Description:

James Madison
Montpelier, Montpelier Station, VA, December 17, 1818
James Madison ALS Re: "Carver's Purchase" Fraudulent Land Claims in Present Day WI & MN
ALS

A 1p retained draft of an autograph letter signed by former 4th U.S. President James Madison (1751-1836) with his initials as "J.M." at bottom right. December 17, 1818. Written at Montpelier, Madison's ancestral home and plantation, in Montpelier Station, Virginia. Inscribed on a half-sheet with 124 words in Madison's hand including the docket verso as "Dorsey Ben: / Decr. 11. [sic] 1818." With numerous edits in Madison's hand including cross-outs and rewrites. Expected wear including flattened transmittal folds and splits. The verso is entirely silked and an area near the left edge verso is reinforced. Isolated areas of paper loss at lower right recto. Else very good. 7.625" x 5.25." Provenance: Ex-Kenneth Rendell.

James Madison wrote this response to one Benedict Dorsey, a Philadelphia merchant who had contacted the former president a week earlier, on December 10, 1818, seeking information about a land claim known as Carver's Purchase.

Madison wrote in full, with original spelling and punctuation:

"To Benedict Dorsey (Phila)

Montpelier Decr. 17. 1818.

I have recd your letter of the 12th [sic] on the subject of what is called carvers purchase. Among other motives to give any information in my power. I should not be insensible to your reference to my acquaintance with your father. But I am persuaded that I have no recollections of the case in any of its stages or circumstances which you will not better learn from persons having more access to papers relating to it. I should not be candid if I did not add that I have always regarded the decision of Carver as resting on no foundation either of law or policy.

Accept my friendly respects
J.M."

In Dorsey's December 10, 1818 letter, he had inquired if Madison recalled any details about the 1806 Senate investigation of Carver's Purchase. Madison had been Secretary of State in the Jefferson administration in 1806, so Dorsey's question was well-directed. Dorsey had a very personal interest in Carver's Purchase, having bought a tract of the highly desirable but disputed land himself. Dorsey wondered if the litigation involving the land had been settled. It was not, nor would it ever be… (Please see scans of Dorsey's original letter provided by the Library of Congress and included just for reference.)

The legendary land tract known as Carver's Purchase - said to correspond to parts of present day northwestern Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota - was named after the American explorer, surveyor, and mapmaker Jonathan Carver (1710-1780). In 1766, Carver had been commissioned by Robert Rogers to find the Northwest Passage. Carver traveled throughout the Upper Mississippi River Valley, surveying and making maps of parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota from 1766-1768. It was during this time that Carver supposedly purchased 10,000 acres from two Sioux chiefs at Great Cave on May 1, 1767.

However, it turned out that Carver's Purchase never existed. Any mention of Carver's Purchase originated with his descendants well after the explorer's death in 1780. Carver heirs lobbied Congress to open a formal investigation into the Carver's Purchase land claim in 1804, and the matter was not settled until 1823, when Congress ruled the land claim as spurious, with any alleged property rights declared null and void. Despite this decisive ruling, Carver's Purchase shares continued to be peddled by bad actors well into the late 19th C.

Madison conveys his own negative response to Dorsey in this December 17, 1818 reply: "…I have always regarded the decision of Carver as resting on no foundation either of law or policy."

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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  • Dimensions: 7.625" x 5.25"
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