part ina clerical hand. "Note . Since his Majesty is undertaking the organizat ion of the prefecturesand confiding them to proven and rel iable men, I beg him to permit me to engage M. Dirat ,former sub prefect of f icer from Nerac. . . , d ischarged from duty last Apri l because of his loyaltyto you, and who since has led the writers who have created the Yel low Dwarf ." Napoleon hassignaled his assent by signing his name to the left , below the notation "Forwarded to theMinister of the Interior to issue me a report ."

On June 18, 1815, Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo by the Duke of Well ington andMarshal von Blucher. For Dirat , with the reward of Bonapartian loyalty came the pun-ishment. In January 1816, the newly restored monarchy singled Dirat out, banishinghim from Paris and referencinghim by name, a rare "honor." Heis one of approximately 20 peo-ple to receive this treatment in aclause of the restoration docu-ment that is devoted to the mostegregious offenders of the peaceof France. He withdrew fromFrance and sett led in Brussels ,where he continued to publishthe "Nain Dwarf."

A rare document of Napoleonduring the 100 days. $4,500


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TT hh ee XX YY ZZ AA ff ff aa ii rr(Introduction to pieces 7, 8 and 9)

John Marshall , John Adams and Elbridge Gerry Manage the XYZ Affair

In 1794, with war having broken out on the Continent, the U.S. dispatched John Jay toLondon to negotiate a treaty with the Brit ish. The Jay Treaty, s igned in 1795, sought tosett le issues unresolved after the Revolutionary War, among them rights of U.S. andother neutral vessels and impressment by the Brit ish. The French, at war with Britain,viewed this act with hosti l i ty, even though it proved largely ineffective in the end. Inthe meantime, the newly developing polit ical party system was dividing America basedon sympathies with nations in Europe, with some, among them Alexander Hamilton andthe Federalists , who favored closer relations with Britain and others, among themThomas Jefferson, s iding with France.

In 1796, Charles Coteworth Pinckney succeeded James Monroe as minister to France.Monroe had been popular in France and Pinckney was a Federalist . The French govern-ment (then the Directory) refused to receive him, and he retired to the Netherlands.French attacks on American ships began happening regularly and st irred anti-Frenchsentiments in the U.S. , where many beat the drum for war. President John Adamscalled a special session of Congress, and on May 16, 1797, he sent a message to Con-gress supporting a mil i tary buildup. However, Adams also decided to send a delegationto France hoping to improve relations. Elbridge Gerry and John Marshall would meetPinckney in Paris . They were instructed to treat with France but not to do anythingdetrimental to their treaty with Britain.

From the start , this mission was met with resistance. In 1797, a more conservativeFrench government took power and it was even less incl inded to deal with the Federal-ists than had been policy previously. The ministers from America were not formallyrecognized by the government and instead were forced to negotiate with secret agents,X, Y and Z, who worked for French foreign minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand.What made matters worse, the French government, through these informal discussions,demanded an apology and a large payment from the Americans before even sit t ingdown off icial ly at the negotiating table. All three ministers re jected this outright. Mar-shall wrote a long dispatch to Secretary of State Pickering on November 8 and thiswould be leaked to the press in the U.S. , enflaming public opinion.

The American polit ical divisions were well-known in France. Pinckney and Marshallwere Federalists and the French government treated them in a hosti le manner, feel ingthey were acting with Brit ish interests in mind. Gerry, though a moderate, was consid-ered somewhat in the French camp. Many t imes, Talleyrand agreed to meet with Gerryprivately and even offered to negotiate only with him, a proposit ion that al l threeAmerican rejected, as their credentials authorized them to treat with the French only asa group. In March of 1798, the Directory determined to issue passports for Marshalland Pinckney, sending them home to get them out of the way, while retaining Gerry.


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John Marshall , Af ter the Humil iation of French Treatment During the XYZAffair, Leaves France to Report Back Home

In 1795, John Marshall had declined George Washington's offer of At-torney General , and in 1796 declined to serve as minister to France.In 1797, however, he accepted when President John Adams ap-pointed him to negotiate in Paris with Gerry and Pinckney.When the French attempted to send Marshall and Pinckneyhome, Marshall responded by saying that he served at thewishes of Americans and not the French and that he would stay.Talleyrand, exasperated, wrote that i t did not matter whetherMarshall stayed or left , but that he would send for Gerry to ne-gotiate only with him.

Now, humiliated by his treatment abroad and sensing in the Frenchan unwill ingness to treat with any except her partisans, he was ready to

leave. However, the roads were dangerous, he was concerned for his safety, and theFrench were slow to offer him the required papers. On April 4 , Gerry wrote to Tal-leyrand, expressing his displeasure at the Americans' treatment and refusing to treatoff icial ly with him were his colleagues to leave. He also pressed the French on the pa-pers that Marshall was awaiting. Marshall had threatened to go through London, agreat insult to the French, to return home safely. On April 13, Marshall 's papers ar-rived from the French and he set about leaving as quickly as possible. Gerry wouldstay, which would cause accusations of duplicitous conduct by Pinckney. Marshall re-fused to crit icize Gerry. On April 16, Marshall left Paris . The challenge now was tofind a vessel to take him home. On April18, he was in Tours, and wrote to a fr iendvia the US consulate in Nantes this letter :

Autograph Letter Signed , Tours, April 18,1798, to James H. Hooe, care of the Ameri-can Consul in France, with address leaf inMarshall 's hand. Hooe was a prominentVirginia landowner and a Washington fam-ily acquaintance. "I had intended to takeNantes in my way to Bordeaux and to sai lfrom that place i f I could obtain a vessel - i f Icould not proceed to Bordeaux but I have beentold that the road from Nantes to Bordeaux isbad and dangerous and as your letter leavesme scarcely any hope there is st i l l a vessel atNantes about to sai l for the United States , If inal ly decided to go immediate ly to Bor-deaux. I was apprehensive that by taking toomuch t ime at one place I might a f ter be ingdisappointed there lose my passage at theother. I shal l not then have the pleasure o fsee ing you. I wish a great deal o f happinessand am with much esteem, J . Marshal l ."

Marshall would arrive in Bordeaux and se-cure passage on the brig Alexander Hamil-ton, arriving at home to the publication ofnews that the French had demandedmoney for negotiation. He received a heroes welcome and would use this popularity torun for Congress. In 1801, he would be named chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court .

$6,500


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John Adams Discusses America’s Mission, Democratic Governance andHistorical Issues Relating to The Quasi-War With France

He l inks the success o f republ ics to ancient democracies

The push for war with France was gaining steam. On March 191798, Adams asked Congress to arm American vessels , shore upour coastal defenses, and manufacture arms. Jefferson bitterlycrit icized Adams' message, and in a letter to James Madison,hoped to stal l events for as long as possible, stat ing " i f wecould but gain this season, we should be saved. The affairs ofEurope would of themselves rel ieve us." In response to Adams,Jeffersonian Republican congressmen introduced resolutions to

support building up coastal and internal defenses, but not armingof ships. Also, they felt a declaration of war was inexpedient. Then,

on April 2 , the entire content of the letters from Europe exposing theXYZ bribery scandal were made public , and even Republican congressmen were upset .Also, by keeping Gerry and releasing the rest , the French appeared to be intentionallydividing the Americans at home. Moreover, the actions of Cit izen Genet, French minis-ter in the U.S. , seemed to supportthe contention that France was at-tempting to pit Americans againsttheir own government. The popu-larity of President Adams sky-rocketed and letters f lowed fromall over the country to support hispolicies.

One letter from America’s f i f thlargest ci ty, directed to Adamsand supporting the government,must have warmed his heart . TheBalt imorians wrote: “That yourmemorial ists at this importantand eventful crisis , when a for-eign nation. . .has menaced withdestruction the freedom and inde-pendence of the United States,and represented the cit izensthereof to be a divided people,feel themselves impelled by con-siderations of duty and love totheir country, to express their sen-t iments and declare their determi-nation to support the constitutedauthorit ies . . . Having the fullestconfidence in the wisdom of ourgovernment, we submit to theirconsideration the necessity ofplacing our country in a state ofdefence, and protecting our com-merce; and trust . . . temporary in-convenience result ing from theinterruption of peace wil l not beconsidered of such magnitude asto be placed in competit ion withthe sovereignty and freedom of


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the United States, whose existence is unjustly threatened.”

Adams, the atlas, instigator and philosopher of American independence, responded inthis letter reflect ing his thoughts on the nature of republics and his concern that thefledgling American government make such a system work - something no European na-t ion had yet managed. He also defined his view on the scope of freedom of expression,saying that divisions of opinion are a natural and often salutary part of a republic , solong as foreign nations are not able to foment those divisions into a destructive dis-unity. On the immediate polit ical questions, the President stated that the United Stateswould defend itself and protect i ts commerce from foreign powers in order to maintainits sovereignty.

Letter Signed as President, Philadelphia, May 2, 1798, “To the Cit izens of Balt imore &Balt imore County in the State o f Maryland.” “Thank you for communicat ing to me this re-spect ful address . The sense you en-tertain of the conduct o f a fore ignnation in threatening with destruc-t ion the freedom, and Independence,of the United States , and represent-ing the Cit izens of America as a di-vided people , is such as patr iot ismnatural ly and necessari ly inspires .The fate o f every republ ic in Europehowever, from Poland to Geneva, hasgiven too much cause for suchthoughts and projects in our Ene-mies , and such apprehensions in ourFriends and ourselves . Republ ics arealways divided in opinions concern-ing forms of Government, and plans,and detai ls o f administrat ion - thesedivis ions are general ly harmless ,o f ten salutary, and se ldom veryhurtful , except when fore ign Na-t ions inter fere , and by their acts ,and agents , excite and foment theminto part ies and fact ions; such inter-ference and inf luence , must be res is-ted and exterminated or i t wil l endin America , as i t did anciently inGreece , and in our own t ime in Eu-rope, in our total destruct ion as arepubl ican Government and Inde-pendent power. The l iberal applauseyou bestow on the measures pursuedby the Government, for the adjust-ment of di f ferences and restorat ionof harmony, your resolutions of Re-s istance in preference to submissionto any fore ign power, your conf i -dence in the Government, your rec-ommendation of measures o fdefences o f the Country, and protect ion of i ts commerce , and your generous resolution to sub-mit to the Expences and temporary inconveniencies which may be necessary to preserve thesovereignty, and freedom of the United States are rece ived with much respect .” His docket onthe verso, “Answer to Balt imore ,” indicates that this is Adams’ own retained copy of theletter. $65,000


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Elbridge Gerry, Seeking to Legit imize His Actions At the End of the XYZ Affair,Writes His Friend John Adams For an Audience

Important Letter From One Signer of The Declarat ion of Independence to Another

In the meantime, Elbridge Gerry stayed in France unti l fal l , whichwould open him to attacks by the Federalists that he was nego-tiat ing secretly and without the approval of his government.This was exacerbated by news of the duplicitous actions ofthe French and by some who sought to tarnish Gerry's repu-tation, chief among them Federalist Secretary of State Timo-thy Pickering, whose report on negotiations in Paris accusedGerry of acting counter to his mandate and the wishes of histwo colleagues. Pickering would make Gerry's l i fe diff icultfrom the moment he returned, and would deny the legit imacy

of his stay in Paris past the departure of Marshall . This wentto the heart of the Federalist - Republican split at a t ime when

the former were strong.

This Pickering - Gerry feud reached a boil ing point when, on August 3 , 1799, respond-ing to Gerry's complaints that his work in 1798 was being questioned, President JohnAdams had to intervene, writ ing on Gerry's behalf to Pickering, "Mr. Gerry's stay inFrance. . . was not gratuitous but of indispensable and unavoidable necessity under thepaws of arbitrary power."Adams wanted Gerry reim-bursed for his expenses there.Gerry was anxious to put theincident behind him andwanted to receive the neededfunds he was wait ing for, so hefollowed up with Adams.

Autograph Letter Signed , Cam-bridge, Sept. 29, 1799, to Presi-dent Adams. "If an answer to theletter which your excel lency pro-posed to write to Mr. Pickering onmy concerns, is rece ived, I wil l domysel f the honor of wait ing on youat any t ime which may best serveyour convenience . Mrs. Gerrywrites with me in best respects toyoursel f and Lady."

The American quasi-war withFrance would end in 1800, whenanother delegation would meetin Paris at Adams' urging andsign an agreement with the newFrench government headed byNapoleon. I t real ized that thewar on the Continent demandedits complete attention and therewas no benefit of adding an-other war across the Atlantic .

$5,000


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Ambassador Pinckney's Instructions to Negotiate With The Brit ish Over theChesapeake Affair and the Embargo of 1808, with his Handwritten Notations

Incidents played an important part in the leadup to the War of 1812

During the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy expanded to 175 ships of the l ine and 600ships overall , requiring 140,000 sai lors. While the Royal Navy was able to man itsships with volunteers in peace t ime, in war i t competed with merchant shipping andprivateers for a small pool of experienced sai lors and turned to impressment when un-able to man ships with volunteers alone. A sizeable number of sai lors in the UnitedStates merchant navy were Royal Navy veterans or deserters who had left for better payand conditions. The Royal Navy went after them by intercepting and searching U.S.merchant ships for deserters.

In June 1807, the vessel Chesapeake lay off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia. The Leopardhailed and requested to search the Chesapeake for deserters from the Royal Navy; whenthe Chesapeake refused, the Leopard began to f ire broadsides, ki l l ing three aboard theChesapeake and injuring another 18. The boarding party claimed to f ind four RoyalNavy deserters among the Chesapeake crew. The American public was outraged by theincident, as President Thomas Jefferson noted: "Never since the batt le of Lexingtonhave I seen this country in such a state of exasperation." The President closed U.S. ter-ri torial waters to Brit ish warships, and demanded both payment of damages and an endto Brit ish efforts to search United States ships for deserters. I t seemed that another warwith the Brit ish might break out.

Hoping to stave off hosti l i t ies , Jefferson turned to diplomacy and economic pressure inthe form of the Embargo Act of December 1807, passed by Congress, which sought todeprive Britain of the benefits of trade with the U.S. To enforce this purpose, the Actplaced restrict ive measures on Americans shipping and doing business in foreign ports .Congress would between that t ime and late April 1808 pass four embargo acts .

In February 1808, Will iam Pinckney was appointed U.S. ambassador to Great Britainand given responsibil i ty for negotiating a resolution to this crisis . In April , JamesMadison, Jefferson's secretary of state, wrote to Pinckney, "In order to entit le theBrit ish Government to a discontinuance of the Embargo as i t applies to Great Britain, i tis evident that al l i ts decrees, as well those of Jany. 1807 as of Nov. 1807, ought to be re-scinded as they apply to the United States." Should this be the case, Pinckney could,Madison wrote, tel l the Brit ish to expect that the president would release the trade re-strict ions. In return, the Americans wanted a statement that such impressment wouldend and that neutral ships could travel safely back and forth to Continental Europe. Afew months later, Madison sent Pinckney instructions containing a statement of theAmerican posit ion in the entire affair, the response to be made to Brit ish demands, andMadison's expectations from the Brit ish. These instructions, copied out in the hand of asecretary, were l ikely sent by more than one messenger, given the state of communica-t ions during periods of naval warfare and the uncertainty of one specif ic letter arriv-ing. The below letter is l ikely the only copy that Pinckney ever received, and was hisworking copy, as i t bears his docket , as well as notations of import in his hand. I t isseveral pages and only a small portion is transcribed here.

Manuscript Letter of James Madison, unsigned , Department of State, July 18, 1808, toPinckney, with points of s ignif icance highlighted in Pinckney's hand and his notes indi-cating that he has read the letter to the Prime Minister in i ts entirety. This shows thatthis was not only the received copy but was used during the negotiation i tself . "Yourcommunicat ions by Lt . Lewis were safe ly del ivered on the evening of the 8th inst . . . . I f Mr. Can-ning was disappointed because he did not rece ive fresh complaints against the orders in Coun-ci l , he ought to have recol lected that you had suf f ic iently dwelt on their o f fensive features inthe f irst instance . . . But i t cannot be supposed that his disappointment was in the least pro-


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duced by your reserve on this topic , as indeed is c learly shown by his dis incl inat ion to l istento your suggest ions with regard to i t . I t must have proceeded as you seem to have understoodfrom some expectat ion of proposals having for their basis or their object , arrangements adverseto the enemies o f G. Britain, or favorable to hersel f ; an expectat ion contrary, surely, to a l l rea-son and probabi l i ty under the accumulated injust ice which the United States are suf fer ingfrom Brit ish measures , and forming of i tse l f , an addit ional insult to their just and honorablefee l ings. A very l i t t le re f lect ion ought to have taught the Brit ish Cabinet , that no nation whicheither respects i tse l f or consults the rule o f prudence, wil l ever purchase redress from one of i tsaggressors by grat i fying his animosity against another aggressor ; and least o f a l l when a sus-pic ion is authorized that redress is insidiously withheld lest the example should be fo l lowed.

. . . I f [ the Brit ish government] has nothing more in view than i t is wil l ing to avow, i t cannotrefuse to concur in an arrangement rescinding on her part the orders in Counci l , and on ours ,the Embargo. I f France should concur in a l ike arrangement, the state o f things wil l be restoredwhich is the a l leged object o f the orders . I f France does not concur the orders wil l be better en-forced by the continuance of the Embargo against her than they are by the Brit ish f leet andcruizers , and in the mean t ime al l the benef i ts o f our trade wil l be thrown into the lap of GreatBritain. I t wil l be di f f icult therefore to conceive any motive in Great Britain to re ject the o f ferwhich you wil l have made, other than the hope of inducing on the part o f France, a persever-ance in her irr i tat ing pol icy towards the United States , and on the part o f the latter, host i leresentments against i t . I f the Brit ish Government should have e lected the more wise and moreworthy course o f meet ing the overture o f the President in the spir i t which dictated i t , i t is tobe hoped that measures wil l have been taken in concert with you, and thro' i ts Minister here ,for hastening as much as possible the renewal o f the intercourse which the orders and the Em-bargo have suspended; and thereby smoothing the way for other salutary adjustments .

. . .The Brit ish order. . . evidently invit ing our Cit izens to violate the laws of their Country, . . .hasmade i ts appearance in which the United States . . .A more disorganizing and dishonorable ex-periment is perhaps not to be found in the annals o f modern transact ions. I t is aggravated tooby every c ircumstance that could make i t reproachful . I t is level led against a nat ion towardswhich fr iendship is professed, as wel l as against a law the just ice and val idity of which is notcontested; and i t sets the odious example , in the face o f the world, direct ly in opposit ion to a l lthe principles which the Brit ish Government has been proclaiming to i t . What becomes of thecharge against the United States for rece iving Brit ish subjects who leave their own Countrycontrary to their a l legiance? What would be the charge against them, i f they were by proclama-t ion to invite Brit ish subjects , those too expressly and part icularly prohibited from leavingtheir Country, to e lude the prohibit ion; or to tempt by interested inducements a smuggling vi-olat ion or evasion of laws, on which Great Britain founds so material a part o f her nat ionalpol icy? In the midst o f so many more important topics o f dissat is fact ion, this may not be wortha formal representat ion; but i t wil l not be amiss to let that Government understand the l ightin which the proceeding is regarded by this .

. . .So strong and general an indignation seems part icularly to prevai l here against the Ameri-cans in Europe who are trading under Brit ish l icenses , and thereby sacri f ic ing as far as theycan the Independence of their Country, as wel l as frustrat ing the laws which were intended toguard American vessels and mariners from the dangers incident to fore ign Commerce , thattheir continuance in that career ought to be frowned upon, and their return home promoted inevery proper manner. I t appears by information from our Consul at Tangier that great numbersof our vessels are engaged in a trade between Great Britain and Spanish ports under l icensesfrom the former, and that the experiment proves as unsuccessful as i t is dishonorable ; thegreater part o f them being e i ther arrested in port , or by French & Spanish Cruisers . $3,500


PAGE 18

Diplomatic communique, withpenci l notations in Pinckney ’shand.

James Madison and James Monroe Appoint a Head of Mil itary Procurement andDistr ibution During the War of 1812

The highest ranking wart ime appointment we have seen

When the War of 1812 broke out, gett ing supplies and munitionsto the armed forces became a matter of great urgency. The sys-tem in place soon proved to be a great fai lure, as off icial re-ports from Gen. Henry Dearborn and other commanders oftroops on the Canadian frontier showed that as early as No-vember and December, 1812, they were in dire extremitieson account of deficiency of rations, arising from fai lure ofcontractors to make deliveries according to their contracts .President Madison and Congress determined to integrate theacquisit ions and distribution schemes and to name a single

director to manage the entire effort . On the 3d of March, 1813,an act was passed with the signif icant t i t le of "An Act better to

provide for the supplies of the Army of the United States, and forthe accountabil i ty of persons intrusted with the same." One section of this act providedthat there should be a "superintendent-general of mil i tary supplies," whose functionswere to keep proper accounts of al l the mil i tary stores and supplies purchased for, anddistributed to, the U.S. Army; to prescribe the forms of al l returns and accounts ofstores and supplies; and to perform all other duties respecting the general superinten-dence, purchase, transportation, and safe-keeping of mil i tary stores and supplies, andthe accountabil i ty therefor as might be prescribed by the Secretary of War.

Congressman Richard Cutts of the Maine District of Massachusetts married AnnaPayne, s ister of Dolley Madison, and was thus President Madison’s brother-in-law.Cutts was defeated for reelection in 1812 and his last day in that off ice was March 3,1813. Madison named him to f i l l this important off ice in this very document.

Document Signed , Washington, March 29, 1813, stat ing“That in pursuance of the Act o f Congress entit led ‘An Actbetter to provide for the suppl ies o f the army of the UnitedStates and for the accountabi l i ty o f persons entrusted withthe same. . . , ’” i t appoints Richard Cutts of Massachu-setts as Superintendant General of Mili tary Supplies.The document is s igned by President Madison (the sig-nature is l ight though legible) , and also by James Mon-roe as Secretary of War (his signature is muchstronger) . This is the highest ranking appointment dur-ing the War of 1812 that we have seen, nor does asearch of auction records reveal any others. $3,500


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Lafayette and Proponents of Liber ty in the French Chamber of Deputies Cal lon Their Leader, Prime Minister Dessoles, Not to Give Up the Cause

A document of importance in the post-Napoleonic period, s igned by scores o f members , includ-ing Lafayette , Constant , Manuel , Laf i t te , Chauvel in

After the fal l of Napoleon and the restoration of the Bour-bons, Louis XVIII became King of France. With him re-turned royals , prelates and conservatives who had beendisplaced by the French Revolution; many of them hadlost great wealth and seen their relat ives executed. Alarge group of them (called the “Ultras”) supported poli-cies designed to restore their hegemony if not the statusquo as i t was before 1789. The King himself , and manymore moderate Royalists , saw that this was impossibleand instead sought to work towards a constitutionalmonarchy on the Brit ish l ine. There were many others inFrance, considered Liberals , who had supported the Revo-lution (though not always Napoleon) and continued tosympathize with i ts goals .

The Duc Decazes, Minister of Police and a strong sup-porter of the King, was elected to the Chamber ofDeputies in August 1815 and led the moderate Royalists .Also, seeking to appease the Liberals who claimed that

the people were under-represented, the Prime Minister, the Duc de Richelieu, imple-mented a new and l iberalized election law. Operating under the new law, in the annualChamber of Deputies election of 1818, the Royalists lost the support of the nation’s vot-ers, who turned sharply towards the Liberals . Noted supporters of the Revolution l ikeLafayette were elected, along with colleagues l ike Manuel and Constant. The resultscaused consternation in the Tuileries, where the Moderates were shocked at the results ,while the Ultras (more conservative Royalists) , who had opposed the law, said ‘ I toldyou so’ and predicted a new reign of terror. Many called for a revision of the electionlaw, and Richelieu concurred, but the King favored extending his hand to both sideswithout seeking a change in the law that would end in a confrontation. The King’s re-fusal to act , going against their advice on an essential matter, caused Richelieu to re-sign in December 1818. This threw the King, rather unexpectedly and perhapsuncomfortably, into the arms of the Liberals . He appointed their leader General Jean-Joseph Dessoles, who had perfomed great services to the Bourbons at the Restoration,Prime Minister.

Under the new regime, police f i les were purged of Liberals’ names and Napoleon’s sup-porters were al lowed to return to France. The King hoped this would sett le the monar-chy on the foundation of popular authority. All of this outraged the Royalists , and theUltras who controlled the House of Peers introduced a bi l l to neutral ize the power ofthe Liberals by pressing a change in the election law. Prime Minister Dessoles took avery strong stand, contending that to change the law was to undermine the l ibert ies ofthe people and to destroy their charter of r ights, and accusing the Royalists of trying tobring down a government favored by the King and people and replace i t with one de-voted to aristocracy and special privilege. The Peers adopted the change, the Deputiestried to amend it , the Peers re jected the amendment, and the French government was ingridlock.The King, now siding with the Liberals , responded to Dessoles’ suggestion andcreated enough new Peers to pack that body and kil l the proposed change at that t ime.

However, the powers of the Grand All iance had been watching the growth of Liberalismin France with increasing anxiety. Metternich of Austria especial ly ascribed this mainlyto the "weakness" of the French ministry, and when in 1819 the polit ical elect ions st i l l


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further i l lustrated this trend, notably by the election as a Deputy of the revolutionaryand schismatic bishop Abbé Henri Grégoire, the powers began to debate whether to putinto play the terms of the secret Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle . At that convocation inOctober 1818, the evacuation of France was agreed to in principle, after which the Con-gress determined upon mili tary measures against France to be adopted by the All ies asa precaution against a fresh French outburst . This threat of foreign intervention forcedLouis XVIII ’s hand. He decided on a modification of the election law after al l , and onNovember 29, 1819, the Dessoles ministry was ended and Dessoles had to resign; andthe f irst act of Decazes, the new Prime Minister, was to annul the election of Grégoire.Thus the cause of Liberalism in France was dealt a grievous blow even as i t was cele-brating i ts victories.

A few weeks later the Liberal members of the Chamber of Deputies wrote to Dessoles,urging him to remain true to the cause. Letter Signed , Paris , December 14, 1819, toDessoles, who is addressed as “Monsieur le General .” “A decis ion has taken you away fromthe Chamber of Deputies . Our fee l ings of loss can only be soothed by the hope of see ing yousoon and to f ind in you a comrade whose character and talents we highly esteem. The countrythat you have honored in the f ie ld expects from you new proofs o f this zeal . You have alreadyshown that you know to serve her wel l with your pen, as wel l as your sword, and in t imes ofneed you bring together c ivi l courage with mil i tary valor. Receive , General , the assurance ofour considerat ion and attachment.” Signing this document are over 40 Liberal Deputies,including Lafayette, Constant, Lafit te , Manuel , former Napoleon Council of State mem-ber the Marquis de Chauvelin, Napoleonic General Maximilien Sebastien Foy, andCasimir Perier.

This is an important document in the struggle of France for l iberty, and a key insightinto the post-Napoleonic era. $8,000


James Madison, Father of the Constitution, Advances His ConstitutionalInterpretation of the Powers of Congress

He supports the e f forts o f "the several states and the cooperat ing patr iot ism of enl ightened c i t -izens" to bui ld the nat ional infrastructure

James Madison did more than any contemporary to frame theU.S. Constitution and is therefore commonly referred to asthe "Father of the Constitution." His insights were basedon the principles of balancing a strong central governmentwith f initely l imited and balanced powers. His notes ofthe debates of the Constitutional Convention are themost complete contemporary accounts of the delibera-t ions, and his words have been heavily rel ied on in casesof interpreting constitutional law.

At the dawn of the 19th century, the rights of Congresswere tested in dramatic fashion in a series of three acts of

Congress. In 1806, Congress passed, and President Jeffer-son signed into law, the f irst interstate internal improve-

ments bi l l , which provided Congressional funding andoversight for a series of projects stretching from Virginia to Penn-

sylvania. This was meant to strengthen interstate bonds, sett lement and commerce.Madison was at that t ime Secretary of State.

In 1817, Madison, this t ime as President, was presented by Congress with an act "to setapart and pledge certain funds for internal improvements." Madison vetoed it in hislast such act as president. He saw the principle as important enough to issue a sepa-rate letter to the House of Representatives on March 3, a document famous for i ts inter-pretation of the separation of powers. He explained his veto, saying that "Thelegislat ive powers vested in Congress are specif ied. . . and it does not appear that thepower proposed to be exercised by the bi l l is among the enumerated powers." He did,however, voice approval of internal improvement projects , writ ing "I am not unawareof the great importance of roads and canals and the improved navigation of watercourses." In 1822, President Monroe would veto a similar bi l l , again under the aus-pices of Constitutional i l legali ty. The states could individually undertake the effort butCongress had no such authority.

This st i l l left the states with the challenge of building and l inking their commercial ar-teries. After al l , how could the nation thrive i f i t was not l inked by roads and canals?In 1825, America was learning of the successful locomotive experiments in England,where George and Robert Stephenson had used a steam engine to pull a passenger trainon a land rai lway. These experiments were monitored closely in Balt imore and Penn-sylvania, both actively debating how best to advance transportation interests . In Feb-ruary, not without much dissension, the Pennsylvania legislature began debate on acanal going from Middletown to Pittsburgh.

One organization's act ion would set in motion the path to rai l , culminating in the de-velopment of the Balt imore and Ohio Railroad. The next month, the Pennsylvania Soci-ety for the Promotion of Internal Improvements in the Commonwealth, founded byMatthew Carey, sent an engineer, Will iam Strickland, to Europe. His intention, to col-lect information on construction of inland navigation systems, focused primarily onrailroads and the use of locomotive power on and off canal systems. That the projectwould be a state endeavor funded by the privately run society garnered the support ofmany, among them men l ike Madison, who favored locally funded and administered ef-forts .


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Carey, knowing Madison's influence on the subject and seeking his input, wrote him,sending a copy of the instructions to Strickland. He also included a work he had au-thored on the necessity of protecting the domestic cotton industry. Madison respondedwith this Autograph Letter Signed , Montpelier, May 12, 1825, to Matthew Carey, Esq. "Ihave received your favor of the 22 ult : with the several printed sheets sent with i t . I t is verygrat i fying to observe the prospect o f internal improvements expanding as i t is under the emu-lat ing auspices o f the several States and the cooperat ing patr iot ism of enl ightened c i t izens.No country more than ours admits o f improvement by art i f ic ia l roads and canals ; nor can i t bedoubted e i ther that the cost o f them in their ful lest extent is within the compass of publ ic re-sources or that i t wil l be incalculably overbalanced in the account of prof i t and loss ; not tospeak of the happy tendency o f such works to strengthen the bond of our union; or o f the lus-tre re f lected on our free inst i tut ions by such specimens of the fruits they produce. Your moni-tory remarks on the Cotton trade were very opportune and could not fa i l to be useful . Shouldany examples worthy of a piece in the "Annals o f Benef icence" come to my knowledge or occurto my recol lect ion, I shal l fee l a pleasure in complying with your request on that k ind."

Strickland procured models of everything from locomotives to bridges and sought an-swers to questions that had presented tehcnical problems to the states. Carey's organi-zation's report would have different effects in different states but would spark action.Pennsylvania soon approved the 395-mile Main Line of Internal Improvements - 277miles of canals and 118 miles of rai lroads.

In Maryland, however, the Balt imore and Ohio Railroad, a privately funded organiza-t ion, would become the f irst common carrier rai lroad. In 1826, i t would fol low suit bysending their own investigative team to England. Their report , enacted in 1828, re-sulted in the building of that f irst rai l l ine, extending from the port of Balt imore toCumberland. $20,000


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Proof That Pres. Monroe Received the Counsel of Thomas Jefferson During theMissouri Cris is of 1820, But Ignored I t

And Jefferson was right, correctly warning that disunion and war could result from di-viding the country geographically, free state and slave state

The f irst great crisis over slavery occurred when Missouri re-quested to be admitted to the Union as a slave state in 1819.The number of s lave and free states was then balanced at 11each, and admission would upset that balance. Both northand south staked out posit ions based on sectionalism,rather than nationalism, the f irst t ime this had occurred.The debates in Congress were intense. With so many terri-tories in the west st i l l thinly sett led or not sett led at al l(and the certainty that addit ional requests for admissionwould be presented as these territories were populatedand qualif ied for statehood), i t was clear that this divisive

issue could recur again and again. Congress thus sought tosett le the question once and for al l by admitt ing Missouri as a

slave state and Maine as a free one, and more importantly, bydrawing a l ine below which slavery would be permitted in the terri-

tories and above which i t would be forbidden. The Missouri Compromise appeared tomost to be a perfect solution, but some were troubled by the implications of drawing aphysical l ine between north and south, and thereby creating defined sections whereonce there was a union. In March, 1820, Jefferson received word of the detai ls of theCompromise essential ly agreed upon in Congress. He was appalled by the very idea ofreducing a polit ical disagreement to geographical terms. On April 5 , 1820, he wrote toMark Hil l , a Maine congressman, that “The idea of a geographical l ine, once suggested,wil l brood in the minds of al l those who prefer the gratif ication of their ungovernablepassions to the peace and union of their country.” We offer a letter that proves thatPres. Monroe was shown this exact letter to Hil l (and was thus aware of Jefferson’s op-posit ion to the Missouri Compromise) ; in fact i t is the very cover letter with whichMonroe returned the Jefferson letter to Hil l .

Autograph Letter Signed as President to Mark Hil l , April 13, 1820. “Mr. Monroe has pe-rused Mr. Je f ferson’s letter with pleasure , which he now returns to Mr. Hil l , with thanks forhis attention.” Just days later, Jefferson wrote the famous letter saying that the Missouriquestion was a “firebell in the night,” and promised to be the knell of the Union. De-spite Jefferson’s opposit ion, Monroe felt that he had no choice but to sign the MissouriCompromise. Ult imately Jefferson proved to be correct ; dividing the nation geographi-cal ly seemed to freeze att i tudes and actions along sectional l ines, and was the f irst stepto Civil War. See Jefferson and His Time by Malone for a full discussion. $8,000


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Scandal, Pol it ics, and Leadership: Andrew Jackson Broadens the Powers of thePresidency in the Peggy Eaton Affair

In a historic letter to his Secretary of the Treasury, Jackson lays out his rat ionale fordismissing the entire cabinet

Andrew Jackson, commander of the American forces at the victo-rious Batt le of New Orleans, who then seized Florida andserved as i ts mil i tary governor in 1821, was the dominatinginfluence in American polit ics in the 1820s and 1830s. Hesaw himself as the representative of the common man,championed their causes, was elected by them and actedwithin that mandate. His term marks the beginning of themodern presidency. Renowned for his toughness (he wasnicknamed "Old Hickory" ) , he demonstrated that qualitymany t imes during his polit ical career in the form offeuds with polit ical opponents and frequent and turbulentaltercations with Congress, including an unprecedented

number of vetoes.

Foremost in Jackson's l ine of enemies was John C. Calhoun. Cal-houn originally was a candidate for president in the election of

1824, but after fai l ing to win suff icient support , he decided to set his s ights on the vicepresidency. He was elected to that off ice and served four years under John QuincyAdams. In 1828, he switched his support to Andrew Jackson and ran for re-election.After a decisive victory, Calhoun was then Jackon's vice president. However, before thetwo had taken off ice, the Tariff of 1828 was passed, which drove the cotton states to theverge of rebell ion. Calhoun was bitterly against the tariffs , but Jackson's posit ion wasequivocal . To advise the incoming president of what the South expected of him, theSouth Carolina legislature asked Calhoun to prepare a report . The result ing document,known as the South Carolina Exposit ion (1828) , was the f irst explicit statement of Cal-houn's polit ical philosophy that states could null i fy laws passed by Congress and ap-proved by the President. Jackson was aghast at the idea, and also became wary thatCalhoun, an old hand in Washington, was trying to control or manipulate him.

Jackson lost no t ime in exerting his own power, but st i l l wanted both to r id his admin-istration of Calhoun’s influence and el iminate any reelection aspirations Calhoun mighthave. The Peggy Eaton affair provided the perfect pretext . Jackson had lost his belovedwife just months before entering the White House, and he blamed her death in part onslanderous attacks on her character and their marriage. There had been open discus-sion about the legali ty and t iming of Rachel 's divorce in her f irst marriage; the implica-t ion was that Jackson was l iving in sin.

Margaret Timberlake Eaton was the wife of Senator John Eaton, a close fr iend of An-drew Jackson. As a young woman Peggy had married John Timberlake, a Navy purserwho spent considerable t ime at sea. I t was said in Washington society that she led animmoral l i fe , and that her husband’s untimely death in a foreign port was a suicidebrought about by Peggy's infideli ty. Whether true or not , Peggy got married again, thist ime to John Eaton, who soon became Secretary of War in Jackson's cabinet . Soon afterthe inauguration i t became apparent that the wives of the other members of Jackson'sCabinet did not approve of Mrs. Eaton's al legedly lurid past and would not associatewith her. She was snubbed at White House receptions, and Washington society refusedto accept or return social visits from Mrs. Eaton, and pronounced themselves scandal-ized that Mrs. Eaton was even invited to participate in polite Washington company.This slander was spearheaded by Floride Calhoun, John's wife.

Jackson had known Peggy Eaton for some t ime and l iked her. Perhaps more impor-


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tantly, he saw in this a parallel with the attacks on his own wife. So he naturally sidedwith Peggy and John Eaton and became furious with the al legations. He fumed: "I didnot come here to make a cabinet for the ladies of this place, but for the nation!" The situation deteriorated to the point where i t became diff icult even for Jackson's cab-inet to conduct i ts regular business, so preoccupied were the members with the Eatonaffair. Martin Van Buren, Jackson's Secretary of State, was a widower and therefore safefrom wifely crit icism of Mrs. Eaton. He was kind to Mrs. Eaton, which gratif ied Jack-son. Moreover, Van Buren's unquestionable al legiance to Jackson gave the President anopportunity to r id himself of a problem and simultaneously deal a fatal blow to hislong t ime nemesis , Calhoun. On April 11, 1831, Martin Van Buren's letter of resignationarrived on Jackson's desk, and it included a suggestion that the rest of the cabinet dothe same. Jackson gratefully accepted resignation and took him up on his advice. Jack-son sent copies of these letters to al l of his other Cabinet members. Since they includedVan Buren's cal l for the dissolution of the Cabinet , i t was an implied request by Jacksonfor their resignations as well . This resignation of the cabinet and his handling of theaffair would be one of his Jackson's defining moments as president. The Cabinet fol-lowed suit , some more reluctantly than others, bound by honor to leave the cabinet butsome having animosity for having to do so. Jackson’s action was unprecedented; he wasdismissing the entire executive leadership of the administration, even though these of-f icers had al l been confirmed by the U.S. Senate. And in doing so, he vastly increasedthe powers of the presidency. As for Van Buren, he was nominated for the post of Am-bassador to Great Britain as a reward.

Samuel Ingham, the Secretary of the Treasury, was one of those who received a copy ofthe resignation request letters . On April 18, no doubt wishing to remain in his post , hereplied to Jackson without his resignation, asking for clarif ication. This the presidentgave him in person and not by letter. The next day, Ingham tendered his resignation,urging that he did not want his name associated with the scandal , writ ing, "I begleave, however, to add, in my own justif ication, for not fol lowing the example of theSecretary of State and Secretary of War, in making a voluntary tender of the resignationof my off ice. . . that I was wholly unconscious of the application, to myself , many of thereasons, so far as I was apprised of them, which had induced them to withdraw fromthe public service. I t , therefore, seemed to be duo to my own character, which mightotherwise have been exposed to unfavorable imputations, that I should f ind a reasonfor resigning."

Jackson responded with this letter, making clear his reasoning for asking for the entirecabinet to step down, laying out his principles relative to the construction of a cabinet ,and exhibit ing his style of governing.

Autograph Letter Signed , Washington, April 20, 1831, to Ingham. “Late last evening Ihad the honor to rece ive your letter o f that date , tendering your res ignation of the o f f ice o fSecretary of the Treasury. When the res ignations of the Secretary of State and Secretary ofWar were tendered, I considered ful ly the reasons of fered, and al l the c ircumstances connectedwith the subject . After mature del iberat ion, I concluded to accept those res ignations. But whenthis conclusion was come to , i t was accompanied with a convict ion that I must entire ly renewmy Cabinet . I ts members had been invited by me to the stat ions they occupied ; i t had come to-gether in great harmony, and as a unit . Under the c ircumstances in which I found mysel f , Icould not but perceive the propriety of se lect ing a Cabinet composed of entire ly new materials ,as be ing calculated, in this respect at least , to command publ ic conf idence and sat is fy publ icopinion. Neither could I be insensible to the fact , that to permit two only to ret ire , would be toaf ford room for unjust misconceptions and malignant misrepresentat ions concerning the inf lu-ence of their part icular presence upon the conduct o f publ ic a f fa irs . Just ice to the individualswhose publ ic spir i t had impel led them to tender their res ignations, a lso required, then, in myopinion, the decis ion which I have stated. However painful to my own fee l ings, i t became nec-essary that I should frankly make known to you the whole subject . In accepting of your res ig-nation, i t is with great pleasure that I give test imony to the integrity and zeal with which you


PAGE 27

have managed the f iscal concerns of the nat ion. In your discharge of a l l the duties o f your of-f ice , over which I have any control , I have been ful ly sat is f ied ; and in your ret irement youcarry with you my best wishes for your prosperity and happiness . I t is expected that you wil lcontinue to discharge the duties o f your of f ice unti l a successor is appointed."

This letter is one of the most important Jackson wrote as president, and is referenced inmany biographies of Jackson. A search of records fai ls to disclose any similar ones hav-ing reached the market in at least thirty years.

Jackson had indeed managed to r id himself of Calhoun’s supporters. In retal iat ion,Calhoun, presiding over the Senate, which had to approve Van Buren's appointment,cast the deciding vote in opposit ion. Henry Clay, a savvy polit icians himself , remarkedto Calhoun that he had destroyed an ambassador but created a vice president. In 1832Jackson asked Van Buren to join him on the Democratic Party t icket as his running mateand candidate for vice president. Jackson and Van Buren were elected, and Van Burensucceeded Jackson as President in the election of 1836. $23,000


Santa Anna Recommends a Promotion in the El ite Grenadiers

In 1810, the same year that Mexico declared i ts independence from Spain, the sixteen-year-old Santa Anna joined the colonial Spanish Army. In 1821, however, he changedsides and declared his loyalty for "El Libertador": the future Emperor of Mexico,Agustín de Iturbide. He rose to prominence by quickly driving the Spanish forces out ofthe vital port ci ty of Vera Cruz that same year. In 1823 Santa Anna was among the mil i -tary leaders who supported the successful Plan de Casa Mata to overthrow Iturbide anddeclare Mexico a republic . In 1824, Guadalupe Victoria became the f irst President ofMexico and Santa Anna was appointed Governor of the state of Yucatán.

Document Signed by an Ynacio Rubio, Merida, February 28, 1825, to Victoria, whom headdresses as "Hon. Mr. President." "With the promotion of Captain Don Arcadio de Cic-ero, f inding vacant the l ieutenant of Grenadiers in the provincial batal l ion of this capi-tal , a person who would serve you and adequately f i l l i t with honorable conduct andapplication, I propose to you by the authority conceded to me: First ly - Don TomasHeredia, Cadet of the 3rd company with service of one year and 11 months and 12 days.Secondly - Don Joaquin Santiago, Colonel Cadet of the 3rd company with service of oneyear and 11 months and 10 days. Thirdly - Don Francisco Saens, Cadet of the 4th com-pany with service of one year and 11 months and 7 days. All three are of good merit tobe considered, but particularly Don Tomas Heredia, l isted f irst by virtue of his age.Scarce early Endorsement Signed as Governor, Campeche, March 16, 1825, agreeingwith the recommendation. "The Tomas Heredia l isted in preference in this proposal is

the most deserving to be the l ieutenant in the Grenadierbattal ion in which he serves. Perhaps in you view this wil lresolve what you would f ind worthy to do." Signed in fullwith paraph. Grenadiers formed an el i te portion of theMexican Army, one in which Santa Anna had himself

served.

Santa Anna's career would be long and turbulent. Hewas elected president of Mexico as a l iberal in 1833,

but in 1834 he stated that Mexico was notready for democracy and emerged as an au-tocratic centrist . In December 1835 he or-ganized an army to crush the rebell ion ofAmericanos in Texas, and in 1836 arrived inSan Antonio where he took the Alamo (butfamously took no prisoners) . After his cap-ture by Sam Houston's army, he was sent toWashington, D.C. , whence he returned toMexico. He was acting president in 1839,helped overthrow the government of Anas-tasio Bustamante in 1841, and was dictatorfrom 1841 to 1845. Excesses led to his over-throw and exile to Havana.

Before the beginning of the Mexican War,Santa Anna entered into negotiations withPresident James K. Polk with an eye to thesett lement of American claims. When warcame, he ral l ied resistance to the foreign in-vaders. As commanding off icer in thenorthern campaign he lost the batt le of

Buena Vista in February 1847, returned to Mexico City, reorganized the demoralizedgovernment, and turned east to be defeated by Winfield S. Scott 's forces at CerroGordo. Secret negotiations with Scott fai led, and when Mexico City was captured, SantaAnna retired to exile . $2,000


PAGE 29

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Will iam Henry Harrison Reports on the Prospects For His Nomination by theWhig Party For the 1840 Election

This was his victorious Log Cabin campaign, the f irst modern presidential campaign

The Jacksonian era was one of adversity for Harrison, themili tary hero who had been a supporter of Henry Clay andformer President John Quincy Adams, and opposed PresidentAndrew Jackson. Having aspirations for the presidency, hepromoted his candidacy by touring the country during 1835-6. This was the f irst t ime a person had campaigned for presi-dent himself , rather than through his fr iends. Anniversarycelebrations of the batt les of Tippecanoe and the Thamesglorif ied his mil i tary career, fr iendly editors publicized hispolit ical availabil i ty, and local Whig conventions in Pennsyl-vania, Maryland, Kentucky, and Indiana pledged their sup-port .

The Whig Party was formed in 1833 in opposit ion to thepolicies of President Jackson and the Democratic Party, andwas composed of supporters of Clay, Adams, Webster, andothers who favored favored a strong national governmentand a program of modernization and economic protection-ism. It absorbed the old National Republican Party and evenbrought in some anti-Jackson southerners l ike John Tyler. In1836, the Whigs had not yet coalesced as a party and couldnot agree on a standard bearer. So Whig state conventionsnominated a number of persons for president. These in-cluded Webster, Sen. Hugh L. White, and Harrison. PresidentJackson's hand-picked successor, Martin van Buren, won theelection, with the disorganized Whig candidates split t ing the

anti-Democratic vote. Of these, Harrison performed the best , picking up 73 electoralvotes.

The Whigs were determined not to repeat their mistake of 1836, and for the 1840 elec-t ion planned a national convention in December 1839 to select a single nominee, As1839 dawned, Harrison was again in campaign mode, l ining up support and maneuver-ing to be that nominee. This t ime his main opponent would be Henry Clay, the foremostWhig in the nation. One of Harrison’s al l ies was prominent Pennsylvania Whig CharlesMacalester, a partner in the banking f irm of Gaw, Macalester and Company, director ofthe Second Bank of the United States, and an active philanthropist who donated theland in Minneapolis on which Macalester College is s i tuated. In this letter, Harrison re-ports on his prospects

Autograph Letter Signed , North Bend, Ind. , January 24, 1839, to Macalester. “I duly re-ce ived your letter o f the 9th instant . I f I had fo l lowed the dictates o f my fee l ing I should havewritten you frequently but real ly I am kept to busi ly driving the qui l l that I have not t imeenough to attend to my home af fa irs as I ought to do. I knew of Mr. C's going to Phi ladelphiaand I was convinced that his vis i t was for the purposes you suggest . However! from the tenorof the letters I have late ly rece ived his former most sanguine fr iends have nearly given up al lhopes o f his be ing nominated as the opposit ion candidate unless , as they say, some decis ivemovement is made in his favor to the South. The most authentic source from which this infor-mation is rece ived is from Col . Charles Todd of KY who saw their letters . They say that a l l thenon holding s lave states (with the exception of New York,) have combined against him. Toddadds that one of the Kentucky delegat ion has just written to him that he bel ieves that even themajority of New York members now in Congress are in my favor. An other Kentucky memberin a letter to mysel f says that from the fact o f their having a large mass of the votes in that


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who wil l not under any c ircumstancees vote for Clay, He cannot be e lected but that I can beatC with great ease . His expression "sweep N.Y. c lean of Van Burenism," I have such a magazineof this k ind of information that I could not issue the third of i t without fat iguing you. I wil lconclude therefore with one other i tem only. A letter rece ived today from the highly talentededitor o f the Missourian now in Washington informs that in a conversat ion with two of themost inf luential Tennesseans though they declared their preference for Mr. C they add thatthey were convinced that he could not now ("i f he wished i t") push me of f . I cannot give you astronger evidence of my fr iendship than by giving you the above detai l which I know you wil lconsider conf idential .

Some one told me late ly that you were soon expected in this quarter. I hope i t maybe so as Iwant your advice upon a very important matter to me. Several o f the large Capital ists o f Con-nect icut have been down here looking round at my property. M.J . Wil l iams (one of them) whosaid smil ingly that he would give me more money for 2 or 300 acres o f my land than would besuf f ic ient to make me independant. . . for the rest o f my l i fe . . . .The price however wil l be largeand i t is on this subject as wel l as the detai ls o f the matter that I am extremely anxious tohave your advice and assistance . I f I should be the opposit ion candidate , I must have not onlya c lear exchequor but one s imple in i ts operat ions. This I have been ample means of e f fect ingi f the matter can be managed properly. . . I thank you for the compliment to "The discource ." Iam fearful I shal l become a l i t t le vain i f I get many more, such as I have already received. Mr.N.P. Tal lmage and his re lat ive Gov. James Tal lmage have both proposed a very f latter ing en-comniums on i t . I have just seen in the National Gazette a most favorable not ice o f GreensStraw Cutter for sale at Landreth’s and at Hirst and Dreess both in Chestnut St . I havewanted one for a long t ime and have been wait ing to f ind out which is best . As this is said toexceed the "Yankee Notion" wil l you have the goodness to send me one as soon as i t can be gotout with the bi l l our fr iend Buck.” A search of auction records does not disclose any otherletter of Harrison from the 1839 campaign, in the run-up to the nomination on Decem-ber 4, having appeared in at least three decades. I t is also interesing to note that Harri-son, who was always chronically in debt, was hoping that a real estate scheme wouldget him rich quick, even as he was on the doorstep of the presidency.

At the national Whig convention in Harrisburg on December 4, the delegates re jectedtheir acknowledged leaders, Webster and Henry Clay, and nominated Harrison. Noplatform was adopted, and advisers told Harrison to keep his l ips "hermetical ly sealed"on the issues of s lavery, the tariff , and the U. S. Bank. To gain support in the South, theWhigs nominated John Tyler, a former senator from Virginia, for the vice presidency.Northern and Southern Whigs were urged to ral ly behind "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too."This was the famous Log Cabin Campaign, the f irst modern presidential campaign, andit brought victory to the Whigs. But al l their plans and hopes were dashed when Harri-son died just one month after his inauguration. $15,000


PAGE 31

Charles Macalester

The Purge of 1843: John Tyler Gleeful ly R ids the Government of His Opponents

“Then of f with his head. . .”

Tyler succeeded to the presidency upon the un-timely death of Will iam Henry Harrison, whohad been in off ice just a month. No other vicepresident had become president before, andmany people felt that a vice president who as-sumed the off ice of president did not assume thefull powers of the presidency, and expected Tylerto act merely as a caretaker. Another complicat-ing factor was that Tyler was a former Democrat ,who although elected as a Whig vice president,was unsympathetic to Whig Party programs andgoals. Tyler, an activist with plans of his own,found a cabinet and administration picked byHarrison, very much pining away for Old Tippi-canoe. He was the kind of man who needed tofeel personal loyalty from those he worked with.Instead he saw himself "surrounded by men whonow have smiles in their eyes and honey on theirtongues, the better to cajole and deceive.” Withthis as his att i tude, i t is no surprise that therewere an extraordinary 22 changes in his cabinet

during his four years in the White House; at one point everyone but Secretary of StateDaniel Webster resigned en masse.

In the spring of 1843, Tyler ’s focus was on the annexation of Texas, a move he believedwould be good for the south, good for the nation, and good for his polit ical career andchances for reelection. The biography And Tyler Too states that in a letter dated May12, 1843 to his new Secretary of the Treasury, J . C. Spencer, Tyler " launched a vigorouspurge of federal off iceholders hosti le to his administration and to his Texas ambitions."Three days later he wrote Spencer with a fol low-up set of instructions for purges andnew loyal appointments.

Autograph Letter Signed as President, one long page 4to, Charles City County, Va. ,May 15, 1843, to Spencer. “Your letter to the Bunker Hil l gentry is excel lent . Kingsbury’sletter is sound in i ts views- but before the col lector is removed Lowry should be appointed,then of f with his head. Nor do I care i f a l ike service be done to the Postmaster at Port land.Dowden was the last man I should have suspected of so bad an act . What poor devi ls some menare . I st i l l doubt about Lincoln unti l a f ter our vis i t to Boston. My son John has le f t me todayfor Washington to consult with you as to a certain publ icat ion which Mr. Botts' late art ic leseems to require . I have him on the hip, I shal l not let him of f eas i ly." He added a P.S. "Showme how to provide for Lansing."

The Lincoln mentioned was Levi Lincoln, Jr. , a former Governor of Massachusetts andWhig member of Congress, who was appointed by Pres. Harrison collector of the portof Boston. He served unti l this purge. Tyler seems in this letter to be postponing givingLincoln the axe unti l seeing him face to face. Congressman John M. Botts was a dist in-guished Virginia Whig whose open opposit ion to Tyler ’s policies after he took off icetouched Tyler ’s pride, and caused him to see Botts as an enemy. Dowden, Lowry andKingsbury were apparently minor appointees about whom Tyler nonetheless concernedhimself . The Bunker Hil l referenced is a town in West Virginia.

The truth is that spoils were (and are) a fact of polit ical l i fe . However, this letter goesway beyond the norm; there is an element unpresidential and mean, yet actually glee-


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ful , about i t . I t shows just the kind of man Tyler ’s enemies thought he was and surelyreflects the spirit in which the purges were carried out.

Tyler ’s efforts to secure his polit ical future through purges were a fai lure, and he re-mained a man without a party. The Whigs felt that he had betrayed their 1840 electionvictory and wanted nothing to do with him, while the Democrats , who agreed withmany of his policies, considered him a turncoat and nominated Polk. This is one of themost important letters of Tyler to come on the market , revealing more about the manand his conduct of the presidency than any other we have seen. $6,500


PAGE 34

Henry Clay Gives a Complete Explanation of His Opinion on Slavery and theAnnexation of Texas During the 1844 Presidential Campaign

"Whilst at the South I am represented as a l iberty man, at the North I am decried as an ultrasupporter o f s lavery, when in fact I am neither nor the other."

By the spring of 1844 i t was clear that Clay would be theWhig nominee for president that year, and he was greeted byhuge crowds wherever he went to campaign. Never was hisstar brighter, his vision for concil iat ion more ebull iently metby people in the South and North. But an issue boiled just be-neath the surface that would tear the nation apart and catchClay in the crossfire.

The Republic of Texas was seeking annexation to the UnitedStates, but annexation was a controversial move in the U.S.for two very important reasons. First , i t threatened to enmeshthe U.S. in a war with Mexico, which was not reconciled toTexan independence, no less annexation. Second, slavery was

legal in Texas, and if i t were annexed, an enormous expanse of addit ional land wouldbe opened to slavery. Many in the North were aghast and opposed admitt ing, while atthe South the opposite was the case. While Clay had a moral opposit ion to the insti tu-t ion of s lavery, he also owned slaves and understood that an effort to abolish slaverywhere i t already existed would l ikely cause the Union to disintegrate. So though heheld a str ict states-rights posit ion, he was wary of extending slavery into new territo-ries, which al lowed Whigs in the North ( l ike Abraham Lincoln) to support him, while atthe South he was seen as a fel low slaveholder. This t ightrope-walking act was more dif-f icult i f he needed to apply his principles to territories. Seeing that the Texas questioncould become a major election issue and damage them both, he and his expected oppo-nent, President Martin Van Buren, agreed to take annexation of Texas off the table. OnApril 27, the National Intel l igencer in the District of Columbia published letters sub-mitted by Clay, the "Raleigh letters ," in which he claimed that both he and Van Burenwere against annexation because i t would inevitably lead to war with Mexico. This po-sit ion ruined Van Buren's chances of being the Democratic nominee, as i t al ienated thepowerful Southern segment of the party, and staked Clay down to an opinion thatwould later come to haunt him. Andrew Jackson would famously pronounce Clay a"dead polit ical duck." And John C. Calhoun, supporting the slave holding interests ,began looking for a replacement for Van Buren. The Party would reject Van Buren at i tsconvention and nominate James K. Polk. So Clay's plan had infuriated the Southernersand ensured that Van Buren would not be his opponent.

As the campaign progressed, Clay's fr iends, especial ly in the South, grew nervous, andasked him for clarif ication on the annexation question. This he gave in his "Alabamaletters," written to Stephen Miller of Tuscaloosa. In them, he denied that he was anabolit ionist , noting that he was often the subject of their revilement. Moreover, heseemed to deny any opposit ion to the annexation of Texas, attempting to qualify his ob-ject ion in the Raleigh letters by saying that i f the whole nation pushed for i t and itcould be done without war, then he would support i t . This upset the Northerners, whofelt that he was saying one thing in the South and another in the North.

Then, on August 13, Clay's distant cousin, Cassius Clay, published a letter in the NewYork Tribune in which he predicted Clay's opposit ion to annexation would lose him 3 or4 states. Worse yet , he cal led his cousin no emancipationist but wrote "I bel ieve hisfeel ings are with the cause. I know that those most immediately within his influenceapproximate to myself in sentiment upon the subject to slavery." Cassius defined thecampaign issues as: "Polk, s lavery and Texas" vs. "Clay, Union and Liberty." For HenryClay, whose balancing act was already diff icult to maintain, this threatened to send him


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over the edge. He responded and quickly. On September 4, he published his response,writ ing "Mr. C. M. Clay's letter was written without my knowledge, without any con-sultation from me and without any authority from me." Clay went on to explain hismeasured posit ion on slavery and emancipation. But his posit ion was unraveling andhis nuanced posit ions were being overtaken by accusations on al l s ides.

Joshua Giddings, an Ohio Member of Congress, was an ardent and influential abolit ion-ist in a key election day state for Clay. He maintained that slavery could only exist bya specif ic state enactment, that therefore slavery in the District of Columbia and in theterritories was unlawful and should be abolished, and that Congress had no power topass any act which in any way could be construed as a recognit ion of s lavery as a na-t ional insti tution or have the effect of expanding slavery.

I f Mil ler was Clay's problem in the South, Giddings was in the North. Giddings, whohad supported Clay, felt betrayed by his comments. Clay, seeking to clarify his posi-t ion and explain the controversy, wrote Giddings this Letter Signed , marked "Confiden-t ia l ," Ashland, September 11, 1844. I t contains a complete explanation of his posit ion onslavery and Texas. "I am extremely sorry that my letters to Alabama should have producedany unfavorable impressions in your port ion of Ohio. I t was not my intention in those lettersto vary the ground in the smallest degree which I had assumed in my Rale igh letter. I t hadbeen represented to me that in that letter I had displayed a determined opposit ion to the annex-at ion of Texas to the United States , a l though the whole Union might be in favor of i t , and i tcould be peaceful ly and honorably e f fected upon fa ir and just terms. I t was my purpose inthose Alabama letters to say that no personal or private motives prompted me to oppose annex-at ion; but that my opinion in opposit ion to i t was founded sole ly upon publ ic and general con-siderat ions. I therefore said that i f by common consent o f the Union, without nat ionaldishonor, without war, and upon just condit ions the object o f annexation could be accom-pl ished, I did not wish to be considered as standing in opposit ion to the wishes o f the wholeconfederacy but on the supposit ion stated would be glad to see those wishes grat i f ied. Could Isay less? Can i t be expected that I should put mysel f in opposit ion to the concurrent wil l o fthe whole nat ion, i f such should be i ts wil l? You appear to have r ightly conceived me, and Ithink any one who wil l take a fa ir and candid view of a l l my letters together must be sat is f iedwith their import , and perfect ly convinced of my entire consistency. But , my dear s ir, as I hadlearned from Pittsburgh that my last Alabama letter was operat ing mischievously there , I haveaddressed a letter to James Dunlop Esq and others in which I reaf f irmed al l the sentiments andopinions which I expressed in my Rale igh letter, and go the length of saying that i f three suchstates as Ohio, Massachusetts , and Vermont were to manifest a decided opposit ion to the an-nexation of Texas, i t ought not to be annexed to the United States . That letter wil l be pub-l ished, wil l probably reach you by the t ime that this does , and I conf idently antic ipate wil l besat is factory. My posit ion is very s ingular. Whilst at the South I am represented as a l ibertyman, at the North I am decried as an ultra supporter o f s lavery, when in fact I am neither northe other. This pecul iar ity of posit ion exposes me to a cross f ire from opposite direct ions, andrendered i t indispensably necessary that I should come out a few days ago with a note in re la-t ion to a letter o f Cassius M. Clay Esq f irst publ ished in the Tribune. That letter, a l though Ihave no doubt i t was written with the best intentions, was doing great mischie f to the Whigcause , even here in Kentucky and there was much reason to apprehend that i t would be muchmore extensively prejudicial in the states o f Tennessee , Georgia , North Carol ina and Louisiana,upon whose vote we have strong reason for counting. You, I trust , wil l be sat is f ied with theposit ion taken in my note , that the existence , maintenance and continuance of the inst i tut ionof s lavery depend exclusively upon State power and authority. As you had expressed regretthat my Rale igh speech should have omitted that principle I thought the occasion a suitableone for reassert ing i t . I shal l be very sorry i f Mr. Clay should be at a l l wounded by my note .Such was not my intention, and i f he had been here he would have fe l t the imperat ive necessaryfor i t . I am with great respect , H. Clay." This letter, in which he acknowledged the diff i -culty of his balancing act , was seen as an important statement at the t ime. $14,000


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A Harassed President Polk Uses His Every Diplomatic Ski l l to Satisfy Off iceSeekers and Their Friends

“I have been great ly beset in the dispensat ion of the publ ic patronage, and I most s incerelywish that I had not an of f ice to bestow.”

In the days before the Civil Service, with each change in administration came a replace-ment of persons employed by the Federal government, from the ambassador level downto clerkships. There was a veritable feeding frenzy to get the jobs, and dispensing themwas the bane of every new president. The would-be off ice holders were pushy, persis-

tant , demanding (a disappointed off ice seeker ki l ledPresident Garfield when he did not get an appointment,

as he was sure he deserved), and they wereeverywhere. However, amidst al l the applications

that could be ignored or pigeon-holed, therewere many backed by important people -senators, congressmen, governors, party off i -cials and the l ike. They intervened to assisttheir fr iends, relat ives and themselves.

This lengthy exposit ion sent by PresidentPolk to Lewis Cass, U.S. Senator from Michi-gan and soon to be the 1848 Democraticpresidential nominee, is the fullest , mostcomprehensive view of what presidentsfaced that we have seen. We only quote aportion of i t .

Autograph Letter Signed as President, f ivepages, Washington, April 21, 1845, to . Theletter, marked “private,” discusses patron-

age, the primary concern for newly inaugu-rated chief executives (Polk was in off ice justseven weeks at this t ime. ”You spoke to me on

behal f o f a number of your fr iends and among others o f Mr. Norvel l [ John Norvel l , former U.S.Senator from Michigan] . You expressed the earnest wish that Mr. Norvel l might be appointedto an of f ice worthy of him. . .at Washington or e lsewhere out o f the state . I expressed to youwhat I have ever fe l t - a strong regard for Mr. Norvel l and my sincere desire to grat i fy thewishes o f his fr iends. I said to you in substance that there was at that t ime no of f ice in Wash-ington - or e lsewhere out o f the state - o f dignity corresponding to Mr. Norvel l ’s former sta-t ion in the Senate , and his c la ims, which I had the power to bestow upon him. . .” Polk thenquotes from a personal meet ing that fo l lowed in which the President promised Norvel l to namehim Distr ict Attorney “to take e f fect upon the expirat ion of the term of the present incum-bent .” Later, Polk rece ived letters recommending the appointment of Mr. Bradley [EdwardBradley, then a Michigan state senator, later a U.S. Congressman] to the same post . However,he continues , “I knew Mr. Norvel l personal ly. I esteemed him highly and had no doubt when Ipromised him the of f ice that i t would give general sat is fact ion to my fr iends in Michigan. . .Asmatters stand, my pledge is out to Mr. Norvel l & I must appoint him. . . I have no doubt Mr.Bradley is an extremely worthy man. . .”

Polk tel l Cass that “On Saturday the 19th instant I appointed Anthony Ten Eyck Commis-s ioner to the Sandwich Is lands [ in fact , by this appointment, Ten Eyck became the f irst Ameri-can Commissioner to Hawaii] , as you desired. I have directed his commission to be forwardedto him at Detroit . I have been and st i l l am very desirous to grat i fy the wishes o f your son buthave as yet been unable to do so . The places at the Hague & Vienna have been f i l led. Control-l ing considerat ions induced these appointment. Georgia had nothing, not even a c lerk , in theemployment of the Federal Government, out o f the state . The fr iends of Major D__ demandthat he should be restored to his o ld place . The place at Sweden I supposed would not be ac-


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ceptable to him. Portugal has been suggested. I do not think that I can with propriety recal lthe charge at that court . I wil l have short ly to appoint a charge to New Grenada, but I supposethat place would not be desirable to him. In the course o f a few months I hope something moredesirable may be in my power.”

Polk f inishes up by saying, “I have only to add that I have been greatly beset in the dis-pensation of the public patronage, and I most sincerely wish that I had not an off ice tobestow.” $4,500

On Behalf of Himself, and “the brave off icers and soldiers of my command,”General Zachary Taylor Thanks the State of New Hampshire For I ts Congratula-t ions on the Victory at Buena Vista

In September 1846, Gen. Zachary Taylor ’s commandscored the f irst major American victory at Monterrey. OnFebruary 22, 1847, Mexican leader Santa Anna personallymarched north to f ight Taylor with 20,000 men. Taylor,with 4,600 men, had entrenched at a mountain pass cal ledBuena Vista. Santa Anna demanded that the Americanssurrender and was refused; he attacked the next morning.Init ial ly he f lanked the U.S. posit ions by sending his cav-alry and some of his infantry up the steep terrain that

made up one side of the pass, while a division of infantry attacked frontally along theroad leading to Buena Vista. Furious f ighting ensued, during which some U.S. troopswere routed, but U.S. fortunes were saved by art i l lery f ire against a Mexican advance atclose range by Captain Braxton Bragg, and a charge by the mounted Mississippi Rif le-men under Jefferson Davis. Having suffered discouraging losses and word of upheavalin Mexico city, Santa Anna withdrew that night, leaving Taylor in control of NorthernMexico.

Taylor and his men were heroes after theBatt le of Buena Vista and praise wasshowered on them in newspapers and bythe public generally. The Legislature ofNew Hampshire saw fi t to pass Resolu-t ions praising them, and its Secretary ofState sent them to Taylor on the state’sbehalf .

Letter Signed , Camp near Monterrey,Mexico, August 30, 1847, to ThomasTreadwell , Secretary of State of NewHampshire. “I have the honor to acknowl-edge the rece ipt o f copies o f the Resolutionspassed at the last sess ion of the Legis latureof the State o f New Hampshire and also yourletter accompanying the same. Allow me toexpress in reply my s incere thanks for theapproval therein extended to mysel f and thebrave of f icers and soldiers o f my command.”

Just weeks after this letter was written,American troops under Winfield Scott en-tered Mexico City, bringing the activestage of the war to a conclusion. $5,800


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PAGE 39

Col. Jefferson Davis, Chief American Negotiator of the Surrender of Monterrey,Defends Himself and General Taylor Against Vi l i f ication Over the Terms

An extremely important Mexican War date letter describing the s i tuat ion of the armies , the de-tai ls o f the negotiat ions, and his assessment of the American options

In September 1846, after fal l ing back before Gen. Zachary Taylor ’s invading army, Mex-ican forces chose to take a stand at Monterrey. There they received reinforcements anddug in as Taylor determined to assault the city. From September 21-24, U.S. forces at-tempted to take the city without success. Heavy Mexican resistance caused considerablelosses in the U.S. ranks, and the U.S. art i l lery was incapable of penetrating the walls ofthe numerous fortresses and fort i f ications in the area. On the third day the Americansmanaged to take four hil ls to the west of the city and placed heavy cannon on them thatwere used to attack retreating forces f leeing the hil l . Then a diversionary tactic al lowedAmerican divisions to stream into the city from the west and east .

Heavy hand to hand combat within the city walls fol lowed. The Mexican Army congre-gated in the city plaza. Trapped in the city plaza and bombarded by cannon, MexicanGeneral Pedro de Ampudia decided to negotiate. Taylor, facing a larger army in enemyterritory, negotiated a two month armistice in return for the surrender of the city. Thechairman of the American commission that drew up the terms of surrender was Colonel(and future Confederate president) Jefferson Davis. The Mexican Army was al lowed tomarch from the city on the 26th, 27th and 28th of the month, with their arms and onebattery of art i l lery (6 guns) . Left behind was some 25 guns. This was the f irst major vic-tory of the Mexican War.

Not everyone in the United States was satisf ied with this result , and Taylor was vil l i -f ied for agreeing to the terms. President Polk, who saw Taylor as a polit ical foe on thedomestic front, insisted that the U.S. army had no authority to negotiate truces, only to"kil l the enemy". There were speeches in Congress and editorials in newspapers, notmerely crit icizing Taylor for the armistice, but demanding that he be brought to ac-count - even court martialed. Thomas Ritchie founded the renowned Richmond En-quirer newspaper and in 1845 added the Washington Union in the nation’s capital as asecond paper. Davis wrote him in the midst of the swirl of controversy, explaining thesituation at Monterrey in detai l and defending Taylor.

Autograph Letter Signed in pencil , Tamaulipas, Mexico, January 6, 1847, to Ritchie.“After much speculat ion and no l i t t le misrepresentat ion about the capitulat ion of Monterey, Iperceive by our recent newspapers , that a discussion has ar isen as to who is responsible forthat transact ion. As one of the commissioners who were entrusted by General Taylor with thearrangement of the terms upon which the c i ty of Monterey and i ts fort i f icat ions should be de-l ivered to our forces , I have had frequent occasion to recur to the course then adopted, and theconsiderat ions which led to i t . My judgment after the fact has ful ly sustained my decis ions atthe date o f the occurrence ; and fee l ing mysel f responsible for the instrument as we preparedand presented i t to our commanding general , I have the sat is fact ion, a f ter a l l subsequentevents , to be l ieve that the terms we of fered were expedient , and honorable , and wise . A dist in-guished gentleman with whom I acted on that commission, Governor Henderson, says, in a re-cently publ ished letter, “I did not at the t ime, nor do I st i l l l ike the terms, but acted as one ofthe commissioners , together with Gen. Worth and Col . Davis , to carry out Gen. Taylor ’s in-struct ions. We ought and could have made them surrender at discret ion,” &c. &c.

“From each posit ion taken in the above paragraph I dissent . The instruct ions given by Gen.Taylor only presented his object , and f ixed a l imit to the powers o f his commissioners ; hence ,when points were raised which exceeded our discret ion, they were re ferred to the commander;but minor points were acted on, and f inal ly submitted as part o f our negotiat ion. We f ixed thet ime within which the Mexican forces should ret ire from Monterey. We agreed upon the t imewe would wait for the decis ion of the respect ive governments , which I recol lect was less by 34


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days than the Mexican commissioners asked– the period adopted being that which, according toour est imate , was required to bring up the rear o f our army with the ordnance and suppl iesnecessary for further operat ions.

“I did not then, nor do I now, bel ieve we could have made the enemy surrender at discret ion.Had I entertained the opinion i t would have been given to the commission, and to the com-manding general , and would have precluded me from signing and agreement which permittedthe garrison to ret ire with the honors o f war. I t is demonstrable , from the posit ion and knownprowess of the two armies , that we could drive the enemy from the town; but the town was un-tenable whilst the main fort (cal led the new citadel) remained in the hands of the enemy. Beingwithout s iege art i l lery or entrenching tools , we could only hope to carry this fort by storm,after a heavy loss from our army, now numbered less than hal f the forces o f the enemy. Whenal l this had been achieved, what more would we have gained then by capitulat ion?

“Gen. Taylor ’s force was too small to invest the town. I t was, therefore , a lways in the power ofthe enemy to retreat , bearing his l ight arms. Our army– poorly provided, and with very insuf-f ic ient transportat ion– could not have overtaken, i f they had pursued the f lying enemy. Hencethe conclusion that , as i t was not in our power to capture the main body of the Mexican army,it is unreasonable to suppose their General would have surrendered at discret ion. The moral e f -fect o f ret ir ing under the capitulat ion was certainly greater than i f the enemy had retreatedwithout our consent . By this course we secured the large supply of ammunit ion he had col-lected at Monterey– which, had the assault been continued, must have been exploded by ourshel ls , as i t was principal ly stored in “the Cathedral ,” which, be ing supposed to be f i l led withtroops, was the especial a im of our pieces . The destruct ion which the explosion would have pro-duced must have involved the advance of both divis ions of our troops; and I commend this tothe considerat ion of those whose arguments have been drawn from the facts learned s ince thecommissioners c losed their negotiat ions. With these introductory remarks, I send a copy of amanuscript in my possession, which was prepared to meet such necessity as now exists for anexplanation of the views which governed the commissioners in arranging the terms of capitula-t ion, to just i fy the commanding general , should misrepresentat ion and calumny attempt to tar-nish his wel l–earned reputat ion, and, for a l l t ime to come, to f ix the truth of the transact ion.Please publ ish this in your paper. . .” With some erasures and interl iniations, i t appears tobe a f irst draft . The letter is published in “The Papers of Jefferson Davis.”

Davis played an important role in the Mexican War; indeed, i t made his career. A checkof auction records indicates that this is by far the most signif icant manuscript of his re-lat ing to Mexico to reach the market in at least 30 years. And there have been preciousfew of this quality by any major participant during al l that t ime. $10,000


PAGE 41

Franklin Pierce Fears For the Constitution and Union I f His Pol ic ies Fai l at thePolls and in Kansas

In his Inaugural Address, Pierce pledged his support of the inst i tu-t ion of s lavery, saying “I bel ieve that involuntary servitude. . . is

recognized by the Constitution.” Thus, he believed, oppositionto s lavery was both unconst i tut ional and a threat to theUnion itself . In 1854, he supported and signed the Kansas-Nebraska Bil l with i ts Popular Sovereignty concept, underwhich the set t lers in every terr i tory ( including Kansas)would decide whether to adopt free or s lave const i tu-t ions . This measure repealed the Missouri Compromiseand reopened the question of s lavery in the West . Kansasquickly became a battleground between free and pro-slav-ery sett lers , with many kil led on both sides. The last twoyears of Pierce 's administration centered on the expanding

civi l war there , where two governments had come intobeing—a southern administration in Lecompton, which Pierce

recognized, and a northern one in Topeka, which he declaredtreasonable and ordered to disband. He sent t roops to maintain

order but succeeded neither in quieting Kansas nor dislodging the Topeka government.John W. Geary accepted Pierce 's appointment to serve as governor of the Kansas Terri-tory on July 31, 1856. He arrived at Fort Leavenworth on September 9 and went to the ter-r i tor ia l capi ta l a t Lecompton the fol lowing day, The fol lowing week he disbanded theexist ing Kansas mil i t ia , which was gathering to oppose Missouri border ruff ians.

Because of these policies, Pierce lost al l credibil i ty he had in the North. So when the De-mocrats met to select a candidate for the 1856 election, he was unable to secure renomi-nation. Instead, the party turned to the one prominent candidate for the nomination thathad taken no controversial positions on the traumatic events of the past few years - JamesBuchanan, who as ambassador to Great Britain had been out of the country. Pierce proveda man both loyal to his party and true to his principles. He worked hard for a victory forBuchanan and the entire Democratic s late. The election that year saw the entry of the Re-publican Party, which sought to forbid the expansion of s lavery into the territories, intonat ional , s tate and local contests . Pierce was vehemently against everything the newparty stood for and wanted it to go down to defeat . However, Republicans were gainingstrong support in the North, and he monitored the elect ion si tuation closely. Back the,some states , including Pennsylvania, had two elect ions in presidential years : they hadstate and local elections in October and balloting for president in November. This meantthat in October, i t was usually possible to see which way the polit ical wind was blowing.So winning the earl ier election took on great importance, both because of the bellweathernature of the vote and the diff iculty of maintaining party morale when a clear defeat wasahead.

Autograph Letter Signed as President, Washington, September 19, 1856, to his al lyCharles Brown, Democratic Congressman from Philadelphia, art iculating his assessmentthat the Constitution and Union were actually at stake and urging the importance of theupcoming October election in Pennsylvania. “The enclosed letter from Judge Law - one ofour true and able fr iends in Indiana - came by the mail which reached here tonight . I f I knewGenl Lane’s whereabouts at present , I should inclose the letter to him. He le f t here several dayssince for Phi ladelphia . I f he is there now with you, do me the favor to show him the letter andthen return i t to me by mail . I wil l not be l ieve that we are to lose Indiana and I l l inois . But i tis vain to say that i f de feated in October, we can st i l l tr iumph in November. The moral powerof the e lect ion in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana in October wil l sett le the quest ion one wayor the other. We can withstand the shock of any result in the two states last named, i f we canbut tr iumph handsomely in the Keystone. This we must do. Your state is emphatical ly the bat-t le ground - not merely the batt le ground upon which the supremacy of part ies in a great con-


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trol l ing central state is to be determined, but real ly the f ie ld upon which the decis ive batt le o fthe Constitution and the Union is to be fought in October. This so far as I can judge is theuniversal impression of our fr iends. With a victory in Pennsylvania we can carry New Hamp-shire and I think Connect icut . . .What do you bel ieve with regard to your state in October?What are the calculat ions of our fr iends? Wil l you send me your calculat ion, giving eachcounty with i ts antic ipated majority.?” He adds a P.S. , “Our of f ic ia l news from Kansas prom-ises the restorat ion of order and security there .” This last point was l ikely his wishful spinon the arrival of Geary in Kansas and word just received that he had disbanded themili t ia , both of which he thought improved the pro-slavery posit ion there. Interest-ingly, what Geary saw in Kansas changed his polit ics . When the Civil War broke out, hejoined the Union Army and became a successful general . $6,000


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Bloody Kansas

Abraham Lincoln Appoints Charles P. Muhlenberg, Nephew of The First Speakerof the House, Commander of an Arti l lery Unit

One of the famed patr iot family, he led the 5th U.S. Arti l lery at Antietam and the Wilderness

The prominent patriot family of Muhlenberg emigrated from Germany in the early 18thcentury, and its patriarch, Henry M. Muhlenberg, founded the Lutheran Church inAmerica. His son Peter became a Continental Army general , his son Frederick Augustusbecame the f irst Speaker of the House of Representatives, and his son Henry ErnstMuhlenberg founded Franklin and Marshall College and was i ts f irst president. Whenthe Civil War broke out, the Muhlenbergs rushed again to the colors. Charles P. Muh-lenberg, grandson of Henry Ernst , was quickly appointed an off icer.

Document Signed , August 14, 1861, appointing Charles P. Muhlenberg to the posit ionof 1st Lieutenant in the 5th Regiment of U.S. Arti l lery, with intact seal and ornate en-graving above and below the text of the document. A year later, Muhlenberg would seeduty at the Batt le of Antietam under Burnside, and later served at the Wilderness. Afterthe war, he became a Lancaster, Pa. attorney, but he only l ived f ive years, dying at age35, perhaps by a wound or i l lness brought on by his service. $10,000


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Abraham Lincoln Requests Appointment of Future General Frederick A.Starring, Praising His Merits

Mason Brayman was an attorney in Springfield anda close fr iend and colleague of Abraham Lincoln.When Lincoln went to Congress in 1847, Braymanrented his home in Springfield; when Lincoln spokeat the Cooper Union in 1860, Brayman accompaniedhim. They also worked together representing theIl l inois Central Railroad. When the Civil War brokeout, Brayman volunteered and was named a general ,serving throughout the war. Frederick A. Starringwas Brayman’s nephew, and Brayman secured forhim a a posit ion with the I l l inois Central Railroaddoing engineering, mainly construction surveys andassist ing with the organization of i ts Land Depart-ment. Starring was Secretary of the Land Depart-ment of the Cairo and Fulton Railroad in Litt le Rockwhen the Civil War broke out. While in Arkansas,Fred Starring witnessed the secession fervor thatswept the South in early 1861. "The people arecrazy," he wrote from Arkansas. But his loyalty re-mained steadfast , “I wil l st i l l hope - st i l l pray forthe Union.” He was a volunteer aide at the f irst BullRun batt le . Returning to I l l inois , he began efforts toobtain a commission. I l l inois congressmen were l i t -t le help, but then his application came to the atten-t ion of President Lincoln himself , who had knownStarring from the t ime he was a child.

Lincoln did something unusual ; he wrote Starring a personal recommendation, directedto the Secretary of War, vouching for him and requesting his appointment.

Autograph Letter Signed as President, Washington, August 20, 1861, to Secretary ofWar Simon Cameron. “Mr. Frederick A. Starring has an appl icat ion on f i le in your Depart-ment to be a Captain or Lieutenant in the Army. I have some personal acquaintenance withMr. Starring which is a l together favorable to him. He is a c ivi l engineer ; and I think i f a va-cancy can be found, a better man is not l ike ly to f i l l i t .” This letter is unpublished and notincluded in Lincoln’s collected works.

Lincoln’s letter got results , as Starring was appointed Major of the 46th I l l inois In-fantry later that month. The next year he eventually was selected Colonel of the 1stChicago Board of Trade Regiment of the 72nd I l l inois Infantry and was later madeProvost Marshall of the Gulf at New Orleans. Starring was a member of Grant 's centralMississippi campaign, the Yazoo Pass Expedit ion, the Batt le of Champion Hil ls , BigBlack River, and the siege and assaults on Vicksburg. He was made Brigadier Generalby Brevet in March 1865. After the war, Starring assisted in the organization of theGrand Army of the Republic and was appointed Inspector General in 1869, helping todesign the G.A.R. badge and a large portion of the ri tual . President Grant appointedStarring as an agent to examine consular and diplomatic affairs in Europe in July 1869.Starring resigned from public off ice in 1883 and moved to New York to practice law. Hedied in 1904. $24,000


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Andrew Johnson Tenders His Resignation as Mil itary Governor of Tennesseeand U.S. General to Become Vice President of the United States

Johnson was from the eastern part of Tennessee, an area with few slaves and no sympa-thy with wealthy slaveholders or their rebell ion. He and other loyalists considered se-cession to be void and those who foisted it on the people to be traitors. Most of his fel loweast-Tennesseeans refused to recognize the authority of the new Confederate governmentover their state, and suffered oppression for this stand. Johnson stood l ike a rock by theirside. After their states seceded, every southern Congressman and U.S. Senator resignedand went home but one: Andrew Johnson of Tennessee. He remained at his desk in theSenate representing the people of Tennessee, a l iving symbol and constant reminder ofLincoln’s claim that the Union was not broken, that rebell ion was treason, and that theConfederacy was imposed on an unwill ing southern people by corrupt leaders. In 1862,he became military governor of Tennessee. Northerners during the Civil War viewed John-son as a hero, and his presence in Washington and then back in Tennessee i tself impliedthe possibil i ty of reconcil iat ion.

By 1864, the Civil War had been in progress for three years, and the people of the Northwere t ired. To insure the success of the Union cause the leadership considered it imper-ative that there should be unity and cooperation of the loyal people of al l parties - thatit was necessary to lay aside, as far as possible, partisan issues, and to unite in thethen-approaching presidential campaign upon a non-partisan, dist inctively Union t icketand platform. President Lincoln was, of course, to receive the nomination for reelec-t ion. Andrew Johnson, though a Democrat , received considerable support for vice presi-dent, and he was selected as Lincoln’s running mate.

With the war going well by election day in November 1864, the Lincoln/Johnson t icketwas victorious. Johnson was vice president-elect , with Inauguration day March 4, 1965.The day before being sworn in as vice president, John tendered his resignation as Mili-tary Governor of Tennessee and Army General to Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton.This is that very letter to Stanton sending his resignation. I t is the only letter we haveseen of any president/vice president sending his resignation from a previous off ice toassume the highest off ices in the land.

Letter Signed , Washington, March 3, 1865, to Stanton. “In tendering the accompanyingresignation [not included] , I beg to express my high regard to you personal ly, and also tothank you s incerely for the uniforn kindness which you have been pleased to extend to me per-sonal ly and of f ic ia l ly during my service as an of f icer under the War Department.” He s igned“With sentiments o f high regard.”

Stanton replied the same day, “This Department has accepted your resignation asBrigadier General and Mili tary Governor of Tennessee. Permit me on this occasion totender to you the sincere thanks of this Department for your patriotic and able servicesduring the eventful period through which you have exercised the highest trust commit-ted to your charge. In one of the darkest hours of the great struggle for National exis-tence, against rebell ious foes, the Government cal led. . . to place you in. . .a posit ion ofpersonal toi l and danger. . .With patriotic promptness you assumed the post , and main-tained it under circumstances of unparalleled tr ial , unti l recent events have broughtsafety and deliverance to your State and to the integrity of the Constitutional Union,for which you so long and so gallantly peri led al l that is dear to man on earth. . .”

Just a month later, President Lincoln was assassinated and Johnson was thrust into theoffice of President of the United States. $20,000


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Charles Darwin Confirms Information Proving His Thesis on Evolution in Plants

I t ’s o f such importance that he inserts i t in his book, “The Variat ion of Animals and PlantsUnder Domesticat ion”

After he had stunned the world with Origin of the Species in 1859,Darwin turned his attention to encouraging colleagues around theworld to research and publish in the new field of evolution, and tokeep him informed of their progress. For example, he wrote Juliande Haast , a New Zealand government geolist , “I have been ex-tremely much interested by what you say about the tracks of sup-posed mammalia. Might I ask, i f you succeed in discovering whatthe creatures are, you would have the great kindness to informme.. . I would venture to suggest to you to urge on some of the capa-ble members of your insti tution to observe annually the rate andmanner of spreading of European weeds and insects . . .” Thus, he be-came a focal point for newly discovered information, which wassent to him by correspondents around the world.

Darwin did not neglect his own work. In 1860 he began a new book on variations inplants and animals, deciding that studying domesticated variet ies would particularlyi l lustrate his point by showing changes in a more concentrated period of t ime. The re-sult ing book, The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, was publishedin 1868. Darwin sets forth his purpose in the introduction: “The object of this workis . . . to give under the head of each species only such facts as I have been able to collector observe, showing the amount and nature of the changes which animals and plantshave undergone whilst under man's dominion, or which bear on the general principlesof variation.” Chapter XI is entit led “On Bud Variation, and on Certain AnomalousModes of Reproduction and Variation.” Darwin’s purpose in this chapter was to showthat the variations were evolutionary in nature, and had evolutionary characterist ics ,as shown by the fact that “The modifications which arise through bud-variation cangenerally be propagated to any extent by graft ing, budding, cutt ings, bulbs, etc . , andoccasionally even by seed.” To prove the point , he needed to establish that the changeswere not the result of other non-evolutionary factors. “These cases,” he said, “provethat those authors who. . .attr ibute al l variabil i ty to the crossing either of dist inct races,or of dist inct individuals belonging to the same race but somewhat different from eachother, are in error; as are those authors who attribute al l variabil i ty to the mere act ofsexual union. Nor can we account in al l cases for the appearance through bud-variationof new characters by the principle of reversion to long-lost characters.”

In Chapter XI, Darwin gave specif ic examples supporting his thesis , writ ing in a sectionon f lowers, “Many cases have been recorded of a whole plant, or single branch, or bud,suddenly producing f lowers different from the proper type in colour, form, size, dou-bleness, or other character. Half the f lower, or a smaller segment, sometimes changescolour.” He was particularly interested in Hibiscus (Parit ium tricuspis) , and spent agreat deal of t ime researching that species. His discussion in the chapter states, “Aseedling of this plant, when some years old, produced, at Saharunpore [India] , 21 somebranches which bore leaves and f lowers widely different from the normal form. The ab-normal leaf is much less divided, and not acuminated. The petals are considerablylarger, and quite entire. There is also in the fresh state a conspicuous, large, oblonggland, full of a viscid secretion, on the back of each of the calycine segments." (Ca-lycine refers to petals divided into thirds.) This must be, c learly, an evolutionary ratherthan sexual variation.

In early January 1871, Darwin received a letter from George King, physician, botanist ,and Superintendent of the Royal Botanic Garden in India; King included samples of anaberrant Parit ium tricuspis. Darwin recognized the subject of King’s letter as l ikely the


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same plant he had written about, and considered King’s report so important that whenThe Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication went into a second edit ion,he revised the book to reflect the information King had provided. His response toKing’s letter fol lows.

Letter Signed on Darwin’s letterhead, three pages,January 27 [1871] , to King in India. “I am muchobl iged for your letter & for the great trouble which youhave taken in sending me the specimens of the Parit ium. Ihave no doubt this is the case to which I re ferred in my

book. The di f ference in the leaves o f thesport & parent tree is most surpris ing,but perhaps essential ly not more than be-tween a fern-leaved & comm[on] horn-beam. I f you should succeed in provingthat the characters o f the sport are inher-i ted, & i f you wil l compare the f lowers &calycine glands of the two forms, I thinkyour M.S. [manuscript] would be wel lworth publ icat ion & I would with pleas-ure send i t to the Linnean Society or tosome Journal .” The Linnean Societywas [and remains] a prestigious organ-ization dedicated to advances in biol-ogy, and particularly biologicaldiversity and evolution. Only manu-scripts of s ignif icance would havebeen submitted there. A sport is anoffshoot of a parent; a hornbeam is asturdy deciduous tree superficial ly re-sembling a beech.

Darwin is seen here providing wordsof encouragement, as he so l iked todo. However, he apparently becameconvinced that King had, in fact , suff i -

ciently proven his point , as he went back to thesection of Chapter XI on Parit ium tricuspis, andfor his book’s next edit ion added this statement:“Dr. King who subsequently had charge of theseGardens, informs me that a tree of Parit ium tricus-pis (probably the very same plant) growing there,had a branch buried in the ground, apparently byaccident; and this branch changed its character

wonderfully, growing l ike a bush, and producing f lowers and leaves, resembling inshape those of another species, viz. , P. t i l iaceum. A small branch springing from thisbush near the ground, reverted to the parent-form. Both forms were extensively propa-gated during several years by cutt ings and kept perfectly true.” Darwin, The Variationof Animals and Plants Under Domestication. The Papers of Charles Darwin indicatethat he carried on a lengthy correspondence with King unti l shortly before his death.We are pleased to offer a letter confirming information that Darwin considered so sig-nif icant that he inserted i t in his book. $15,000


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General Wil l iam T. Sherman Emphasizes His "Sherman Pledge" Not to Run Foror Serve In Polit ical Off ice, Just Days After Making I t

"I know I have no pol i t ical aspirat ions and have asserted the fact so publ ic ly and posit ivelythat now no man can misconstrue me."

After the Ulysses S. Grant became President in 1869, Will iam T. Sherman succeeded himas Commanding General of the Army of the United States. As one of the most promi-nent f igures during the Civil War and in the post-war era, he was constantly pressuredto get involved in polit ics . However, Sherman steadfastly refused to veer his careerfrom the mil i tary to the polit ical , or even publicly express any polit ical views. He feltso strongly about this that in an interview with Harper ’s Weekly on June 24, 1871, hesaid, “I hereby state, and mean al l I say, that I never have been and never wil l be a can-didate for President; that i f nominated by either party I should peremptori ly decline;and even if unanimously elected I should decline to serve.” A more powerful statementhe could not have made, and it is surely his single best known quotation. In fact , eventoday, when a person refuses to be considered for off ice, he is said to have taken a"Sherman Pledge."

Just one week after making his famous declaration, he penned the fol lowing letter, thelanguage of which is the embodiment of his statement, and provides al l the emphasisand clarif ication that could possibly be necessary.

Autograph Letter Signed , Washington, July 1, 1871, toCongressman Charles Case, a who fought under Sher-

man’s command in his Atlanta Campaign of 1864. “Idid not rece ive the letter you designed for me at NewOrleans of late Apri l 21, t i l my return here last week. Ihardly suppose you want an answer to any of the mat-

ters o f which you write . St i l l I must recognize thekindness which dictated your letter. Of course is i tmort i fying to me that I cannot travel l ike any otherperson without having my acts and words presentedto a pol i t ical meaning. I was strongly dis incined toattend any c lub in New Orleans where I would inrecognit ion of personal k indness be obl iged to speakbut as you know i was assured that the c lub wascomposed wholey of the o f f icers and soldiers o f theold Union Armies and that they had no pol i t icals igni f icance . I took no heed of what I did or saidand wil l not a f f irm or deny anything imputed tome. but I know I have no pol i t ical aspirat ions andhave asserted the fact so publ ic ly and posit ivelythat now no man can misconstrue me. I am ofcourse aware that the extreme Republ icans are sus-pic ious of me because I try to keep aloof from al lpart ies and they are about as abusive o f me person-al ly as the most extreme rebels . I owe ful l a l le-giance to the U.S. - but not to e i ther pol i t icalfact ion or party; and neither pol i t ical party shal luse me for their purposes . I wish you and al l ex-members o f the army to succeed in whatever career

of l i fe you choose and in whatever place , and I attach l i t t leweight to the biased expressions of any new newspaper ar-t ic le which re f lect the opinion of i ts editor - that o f one

man of no more consequence because printed than i f retai led on the street corner by a gossip.”This is our f irst letter of Sherman directly relating to his famous Pledge. $3,500


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On Inauguration Day 1873, Grant Ushers His Corrupt, Disgraced Vice PresidentOut the Door

Perhaps ironical ly, he praises Schuyler Col fax’s integrity and patr ioism

In 1868, Speaker of the HouseSchuyler Colfax had presidentialaspirations, but accepted the Re-publican nomination for VicePresident on a t icket headed byGeneral Ulysses S. Grant. He waselected, becoming the f irstSpeaker ever elected vice presi-dent. He consulted periodicallywith President Grant, but was notintimately involved with the ad-ministration. His distance fromthe President proved not to be adisadvantage when various scan-dals began to tarnish Grant andhis appointees. Speculation soon

arose that Colfax would replace Grant in the next election. In September 1870, at age47, Colfax surprisingly announced that he intended to ret ire at the end of his term. Thiswas a tactic for Colfax, who l ikely intended to be urged to run again, and hoped the an-nouncement would further separate him from the Grant administration and open theway for a presidential nomination in 1872. But party off icials and the national presscalled his bluff , took his announcement at face value, and began a movement to replacehim on the t icket . Colfax openly changed his mind early in 1872 and acceded to thewishes of his fr iends that he stand for reelection on "the old t icket ." President Grantmay have questioned Colfax's intentions. In 1871 the president had sent his vice presi-dent an extraordinary letter, informing him that Secretary of State Hamilton Fishwished to ret ire and asking him "in plain English" to give up the vice-presidency forthe State Department. Grant appeared to be removing Colfax as a potential r ival . " In al lmy heart I hope you wil l say yes," he wrote, " though I confess the sacrif ice you wil l bemaking." Colfax declined, and a year later when Senator Henry Wilson challenged Col-fax for renomination, the wary President chose to remain neutral in the contest , ratherthan support his s i t t ing vice president. The Republican Convention selected Wilson inJune 1872, so Colfax had effectively outmaneuvered himself .

Colfax might well have continued his polit ical career after the vice-presidency, exceptfor his connection to the worst scandal in nineteenth-century U.S. polit ical history. InSeptember 1872, as the presidential campaign was gett ing underway, the New York Sunbroke the four-year-old story about the Crédit Mobil ier, a f inance company created tounderwrite construction of the transcontinental Union Pacif ic Railroad. Since the rai l -road depended on federal subsidies, the company had recruited Massachusetts Repre-sentative Oakes Ames to distribute stock among the key members of Congress whocould help them the most . Some members had paid for the stock at a low value, othershad put no money down at al l but simply let the generous dividends pay for the stock.On Oakes Ames' l ist were the names of both Schuyler Colfax and Henry Wilson, alongwith such other Washington luminaries as Representatives James Garfield and James G.Blaine. Colfax made a public statement that completely dissociated himself from CréditMobil ier, assuring his l isteners that he never owned a dollar of stock that he had notpaid for. In January 1873, the House committee investigating the scandal cal led the VicePresident to test i fy. Ames claimed that , s ince Colfax had lacked the money to buy thestock, the stock had been paid for by i ts own inflated dividends. Ames' notes indicatedthat Colfax had received an additional $1,200 in dividends. On the stand, Colfax sworeflat ly that he had never received a dividend check from Ames, but his test imony was


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contradicted by evidence. His story seemed so patently self-serving and far-fetchedthat even his strongest supporters dismissed it . Making matters worse, the committeedisclosed evidence suggesting that Nesbitt , who manufactured stationery, had bribedColfax as chairman of the House Post Office Committee in order to receive governmentcontracts for envelopes. A resolution to impeach Colfax fai led to pass by a mostlyparty-l ine vote, in part because just a few weeks remained in his term. The pious states-man had been exposed, and the public was unforgiving. Colfax left the vice-presidencyin disgrace, becoming a symbol of the sordidness of Gilded Age polit ics .

Autograph Letter Signed , on Executive Mansion letterhead, two pages, Washington,March 4, 1873, Inauguration Day, to Colfax, expressing confidence in him even as he isshoved out the door. “Will you do me the favor and come over to dine, at four, an hour nearat hand. We wil l have no company except our own family and some of our fr iends who came into the inauguration. The dinner is early and wil l give you t ime to meet an early train for Bal-t imore . Allow me to say that I sympathize with you in the recent Congressional invest igat ions;that I have watched them closely, and that I am sat is f ied now as I have ever been of your in-tegrity, patr iot ism and freedom from the charges imputed as i f I knew of my own knowledgeyour innocence . Our of f ic ia l re lat ions have been so pleasant that I would l ike to keep up thepersonal re lat ions engendered, through l i fe .” He signed it “Affect ionately yours .” $13,000


Cabinet Photograph of James Gar field, Possibly Signed as President

Scarce 4 by 6 inch cabinet photograph, boldly signed "J . A. Garfield."

The photograph was produced by the noted f irm Harroun & Bierstadt of New York,whose circular bl ind stamp appears in the lower right corner. I ts principal , EdwardBierstadt, was the brother of noted 19th century art ist Albert Bierstadt. The negativewas taken for Bierstadt by H. W. Tibbals , Painesvil le , Ohio (which is some seven milesfrom Mentor, Ohio, Garfield’s home). The United States Copyright Office records showthat Bierstadt registered the copyright on this photograph on October 5, 1881, just afterGarfield's assassination. Taking al l this together, i t would seem that the photographwas taken after Garfield's dark horse nomination in the spring of 1880, and before heleft for Washington in early 1881. I t would have been signed either as presidential can-didate or as president. $2,300


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Imperial Cabinet Photograph Signed of Queen Victoria, 1882

She is pictured wearing her crown, looking just as she is best remembered

A 7 1/2 by 12 inch sepia imperial cabinet photograph of the Queen wearing her crown,signed “Victoria RI” and dated 1882.

The R in the signature stands for Regina (Queen) and the I for Imperatrix (Empress ofIndia) . In that year, the Empire grew as Egypt became a protectorate after Brit ish troopsoccupied land surrounding the Suez Canal to secure that vital trade route and the pas-sage to India. Electric l ights were instal led on the streets of London, and the Queen’srelationship with John Brown was in full swing. The f inest and largest s igned portraitphotograph of Victoria that we have had. $4,800


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Benjamin Harrison Signed Photograph Chronicl ing the End of the Last GreatBrit ish-American Dispute

Signed by President Benjamin Harrison, Chie f Just ice Melvi l le Ful ler, Just ice David Brewer,judges , counsel and diplomats for both s ides

In the late 19th century, Venezuela 's claim to the Essequibo region of Brit ish Guianawas very much in dispute. Historical and cultural dissimilarit ies between Venezuelaand the latter nation explained this to some extent, as Brit ish Guiana represented forVenezuela the unfair intrusion of a colonial power into the Caribbean region. In 1877,the Venezuelans unsuccessfully proposed to the Brit ish that both countries should takethe exist ing border dispute to arbitration for a f inal sett lement. During the same t ime,the Venezuelans also began to woo the support of the United States, which init ial ly re-fused to become involved. In 1895, however, the Cleveland administration determinedto goad Great Britain into accepting arbitration to sett le the disputed boundary. In July,the U.S. Secretary of State, Richard Olney, presented to the Brit ish government a state-ment protesting against the enlargement of Brit ish Guiana at the expense of Venezuela,and suggesting that the Brit ish had violated the Monroe Doctrine. On December 7,Prime Minister Lord Salisbury replied, countering Olney's contentions and denying thatthe Monroe Doctrine was applicable to the border dispute. Cleveland was defiant andasked Congress to establish a commission to investigate the question. This amounted toan intention to make a decision without Brit ish participation and resulted in talk of waron both sides of the Atlantic . In January 1896, the U.S./Venezuelan Boundary Commis-sion was established, headed by David J . Brewer, a Justice of the Supreme Court . Thenfate stepped in to end this confrontation, the last major one between the future al l ies .The Brit ish were having serious problems in South Africa, problems that would soonlead to the Boer War. Just after the U.S. set up the Boundary Commission, the GermanKaiser issued a strong statement supporting the Boers, and many saw this as a threat ofwar by Germany on Great Britain. Venezuela quickly became a sideshow as the Brit ishconcluded it was much more important to win the support of the U.S. in case a Euro-pean confl ict should break out. I t agreed to arbitrate the Venezuela matter.

Discussions were opened between Great Britain and Venezuela, with the encouragementof the United States, and they f inally reached an agreement. By the Treaty of Washing-ton signed on February 2, 1897, both parties concluded that the decision of an arbitra-t ion tr ibunal would be a "full , perfect , and f inal sett lement" of the border dispute. Thearbitration panel consisted of f ive members - two chosen by Venezuela (U.S. SupremeCourt Chief Justice Melvil le Fuller and Associate Justice David Brewer) , two by Britain(Lord Justice and Privy Councilor Richard Henn Coll ins and Chief Justice, Lord CharlesRussell) , and a Russian, Frederic de Martens, selected jointly by the other four mem-bers. Britain was represented by a four-man counsel team: Attorney-General Sir RichardE. Webster, former Attorney-General Sir Robert T. Reid, G. R. Askwith and Sir S.A.T.Rowlatt . Venezuela was also represented by four counsel : former President BenjaminHarrison, former Secretary of the U.S./Venezuelan Boundary Commission Severo Mal-let-Prevost , former U.S. Secretary of War Benjamin T. Tracy, and James Russel Soley.Meeting in Paris from June to September 1899, the tr ibunal arrived at a decision and thematter was sett led. The result was a compromise sett lement that was perhaps more gen-erous to Britain than expected.

A large 10 by 14 inch black and white photograph by portrait photographer and pioneerfi lmmaker Eugene Pirou of Paris , put to a 15 by 18 inch mat, showing 28 of the notablesgathered for the Arbitration Tribunal , and signed by al l . Included are each of the eightcounsel that argued the case (Harrison, Mallet-Prevost , Tracy, Soley, Webster, Reid,Askwith, and Rowlatt) , three of the judges (Fuller, Brewer and Coll ins) , Sir Everard ImThurn (Brit ish diplomat, later governor of Fi j i ) , Sir John A.C. Til ley (Brit ish diplomat,later Ambassador to Tokyo), American cartographer and explorer Marcus Baker (whohad worked for the U.S./Venezuela Commission - a mountain in Alaska is named after


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him), C. Alexander Harris (Brit ish author of “Sketch map of the territory in dispute be-tween Venezuela and Brit ish Guiana,” later governor of Newfoundland), French diplo-mat and conference host Jean- Jules Jusserand ( later ambassador to the U.S. , where hehelped secure the entry of the United States into World War I) , and 12 others. Photogra-pher Pirot was one of France’s f irst f i lmmakers, showing his premier movie at the Caféde la Paix in April 1896. His documentary of the 1896 visit of Tsar Nicholas II to Francemay have been the f irst f i lm of that kind. $3,900


At the Dawn of the 20th Century, Roosevelt Pays Tribute to West Point on I tsCentennial

Quote from a Speech Given at the Commencement for the 100th Anniversary

On March 16, 1802, President Thomas Jeffersonsigned legislat ion establishing the United StatesMili tary Academy. Colonel Sylvanus Thayer servedas Superintendent from l8l7-l833. He upgraded aca-demic standards, insti l led mil i tary discipline andmade civil engineering the foundation of the cur-riculum. For the f irst half century, West Point grad-uates were responsible for the construction of thebulk of the nation's init ial rai lway l ines, bridges,harbors and roads.

West Point has produced many of the nation's mostsignif icant mil i tary leaders. They gained experienceand national recognit ion during the Mexican andIndian wars and dominated the highest ranks onboth sides during the Civil War. Academy gradu-ates included Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee,Will iam T. Sherman and Stonewall Jackson.

After his election as President, Will iam McKinley appointed Theodore Roosevelt assis-tant secretary of the navy in 1897. Roosevelt resigned his post in May 1898 to take com-mand of the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, also known as the Rough Riders. On July 1,1898, TR led the right wing of the attack on San Juan Hil l . At the conclusion of the war,mainly because of his war record and f lair, Roosevelt was almost immediately electedgovernor of New York. Later chosen by McKinley to run for Vice President, he tookthat off ice in 1901. TR would only serve for a few months, taking the presidency afterMcKinley's assassination in September 1901.

A mili tary man, nationalist , and outdoorsman, Roosevelt established the power of theAmerican presidency as no other president had, taking American init iat ives onto an in-ternational scale. Though not a West Pointer himself , he served with many in Cuba,and no one knew better than he the contributions i ts graduates had made to the nation.

In June 1902, for one week, graduates and leaders from around the world came to cele-brate West Point’s 100th anniversary and to look to the future. President Roosevelt wasinvited to sound the keynote of the event, and on June 11 delivered the centennialspeech at the Commencement for the class of that year. As The New York Times wrotethe next day, "President Roosevelt 's train arrived at 9 :30 o 'clock. For hours the crowdshad been gathering on the parade ground and along the walks leading down the steephil l to the rai lroad station. When the train came in sight, the path leading up to theacademy grounds became so crowded that a detachment of soldiers, assisted by the sen-t inels at intervals along the way had to resort to strenuous measures to force the crowdback. Behind the president were grouped nearly a hundred mili tary men, dist inguishedcivil ians, foreigners, and national and metropolitan detectives."

Roosevelt 's speech was a moving tribute to the Academy in which he remembered thepast while looking to the future, speaking of his own experience, the cadets ' service,and dwell ing on the changing face of warfare. I t was printed and re-printed, and so de-f ined the role of West Point that i t can st i l l be found on the mil i tary academy website.This fol lowing is a quotation from the most often-quoted portion of TR's speech, l ikelywritten out for publication. I t is the only signed speech segment of his as president thatwe can recall seeing.


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Autograph Quotation Signed , June 11th 1902. "This inst i tut ion has completed i ts f irsthundred years o f l i fe . During that century no other education inst i tut ion in the land has con-tr ibuted so many names as West Point has contributed to the honor rol l o f the nat ion’s greatestc i t izens. Theodore Roosevelt ." On paper of famed New York stationer Corlies & Macy,Co. , with an eagle holding the e pluribus unum banner of the presidential seal .

Roosevelt ’s confidence in West Point was well placed. At the turn of the century i t wason the verge of generating a new generation of American leaders to f ight in World War Iand II , including Eisenhower, MacArthur, Bradley, Arnold, Clark, Patton, St i lwell andWainwright. $7,000


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Oversize Signed Photograph of Herbert Hoover

An 11 by 14 inch photograph of Hoover in older age, inscribed and signed with hisgood wishes. $500


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Chief Justice Wil l iam H. Taft Seeks Judicial Help With a Crowded Calendar

Under Taft 's leadership, the Federal courts heardmany cases, and seemed always overwhelmed withwork. U.S. Circuit Court Judge Jacob Trieber, thefirst Jew ever appointed to the Federal bench, wasmuch admired by Taft and was known as a man wil l -ing to pitch in and assume an additional caseload.Generally Trieber agreed, but this t ime he just couldnot.

Typed Letter Signed on his Supreme Court letter-head, Washington, February 12, 1923, to Trieber. "Ihave yours of February 10th. I knew you were a hard-working judge, but o f ten those who are hard-working arethe only ones who have any extra t ime, or at least are theones who are most l ike ly to do extra work. However, yourstatement is a l l suf f ic ient and I must look e lsewhere forJudges ." $600


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Just 11 Days After Resigning From the New York State Senate to Serve Presi-dent Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt Advises His Successor on ImportantPending Legislation

In 1910, Roosevelt ran for the New York State Senate from the district around HydePark in Dutchess County, which had not elected a Democrat since 1884. He entered theRoosevelt name, with i ts associated wealth, prestige and influence in the Hudson Val-ley, and the Democratic landslide that year carried him to the state capital of Albany.Roosevelt entered the state house on January 1, 1911. He became a leader of a group ofreformers who opposed Manhattan's Tammany Hall machine which dominated the stateDemocratic Party. He was reelected for a second term November 5, 1912.

FDR was always interested in the prosperity of agriculture and became chairman of theState Senate Agriculture Committee. He introduced bil ls developed in coordinationwith the Grange and agricultural experts giving state government backing to farm co-operatives, and al lowing agricultural credit banks to lend money for farm improve-ments. However, his important work on these bi l ls , and indeed his state senate career,was cut short when newly-inaugurated President Woodrow Wilson named him AssistantSecretary of the Navy. He resigned from the New York State Senate on March 17, 1913 toaccept that appointment. There was st i l l unfinshed business in Albany, however, andFDR tried to smooth the transit ion for his successor as chairman of the AgricultureCommittee, Sen. Clayton Wheeler.

Typed Letter Signed on his Assistant Secretaryof the Navy letterhead, Washington, March 28,1913, to Wheeler, advising him on how to dealwith the important pending legislat ion. “I am

very glad to have your letterte l l ing me about the progressof the agricultural b i l ls . Ofcourse I real ized that theCommission Merchant Bi l lcould not get through in i tsoriginal form, but as long asthe Grange and other agricul-tural interests are sat is f ied Ifee l that we shal l have taken areal step in the r ight direct ionand that in future years weshal l be able to strengthen thelaw. I hope you have taken apol l o f the Senate and are fee l -ing conf ident that the bi l l wi l lpass . In regard to the bi l lproviding for cooperat iveagricultural banks, I thinkthat you had better get Mr.Bruce to have a ta lk with Sen-ator Pol lock about the wholesubject , as Senator Pol lockhas introduced a general b i l lproviding for cooperat ive

banks not only in the country but in the c i t ies . The object o f the banks in the two local i t ies isof course somewhat di f ferent , but perhaps e i ther my bi l l or the Pol lock bi l l can be so amendedas to provide for a cooperat ive banking system which wil l be sat is factory both in farming andin c i ty communit ies . . . I do not need to te l l you how glad I am that you have succeeded me as


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chairman of the Committee on Agriculture . . .” He then adds in his hand the informationthat “H.V. Bruce is at 2 Rector Street , N.Y. City.” Bruce was an activist and reformerworking for better conditions in the city. Sen. Henry W. Pollock was interested in bank-ing legislat ion, and here Roosevelt advises that , for progress to me made, Bruce andPollock would need to get together on a mutually-acceptable version.

This is a polit ical ly signif icant early FDR letter. $1,500

Franklin D. Roosevelt Praises the Settl ing of the American West

He thanks the Indian Wars veterans who safeguarded “Those brave pioneers whopushed westward and blazed the trai ls for American colonizat ion. . .”

From the end of the Civil War unti l the 1890’s , there was a great migra-t ion and expansion that sett led the American West . That movementsaw wagon trains wend their way westward, braving dangers alongthe way, and often passing through or even homesteading in coun-try owned and occupied by Native Americans. The U.S. Army andCavalry sent forces to protect these pioneers, both in their passageand at their destinations, and these troops engaged in a series ofconfl icts known collect ively as the Indian Wars. Without their pres-ence, the sett lement of the West as we know it would not have been

possible.

In the 1930’s , there were st i l l quite a few veterans of the Indian Wars l iv-ing, and an unbrella group for a whileorganized annual encampments. In1936, President Roosevelt took t ime tothank them for their part in one of thenation’s greatest endeavors - the set-t lement of the American West .

Typed Letter Signed on White Houseletterhead, Washington, October 7,1936, to National Commander RalphDonath of the United Indian War Vet-erans. “I am glad to extend my greet ingsto the United Indian War Veterans of theUnited States on the occasion of their1936 encampment. The service which themembers o f your organizat ion rendered insafeguarding the interests o f those bravepioneers who pushed westward andblazed the trai ls for American coloniza-t ion merits the nat ion’s recognit ion andgrat itude. I extend to you today thatrecognit ion and grat i tude on behal f o f theAmerican people . I t was through yourservice that sett lement and expansion ofour great frontiers was made possible .The part which you had in paving theway toward the sett lement and expansionof our country has become a permanentchapter in American history. .” $4,500


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Albert Einstein Relates That Maxwell 's Work Laid the Foundation for HisSpecial Theory of Relativity

He says that "the Maxwell Theory of e lectro-magnetic f ie lds demonstrated to us an energyform in an e lectro-magnetic f ie ld . . ."

Classical mechanics is a model of the physics of forces actingupon bodies. I t is often referred to as "Newtonian mechanics"after Isaac Newton and his laws of motion. Within this model ,there was kinetic energy (which was possessed by a body byvirtue of i ts motion and velocity) and potenital energy (whichwas possessed by a body by virtue of i ts posit ion and waswaiting to be released, such as a rock on top of a hi l l or waterbehind a dam). In Newtonian mechanics, kinetic and potentialenergies could readily be treated as separate phenomena andeven had different formulas to determine them. Thus to physi-cists from the t ime of Newton unti l the 1860s, forms of energywere dist inct . Then, James Clerk Maxwell (who died the yearEinstein was born) made some revolutionary determinations

relating to electricity, l ight and magnetism. He found that f ields rather than forces wereat work, and that electricity, magnetism and l ight could al l be understood as aspects ofa single object : the electromagnetic f ield.

There was another implication of Maxwell ’s work, as well , one not thoroughly under-stood unti l Einstein came onto the scene: in electromagnetism, i t ’s hard to maintain adist inction between types of energy, because the definit ion of a magnetic f ield (andhence the magnetic potential) depends on the velocity of the observer. Thus, differentobservers would perceive differing amounts of kinetic and potential energies. So thepotential energy would relate to a factor other than i ts posit ion, contrary to Newtonianmechanics. Einstein pondered this issue and also considered the relationship of energy(the abil i ty to do work) to matter (what al l things are made of) . He f inally found the so-lution; referred to as the “Special Theory of Relativity,” i t replaced Newtonian energytheory altogether. In i t , Einstein established that al l energy is the same (at velocit iesabout l ight speed or in high gravitation f ields we cannot even separate kinetic and po-tential energy), and that the energy of an object is in fact equivalent to and inter-changable with i ts mass; he stated this in the most famous formula in science: E=MC2(energy equals mass t imes the speed of l ight squared).

Typed Letter Signed on his personal letterhead, Berl in, May 8, 1928 to Ernst Eckhardt,who had written Einstein postulating that there might be two types of energy. Eckhardtis l ikely the German-born author, stat ist ician and theologian of that name who madehis career in the United States. In the letter, Einstein reveals the crucial part Maxwell ’swork played in leading him to appreciate the fact that types of energy were aspects ofthe same phenomenon, an appreciation that led to the Special Theory of Relativity.“Your divis ion of energies into Types I and II seems to me to be s imilar to the separat ion be-tween potential and kinet ic energy, as is conventional in c lass ical mechanics . However, onehas gotten away from attr ibuting a fundamental s igni f icance to such a separat ion, ever s incethe Maxwell Theory of e lectro-magnetic f ie lds demonstrated to us an energy form in an e lectro-magnetic f ie ld , in which this separat ion cannot be carried out in any natural way. I t behavesin a s imilar way in the theory of gravitat ion. The modern view of Physics is therefore not par-t icularly favorable to your interpretat ion; something concrete is not l ike ly to result from sucha general l ine o f quest ioning.” I t is interesting to note that , implicit in this letter, is Ein-stein’s bel ief that his theories have rendered classical , Newtonian mechanics archaic.

$7,500


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Harry Truman Writes on the Purpose of the Press

"When our fore fathers establ ished special guarantees for the freedom of the press , they did sonot for the personal aggrandizement of the publ ishers , but to serve the publ ic"

Truman was president in a t ime of r ising suspicion and evenparanoia about communists and the extent to which they hadinfi l trated American l i fe . I t was the era of McCarthyism andblacklists , and as the main target of the red-baiters, Truman tosome degree had to r ide the t iger the better to control i t . Thushe has come under crit icism for insti tuting loyalty oaths andfail ing to stand up for freedoms guaranteed by the Bil l ofRights.

Yet the fol lowing letter demonstrates that this cri t icism is notaltogether justif ied, and that at the height of the McCarthy

madness, he had a clear picture of the value and purpose of freedom of the press, themost controversial of those rights.

Typed Letter Signed on WhiteHouse letterhead, Washington,May 12, 1952, to Well ingtonWales, editor of the newspaperThe Cit izen-Advertiser inAuburn, New York. “I waspleased to learn that the AuburnCit izen-Advert iser has been se-lected for the ÔMost Valuable Cit i -zen to the Community’ award ofAuburn, New York. When our fore-fathers establ ished special guaran-tees for the freedom of the press ,they did so not for the personal ag-grandizement of the publ ishers , butto serve the publ ic . The award thathas come to you is a grat i fyingdemonstrat ion of the true role o f anewspaper in a democrat ic soci-ety.”

In 1946, Truman had called free-dom of the press “one of thefreedoms for which we werefighting and essential to ourdemocratic way of l i fe .” Here henot only advocates i t , but moresignif icantly shows his under-standing that the Founding Fa-thers did not establish thatfreedom to benefit the publish-ers (or by extension the otherel i tes which publishers oftenrepresent) , but to inform and en-l ighten the common people. Aradical purpose, both in 1790and today, and a very importantpresidential statement. $1,700


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President-Elect Dwight Eisenhower Says I t Wil l Be His “High Privi lege” to ServeAs President

“I am writ ing you to express my deep personal grat i tude for the outstanding work you did onbehal f o f our campaign."

Ike was actively courted by both parties inthe late 1940’s . He was, however, a Repub-l ican at heart , and agreed to run for presi-dent in 1952 on i ts t icket - for the "good ofthe nation." Ike was nominated on the f irstballot at the Republican Convention. Presi-dent Truman supported Governor AdlaiStevenson of I l l inois who won the Demo-cratic nomination.

Eisenhower took the high road in the cam-paign, promising to go to Korea to end theimpasse of the Korean War. The countryvoted overwhelmingly for Eisenhower inNovember 1952, and he began to assemblehis administration. By mid-January 1953,

that task was accomplished andhe had a brief lul l before hewould take the oath of off ice onJanuary 20. He used that t ime tothank some of his chief support-ers.

Typed Letter Signed on his let-terhead, New York, January 12,1953, to Preston Davis, publisherof My Weekly Reader, who hadworked for Eisenhower ’s elec-t ion. “I am writ ing you to expressmy deep personal grat i tude for theoutstanding work you did on behal fo f our campaign. The dedicatedgroup of Americans who organizedthemselves into the now famousmovement known as ‘Cit izens forEisenhower-Nixon’ played a uniquerole in the events that led to ourvictory on November 4th. Thatnight we won the r ight and highprivi lege to embark upon the Cru-sade to which you and I pledgedourselves . To just i fy their fa i th andconfidence , we now have the re-sponsibi l i ty o f putt ing into e f fectthe mandate o f our countrymen.”

A stirring statement by Ike of hisgoals and responsibil i t ies , justeight days before he became the34th President. $900


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Signed Photograph of R ichard Nixon

An 8 by 10 inch photograph of Nixon, l ikely as Vice President, inscribed and signedwith his best wishes. $1,000

The Letter That Led to Establishment of the Peace Corps

Addressed to Robert Kennedy, this retained copy of a letter from future Pennsylvania GovernorMilton Shapp detai led the program that the Kennedy administrat ion adopted soon after

Milton Shapp f irst entered the polit ical scene in 1960 by campaigning for John F.Kennedy. After Kennedy became President in 1961, Shapp was appointed to advisoryboards for the Department of Commerce and the Peace Corps. He later served as Gover-nor of Pennsylvania for two terms.

While traveling in Russia in 1959, Shapp learned of a program that sent doctors toAfrica to teach the local population about health and sanitation. This led to his formu-lating a definit ive concept for a similar, but much broader program, to be establishedby the U.S. , one that would organize Americans to go to the under-developed worldand provide hands-on instruction and assistence. In early October 1960, Shapp wasseated next to Robert Kennedy on a plane to Pittsburgh and discussed the idea in detai lwith him. Others had suggested various youth corps possibil i t ies before (Senator Hu-bert Humphrey, for one) , and many have claimed credit for inventing the Peace Corps,but RFK had not heard anything l ike this before and asked Shapp for a letter outl iningthe concept. Meanwhile, shortly after, on October 14, candidate John F. Kennedy, speak-ing in Michigan, announced his plan for an organization l ike that Shapp had suggested.


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Typed Letter (unsigned) , 9 pages, Philadelphia, October 25, 1960, to Robert Kennedy,being Shapp’s retained copy of the letter he sent RFK that led to the establishment ofthe Peace Corps. Shapp “outl ines a plan that the United States might fo l low to rebui ldfr iendship and strength in the Lat in American countries as wel l as in Africa and Asia ,” say-ing that “by also strengthening the economies o f impoverished nations throughout the world,i t wil l br ing al l o f c ivi lat ion to a greater understanding and toward a workable peace .” Hespecif ical ly suggests “At the present t ime, when our young men reach the age of nineteenthey are drafted into the mil i tary service , or they receive an extension so that they can com-plete their education. However, s ince working in the f ie ld o f economic aid is as important asdoing actual mil i tary service , why could we not have a program where qual i f ied young mencould go into the economic instead of the mil i tary as their method of serving the nat ion. Justas in war t ime we train doctors and technicians etc . to handle mil i tary chores , so could we pro-vide large scale o f training of our young men and women in languages , nat ive customs ofAfrica , Asia and South America , the re l igions of these areas , etc . In addit ion, these young peo-ple could receive training in certain ski l ls such as road bui lding, irr igat ion, farming, commu-nicat ions, how to counteract mass i l l i teracy, etc . After rece iving such training, they wouldthen serve overseas for a prescribed period of t ime, working with the nat ive populat ions in theunder-developed nations. . .” During a later speech in San Francisco, California on Novem-ber 1, JFK again mentioned the program, dubbing this proposed organization the "PeaceCorps."

Kennedy l iked the idea so much that less than six weeks after becoming President, onMarch 1, 1961, he signed Executive Order 10924 that off icial ly inaugurated the PeaceCorps. He then named Shapp to i ts advisory board. The Peace Corps remains one of theenduring legacies of JFK’s term in off ice, and it is often cited as one of the l iving sym-bols of the idealism of the Camelot era, 1961-3.

Included is a booklet , “Peace and the Peace Corps,” an address delivered by Shapp onMarch 9, 1961, with Shapp’s handwritten notation , “This speech established policyguidelines for the Peace Corps.” These i tems were obtained directly from the Shappfamily and have never before been offered for sale. $2,000


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John F. Kennedy Says the U.S. Must “meet ful ly i ts commitments for defenseand freedom.”

“The most urgent task confronting our Nation today is to end the waste o f unemployment andunused resources , to step up our rate o f economic growth, and to strengthen our economy. . .”

By the Fall of 1963, President Kennedy was chiefly focused on the economy. Taxes weretoo high, revenues too low. The solution, he said, was to cut taxes to raise revenues.But tax reform wasn't just about the economy, because the economy was intricatelybound up with national security, and national security was the basis of America's posi-t ion of leadership in the Cold War. His tax revisions, he writes here to Governor Brown,were crucial to American defense and freedom.

Typed Letter Signed as President, on green White House letterhead, Washington, April8, 1963. “Thank you for your letter. . . in which you outl ine some of the major considerat ions inevaluating the importance of the Administrat ion's tax revis ion proposals to the State o f Cal i -fornia . Your analysis demonstrates the benef ic ia l impact o f the proposed tax revis ions on suchcrit ical problems as unemployment, economic growth, and the provis ion of adequate revenuesto meet the needs of your State . In terms of the very real interests o f the people o f Cal i fornia ,this appraisal underscores some of the key factors this Administrat ion has taken into accountin recommending basic tax revis ion in 1963. As I indicated to Congress in my Tax Messageearl ier this year, the most urgent task confronting our Nation today is to end the waste o f un-employment and unused resources , to step up our rate o f economic growth, and to strengthenour economy and therefore the revenue base . In my judgement, tax revis ion is crucial to the at-tainment of these goals which in their total i ty must be achieved i f our Nation is to meet ful lyits commitments for defense and freedom. Your State . . . epitomizes the stake which al l ourStates and local i t ies have in a balanced revis ion of the tax system to increase both consumerpurchasing power and incentives to invest . . . I t is most grat i fying and helpful to me to haveyour evaluation, as Chie f Executive o f a great State . . .” $6,500


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Robert Kennedy Is Grateful For an Honor Paid to His Late Brother

In the wake of the assassination of President Kennedy,many people and nations paid tr ibute to him and hisbrother Robert received much sympathy. Here, an admirersent him a stamp of JFK put out by the Congo.

Typed Letter Signed on his Senate letterhead, July 13,1965, to Mrs. Theodore Bojinoff , thanking her for sendinghim a f irst day cover. "Thank you for sending me your 1stday cover o f the Congo stamp honoring President Kennedy. Iwas most happy to inscribe i t to you, and I wish you continuedsuccess with your col lect ion." $1,000


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Lyndon B. Johnson Congratulates Cal ifornia on Ratif ication of the 25thAmendment to the U.S. Constitution

The United States Constitution dealt with presidential succession atArticle II , Section 1, Clause 6, but the wording was vague. I tfai led altogether to establish procedures both for f i l l ing a va-cancy in the off ice of the Vice President and for responding topresidential disabil i t ies . After the assassination of PresidentKennedy and the succession of President Johnson, these omis-sions were perceived as no longer acceptable because LBJ hadhad numerous heart attacks, yet he was operating with no vicepresident.

The Twenty Fifth Amendment was proposed in the Senate on Jan-uary 6, 1965 and in the House of Representatives on July 6, 1965. I t

tackled each of these issues by clarifying language, and adding a provi-sion for f i l l ing vacancies in the off ice of vice president and a procedure for the disabil-i ty of the president. On July 6 the f inal version of the amendment was passed by bothHouses of Congress and presented to the states for ratif ication. Just s ix days after i tssubmission, Wisconsin and Nebraska were the f irst states to ratify the amendment. InDecember, California became the tenth state, and Governor Pat Brown sent the ratif ica-t ion resolution to President Johnson in Washinton. Johnson was pleased and responded.

Typed Letter Signed on WhiteHouse letterhead, Washington,December 6, 1965, to Brown."Thank you so much for your let-ter and the copy of Assembly JointResolution No. 1 , rat i fying theproposed twenty-f i f th amendmentto the Constitution. The issue ofPresidential disabi l i ty and succes-s ion is one of great s igni f icance tothe orderly process o f governmentin our nation. I t is indeed a pleas-ure to me to see Cal i fornia becomethe tenth state to rat i fy this mostimportant amendment."

Despite the need for the meas-ure, i t was not unti l February10, 1967 that Minnesota and Ne-vada became the 37th and 38thstates to ratify. On February 23,1967, in a ceremony in the EastRoom of the White House, theamendment was cert i f ied aspart of the United States Con-sti tution. $2,000


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Two Days After the Election of 1964, Ronald Reagan Praises His Mentor BarryGoldwater and Vows to Continue the Fight “with a bigger army.”

Calls LBJ "that bum in the White House"

Barry Goldwater, f ive-term United States Senator, is the polit icianmost often credited for sparking the resurgence and re-constitutionof the American conservative polit ical movement in the 1960s. Headvocated a strong national defense and l imited government andhis ideology built the conservative movement that has dominatedAmerican polit ics for decades.

The Republican Party nominated Goldwater to challenge LyndonJohnson for the presidency in 1964. The Johnson campaign and

other crit ics painted Goldwater as an extremist . Johnson was in theend able to t ie himself to the popularity of the Kennedy years, and get

credit for the Civil Rights Act and his social programs, the latter then verypopular. Goldwater 's utter defeat al lowed Lyndon Johnson and the Democrats in Con-gress to pass the Great Society programs, but the defeat of so many older Republicansin 1964 also cleared the way for a younger generation of American conservatives to mo-bil ize.

Perhaps the most important of Goldwater 's conservative disciples was Ronald Reagan.On the evening of 27 October 1964, Ronald Reagan delivered a nation-wide paid polit i -cal telecast on behalf of Goldwater 's presidential candidacy. His presentation was soforceful and engaging that Reagan, previously a second t ier polit ical f igure, becameovernight a force in the Republican Party. Reagan's reputation was f irmly establishedand, in fact , i t made his polit ical career. Soon hewould recover the fortunes of the RepublicanParty with his victory in the presidential elec-t ion of 1980.

Here, in one of his f irst communications afterGoldwater 's defeat on the November 4, Reaganwrites fr iends, praising Goldwater and vowingto continue the conservative f ight.

Autograph Letter Signed , Pacif ic Palisades, No-vember 5, 1964, s igned "Dutch. "Dear Myrt andNorman, Well i ts a l l over now and we didn't getour man. I was disappointed but I am not down-hearted. Maybe we tr ied too much too soon. At anyrate , we’ l l continue the batt le with a bigger armythan we had before . At least from that standpointwe are ahead. I wish you two could know this fe l -low. I met him some year's ago and we've been goodfr iends s ince . He is so unlike the picture they'vepainted of him. He is one of the most honest andl ikeable guys you could imagine and compared tothat bum in the White House, wel l . . . i f I l e t mysel fthink about that I ' l l have an upset stomach. One ofthese days I' l l probably be back there again becauseI guess I ' l l s t i l l travel the mashed potato c ircuitunti l we e i ther win or the other s ide states putt ingus in concentrat ion camps, and I'm not quite surethey haven't got that in mind. Nancy sends herbest and I hope we wil l see each other soon." $4,200


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George H.W. Bush, As Head of the U.S. China Mission, Thinks Secretary of StateKissinger ’s Visit to China Was Successful

George H.W. Bush went to China in October 1974 asthe f irst head of the United States Liaison Office inBei j ing since the Communist takeover in 1949, andhe promoted U.S./China relations. Just a month afterBush, on November 25 Secretary of State HenryKissinger arrived in China for talks with Chou En-lai , Deng Xiaoping and Foreign Minister Qiao Guan-hua on normalization of U.S.-China relations. He leftfor home on November 29. His visit overlapped withone of Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp, inChina to promote trade with his state.

Typed Letter Signed , Peking Liaison letterhead, De-cember 3, 1974, to Shapp, expressing his satisfactionwith how well Kissinger ’s visit had gone. “. . .First , Iwant to thank you for including Barbara and me at thatlovely banquet . . . I t was the most sumptuous feast I ’veever seen. . . . I hope our paths cross soon again in the fu-

ture . Bar f lew of f with Secretary Kissinger to spend Christmas with the k ids and she’ l l be backearly in January. I f you are in Washington, give her a r ing. I wil l be here s ince I didn’t fee l Ishould leave this soon after just arr iving. I t wouldn’t be fa ir to the others at USLO.. . I thinkthe Kiss inger vis i t went very wel l . The Chinese seemed pleased and the tone of the meet ingswas excel lent . . .” He adds in holograph, referring to a small gift from Shapp, “My MiltonS. pen is in my pocket!” Obtained directly from the Shapp family. Included is a retainedcopy of Shapp’s letter to response to Bush’s , along with an art icle on Christ ianity inChina he sent along with i t .

Kissinger ’s meetings helped pave the way for President Ford’s visit the fol lowing year,as relations between the two nations continued to warm. $1,200


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The Program “Reconvening the First Continental Congress,” Signed by GeraldR. Ford as President

The First Continental Congress convened inPhiladelphia 's Carpenters Hall on September5, 1774. I t sought rather to r ight the wrongsthat had been infl icted on the colonies by themother country and hoped that a unif iedvoice would gain a hearing in London. Al-though it did not advocate independence, i tproved to be the f irst step towards that goal .

On September 6, 1974, the bicentennial ofthat meeting, a dinner was held inPhiladelpia entit led “Reconvening the FirstContinental Congress”. President Gerald R.Ford delivered the main address, and manyother notables attended, including Pennsyl-vania Governor Milton Shapp.

Governor Shapp’s copy of the program, in-scribed and signed on the cover “To the Gover-nor, best wishes , Jerry Ford.” Obtained directlyfrom the Shapp family. $800

Photograph of President Ford With Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp andFamily, Signed to Shapp

An 11 by 14 inch photograph of Ford as President, Inscribed and signed to Pennsylva-nia Governor Milton Shapp. $600


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Anwar Sadat Says He Went to Jerusalem “to destroy the psychological barriersobstructing the way towards stabil ity and peace.”

After the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Presi-dent Sadat became convinced that contin-ued war with Israel would only be harmfulto Egypt and conversely that a sett lementwould yield an enormous "peace divi-dend." He thought that frozen att i tudeswere the main logjam, and determined toshatter the exist ing paradym by forcing achange. On Wednesday, November 9, 1977Sadat start led the world by tel l ing the Peo-ple 's Assembly, Egypt 's parl iament: “Israelwould be astonished when they hear mesay this . But I say i t . I am ready to go evento their home.. . to the Knesset and discusspeace with them if need be.” Then on Fri-day, November 11, Israel i Prime Minister

Menahem Begin took up Sadat 's offer and extended an invitation to the Egyptian leaderin a message broadcast directly to the Egyptian people. Begin said: “Let us say to oneanother, and let i t be a si lent oath by the peoples of Egypt and Israel : no more wars, nomore bloodshed and no more threats .”

Then fol lowed a week of activity to formalize the invitation and the t iming of a meet-ing, in an exchange of letters transmitted between Israel and Egypt by the U.S. ambas-sadors in Tel Aviv and Cairo. Sadat and Begin then announced the Egyptian wouldarrive in Israel Saturday night, November 19th. Advance planes from Egypt were met inIsrael by cheering crowds. However, Sadat’s talks in Damascus with Syrian PresidentHafez Assad were unsuccessful in winning Syrian support for the mission, and Arabopposit ion to the tr ip was widespread.

On Saturday, November 19 Sadat 's jet - Egyptian One - brought him to Israel . He wasgreeted by the blare of trumpets and a 21-gun salute in a formal airport welcome byBegin, Israeli President Ephraim Katzir and many past and present Israeli leaders.Sadat drove to Jerusalem with Katzir and met brief ly with Begin at the King DavidHotel , his base for the 36-hour visit . On Sunday, Sadat prayed at the Al Aqsa Mosqueand visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial with Begin. That afternoon, Sadatmounted rostrum of the Knesset and speaking forcefully in Arabic he cal led his visit an"important juncture in the history of the world." As expected, Sadat restated Arab de-mands including Israeli withdrawal from war-won lands and a permanent home for thePalestinians. But then he declared: “I wish to tel l you today and I proclaim to the wholeworld: We accept to l ive with you in a last ing and just peace.” As he spoke the worldwas mesmerized by the scene, l i teral ly unimaginable just a month earl ier. Begin, fol-lowing Sadat to the rostrum, cal led on Arab leaders to open peace negotiations and de-clared: “Everything must be negotiated and can be negotiated. . .We Jews appreciatecourage, and we wil l know how to appreciate our visitor 's courage.”

Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp wrote Sadat after he returned to Cairo, and Sadatresponded.

Typed Letter Signed on his letterhead, Cairo, December 12, 1977, to Shapp. “With deeprecognit ion, I have received your message dated November 27, 1977, through which you haveexpressed f irm support to the e f forts we exert to promote peace based on just ice in the MiddleEast area. . . I se ize this opportunity to reaf f irm that my vis i t to Jerusalem was part and parcelof our intense e f forts to br ing just peace to our area and to destroy the psychological barriersobstruct ing the way towards stabi l i ty and peace . Once more , I wish to indicate that we ful ly


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appreciate the good of f ices o f America and i ts leading role in solving the problem. The ArabRepubl ic o f Egypt , on i ts part , is eager to add further momentum to the peace process as wel las to play an act ive role in real iz ing booming prosperity and wel fare for man, in an atmosphereof constant peace and order.” This is the most signif icant letter of Sadat concerning hishistoric tr ip to Jerusalem that we have seen. Included is a cover letter from EgyptianAmbassador to the U.S. , Ashraf Ghorbal , sending i t . These i tems were obtained directlyfrom the Shapp family and have never before been offered for sale.

Soon after this , Sadat was named "Man of the Year for 1977" by Time Magazine. And in-deed less than two years later, a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel was signed, andlater one was signed with Jordan. However, Sadat was not ult imately successful in cre-ating the type of psychological change he hoped for, as many Arabs, and indeed someIsraelis , were unreconciled. In 1981, Sadat was assassinated for his attempts to bringpeace and prosperity to the Middle East , and his goal remains elusive today. $2,500


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Documents

Catalog 59