To Col. Aaron Ogden, Sir, As you refused to receive a letter

1816. (GIBBONS v. OGDEN). To Col. Aaron Ogden, Sir, As you refused to receive a letter that I sent you by General Dayton yesterday, I will give it publicity through another channel. For like Nicanor upon Judas you made war upon me on the Sabbath Day .... I was this day arrested in a Suit at Law, in your name .... As we reside within half a mile of each other, and you never intimated to me, nor any of my friends, any claims, or cause of Action against me, I pronounce your conduct RASCALLY. I don't regard your Suit in terrorem, but I must teach you to proceed with decency .... I understand that you have interfered in a Dispute between Mrs. Gibbons and myself which has been brought on by John Trumbull .... My friend General Dayton will arrange with you the time, and place, of our Meeting. Th. Gibbons. Elizabeth-Town, 26th July, 1816. [Elizabethtown, N.J., 1816.] Broadside. 28 x 24 cm. In very fine condition, fully untrimmed. The steamboat in New Jersey and New York had a long and litigious history, beginning with the controversies between John Fitch and Robert Fulton, through the granting by the state legislatures in 1808 of exclusive navigation privileges, to the landmark United States Supreme Court decision in Gibbons v. Ogden in 1824. Thomas Gibbons and Aaron Ogden were originally partners in a steam ferry operating between Elizabeth-Town Point and New York City. In 1814 a dispute arose over a lease renewal. Soon other arguments ensued, and Gibbons established a rival ferry. The two became bitter antagonists. Meanwhile, Gibbons was embroiled in a nasty domestic quarrel involving John Trumbull, who had seduced Gibbons' daughter before marrying her, and each side publicly circulated the foulest stories about the other. Ogden's legal advice was solicited by the Trumbull faction, and Gibbons, in a rage, had this handbill struck off, and, horsewhip in hand, went to Ogden's house to challenge him to a duel. Ogden escaped over the back fence, and immediately sued Gibbons for trespass. The details of the case are reported in 2 Southard, 598. Gibbons' rival steamboat, with young Cornelius Vanderbilt as captain, continued to challenge Ogden and the monopoly interests. With Daniel Webster and William Wirt as his attorneys, G.