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1836 MARTIN VAN BUREN ALS as Vice President to U.S. UK Minister Andrew Stevenson

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:500.00 USD Estimated At:600.00 - 900.00 USD
1836 MARTIN VAN BUREN ALS as Vice President to U.S. UK Minister Andrew Stevenson
Autographs
Gorgeous 1836 Martin Van Buren ALS as Vice President
MARTIN VAN BUREN (1782-1862). 8th President of the United States, First President of the United States to be born as an actual American Citizen!
June 12, 1836-Dated, Autograph Letter Signed, “M. Van Buren” as Vice President, 2 pages, measuring 7.75” x 9.75”, at Washington, Choice Extremely Fine. Martin Van Buren was Vice President under President Andrew Jackson at the time he wrote this Letter of introduction to Andrew Stevenson, the acting United States Minister to England. It is exceptionally clean and well written in deep rich brown ink on fine quality period wove paper. The signature “M. Van Buren” being extremely strong on the second page, measuring a huge 3.25” long. This Letter reads, in full:

“My dear Sir -- Allow me to make you acquainted with Mr Mc Clintock a respectable citizen of Georgia who proposes to make the tour of Europe. I have not had the pleasure of a long acquaintance with Mr. C. but am assured of his respectability, I will be happy to learn that it has been in your power to render his visit agreeable. -- Very truly yours, - (Signed) M. Van Buren”.

Andrew Stevenson (1784-1857) was a Democrat who served in the United States House of Representatives representing Virginia, as Speaker of the House, and as Minister to the United Kingdom.
Stevenson resigned from Congress in June 1834 to accept appointment as Minister to the United Kingdom. In June of that year the United States Senate denied him confirmation by a vote of 23 to 22. Jackson's opponents in Congress argued that Jackson had offered Stevenson the appointment in 1833, and that when Congress convened later that year, Stevenson had organized the House, including committee assignments and chairmanships, in accordance with Jackson's preferences.

In the Anti-Jacksonian view, this amounted to a quid pro quo that allowed executive branch interference with the prerogatives of the legislative branch. He returned to Virginia and resumed the practice of law. In addition, he presided over the 1835 Democratic National Convention.

In February 1836 President Andrew Jackson renominated Stevenson for Minister to Great Britain. He was confirmed 26 votes to 19, and served from 1836 to 1841.

His term as Minister to the United Kingdom was marked by controversy: the Abolitionist cause was growing in strength, and some sections of public opinion resented the choice of Stevenson, who was a slaveowner, for this role. The Irish statesman Daniel O'Connell was reported to have denounced Stevenson in public as a slave breeder, generally thought to be a more serious matter than simply being a slaveowner.

Stevenson, outraged, challenged O'Connell to a duel, but O'Connell, who had a lifelong aversion to dueling, refused, and suggested that he had been misquoted. The controversy became public and the repeated references to slave breeding caused Stevenson a good deal of embarrassment: there was a widespread view that if O'Connell's charges were false Stevenson would have done better to simply ignore them rather than engaging in a public squabble.

Stevenson presided over the 1848 Democratic National Convention. In 1845 he was elected to the board of visitors of the University of Virginia. From 1856 to 1857 he served as the university's rector.