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136

Franklin Pierce

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:400.00 - 600.00 USD
Franklin Pierce

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Auction Date:2010 Aug 11 @ 22:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
ALS, three pages on two adjoining sheets, 8 x 10, January 21, 1841. Letter to H. H. Carroll, editor of the Patriot. In the first part of the letter, Pierce laments the fact that Carroll, who had once served as a clerk in Pierce’s law office, had been unable to put the political newspaper, The Patriot, on a paying basis. Pierce says he should move on to other things if there is not an upturn in subscriptions, but he hopes that Carroll will stay on until after the March elections, and keep his intentions to himself until after they were held. Pierce then turns to political matters. In part: “I am very glad to hear you speak so cheeringly of our prospects in March. The letters which I have received from different parts of the state speak in the same tone. Merrimack Co. must keep up to her glorious majority of 2270 and I trust our friends in Concord will not allow any personal animosity and jealousies to give to the Federalists a triumph which with harmonious concert on our part I do not believe they can achieve.

The debate in the Senate upon the land bill and questions growing out of it still continues. Crittenden made a log cabin–coon skin speech today as destitute of argument as it was replete with wit & sarcasm. Wright replied to him in his most powerful and over powering manner. Webster followed in favor of distribution & the levying of duties to defray the expenses of Government and made a sort of begging speech to have the coming Administration judged with clemency & candor. It struck me that the replies of Wright and Benton were perfectly conclusive upon two grounds. And yet such is the embarrassed, I might almost say the bankrupt condition of many of the States, that I do not believe that any argument or any presentation of danger in the distance, however clear, can prevent a distribution by the next Congress — A National Bank — A bankrupt law containing the voluntary principle alone and excluding corporations — A distribution of the public domain — A high tariff et cet, et cet. Is not the prospect one to make every patriot weep and tremble for his Country?…” Second integral page bears a hand-addressed free frank panel by Pierce, addressed to “H. H. Carroll, Esq., Concord N.H.,” and franked at the top, “Free Frank. Pierce.”

Intersecting folds, one through a single letter of signature, small area of paper loss to last page from wax seal, some stray ink flecks to last page, and some mild toning, otherwise fine condition.

The lightning rod for the 1841 Bankruptcy Act, being referenced here by then-Senator Pierce, was the 1837 Panic, which devastated the US economy. Many demanded a federal bankruptcy law to address the effects of the crisis, and the Whigs, including Webster, made bankruptcy legislation a central issue in the 1840 presidential campaign, which put the Whig candidate William Henry Harrison in the White House and gave the Whigs control of Congress. However, this was not enough to ensure passage of the act, as Pierce and his fellow Democrats opposed the proposed legislation—as did a small but potentially decisive group of Whigs. The coalition that had supported the act eventually evaporated, and with it the chance of legislation’s approval.
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