What Happened in North America

[London, circa 1815.]. Nine lines of text on 1 leaf unsized tissue stock, 21 x 1 cm. The original letter was apparently addressed to an arctic voyager: "I congratulate you upon your arrival from the North Pole to the temperate zone, where I hope you will find the magnet equally and still more powerfully attractive to the needle of American commerce." Autograph letter of John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), composed in London, probably while Adams was minister to the Court of Saint James's (1815-17). The note is a copy produced on a "letter copying press," an early method of mechanical reproduction invented by James Watt in the 1780s. The letter copying press became quite popular in America. George Washington, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson were all enthusiastic practitioners, and Benjamin Franklin boasted that he could get three good copies out of it instead of the usual one. The method involved laying a dampened piece of unsized tissue over a fresh document written out in a prescribed ink, and sandwiching the two sheets into a table-top press. The ink adheres to the tissue, producing a readable copy. Ink press copies were early on considered legal representation of original documents. See Barbara Rhodes, "Before Photocopying: the art and history of mechanical copying, 1780-1938" (New Castle: Oak Knoll, 1999). In 1815, Adams was in Europe to negotiate commerce and navigation treaties with England, France and Russia. more information

Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union, 1839. 23 cm; 522 pages. Woodcut illustrations in text. Bound in full speckled calf , leather title label on spine. Worn, endleaves foxed, but sound and entire. more information

Yarmouth, Isle of Wight: February 14,, 1842. 125 x 205 mm; 4 pages, last page blank except for manuscript docket. Usual folds. Alexander Baring's career as an international financier had included speculating in large tracts of American wilderness, and negotiating the Louisiana Purchase between France and the United States. The bank he helped establish at the end of the 18th century endured until 1995, when it was brought down by a rogue trader. After his distinguished career, Baring came out of retirement in 1842 in order to serve as British Ambassador to negotiate with Daniel Webster, an old friend, for the settlement of the disputed boundary between the United States and Canada. Here en route to America, he writes to Thomas Twining, financier of the East India Company (and still known for his tea), that "the subjects of difference with our transatlantic children are unfortunately numerous and various, and nothing but the very extreme importance I attach to the maintenance of peace would have induced me to make an Experiment somewhat hazardous and presumptuous for my time of life. more information

Paris: Baudouin, an IX, [1800]. 8vo (21 cm); 2 vols. [4], 280, [2]; [4], 258, [4] pages. Half titles present. Bound in contemporary half sheep over marbled paper-covered boards. Red and green labels on spine. Few contemporary annotations in margins in ink. Rubbed at edges, but clean, sound and entire. Cf. Goldsmiths'-Kress library of economic literature ; no. 18002.1. Not found in bibliographies of Americana, yet text includes extensive comment on the American War of Independence and on the Compagnie des Indes. more information

Ottawa: F. A. Acland, 1929. First edition. 25 cm; vi, 275 pages, including map and 33 half-tone plates. Bulletin, National Museum of Canada, no. 61; Anthropological series, no. 12. Good condition, with shelf wear, toning at edges, spine tanned, hinges reinforced with linen tape. more information

Quebec: Libairie Garneau, 1936. First edition. 21cm; 173 pages. Bound in "class project" half calf over tan buckram, raised bands. Original illustrated endleaves retained. Original illustrated front wrap bound in. This copy inscribed by Regina Lenore Shoolman, one of the persons named by the author on the dedication page. Custom cardboard slipcase. more information

Genevere [New England], [January] 18, 1765.. 1 p. Semi-literate warrant for the payment of a debt in silver "old tenor. more information

Quebec: La Conseil de la Vie française en Amérique, Université Laval, 1953. 8vo; 446 p. Original green printed wraps, negligibly worn. Unopened. more information

Philadelphia, June 10, 1793. Protest of a note.. 20 x 25 cm; 1 printed leaf, accomplished in manuscript, signed and docketed on verso. Quaker patriot Clement Biddle (1740-1814) signs here in his capacity of notary and Tabellion public for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. more information

Paris, February 10, n.d. [1807], addressed to W. D. Patterson, commercial agent for the United States at Nantes.. 2 leaves, 185 mm x 230 mm (7 1/2 inches x 9 inches ); salutations, 28 lines of text. Integral address leaf, with remains of paper seal and franking marks. Folded, but in excellent condition. Having served three years as Secretary to the United States Minister in France, Nicholas Biddle (1786-1844) is getting ready to leave Paris. He writes to his friend in Nantes, "Pray is a man's head in a greater uproar when he arrives at than when he quits Paris. The brains, in all cases where there are any, must be in a sad state of disorderÖ." He goes on to mention a dispatch from James Monroe, (1758-1831; fifth United States President 1817-1825), at this time engaged to re-negotiate the "Jay Treaty" on trade with Britain that enraged France to the point of fighting an undeclared naval war with the United States. Biddle writes, "A gentlemen just arrived brings dispatches from Mr. Monroe. The contents of the treaty will not be known until its ratification, but from all accounts it is perfectly satisfactory for usÖ." Monroe's secret treaty did not please President Thomas Jefferson, who declined to submit it to the Senate for ratification, but sent it back to revision. During the presidency of James Monroe, Biddle became chairman of the Second Bank of the United States, a position equivalent to the modern Chairman of the Federal Reserve. more information

Moscow: I.N. Kushnerev, 1908. First edition. 20 cm; 236 pages. Several half-tone plates in text. Bound in later blue cloth. Title page mounted. Joints tender and hinges split. Reference: Horvath, A Doukhobor bibliography, 43. Articles, memoirs, and letters compiled by P.I. Biriukov (or Birykov) relating to the Doukhobors' emigration from Russia to Canada. Issued in series: Izdanie posrednika, no. 689. From Julie Rak's web site on Doukhobor culture: "The Doukhobors are a group of Russian language-speaking religious dissenters who migrated to Canada in 1899. Today there are between 30,000 and 40,000 Doukhobors in Canada, and another 30,000 in Russia. They had been persecuted in tsarist Russia for their religious beliefs, which included the conviction that pacifism and non-compliance with militarism is essential to Christian practice because the law of God is greater than the laws of a secular state. These convictions culminated in the 1895 Burning of Arms in Russia, when Doukhobors destroyed their weapons and refused, despite tsarist persecutions, to serve in the Russian army" (http://www.ualberta.ca/~jrak/doukhobors.htm). more information

Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clarke Company, 1911-12. First edition. 2 volumes. 23 cm; 372; 412 pages, including illustrations. Lacks folding map frontispiece in volume 1, supplied in facsimile. Rebound in red buckram. Light but pervasive damp mark through first 50 pages of volume 1. Remains of old library blindstamp on title pages and on one text page, with archival tissue paper repairs. Lower margin excised from prelimary leaf (table of contents) in volume 2, expertly repaired. more information

Montreal: Faculty of Letters, University of Montreal, 1960. Cloth. 28cm. Carbon copy of unpublished Ph.D. thesis, typed on University of Montreal stock, illustrated with original photographs and photostats. Inscribed by the author, with ALs laid in. Endorsed in ink by appropriate faculty members. The dissertaion is a valuable source on the early exploration of North America. The author went on to the English faculty at Loyola College, devoiting his career to pedagogy in place of research. more information

Ottawa: F. A. Acland, 1930. First edition. 25 cm; [4], 346 pages. Text in English and Cree. Published as Bulletin #60, Anthropological Series, #11, by the National Museum of Canada and the Canada Department of Mines. Good condition, with shelf wear, toning at edges, spine tanned, hinges reinforced with linen tape. The oral texts presented here were collected on the Sweet Grass Reserve in Saskatchewan in 1925. more information

New York: John Day Company, 1932. Cloth. English translation of the German essay on early 20th-century American prosperity. TOp of spine chipped away. more information

New York: Street & Smith, 1896. #397. Original edition.. 31cm; 48 pages. Illustrated on cover with comic woodcut vignettes of a bear hanging from a balloon, and of a daisy chain of men ("Indians," in the text) hanging from a balloon piloted by Rocky Mountain Sam and The Professor. Stapled. Pulp stock toned, as in all surviving copies. Fore edge frayed, last leaf torn. Dime novel in the "Log Cabin Library" series. Episodic plot held together by character of Rocky Mountain Sam and his balloon escapades in the Indian territories. more information

Fairfield, Connecticut, April 24, 1784, addressed to John Lawrence, treasurer of the State of Connecticut.. 1 leaf, 200 x 167 mm. 8 lines of text and salutations. Endorsed on verso. Usual folds. Very good condition. one of the provisions of the treaties ending the American Revolution in 1783 banned the confiscation of Tory property. The State of Connecticut had been attempting to confiscate the property of Hannah and William Jarvis of Stamford, but had to cease the action in light of the treaty. This document, signed by Burr as court clerk, provides compensation of court costs to those who had sued for the Jarvis property in Stamford. William Jarvis later became secretary of the province of Upper Canada. more information

Upsala: Stenhammar & Palmblad, 1813. 4to (23 cm); 6 leaves, unopened, uncut and unbound. Few signs of age. The origins of the American War of Independence, painted in broad and affectionate strokes by the dean of Upsala University Carl Rudopf Carling (1788-1837). Never cut or bound, this pamphlet remains in fine, unsophisticated form. more information

Toronto: The Church of England Publishing Co. Limited, 1897. First edition. 24 cm; 166 pages including frontispiece, several halftone pates and map. Bound in original cloth. Pages unopened, binding with only slight bumps and shelf wear. more information

Montreal: 15 Decmeber, 1786. Reference: Lande, FMS 244. Folio (37cm); 16 pages, three of them blank. Text in French. Stab-sewn with woven ribbon. Signed on final text page by Lery, Ignace Gamelin, St-Ange Charly, Cheneville, and one other. Inventory totaling more than £29,000 in fabrics, clothes, small utensils, small arms, powder, some beaver hats, 36 pounds of chocolate, 7 dozen calumets, etc. more information

New York: 9 June, 2004. Wraps. Auction catalogue. more information

New York: November 7, 1814. 1 oblong leaf, 4 1/2 x 7 inches. Payment voucher to the Treasurer by order of the Common Council, signed by Clinton as Mayor of New York, releasing $474.25 to the partnership of Holden and Laurence for "City Watch." Clean cancel cuts through signature. Countersigned by Thomas Mercein, comptroller, and John L. Morton, clerk pro tem. Endorsed on verso by Asa Holden (1762-1854). In 1814, New York was still policed by contracted watchmen. The City Watch system arched back to the 1740s and lasted a hundred years. The watchmen wore no uniforms apart from leather helmets, for which they became known as leatherheads. DeWitt Clinton, senator and twice governor of New York, nephew of New York's first Governor, George Clinton, and unsuccessful Peace Party candidate for President in 1812 against Madison, was serving his third term as Mayor of New York when he signed this document. more information

London: John Whiston, Lockyer Davis, and John Ward, 1747. Second edition. Reference: Howes C-560 ("the first history of the Iroquois Confederation."). Octavo (20 cm); two parts in one volume: LACKING MAP and TITLE PAGE, supplied in photocopy facsimile; LACKING FINAL TEXT PAGE: (lacks title), iii-xvi , [4], 1-t204; [1]-282 (lacks 283) pages. Bound in contemporary half leather over marbled boards, quite scuffed but sound. Pages evenly toned; pi2 (first text page) with closed tear. Offered as a working copy. Includes matieral not in the American edition. more information

[Paris], After 1741. Manuscript on paper, unsigned. Folio (373 mm); 8 pages, last page blank. Frayed and discolored at edges. Manuscript document, probably a working copy, relating to claims by the heirs of Joseph de Montesquiou, comte d'Artagnan, and their partners, the heirs of Martin D'Artaguiette. In 1719, the Indies Company granted a large estate to a partnership formed between D'Artagnan (a relative of the Musketeer) and D'Artaguiette. The two set up adjoining plantations at Cannes Brûlées (modern Kenner, the site of Louis Armstrong International Airport). Some time later, the heirs of the principals find themselves in debt to a Senor Benac, and they lodge a request with the Company to deliver "12 Negroes, male or female" to their creditor. The present document is the Company's response to that request. It outlines the foundation of the estate under a concession by the Company to D'Artagnan and D'Artaguiette, and it records that in 1728 D'Artagnan had purchased 40 Negroes "with clothes" from the Company for £40,000, payable in tobacco. Apparently the partners continued to amass debt to the Company, reaching a figure of £115,000 by 1732. Consequently, the document concludes that the demands made by the heirs are inaccurate, and indeed the Company intends to collect the outstanding debt. more information

Hartford: August 1, 1783. 21 x 17 cm. Partially printed document, accomplished in manuscript. Docketed on the reverse. Excellent condition. Connecticut pay voucher in the sum of "twelve pounds 3/6, being the Balance due to Cato Negro on the first day of January 1782 as stated by the Committees of the the State and of the Army." Signed on the recipient's behalf by William Bassett. Extensive information on the participation of African Americans in the Connecticut militia is recorded by the Liberty Fund DC project (a non-profit dedicated to erecting a monument on the National Mall to Black and American Indian Revolutionary War patriots) online at http://www.libertyfunddc.org/connecticut.htm. After several years of indecision, the Connecticut militia included 210 black soldiers by 1780, many of whom served in return for eventual manumission. The name of Cato Negro appears several times in the list of known Connecticut soldiers of color. more information

Montreal: 24 March, 1756. 1 leaf, 234 x 122 mm; 4 lines on recto signed by Prudhomme (an in-law of Villiers), and 3 lines on verso signed by Villiers. Top edge and right edge guarded. It is a complicated story involving French and British forces in the country of the indigenous Mingo people near the site of modern Pittsburgh. In May of 1754, 22-year old George Washington attacked a French party, and took its leader, Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville, prisoner. Jumonville was killed during interrogations (we now believe he died at the hand of Washington's Mingo ally, the Half King). The French were certain that Washington himself assassinated Jumonville. Six weeks later, Jumonville's half-brother, Louis Coulon de Villiers, attacked Washington's encampment and defeated the Colonial Americans. Washington delivered his surrender to Villiers, the first and only such in his career. The present document is an extremely rare example of Villier's autograph. Dated at Montreal 24 March 1756, it is a simple record of payment of an IOU that Villiers took out for 1200 pounds from an in-law named Prudhomme (his wife's family name). The provenance can be traced back to the middle of the 20th century. It belonged to the Canadian collector Lawrence M. Lande most recently. Lande had it from J. H. Fisher, who purchased it in 1948 from the estate of Gabriel Wells. The document comes with supporting material in manuscript. more information

Paris: Maradan, 1801. First Edition. 22cm (a tall copy); 3 volumes. Complete including half-titles, 11 engraved plates and maps (some folding) and 5 tables (3 folding). Frontispiece portrait of George Washington. Portraits of Onandaga and Oneida leaders. Scenes of the Hudson Valley and Niagara Falls. Bound in old paper-covered boards, worn at edges but sound and entire. A French immigrant to the United States, Crevecoeur effectively defined the emerging American national character in his Letters of an American Farmer (1782; we know of no earlier or more elegant formulation of the 'melting pot' theory). He returned to France in the 1790s and published there this three-volume account of the United States. The lively and enjoyable text describes amazing landscapes, records conversations with remarkable Americans (including George Washington), seeks to understand historical events, and penetrates deeply into the civilization of Northeast American Indian nations. Early paper-covered boards with leather labels, rubbed at extremities. Red leather labels. Untrimmed; volume 3 unopened. A very good set. References: Sabin 17501 ("much information and personal gossip not readily found elsewhere.... No other writer has so well described the Indian great councils"); Howes C-884; Siebert Sale 216. more information

Washington: December 9,, 1843. Reference: Lande, John Law: the Evolution of his System, #228. 1 leaf, 20 x 25 cm. Addressed to Nathaniel Bullock. 21 lines including datelines and salutations. Split along folds and repaired with document tape. President John Tyler was expelled from the Whig party not long after taking office in 1841. Cranston, a Whig, opposed the annexation of Texas, which Tyler supported, believing (rightly, as it turned out) that it would precipitate war with Mexico. "The president's message breathes a spirit in relation to Mexico," Cranston writes here, "that tells but too distinctly his feelings and desires in relation to Texas. No man in this, or any other country, ever had the favorable opportunity which was presented to Mr. Tyler to send his name down to posterity covered in glory, and no man could have more effectually trifled with such opportunity than he has.... more information

Brooklyn: September - October, 1968. 22 cm; 38 pages. Printed self wraps, stapled. Upper wrap a bit stained in lower edge; original mailing label on lower wrap. Sound and entire. Croce on “A brief against Eric Bruhn, the Critics and Miss Farrell” (she rails against Farrell’s “steady degeneration … into the absurdly vulgar, self-infatuated, and routinely unexpressive performer we have been seeing for the past few seasons”!) Also pieces by Jack Anderson, Elena Bivona, and George Dorris.. more information

Brooklyn, 1969. 22 cm; 56 pages. Printed self wraps, stapled. Original mailing label on lower wrap. Sound and entire. Interview with David Denby part I; articles by Croce, Twyla Tharp, Anderson, Elena Bivona (on Paul Taylor). more information

Brooklyn, 1969. 22 cm; 72 pages. Printed self wraps, stapled. Evidence of faint foxing on upper wrap. Original mailing label on lower wrap. Sound and entire. Review of Paul Mejia and Suzanne Farrell’s first performance after they left NYCB; Vanessa Redgrave’s Isadora Duncan movie inspires an interview with one of the original Duncan dancers; Croce on the Stuttgart Ballet. more information

Brooklyn, 1968. 22 cm; 48 pages. Printed self wraps, stapled. Original mailing label on lower wrap. Sound and entire. Jill Johnston on Martha Graham, and an interview with Graham by Don McDonagh; also articles by Croce and Jack Anderson. more information

Brooklyn, 1970. 22 cm; 64 pages. Printed self wraps, stapled. Insignificant chips and frays on upper wrap. Original mailing label on lower wrap. Sound and entire. Robert Sealy on Balanchine and Robbins; Bivona on Patricia McBride; Jack Anderson on Merce Cunningham. more information

Brooklyn, 1969. 22 cm; 66 pages. Printed self wraps, stapled. Upper wrap dogeared. Original mailing label on lower wrap. Sound and entire. Interview with David Denby part II; a translation of diaries by August Bournonville’s father, Antoine, from 1792; an article on the first “western” production of Sleeping Beauty (in Milan, 1892); notes by NYCB music director Robert Irving on the Brahms-Schoenberg, and other delights. more information

Brooklyn, 1969. 22 cm; 62 pages. Printed self wraps, stapled. Evidence of faint foxing on upper wrap. Original mailing label on lower wrap. Sound and entire. David Vaughan on Pavlova’s 1916 performance of Sleeping Beauty; Robert Sealy on “Balanchine and New York: Bad for Each Other?” Croce on Eliot Feld’s company. more information

Brooklyn, 1967. 22 cm; 100 pages. Printed self wraps, stapled. Discolored and splitting along fold, corners creased, yet entire. Ballet Review in full flower, with articles by Clive Barnes on the Paul Taylor company, by Croce on "Ballets without Choreography," Jack Anderson on Martha Graham, etc. more information

Brooklyn, 1967. 22 cm; 88 pages, including six half-tone plates and a centerfold parodic map. Printed self wraps, stapled. Discolored and splitting along fold, corners of upper wrap creased, with faint evidence of foxing, yet entire. Last issue of Ballet Review's first year. Much of the issue is devoted to the Judson Dance Theater and Judith Dunn, with articles by Jill Johnston, Constance Poster, Judith Dunn, and Jack Anderson, as well as a transcribed “conversation” among Croce, Dunn, Don McDonagh, James Waring and John Herbert McDowell. more information

Montreal: McGill University Press, 1965. Printed wraps, stapled. Oblong, 16 x 22 cm; 4 leaves, each illustrated with designs from Cruikshank's Hints to Emigrants (1840). more information

Quebec: November 13, 1821. 2 leaves folio (305mm x 205mm), sealed and docketed. Cut of British royal device. Signed by Dalhousie at lower right. Also signed by R. Dunn. Usual folds; pencil annotation in upper margin. Document authorizes payment from the "Jesuits' Estates" fund (i.e., money raised from the sale of lands that had belonged to the Jesuits under French rule) to the firm of Bell and Stewart, proprietors of the St. Maurice Iron Works at Trois-Rivieres, Quebec. The St. Maurice works were the first heavy industry established in Canada. After the cession of the colony to Britain, the forges were held by the British government and leased to a series of proprietors. Fortunes were made and lost, but no one worked the mines as successfully as Matthew Bell, who held the lease for 52 years and amassed a huge estate. Dalhousie (1770-1838), a British army officer, became Lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia and governor-in-chief of British North America. While in Nova Scotia, he founded Dalhousie College, the future Dalhousie University. more information

Treasury Department [Washington, DC], 28 April 1815, addressed to John Steele, Collector, at Philadelphia.. Text: "I have received your letter of the 25 instant. You will be pleased to pay Debentures with Treasury Notes. I am Respectfully ..." Alexander Dallas (1759-1817) was at the time of this letter about to resign his successful term as Secretary of the Treasury. His measures in establishing a Second Bank of the United States restored public confidence and provided revenue for the bankrupt treasury. more information

Treasury Department [Washington, DC], 16 September 1816, addressed to William Whann, Cashier of the bank of Columbia.. 195 x 250 mm; 1 page with integral address leaf, postmarked, with remains of wax seal (and its tear). Franking signature of R. Harrison, with hand stamp. The text reads, "The proposition made by Mr. Polk Cashier of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank of Delaware, in his letter to you of the 16th ult'o, is acceded to, on the part of the Treasury...." Alexander Dallas (1759-1817) was at the time of this letter about to resign his successful term as Secretary of the Treasury. His measures in establishing a Second Bank of the United States restored public confidence and provided revenue for the bankrupt treasury. more information

Marblehead, Massachusetts: March 2, 1810. 1 oblong page (5 inches by 10 inches). Certifies the importation of a cask of wine from Malaga, Spain, containing "twenty-nine and one quarter" gallons. Signed by Dearborn as Collector, and countersigned by J. Prentiss as Inspector. Henry Dearborn (1751-1829), Revolutionary War general who commanded the militia at Bunker Hill, saw action at Ticonderoga and Saratoga; he was on Washington's staff at Yorktown. He was appointed Secretary of War by President Jefferson in 1801, where he served until 1809, then became collector of Customs. President Madison named him senior General of the Army of the Northern Border in the War of 1812. more information

Villemarie: July 31, 1708. 21 x 32 cm; 2 pages, signed by Deschambault as Royal Judge at Montreal, and by Royal Notary Adhémar. Portion cut from lower left, not affecting text, and expertly repaired. Preserved in archival portfolio. The judge rules on a claim on four parcels of beaver that were consigned at Michilmackinac by Robert Réaume to Jacques Charles de Couagne, but that never arrived in Montreal. Couagne protested that he never received the packages in the first place, but Réaume produced a signed receipt. Based on the evidence, Deschambault ordered de Couagne's estate to pay for the beaver at the 1704 rate plus interest and costs. more information

Philadelphia: J.R. Chandler, 1862. Title continues: "The duty of government to give remunerative employment to the returned volunteers when peace shall have disarmed treason. A little work devoted to the General Interest, and dedicated to Misfortune." 25cm, 32 pages. Printed wraps, with mechanical illustration of an innovative rail car on lower wrap. Author attribution based on the name attached to the "adverstisement" at the end of the text. The premise of this screed would not be out of place in Karl Marx: the Civil War is being fought between "two systems of slavery armed for mutual extermination," one of Africans, the other an "Industrial despotism." The author sees hope in the establishment of a currency based on treasury notes rather than on gold and silver. more information

Philadelphia: W. Duane, 1803. 24cm; [2], 198 pages. Bound in mid 20th-century paper-covered boards, joints split with spine mostly peeled away. Despite the unfortunate binding, a very nice untrimmed copy, tanned only with a pervasive light dampstain through sigantures C to E and Q to Z (apparently dampened in manufacture, prior to sewing). References: Sabin 20990 ; Howes D-517; Shaw & Shoemaker 4113. On Spain’s violation of the article in the treaty of 1795 dealing with U.S. rights to Mississippi navigation & deposit at New Orleans, by which U.S. western trade was obstructed. The dispute helped spur the Louisiana Purchase. William Duane was the publisher of the Philadelphia Aurora and the principal voice of Jeffersonian Republicans in post-Colonial America. more information

[Washtington]: June 3, 1833. 1 page, quarto. Addressed to the cashier of the Branch Bank of the United States at Nashville, Tennessee. Duane was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by Andrew Jackson to succeed Louis McLane when McLane refused to aid Jackson in his war on the United States Bank by withdrawing the government funds. Duane also refused to withdraw the deposits, and Jackson accordingly dismissed him. Here Duane writes to the Cashier of the Branch Bank of the United States at Nashville, "The Treasurer of the United States being absent from the seat of Government, the President has appointed Peter G. Washington to perform the duties of his office until his return. more information

Montreal: October 31, 1689. 4 pages, 315 x 200 mm. Signed by Dupuis, Lemoyne, sergeant-at-arms François Lorit, and notary Jean-Baptiste Pottier. Further endorsed by Dupuis on the docket, dated 1691. Worn, folds tender, with abrasions affecting some text on second leaf. Old repair to fold on second leaf. Fur trader and pioneer Nicholas Dupuis settled at Laprairie in 1680 with his wife, Georgette Richer. In 1687, the Iroquois set fire to parts of Montreal, and in the ensuing chaos, the couple's two childred perished. Dupuis apparently charged his wife with selling some of their clothes to pay for the burial, and when she returned empty handed, she said the parish priest, Pierre Rémy, had taken the clothes. Dupuis then abused the priest in a series of letters. Here, he swears before the notary that he has since found out that his wife had indeed disposed of the clothes and had lied to him about it, and he apologizes to the curé, saying he wishes the letters could be thrown into the fire in order never to be mentioned again, and that he will pay sieur Rémy compensation upon returning from a fur expedition to Michigan. more information

Toronto: July 4, 1851. 34cm; 12 pages. Unbound. Margins discolored. Dogear at upper right corner of final two leaves. First quire splitting along fold. Marginal highlight in pencil on first page. The office of the Governor-General of Canada provides the legislature with a requested list of judges, with the details of their salaries versus the fees they have collected. The report also includes an account of monies disbursed to indigenous nations on the shores of Lake Superior for mining rights. THese accounts are valuable for the details they provide, such as the individual names of Native American leaders responsible for relations with the Canadian government, and the actual sums that changed hands. more information

Boston: Estes and Lauriat, 1887. First edition. 32 cm; iv, [5]-158 pages, including sixteen full-page wood engravings, and fifty wood-engraved illustrations in text. Fifteen etched plates hors texte with tissue guards. Bound in original pictorial boards. Minor wear at edges and extremities; corners slightly bumped. Occasional light foxing in margins of plates. An anthology of American and English poetry, illustrated by Nineteenth-century American artists such as Samuel Colman, R. Swain Gifford, George Innes, Granville Perkins, William Morris Hunt, Daniel Huntington, and others. more information

New York: Herzl Press, 1965. First Edition. Hard Cover. Dust jacket browned and chipped at edges; text very good but a litte dusty. Inscribed and dated by the author. Inscribed by the author more information