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Auction archive: Lot number 23

JEFFERSON, Thomas (1743-1826) Autograph letter signed to “De...

Estimate
US$18,000 - US$25,000
Price realised:
US$25,000
Auction archive: Lot number 23

JEFFERSON, Thomas (1743-1826) Autograph letter signed to “De...

Estimate
US$18,000 - US$25,000
Price realised:
US$25,000
Beschreibung:

JEFFERSON, Thomas (1743-1826). Autograph letter signed to “Dear Lane,” Williamsburgh [Virginia], 8 December 1778. 1 page, 4to. Docketed on verso.
JEFFERSON, Thomas (1743-1826). Autograph letter signed to “Dear Lane,” Williamsburgh [Virginia], 8 December 1778. 1 page, 4to. Docketed on verso. AN EARLY, UNPUBLISHED LETTER: SALT PANS, BOOK and SLAVES “I was much disappointed at not meeting you here for many reasons: one or two of them I will explain to you. My partners in the salt pans having been unable to send for them in due time, the gentleman who had contracted with us to carry on the business chose to decline it. This prevented our sending it all: & considering our great distance from the Salt-waters, they seems now disposed to drop the concern. I think myself bound to offer you the pans in the first place as you let us have them cheap, that if the present advanced price of corn should admit any advantage to be made, that advantage may be yours. I believe they would expect to add, to the price we gave you, the expense of our express to you which was £5. But if you have more of this commodity than you can dispose of, say so, & I will take other measures with these.” “I have not heard from you on the subject of my slaves: nor yet the books. I shall be ruined if you fail me in these. And if you remove them before you lay apart what you intend for me, it will be impossible for me to get them. They are now in a place whence I can conveniently get them brought by wagons as back loads. Pray write me. If done by the way of Fredericksberg or care of Mr. Dick I shall be sure to get your letter.” “Were this revisal out of my hands I should certainly come to see you. Sometime in the next summer I assuredly may do it. However, I shall expect in the mean time to see you at the May session. I am with sincerity...Your friend and servant...” With a postscript: “You are to make an apology for not answering my letter of June last.” As mentioned in this letter, Jefferson was serving as one of the Committee of legislators of the Virginia Assembly, entrusted with the massive task of a thoroughgoing revision of the Virginia code of laws, 1776-1785. Members included Edmund Pendleton, George Mason George Wythe and Thomas L. Lee (Mason and Lee dropped out because they were not qualified lawyers). For a detailed list of these extensive revisions (126 bills), highlighting Jefferson’s role, see Papers, ed.. Boyd, vol.2, 305-657. In a second “Catalogue of Bills Prepared by the Committee of Revisors,” number 82 succinctly lists a bill “For establishing religious freedom.” The letter is unpublished.

Auction archive: Lot number 23
Auction:
Datum:
4 Dec 2014
Auction house:
Christie's
4 December 2014, New York, Rockefeller Center
Beschreibung:

JEFFERSON, Thomas (1743-1826). Autograph letter signed to “Dear Lane,” Williamsburgh [Virginia], 8 December 1778. 1 page, 4to. Docketed on verso.
JEFFERSON, Thomas (1743-1826). Autograph letter signed to “Dear Lane,” Williamsburgh [Virginia], 8 December 1778. 1 page, 4to. Docketed on verso. AN EARLY, UNPUBLISHED LETTER: SALT PANS, BOOK and SLAVES “I was much disappointed at not meeting you here for many reasons: one or two of them I will explain to you. My partners in the salt pans having been unable to send for them in due time, the gentleman who had contracted with us to carry on the business chose to decline it. This prevented our sending it all: & considering our great distance from the Salt-waters, they seems now disposed to drop the concern. I think myself bound to offer you the pans in the first place as you let us have them cheap, that if the present advanced price of corn should admit any advantage to be made, that advantage may be yours. I believe they would expect to add, to the price we gave you, the expense of our express to you which was £5. But if you have more of this commodity than you can dispose of, say so, & I will take other measures with these.” “I have not heard from you on the subject of my slaves: nor yet the books. I shall be ruined if you fail me in these. And if you remove them before you lay apart what you intend for me, it will be impossible for me to get them. They are now in a place whence I can conveniently get them brought by wagons as back loads. Pray write me. If done by the way of Fredericksberg or care of Mr. Dick I shall be sure to get your letter.” “Were this revisal out of my hands I should certainly come to see you. Sometime in the next summer I assuredly may do it. However, I shall expect in the mean time to see you at the May session. I am with sincerity...Your friend and servant...” With a postscript: “You are to make an apology for not answering my letter of June last.” As mentioned in this letter, Jefferson was serving as one of the Committee of legislators of the Virginia Assembly, entrusted with the massive task of a thoroughgoing revision of the Virginia code of laws, 1776-1785. Members included Edmund Pendleton, George Mason George Wythe and Thomas L. Lee (Mason and Lee dropped out because they were not qualified lawyers). For a detailed list of these extensive revisions (126 bills), highlighting Jefferson’s role, see Papers, ed.. Boyd, vol.2, 305-657. In a second “Catalogue of Bills Prepared by the Committee of Revisors,” number 82 succinctly lists a bill “For establishing religious freedom.” The letter is unpublished.

Auction archive: Lot number 23
Auction:
Datum:
4 Dec 2014
Auction house:
Christie's
4 December 2014, New York, Rockefeller Center
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