Beschreibung:

MONROE, James, President. Autograph letter signed as President, to Mr. Thomas Swann, an attorney in Alexandria, Washington, D.C., 23 March 1818. 2 pages, small folio , in a dark blue morocco folding protective case with a portrait.
MONROE, James, President. Autograph letter signed as President, to Mr. Thomas Swann, an attorney in Alexandria, Washington, D.C., 23 March 1818. 2 pages, small folio , in a dark blue morocco folding protective case with a portrait. PRESIDENTIAL FINANCES . The president writes his agent in Alexandria about the debts of Mr Swart “... who has admitted, in some degree, that he must pay the balance due for the land, at the death of the late Judge Jones, but has never paid a cent of it...” Jones (1727-1805) had served a second father to Monroe on the death of his father, James Monroe senior. Monroe junior helped raise the young cousin Joseph Jones, Jr. and when that young man died in 1808 Monroe received control of the Oak Hill estate in Loudon County. Regarding Swart, Monroe states that “the object of Swart is to evade the payment in the hope of taking advantage of the act of limitation or some other circumstance. He had no title from the old gentleman & the young one could make none...” Should he sue him in Chancery, since “The legal title was not in me, except by the old gentleman’s will...” He asks Swann about certain investments and notes that “you never mentioned whether you were so fortunate as to collect some bonds given you by Col. Mercer...