Auction Date:2012 Feb 15 @ 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
Ultra rare third person ALS, one page, written on the lower half of a 7.75 x 10 sheet, February 17, 1791. Jefferson writes to President George Washington. In full: “The Secretary of state has the honor to send to the President three copies of a report & message relative to Kaskaskia, Kahokia & Prairie, to wit, one for each house, & one to be retained by the President. He sends also the original report which contains some things worth the President’s reading, tho not mentioned in the report. The passages reported on are marked with a pencil.” Uniform block of mild toning over text, a partial separation along central horizontal mailing fold, with some of the fold reinforced by archival tape, some light pencil remnants to blank portion above text, a few small edge tears and chips, and a few adhesive remnants to top edges, otherwise fine condition. Accompanied by a 1978 letter of certification from noted dealer Charles Hamilton, which reads, “I certify that I have examined the 8-line document dated Feb. 17, 1791, beginning ‘The Secretary of State has the honor…’ and find it to be an authentic, handwritten letter of Thomas Jefferson addressed to ‘the President’ [George Washington].”
At the time of receiving this letter, Washington was contending with the ongoing Northwest Indian Wars, a result of efforts to expand American settlements northwest of the Ohio. The Kaskaskia and Cahokia tribes were members of the Illinois Confederation and were eponyms for villages in the area, and ‘Prairie’ may refer to the settlement of Prairie du Rocher nearby. These villages would serve as supply centers for succeeding French, British and American forces, which at this time was headed by General Josiah Harmar, who would suffer a major defeat and be court-martialed in 1791. These wars were essentially ended with General ‘Mad Anthony’ Wayne's victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. The war would be put to an end after the signing of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. Any correspondence between Jefferson and Washington during his administration is extremely rare.
Auction Location:
5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
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