Title: Autograph Letter, signed, from the notorious Kentucky embezzler James W. Tate hiding in Japan Author: Tate, James W. Place: Kobe, Japan Publisher: Date: July 12, 1888 Description: 3 page Autograph Letter, signed. Approximately 7¾x5". The notorious Kentucky embezzler writes to his wife Lucy and daughter, Mrs. Edmonia Martin: " …This is one of the most pleasant places in Japan and the surroundings are very much like my old state. I have been pretty well and would be delighted beyond anything to know that the dear ones at home are well..I have two of the pictures of yourselves… in tortoise shell frames which I keep constantly before me. I got these frames in Nagasaki, Japan where they make tortoise shell work for the whole world and of the finest quality known. These pictures are my only companions and I want none other. How I long for the time when I may see you again. I know I will be much denounced and by parties who forget former circumstances but that is the world and one having once done wrong, the world all join in the cry of denunciation. I expect to be in America by October. The Cholera is prevailing just across the sea from here in China and vessels are being quarantined all along the American Coast…" One of the most notorious cases of American public corruption of the late 19th century was the saga of JAMES WILLIAM TATE (1831-1890?), who served for 21 years as the Democratic State Treasurer of Kentucky – until he embezzled a quarter of a million dollars from government coffers and then disappeared. First elected State Treasurer in 1867, Tate was regularly re-elected for two decades by large majorities. Then, in March 1888, after a Commission was appointed to audit his books, Tate stuffed $100,000 in gold and silver coins into tobacco sacks - and vanished, leaving his wife and daughter behind, and the State Treasury $250,000 in debt. Lot Amendments Condition: Creased; fine. Item number: 222997
Title: Autograph Letter, signed, from the notorious Kentucky embezzler James W. Tate hiding in Japan Author: Tate, James W. Place: Kobe, Japan Publisher: Date: July 12, 1888 Description: 3 page Autograph Letter, signed. Approximately 7¾x5". The notorious Kentucky embezzler writes to his wife Lucy and daughter, Mrs. Edmonia Martin: " …This is one of the most pleasant places in Japan and the surroundings are very much like my old state. I have been pretty well and would be delighted beyond anything to know that the dear ones at home are well..I have two of the pictures of yourselves… in tortoise shell frames which I keep constantly before me. I got these frames in Nagasaki, Japan where they make tortoise shell work for the whole world and of the finest quality known. These pictures are my only companions and I want none other. How I long for the time when I may see you again. I know I will be much denounced and by parties who forget former circumstances but that is the world and one having once done wrong, the world all join in the cry of denunciation. I expect to be in America by October. The Cholera is prevailing just across the sea from here in China and vessels are being quarantined all along the American Coast…" One of the most notorious cases of American public corruption of the late 19th century was the saga of JAMES WILLIAM TATE (1831-1890?), who served for 21 years as the Democratic State Treasurer of Kentucky – until he embezzled a quarter of a million dollars from government coffers and then disappeared. First elected State Treasurer in 1867, Tate was regularly re-elected for two decades by large majorities. Then, in March 1888, after a Commission was appointed to audit his books, Tate stuffed $100,000 in gold and silver coins into tobacco sacks - and vanished, leaving his wife and daughter behind, and the State Treasury $250,000 in debt. Lot Amendments Condition: Creased; fine. Item number: 222997
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
