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1832 ANDREW JACKSON Signed First US Federal Penitentiary Authorization Document!

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:6,000.00 USD Estimated At:8,000.00 - 10,000.00 USD
1832 ANDREW JACKSON Signed First US Federal Penitentiary Authorization Document!
Autographs
President Andrew Jackson Authorizations for the First Federal Penitentiary’s Three “Inspectors of the Penitentiary”!
ANDREW JACKSON (1767-1845). 7th President of the United States (1829–1837); Politician and Army Major General who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814) and the British Army at the Battle of New Orleans (1815).
March 13, 1832-Dated, Manuscript Document Signed, “Andrew Jackson” as President, Official Presidential Appointment, 1 page, measuring 10” by 14”, at Washington, Choice Extremely Fine. Countersigned by “Edw(ard) Livingston” as Secretary of State. Livingston served as a U.S. Representative from Louisiana from 1823 to 1829, a U.S. Senator from 1829 to 1831, and for two years (1831–1833) as United States Secretary of State under President Jackson. America’s First Federal Penitentiary was opened in 1829. With this Document, President Andrew Jackson makes a historic Set of Appointments pursuant to: “An Act of Congress passed on the 5th day of March 1829 which is titled: “An Act Concerning the Government and discipline of the Penitentiary in the District of Columbia.”

President Jackson Appoints the first three official Federal “Inspectors of the Penitentiary,” namely; Thomas Carberry, James Dunlop and William O’Neal. The United States Congress had authorized the land to be purchased just north of the Arsenal on May 26th, 1826 for the building of the first Federal Penitentiary located in the City of Washington, District of Columbia. That Prison facility was constructed and opened for occupancy in 1829. The official Congressional Act reads, in part: “That no person shall be permitted to visit said penitentiary, without written orders from one of the Inspectors (Appointed in this Document), except the President of the United States, the Secretaries of the several Departments of the Government, Members of Congress, and Judges of the Courts of the United States.”

This Document is bright, fresh and vividly Handwritten on a special heavy white-wove document paper. Some barely perceptible trivial separations are nicely conserved on its blank verso. Overall, this beautiful, historic Document is excellent for display. Its original Embossed Official Paper Wafer and Wax Presidential Seal located at lower left is fully intact and extremely sharp in detail. Slightly below at left is a vivid deep brown signature of “Andrew Jackson” measuring a huge 5.5” long.

An important historical United States Federal Document regarding the first Federal Prison and its oversight management bearing a magnificent “Andrew Jackson” signature as President. This museum quality historic treasure has outstanding eye appeal for display. It is accompanied with a printed transcript of the official, “ACT concerning the government and discipline of the Penitentiary in the District of Columbia.” (2 items).
The history of criminal sanctions in the United States, up into the 19th century, is short and sweet: a miscreant was either fined, whipped, shamed, sent on down the road, or hanged.

Jails were used only for those awaiting trial or punishment. The very idea of prolonged incarceration for criminal offenders didn’t make its appearance on the American scene until the early 1800s - at which point the Jacksonians took it up as their own.

A period of confinement, they argued, should be used to rehabilitate, and to this end proposed prisons structured as a model society, in which discipline and order would reign and so inculcate habits of obedience.