Raynors HCA 2014-11
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/6/2014
JEFFERSON, Thomas (1743-1826) was an American Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the third President of the United States (1801–1809). He was a spokesman for democracy, embraced the principles of republicanism and the rights of the individual with worldwide influence. At the beginning of the American Revolution, he served in the Continental Congress, representing Virginia and then served as a wartime Governor of Virginia (1779–1781). Just after the war ended, from mid-1784 Jefferson served as a diplomat, stationed in Paris. In May 1785, he became the United States Minister to France. Jefferson was the first United States Secretary of State (1790–1793) serving under President George Washington. In opposition to Alexander Hamilton's Federalism, Jefferson and his close friend, James Madison, organized the Democratic-Republican Party, and later resigned from Washington's cabinet. Elected Vice President in 1796, Jefferson opposed Adams and with Madison secretly wrote the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which attempted to nullify the Alien and Sedition Acts. Autograph Letter as Secretary of State, 1pp. octavo, February 17, 1791, Thomas Jefferson writes to George Washington: “...The Secretary of State has the honor to send to the President three copies of a report & message trelative 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 reading, tho not mentioned in the report. The passages reported on are marked with a pencil...” Fine condition. 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.
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