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George Clinton

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:5,000.00 - 6,000.00 USD
George Clinton

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Auction Date:2013 Oct 16 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : 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
An important collection of 29 letters (ALSs and LSs) by various correspondents including two ALSs from Clinton, Eduard-Charles Genet, Clinton’s first wife Cornelia Tappan Clinton, Mary Dewitt Clinton (mother of Dewitt Clinton), and other Clinton family members, most of which date between 1792 and 1810.

The first Clinton letter, signed “Geo Clinton,” one page, February 24, 1802, to his grandson Edmond, reads, "I hear that you continue to be a very good Boy that whenever the weather admits you go to school and learn like a little Man - That you take Care of your Cloaths - keep them clean.”

The second letter, also signed “Geo Clinton,” as Vice President, one page, January 24, 1806, to Genet reads, “ have only time to inclose [sic] you our last Weekly Paper [not present] and to inform you that I enjoy my usual state of Health and that Mama (owing I believe to the [?] & Change of Climate) has in a great Measure recovered her's - Business progresses slowly tho' the situation of our Pubic Affairs wou[l]d seem to demand prompt and decided Measures & nothing of Consequence is as yet effected We have no Forreign [sic] Intelligence of a later Date than that which has been published in your Papers - The Rumours [sic] of an Amicable adjustment of our dispatches with Great Britain and Spain are for might we know unfounded.”

Of great interest is a series of letters from Cornelia Tappan Clinton to Genêt documenting their courtship that began in 1793 when the then French Ambassador to the United States had met her at a reception hosted by her father, Governor George Clinton. The first three of Cornelia's letters to Genet confirm her growing attachment to the French Ambassador. Writing on January 27, 1794, she complains, "Supposing I like Citizen Genet should deal in inconsistancies [sic] what reproaches should I not (justly) receive from him – your last letters have not been a source of comfort to me they are so unlike yourself – if a small change of situation can make so strange a one in your conduct I have indeed reason to curs[e] the Day I first beheld you – if when you are in prosperity I am to believe myself the possessor of your firm Attachment and if on the contrary when you are unfortunate I am to be considered only as a common acquaintance or an absent friend I will renounce the Idea and with it the wish of ever being any thing more." A month later she writes again, "You judge well my dearest friend when you suppose that every thing which can give you pleasure must interest & give the highest satisfaction to her whose happiness is so nearly allied to yours – depend upon the sincerity of my attachment for you and believe that the corner of the world which you will inhabit be it where it may will be dearer to me than all which I for your sake would leave behind – you give me new life by encouraging me to expect to see you soon." The marriage, however, was delayed when Hamiltonians spread rumors that Genet already had a wife and two children in France. Told about the engagement, the governor refused to give his permission for the wedding until Genet’s marital status was clarified.

The archive also features a letter of Edmond-Charles Genêt, signed "G," July 24, 1802 to George Clinton concerning his son, Henry J. Genet. In part, "All the feelings which our attachment to you to our amiable sister and to your dear little boy could excite. Our hearts in hearing that you had all arrived safe have been relieved from a heavy burthen [sic]. The care you take of our child excites our warmest gratitude and I am in hopes that under the learned tuition of his aunt and of yourself if their maid of honour will be fast in his study." In overall good to very good condition, with expected folds, light to moderator toning, some dampstaining, and some repairs and strengthening to some folds and separations.