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Rare 1816 JAMES MADISON Signed Presidential Pardon for smuggling Foreign Goods

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:725.00 USD Estimated At:1,200.00 - 1,800.00 USD
Rare 1816 JAMES MADISON Signed Presidential Pardon for smuggling Foreign Goods
Autographs
1816 “James Madison” Signed Presidential Pardon “for an attempt to smuggle Foreign goods into the United States...”
JAMES MADISON (1751-1836). 4th President of the United States (1809–1817), hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being instrumental in the Drafting of the United States Constitution and as the Key Champion and Author of the United States Bill of Rights. He served as a Politician much of his adult life. A Virginia Statesmen and President of the Slave “Colonization Society,” he was a Slaveholder at his inherited plantation known as Montpelier, and owned Hundreds of Slaves during his lifetime to cultivate tobacco and other crops.
November 8, 1816-Dated Manuscript Document Signed, “James Madison” as President, 10.25” x 15”, 4 pages (2 blank), Washington, Fine. This boldly penned official Pardon Document is written in rich brown ink on wove period paper that has been professionally silked and repaired. There are traces of prior tape repairs to horizontal fold lines, and has been slightly trimmed at bottom with some restoration to various words. A partial red Wax and Paper Seal with Embossed Heraldic American Eagle at lower left. A rare original “Presidential Pardon” for a John Curtis, who, in part:

“was convicted of a misdemeanor, for an attempt to smuggle foreign goods into the United States, whereupon he was sentenced to pay a fine to the United States, and to satisfy the costs of the prosecution against him, or to stand committed till the sentence of the court should be complied with: And whereas it has been made to appear to me that the said Curtis is unable to pay the said fine, and a longer imprisonment of him would therefore be unavailing. Now, therefore, be it known, that I, James Madison, President of the United States, in consideration of the Promises, and for the other good causes me thereunto moving, have remitted, and I do hereby remit the fine aforesaid, & every part there of, willing and requiring that the said John Curtis be discharged, & fully released from the sentence aforesaid, upon his paying and satisfying all the costs incurred in, and by reason of the Prosecution aforesaid -- (Signed) James Madison”.

Reverse side Docket reads, in full: “Direction from the President of the United States that on Conditions, to Discharge John Curtis - November the 8th 1816”.