8019

John Tyler

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,500.00 USD
John Tyler

Bidding Over

The auction is over for this lot.
The auctioneer wasn't accepting online bids for this lot.

Contact the auctioneer for information on the auction results.

Search for other lots to bid on...
Auction Date:2018 Jun 28 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, 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, one page, 7.25 x 9.25, February 7, 1861. Letter to "Mr. French," written from "Brown's Hotel" on the eve of the Civil War. In part: "Many thanks for the beautiful copy of Mr. Webster's letter to John Taylor which you…presented to me. I have directed it to be placed in a suitable frame forthwith, and shall hang it up in my parlour here…Be assured, my dear sir, by whatever party name you may prefer to be known by your fellow men, I shall never be able to regard you as other than a patriot because of your devotion to the principles contained in the letter you have sent me. I trust that the Commissioners who are here assembled will act under the influence of its patriotic language and precepts. In that event we shall have but little to fear." A brief transmittal note by the recipient is penned on the second integral page. In fine condition, with light staining from an old repair to a fold split, and a strip of old mounting residue along the reverse edge.

Three days before this letter was written, the 70-year-old Tyler headed a Peace Conference at the Willard's Hotel in Washington in a final effort to resolve sectional division and avert Civil War. The conference featured a total of 131 representatives from fourteen free and seven slave states—none of the seven secession-committed Deep South states attended—with Tyler making opening remarks to the audience that included six former cabinet members, nineteen ex-governors, fourteen former senators, fifty former representatives, and twelve state Supreme Court justices. The three week convention culminated with the drafting of a seven-point constitutional amendment that was soundly rejected in the Senate by a 28-7 vote, and a last attempt for negotiations between Unionist southerners and representatives from the incoming Republican government was nullified by the First Battle of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Tyler, twice a voter for secession, passed away less than a year later. The gifted letter was likely a piece of correspondence between New York Congressman John W. Taylor and New England representative Daniel Webster, who served as Secretary of State under President Tyler from 1841 to 1843.