Description:

Burr Aaron

Aaron Burr ALS Re: Mary Wollstonecraft, British Feminist, & her Claims to American Citizenship during the Reign of Terror

 

2pp autograph letter inscribed overall and signed by American politician Aaron Burr (1756-1836) as "A. Burr" at the center of the second page. Written in New York City on October 9, 1794. On watermarked cream laid paper. With expected paper folds and wrinkles. A closed tear, approximately 2" in length, extends from the top. Two small areas of loss once corresponding to a wax seal affect three words on the first page. Scattered foxing. Else near fine. 7.375" x 9".

 

Aaron Burr, then a Senator from New York, wrote an unknown correspondent from Connecticut (possibly fellow U.S. Senator Oliver Ellsworth) during the fall of 1794. The letter discusses a subject of significant historical interest: the claims to American citizenship of Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), British feminist and writer.

 

Burr writes: "You need not embarrass yourself about Wollstonecraft - he cannot give the plenipotentiary [an]swers which are necessary in or to a perfect []ance - but I am enabled to Stipulate for the asking of one half, if you please a quarter I have + will pay as you may Stipulate - …"

 

Burr and his first wife Theodosia Barstow Prevost (1746-1794) were admirers and proponents of Mary Wollstonecraft, the famous author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), who had relocated to Revolutionary France in late 1792. During the Reign of Terror, Wollstonecraft and other foreigners were targeted. Wollstonecraft's lover, Gilbert Imlay (1754-1828), was an American writer and adventurer with ties to the U.S. diplomatic service. After the autumn 1793 crack-down on the Girondins, Wollstonecraft was in danger of imprisonment or execution. Imlay falsely claimed that Wollstonecraft and he were married in order to bestow automatic American citizenship on her. Wollstonecraft's citizenship was put into question, however, as Burr elaborates in this letter. The "plenipotentiary" referred to none other than future U.S. President James Monroe, who served as U.S. Minister to France between August 1794 and December 1796.

 

The letter also mentions a "Doctor Edwards". This was probably Jonathan Edwards the Younger (1745-1801), Burr's maternal uncle and his former tutor from the future Princeton University. Edwards was a New England minister who lived and studied among the Iroquois prior to undertaking missionary work; he later published multiple treatises relating to the Mohican language.

 

"Our friend Doctor Edwards is on his way from England to Boston probably now arrived there. His Letter written to me on the Eve of his Departure informs me that he will pass through NHaven [New Haven, Connecticut] for the pleasure of seeing you - I am happy therefore that you will meet him in Boston - I cannot point out to you the Ship he sails in but he is fellow passenger with a Mr Russel of Birmingham, I need not intreat you to spare no pains to find him out. You will be much charmed with him on intimate acquaintance + he I know will be equally so with you  - …"

 

Aaron Burr's 25-year-long career as a New York politician is often overshadowed by two dramatic scandals; the 1804 duel in which he killed former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, and a series of treason charges leveled against him in 1807.

 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

 

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