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Auction archive: Lot number 36

JEFFERSON, Thomas. Autograph letter signed ("Th:Jefferson") to Jared Sparks (1789-1866), editor (1823-1829) of The North American Review , Monticello, 4 February 1824.

Auction 09.10.2002
9 Oct 2002
Estimate
US$300,000 - US$400,000
Price realised:
US$669,500
Auction archive: Lot number 36

JEFFERSON, Thomas. Autograph letter signed ("Th:Jefferson") to Jared Sparks (1789-1866), editor (1823-1829) of The North American Review , Monticello, 4 February 1824.

Auction 09.10.2002
9 Oct 2002
Estimate
US$300,000 - US$400,000
Price realised:
US$669,500
Beschreibung:

JEFFERSON, Thomas. Autograph letter signed ("Th:Jefferson") to Jared Sparks (1789-1866), editor (1823-1829) of The North American Review , Monticello, 4 February 1824. 4 pages, 4to (251 x 204mm.), page one with inscription by Sparks in blank margin ("See N.A. Review for Jan, 1824, p.40-The article was written by J.S."; Sparks's endorsement at bottom off page 4. In superb condition. JEFFERSON'S MOST EXPLICIT LATE STATEMENT ON THE ISSUE OF SLAVERY, OUTLINING HIS PLAN FOR COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION, SUGGESTING A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT, AND SUGGESTING THE COST SHOULD BE MET BY THE SALE OF PUBLIC LANDS IN THE TERRITORIES A truly remarkable letter, frequently quoted in the vast and still-growing literature dealing with Jefferson and his paradoxical position on slavery, and published (from a retained copy) in every edition of Jefferson's letters since 1829. This remarkable letter, to historian and editor Jared Sparks, constitutes one of Jefferson's most explicit statements on the complex question of slavery and its troubling implications for future generations of Americans. The former President acknowledges receipt of Sparks's letter and a copy of The North American Review , containing an article by Sparks on the subject of the American Colonization Society. That society, founded in 1816 with a mission to emancipate slaves and fund their return to a safe haven on the continent of Africa. "Unlike later northern abolitionists, the Colonization Society did not denounce slavery as a moral wrong, and it did not hold slaveowners up to execreation"; while providing "an incentive to slaveowners to free their slaves" (C.A. Miller, The Wolf by the Ears : Thomas Jefferson and Slavery, p.264 and ff., quoting extensively from the present letter). While he was in accord with the general goals of the Colonization Society, Jefferson accurately foresaw the enormous costs that would be entailed by any long-term implementation of compensated emancipation, for the slave population was increasing at a rapid rate even with the elimination of the slave trade. By 1821, immediately after the rancorous debate over the Missouri Compromise, to which he here alludes, Jefferson conceded that the Federal government's financial assistance might be required to make any such plan feasible. "But it was not until 1824 that he conceived a plan for acheiving the twin goals of freeing and expatriating the slaves--a design so ambitious that it could not possibly be implemented without massive financial support....In that year he endorsed in his private correspondence [the present letter] the idea put forward by some members of the Colonization Society that the revenue realized by the sale of public lands be diverted by the federal government for this purpose" ( Ibid. , p.269). "...The article on the African colonisation of the people of color, to which you invite my attention, I have read with great consideration. It is indeed a fine one, and will do much good. I learn from it more too than I had before known of the degree of success and promise of that colony [Sierra Leone]. In the disposition of these unfortunate people, there are two rational objects to be distinctly kept in view. 1. the establishment of a colony on the coast of Africa, which may introduce among the Aborigines the arts of cultivated life, and the blessings of civilisation and science. By doing this, we may make them some retribution for the long course of injuries we have been committing on their population. And considering that these blessings will descend to the "nati natorum, et que nascentur ab illis," we shall, in the long run, have rendered them perhaps more good than evil." He expresses qualified approval of the colonization scheme, and enthusiastically endorses the idea of returning American slaves to Africa: "to fulfil this object the colony of Sierraleone promises well...The 2nd object, and the most interesting to us, as coming home to our physical and moral characters, to our happiness

Auction archive: Lot number 36
Auction:
Datum:
9 Oct 2002
Auction house:
Christie's
New York, Rockefeller Center
Beschreibung:

JEFFERSON, Thomas. Autograph letter signed ("Th:Jefferson") to Jared Sparks (1789-1866), editor (1823-1829) of The North American Review , Monticello, 4 February 1824. 4 pages, 4to (251 x 204mm.), page one with inscription by Sparks in blank margin ("See N.A. Review for Jan, 1824, p.40-The article was written by J.S."; Sparks's endorsement at bottom off page 4. In superb condition. JEFFERSON'S MOST EXPLICIT LATE STATEMENT ON THE ISSUE OF SLAVERY, OUTLINING HIS PLAN FOR COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION, SUGGESTING A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT, AND SUGGESTING THE COST SHOULD BE MET BY THE SALE OF PUBLIC LANDS IN THE TERRITORIES A truly remarkable letter, frequently quoted in the vast and still-growing literature dealing with Jefferson and his paradoxical position on slavery, and published (from a retained copy) in every edition of Jefferson's letters since 1829. This remarkable letter, to historian and editor Jared Sparks, constitutes one of Jefferson's most explicit statements on the complex question of slavery and its troubling implications for future generations of Americans. The former President acknowledges receipt of Sparks's letter and a copy of The North American Review , containing an article by Sparks on the subject of the American Colonization Society. That society, founded in 1816 with a mission to emancipate slaves and fund their return to a safe haven on the continent of Africa. "Unlike later northern abolitionists, the Colonization Society did not denounce slavery as a moral wrong, and it did not hold slaveowners up to execreation"; while providing "an incentive to slaveowners to free their slaves" (C.A. Miller, The Wolf by the Ears : Thomas Jefferson and Slavery, p.264 and ff., quoting extensively from the present letter). While he was in accord with the general goals of the Colonization Society, Jefferson accurately foresaw the enormous costs that would be entailed by any long-term implementation of compensated emancipation, for the slave population was increasing at a rapid rate even with the elimination of the slave trade. By 1821, immediately after the rancorous debate over the Missouri Compromise, to which he here alludes, Jefferson conceded that the Federal government's financial assistance might be required to make any such plan feasible. "But it was not until 1824 that he conceived a plan for acheiving the twin goals of freeing and expatriating the slaves--a design so ambitious that it could not possibly be implemented without massive financial support....In that year he endorsed in his private correspondence [the present letter] the idea put forward by some members of the Colonization Society that the revenue realized by the sale of public lands be diverted by the federal government for this purpose" ( Ibid. , p.269). "...The article on the African colonisation of the people of color, to which you invite my attention, I have read with great consideration. It is indeed a fine one, and will do much good. I learn from it more too than I had before known of the degree of success and promise of that colony [Sierra Leone]. In the disposition of these unfortunate people, there are two rational objects to be distinctly kept in view. 1. the establishment of a colony on the coast of Africa, which may introduce among the Aborigines the arts of cultivated life, and the blessings of civilisation and science. By doing this, we may make them some retribution for the long course of injuries we have been committing on their population. And considering that these blessings will descend to the "nati natorum, et que nascentur ab illis," we shall, in the long run, have rendered them perhaps more good than evil." He expresses qualified approval of the colonization scheme, and enthusiastically endorses the idea of returning American slaves to Africa: "to fulfil this object the colony of Sierraleone promises well...The 2nd object, and the most interesting to us, as coming home to our physical and moral characters, to our happiness

Auction archive: Lot number 36
Auction:
Datum:
9 Oct 2002
Auction house:
Christie's
New York, Rockefeller Center
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