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James Monroe Presidential ALS Monroe Doctrine Related Rare Superb Content Letter
James Monroe Presidential ALS Monroe Doctrine Related Rare Superb Content Letter
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Description:

James Monroe Presidential ALS Monroe Doctrine Related Rare Superb Content Letter

Newly inaugurated President James Monroe wrote this letter to his Acting Secretary of State Richard Rush during his sixteen-week “Northern Tour” of New England in the summer of 1817. Because of his private meetings with Federalists during this trip, a Boston newspaper dubbed Monroe’s administration the “Era of Good Feelings,” a designation adopted by subsequent historians.

The principal topic of this letter is a commission that President Monroe had decided to send to South America. The voyage of the commissioners from December 1817 to July 1818 yielded important information about conditions in South America and encouraged public sentiment in favor of the independence of former Spanish colonies there. Issued more than six years later, the Monroe Doctrine codified the idea that European powers could no longer colonize in the western hemisphere.

JAMES MONROE, Autograph Letter Signed, to [Richard Rush], July 11, 1817, Salem, Massachusetts. 3 pp., 8ʺ x 9.5ʺ. Fold marks; chipping at edges; wrinkling; marks from three-hole punch at far right edge.

Complete Transcript
Salem July 11, 1817.
Dear sir
I have sent to you by this mail many packets containing papers, of the dept of State; some of other depts which you will make proper disposition of; & many of my own, with some books, pamphlets &c, which you will have the goodness to keep for me, till my return.
Let the commissn go to the Brazils, as contemplated in your first draft of instructions sent to me. I thought that no change could be inferrd, in that respect, from mine to you.
Let the Comrs execute fully the objects of their mission, and go to the Spanish main, & to every part of it, they may find useful & proper. It is not very important that they be back by the commencement of the next session of Congress. Two or even three months after it begins will be in good time
Mr Rodney has accepted, & will go, as one of the Comrs. I do not think it material that Mr Prevost should be included in the commission, 1st as there will be enough without him, & 2d as it might interfere with his visit to the Pacific where his presence will be useful, & 3d as he may write fully, upon affrs on the Atlantic, while there, tho’ not included in the Commn.
Let Mr Brackinridge go, in the manner you propose.
I hope that the comrs will soon set out. Communicate to Mr Rodney, if you have not already done it, at what time the vessel will sail. Advance them what money they may want, within just limits
I set out in the morning for Portsmouth, very much refresh’d by resting here a few days. My fatigue has been excessive. The excitement to which I have been exposed, by so great a movement of the people, has also had its depressing effect. My health is nevertheless better.
With sincere regard I am /dear sir yours
James Monroe

Historical Background
On July 7, 1817, former President John Adams wrote to new President James Monroe, “In the good old English Language of your Virginian and my New England Ancestors, I am right glad to See you in the oldest Plantation, in old Massachusetts, next to Salem, where you will be recd with more Splendor and I hope with equal Cordiallity.”

Although Spain had ruled much of South America for centuries, by 1817, revolutions against that rule in several Spanish-American colonies had been underway for several years.

On July 17, 1817, Acting Secretary of State and Attorney General Richard Rush responded to Monroe, stating that the President’s letter “enables me to put in motion, very satisfactorily at all points, the mission to South America. Every possible speed shall be given to the departure of the ship.”

Monroe had decided on some of the members and drew up instructions for the commission in July 1817, but delays and illnesses postponed the commission’s departure until December 1817. Monroe initially offered a position on the commission to Joel R. Poinsett of South Carolina, who later served as Secretary of War under President Martin Van Buren, and Monroe considered John B. Prevost of New Jersey but considered him too important for duties on the Pacific coast of South America.

Ultimately, the commission consisted of Caesar Augustus Rodney of Delaware, John Graham of Virginia, and Theodore Bland of Maryland, and Henry M. Brackenridge, also of Maryland, served as secretary of the commission. Brackenridge had a good knowledge of Spanish, but only Graham of the commissioners understood the language.

The Commission left Norfolk, Virginia, on board the frigate Congress on December 4, 1817, and returned in July 1818. Bland left the commission in Buenos Aires and crossed the Andes to Chile, from which he returned in September. When the commission completed its work in early November, the commissioners presented three separate reports. Rodney’s report, to the President’s dismay, described the United Provinces in glowing terms and aligned more with the foreign policy of Henry Clay than that of the Monroe administration. Graham’s report presented a much less favorable view of the United Provinces, finding defects in its provisional constitution and separatist movements in some areas. Bland’s report was the most voluminous and was also more critical of the government of the United Provinces, asserting that it was a mere reorganization of the colonial viceroyalty and suppressed any meaningful freedom of the press.

In his annual message to Congress, delivered on November 16, 1818, President Monroe wrote, “From the view taken of this subject, founded on all the information that we have been able to obtain, there is good cause to be satisfied with the course heretofore pursued by the United States in regard to this contest, and to conclude that it is proper to adhere to it, especially in the present state of affairs.” The United States did not recognize the independence of any of the new governments until almost three and a half years later.

What has become known as the Monroe Doctrine was largely written by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. President James Monroe articulated the doctrine in his annual message to Congress of December 2, 1823: “The occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.” Although initially disregarded internationally, the Monroe Doctrine became central to American foreign policy for much of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

James Monroe (1758-1831) was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, and he attended the College of William and Mary before dropping out to serve as an officer in the Revolutionary War. He studied law under Thomas Jefferson from 1780 to 1783 and served as a delegate to the Continental Congress. He represented Virginia as a U.S. Senator (1790-94) and twice served as governor of Virginia (1799-1802, 1811). From 1794 to 1796, Monroe served as the U.S. minister to France. In 1803, he helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase for President Jefferson and then served as ambassador to the United Kingdom (1803-1807). Monroe served as President James Madison’s Secretary of State (1811-1817) and briefly as Secretary of War (1814-1815). Elected President in 1816 and again in 1820, receiving 231 out of 232 electoral votes in his reelection bid, his party’s ascendancy was heralded as the Era of Good Feelings. His administration is notable for the recognition of the new Latin American republics and, of course, the Monroe Doctrine, written by his Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. In Monroe’s Annual Message of 1823, he responded to European threats of encroachment on Latin American land by declaring that the American continents, “by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European Power.” Although Monroe could do little to back up these statements, the doctrine influenced American foreign policy through the rest of the century. Through the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819, the United States gained Florida and a clearer demarcation of its border with New Spain in the West. Monroe retired to Monroe Hill, now part of the University of Virginia, for the remainder of his life.

Richard Rush (1780-1859) was born in Philadelphia. His father Benjamin Rush was a prominent physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his mother was the daughter of Richard Stockton, another signer of the Declaration of Independence. Richard Rush graduated from the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1797 as the youngest member of his class. He gained admission to the bar in 1800 and became a successful trial lawyer. In 1809, he married Catherine Eliza Murray, with whom he had ten children. In 1811, he became the Attorney General of Pennsylvania, but later that year, President James Madison appointed Rush as Comptroller of the Treasury. In 1814, Madison appointed Rush as Attorney General of the United States, a position he held until 1817. He also served as acting Secretary of State from the beginning of James Monroe’s administration until John Quincy Adams returned from Europe. In October 1817, Monroe appointed Rush as Minister to Great Britain to succeed Adams. He served as American Minister in London until 1825. That year, President John Quincy Adams nominated Rush to be Secretary of the Treasury, a position he held from 1825 to 1829. During his tenure, he paid off most of the public debt and passed to his successor a large surplus in the treasury. In 1828, he was Adams’ running mate, but they lost to Andrew Jackson and his running mate John C. Calhoun. From 1847 to 1849, he served as Minister to France during the presidency of James K. Polk and was among the first foreign diplomats to recognize the French Second Republic.

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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