Description:

Henry Clay
Washington, DC, December 10, 1825
Ashland Slave Hire, Henry Clay 3x Signed ALS With Bonus FF Addressed to French Expatriate
ALS & FF

A 1p autograph letter signed three times by Henry Clay (1777-1852), then U.S. Secretary of State, the first time as "H. Clay" at the conclusion; and the second and third times as partial signatures when writing out his wife's name in the text as "Mrs. Clay." December 10, 1825. Washington, D.C. Inscribed on a single paper leaf. Expected wear including toning, scattered ink ghost impressions, and flattened transmittal folds. Isolated closed tears and minor paper loss have been repaired verso. Else very good. 8" x 10." Accompanied by its original transmittal envelope free franked by Clay as "Free H. Clay" in the postage section. Clay has engrossed the wrapper with the name of his correspondent as "Mrs. Mentelle / near Lexington / (K.)" Bearing a single postmark and hand-stamped "Free." Expected wear and weathering.

Henry Clay had become U.S. Secretary of State of 6th U.S. President John Quincy Adams about nine months earlier, in March 1825. He posted this friendly letter from Washington, D.C. to an old friend in Kentucky.

Clay's correspondent was Charlotte Victoire Mentelle (1770-1860), a Frenchwoman who had immigrated to the United States in the mid-1790s to follow her husband, Augustus Waldemar Mentelle. The Mentelles arrived in Lexington, Kentucky in 1798, where they first taught dancing and French lessons. The Mentelles' daughter Mary "Marie" Russell Clay later married Clay's son Thomas Hart Clay, Sr. in 1837. In 1820, the Mentelles established Mentelle's School for Young Ladies, an all-girls school providing lessons in literature, geography, French, dancing, and etiquette. Future First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln became a favorite pupil of Madame Mentelle in 1832.

Clay's letter discusses the safe arrival of Clay Family belongings from Kentucky to Washington, D.C. and the health of various family members. Most tantalizingly, Clay also mentions in passing two women, Sidney and Kitty, who apparently had been hired out as domestic servants to Madame Mentelle. The names "Sidney" and "Kitty" can be found on a list of 120+ enslaved persons documented to have lived at Clay's 600-acre Ashland plantation outside of Lexington. It is thus more than possible that Clay was offering the women's services to Madame Mentelle on a contractual basis. Four years later, in 1829, a freedom suit was brought against Clay by another of his enslaved persons, Charlotte Dupuy, wife of Lucretia Clay's carriage driver Aaron. For more information on slavery at Ashland, please see the page entitled "People Enslaved at Ashland," on the museum website of Ashland, the Henry Clay Estate:
https://henryclay.org/mansion-grounds/enslaved-people-at-ashland/

Clay wrote in part:

"Wash.n. 10th. Dec. 1825

Dear Madam,

Mrs. Clay and I am indebted to you for several kind letters which I regret that I have not had leisure to acknowledge regularly, as they have been received; for I assure you that we both always enjoy real satisfaction in hearing from you.

I believe I omitted to mention that (thanks to Mr. Mentelles [sic] careful packing) our effects arrived from K. with very trivial losses - less, by far, than we feared. Miss Hall also arrived, in due course of the Stage, without accident. She will be a great relief to Mrs. Clay, to whom, by long habit, she has become necessary.

As to Sidney you will keep her, if you prefer her to Kitty, and when I go home in the next year, we will adjust the affair of her hire.

Our health is better than it has been, mine especially. James rises a little after day break every morning, and is off to school before the [sun] rises. We all unite in affectionate remembrances to Mr. Mentelle yourself and family.

Yr's [sic] faithfully

H. Clay."

Clay was one of the most well-known politicians in the early- to mid-nineteenth-century landscape. After gaining political experience in the Kentucky state legislature, he later served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives as Congressman from Kentucky and Speaker of the House. He served as U.S. Secretary of State between 1825-1829, and represented Kentucky in the U.S. Senate through most of the 1830s-1850s. Clay was also a three times unsuccessful presidential candidate in 1824, 1832, and 1844.

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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