Description:

Millard Fillmore opines on William Seward's gubernatorial inaugural address: "I think it an admirable production.- If there be any fault in it is in the length..."

MILLARD FILLMORE (1800-1874) Autograph Letter Signed, "Millard Fillmore," 1 page, 7.75" x 9.75", "House of Rep." [Washington], January 5, 1839, addressed in his hand on the address panel to "George R. Babcock, Esq. Clinton House New York City," and franked at top right, "Free M. Fillmore M.C." with red "WASHINGTON D.C. JAN 5" cancellation at left and red "FREE" stamp over his signature. The address panel (5.75" x 3") has been affixed to a larger sheet, and both the letter and panel have in turn been expertly laid in to an even larger sheet, light toning, expected folds, else fine.

Fillmore writes in full: "Yours of the 2d came to hand last evening and I regret as much as you do that we did not meet in N. York. I should have called again on you, but was engaged until the moment of my departure. I should be happy to see you here and I doubt not Mr & Mrs Grant[?] would also. You can come in one day. We have nothing new here. Have just seen and read Gov. Seward's message - I think it an admirable production.- If there be any fault in it is in the length yet there is nothing one would like to spare."

William Seward had just been sworn in as Governor of New York. In his lengthy inaugural address, Seward encouraged increased immigration and full citizenship for all that came to the State of New York. He also sought to reform the state's education system, which favored Protestants over the increasing Catholic population of the state which he believed formed a barrier to better integration of immigrant groups within American society. Education, Seward asserted in his inaugural address, "banishes the distinctions, old as time, of rich and poor, master and slave. It banishes ignorance and lays axe to the root of crime." While Seward's words were popular with immigrants, they upset the Nativists. Two decades later, that stance would in part dash his hopes of receiving the Republican Nomination for President in 1860.

From the library of John Augustin Daly (1838-1899). Daly, one of the most important figures in nineteenth-century American theater, worked as a critic, manager, playwright and stage director. At the time of his death, he owned two major theaters, one in New York and the other in London. Daly is considered personally responsible for the careers of such acting greats as John Drew Jr. Maurice Barrymore, Fanny Davenport, Maude Adams, Sara Jewett, Isadora Duncan, Tyrone Power, Sr. and many others.

Daly was also an avid book lover and collector, amassing an enormous library of books and original manuscripts. That collection was dispersed in an epic, two-week auction at the American Art Association in New York in March 1900. The present letter was part of an extra-illustrated volume, described in the catalog as a "Unique copy, with autograph letters of all the Presidents inserted..." Walter Benjamin, writing in The Collector, described the sale as a "blaze of glory, due to the total having reached nearly $200,000." Benjamin attributed the sale's incredible success to "a small bookseller on 42d street, who appeared at the sale with apparently unlimited cash, and was soon the master of the situation." That "small bookseller," was George D. Smith (d. 1920), who, up until that time, had been an obscure and unsuccessful book dealer who began his career in 1883 with Dodd & Mead. Smith would dominate the market for the next two decades, working as an agent for some of the wealthiest collectors in the country—most notably Henry E. Huntington, for whom Smith purchased a portion of the Duke of Devonshire Library in 1914 for $1.5 million (American Art Association, Catalogue of the Valuable Literary and Art Property Gathered by the Late Augustin Daly, New York, 1900; The Collector, New York, May 1900, 1-2; Publisher's Weekly, March 13, 1920, 801; Ibid, March 21, 1914, 1008; "Geo. D. Smith Dies in HIs Book Store, New York Times, March 5, 1928, 13).

The extra-illustrated volume of presidents from which this piece derives fetched $850, nearly four times above the going rate for presidential sets at the time. According to Walter Benjamin, Smith quickly resold the volume for $1,000. The collection did not surface again until it appeared in a minor auction in early 2016. (The Collector, New York, May 1900, 1-2)

Provenance: John Augustin Daly; American Art Association, New York, March 19, 1900, Lot 3122; George D. Smith, New York.

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