Description:

Madison James

[James Madison] Free Franks Certification by Architect of the Capitol William Thornton

Secretary of State James Madison franks with his signature this brief letter by his friend and Patent Office Superintendent William Thornton to Caleb Bingham of Boston for a copyright on a new volume to encourage children to write letters.

[JAMES MADISON.] William Thornton, Autograph Letter Signed, to Caleb Bingham, May 4, 1803, Washington, D.C., postmarked May 7. 1 p. with separate address panel, 7.875" x 9.5". Expected folds; tear from opening seal, not affecting text.

Complete Transcript:

                                                                                             Department of State May 4th 1803.

I certify that Caleb Bingham A. M, hath this Day deposited in the Office of this Department his Work entitled “Juvenile Letters” – agreeably to an Act of Congress for the Encouragement of Learning &c.

                                                                                             William Thornton

[Address panel:]

                                                                  Department of State

                                                                  James Madison

Caleb Bingham AM.

No 44 Cornhill

Boston

William Thornton (1759-1828) was born into a Quaker community in the British Virgin Islands, where he was an heir to sugar plantations. His parents sent him to England at age five to be educated by his father’s relatives in Lancaster. He was apprenticed to a physician and apothecary from 1777 to 1781. He enrolled as a medical student at the University of Edinburgh but always had an interest in drawing and sketching. He continued medical studies in London and received his medical degree from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland in 1784. He returned to the British Virgin Islands in 1786 but soon emigrated to the United States and settled in Philadelphia. He lodged with James Madison at a boarding house there in 1787 and 1788. Although Thornton’s family owned slaves in the Caribbean, he became an anti-slavery activist. However, when he moved to Washington, D.C., he bought and hired slaves. He became an American citizen in 1788 and married Anna Maria Brodeau in 1790. In 1789, he submitted a design for the Library Company of Philadelphia’s new hall. Although his design won, actual construction departed somewhat from his plan. In 1792, he submitted a design for the U.S. Capitol to be built in the new capital on the banks of the Potomac River. In the spring of 1793, President George Washington approved Thornton’s design, and Thornton received $500 and a city lot. In September 1794, Washington appointed Thornton as one of three commissioners to lay out the federal city and oversee construction of the first government buildings. Thornton held the position until 1802, when President Thomas Jefferson appointed Thornton as the first superintendent of the Patent Office, a position he held until his death. Thornton also designed John Tayloe’s Octagon House mansion, which served as a temporary executive mansion after the 1814 destruction of the White House. It was there that President James Madison signed the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812.

Caleb Bingham (1757-1817) was born in Connecticut and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1782. He became the teacher of a charity school attached to the college, before moving to Boston in 1784 to establish a school for girls. He taught a private school for four years before a revision of the school system placed him in a public school for girls in 1790, a position he held until 1796. He then turned his attention to publishing and selling books. Bingham published numerous school books on grammar, spelling, reading, oratory, and geography. In 1805, Bingham, working with his oldest daughter, published Juvenile Letters: Being a Correspondence Between Children, from Eight to Fifteen Years of Age, a book of thirty-six form letters designed to encourage children to develop their letter writing skills. Bingham was also fluent in French and had a reputation as an excellent penman.

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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