2006-03
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/28/2006
McHENRY, James (1753-1816), Served on the medical staff of the Continental Army, and as a staff officer for Generals Washington and Lafayette. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Senate (1781-1786) and the Continental Congress (1783-1785), and also a delegate to the Continental Congress. He was appointed Secretary of War from 1796 to 1800. Autograph Letter Signed, "James McHenry" 1p. folio, July 10, 1797, War Office, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with integral leaf addressed to Colonel David Henley, Agent for the Department of War, Knoxville, Tennessee, franked "War Office James McHenry", with excellent content pertaining to the impeachment of William Blount after the Senate learned of his plans to seize Louisiana with the aid of his British and Indian allies. It reads: "....The house of Representatives of the United States having impeached William Blount a Senator of the United States of high crimes and misdemeanors and appointed a committee of their body to send for persons papers & records; and the said committee having issued a warrant to apprehend and bring before them Major James Grant of the State of Tennessee and subpoenas for James Carry and John Rogers with their papers respectively, you will be pleased to give to the said instruments and their bearer all lawful aid in your power to carry their object into effect..." Fine. William Blount (1749-1800) was a land speculator who was elected to the North Carolina House of Commons (1780-1784) and the Continental Congress (1782-1783 and 1786-1787). He also served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention (1787). After the adoption of the Constitution, he was appointed governor of the territory south of the Ohio River (1790) and Superintendent of Indian Affairs (1790-1796). When Tennessee was admitted to the union, Blount was elected as one of its first U.S. Senators (1795), but he was expelled from the Senate on July 8, 1797 for participation in a plot to incite the Creek and Cherokee tribes to aid the British in ceasing Spanish-held West Florida. The Senate held impeachment hearings, but the charges were later dismissed. The hearings made him more popular in Tennessee, so that he was elected to a seat in, and the speakership of, the state Senate.
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