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1635

Martha Washington

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:30,000.00 - 40,000.00 USD
Martha Washington

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Auction Date:2012 Feb 15 @ 18:00 (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 as First Lady signed “M. Washington,” one page both sides, 10.25 x 9, October 18, 1794. Martha writes to her niece, Frances ‘Fanny’ Bassett, regarding her marriage to Tobias Lear, in full: “I had the pleasure to receive your kind favor some time in the last week. And I had put your letter away so secure as to not be able to find it today. I am very glad to hear you are tolarable well yourself and your children better, your happiness my dear Fanny is I assure you very dear to the President and myself, I have no doubt but you have considered well what you are about to undertake-and I hope that the same providence that has heather to taken care of you will still be your gardien angel and protect and derect you in all your undertakings, you have my fervent prayers for your happyness.

Mrs. Izard, a ladie of my acquaintance since I have been hear is setting out on a journey to the seat in Charlestown South Carolina-Mr. Izard has been in congress ever since the president has-after serving his six years he means to retire and his family goes on this fall, they will come to Alexandria and wish much to visit Mount Vernon if it is not very inconvenient to you. I shall be much obliged to you to goe [sic] down to Mount Vernon with Mrs. Izard and her family as they would be glad to rest their [sic] a day it would be well to let Mr. Pearce know it. The ladies intend to set out on Wednesday next. Thair [sic] present intention is go to Lancaster and either York town-and come from thence to the Federal City. I would wish you to be very kind to them-and put a supply of good bread or any thing else they may want. I shall give Mrs. Izard a letter for you which she will send to you as soon as she gets to Alexandria. Mrs. Mannegot is her daughter and will I expect go all together to Mount Vernon. I will when I write next week give you all the information I can as to the time they expect to get to Georgetown. Mr. Lear is very well acquainted with the Ladys and Gentleman. If he will be so good as to let you know when they arrive at the City and go down with them it would be the more agreeable to them as he would be able to walk about with them. I have not heard of the President since he left Carlisle.” Some scattered faint soiling, a few small pieces of reparative tape along old splits, a few small areas of repaired paper loss, and moderate show-through from writing on opposing sides, otherwise fine, clean condition.

Fanny Bassett Washington was Martha's favorite niece and the widow of George Augustine Washington, the eldest son of the president’s brother Charles. At the time of this 1794 letter, Fanny was contemplating marrying Tobias Lear, the president’s close friend and longtime personal secretary. Unsure of whether to accept Lear’s proposal, she sought advice from Martha on August 29 who replied, “I really dont know what to say to you on the subject; you must be goverend by your own judgement…as to the President, he never has, nor never will, as you have often heard him say, inter meddle in matrimonial concerns.” She became engaged to Lear and they wed in 1795, but, tragically she died less than a year later, probably from the tuberculosis that killed her first husband. In a March 30, 1796 letter to the grieving widower, the Washingtons offered words of solace, “To say how much we loved, and esteemed our departed friend, is unnecessary. She is now no more! but she must be happy, because her virtue has a claim to it.”

During her short lifetime, Fanny lived on Walnut Tree Farm, a plantation she and her late husband had established, and there she helped manage affairs at Mount Vernon in her aunt's absence. Writing from Philadelphia, Martha asked her niece to host a visit by South Carolina Senator Ralph Izard, his wife, his daughter Mrs. Alice De Lancey Izard, and Margaret Izard Manigault who traveled to Mount Vernon from Philadelphia. Izard, a former Continental Congressman, was preparing to retire from the Senate and return home. The First Lady requested that Fanny inform the plantation manager, William Pearce, and suggested Lear accompany the ladies on their proposed tour of “Federal City,” the nation’s future capital currently under construction. Martha closed the letter by noting that she has “not heard from the President since he left Carlisle.”

Washington was on the march in Pennsylvania to quell the so-called Whiskey Rebellion. In the summer of 1794, unrest over a 1791 federal excise tax on whiskey flared into open conflict in Pennsylvania. Invoking the militia Act of 1792, the president issued a proclamation on August 7, ordering the rebels to disperse peaceably and return home. When negotiations failed, he left Philadelphia on September 30 to join federal troops then marched with militiamen to Bedford after preparing his commanding officers to subdue the rebellion.

An exceedingly rare letter with rich personal, political and social content. Martha Washington is seldom found in any form: in almost 30 years we have offered just two signatures and one other letter.
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