[LAFAYETTE, Gilbert du Motier, marquis de]. Ensemble de quatre documents manuscrits émis par le Gouverneur et les chambres du Tennessee Executive Office, Murfreesboro, Tennesse, 7 janvier 1825 8 pp. in-4
Estimation :
800 / 1200
Adjudication :
Invendu
Description
EXEMPLAIRES DE LAFAYETTE : LES INVITATIONS DE WILLIAM CARROLL, GOUVERNEUR DU TENNESSEE, ET LA CAMPAGNE ÉLECTORALE DE 1824. LETTRE REMISE À LAFAYETTE PAR LE GÉNÉRAL ANDREW JACKSON (6e PRÉSIDENT) 1. L.s. par William Carroll, Governeur du Tennessee, à Lafayette, joignant “the Preamble & Resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee (...) We cannot promise to receive you with the splendor which has attended your reception in the Eastern Cities, but we will meet you with open arms, & hearts swelling with gratitude for the eminent services which you rendered in securing to our Country, peace, prosperity & Liberty", 1 p. in-4, bruni et fragile, Executive Office, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1 octobre 1824 2. Promulgation officielle transmise à Lafayette par la Tennessee General Assembly : “Resolutions expressive of the sentiments & gratitude of the State of Tennessee to Major Genl Lafayette (...) disinterested love of liberty unexampled in the annals of History (...) There are still among us a few of those worthies who stood by his side in the hours of peril & danger, & their hearts would leap for joy at the sight of their Chief, & their children would delight to honor him who led their fathers to victory & Independence", signé au nom des deux Speaker (House of Representatives et Senate) et de leurs clercs, et sans doute de la main de Daniel Graham, 3 pp. in-4, bruni et fragile, Tennessee General Assembly, 23 septembre 1824 3. L.a.s. par William Carroll, Gouverneur du Tennessee, à Lafayette, lui envoyant le double de la Résolution passée par la General Assembly of the State of T ennessee, déjà envoyée le 1er octobre précédent, le double porte la mention “A true Copy of the original now on file in my office, Daniel Graham Secretary of State, 7th Jany 1825", sans doute de la main de Daniel Graham, 4 pp. in-4, brunies et difficilement lisible pour la lettre, Executive Office, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 31 décembre 1824 William Carroll (1788-1844), a veteran of the War of 1812, was Governor of Tennessee from 1821 to 1827 and again from 1829 to 1835. Murfreesboro was state capital of Tennessee between 1818 and 1826, when it was replaced by Nashville. This first version of the Resolution was enclosed with Governor Carroll’s letter to Lafayette of 1 October. Lafayette appears to have kept the two Tennessee Resolutions and their accompanying letters by Carroll together, and all show similar patterns of damp-staining (possibly from the Ohio shipwreck). The transcript appears to have been made by the Secretary of State, Daniel Graham, and is in the same hand as that dated 7 January The letter dates from 31st December and its enclosure was delivered to Lafayette by General Andrew Jackson, then standing as President against John Quincy Adams who was to be elected President on 9 February 1825. The fact that Lafayette’s tour coincided with the election - one widely seen by Jackson’s followers as a contest between the man of the people and the Eastern oligarchy - added considerably to its impact, all four candidates wishing to claim the hero as their own, with Adams rarely leaving his side. As Carroll notes, Jackson was a veteran of the Revolution, although he was to achieve his fame in the War of 1812 (otherwise his and Lafayette’s backgrounds could not have been more different, nor did Jackson share Lafayette’s detestation of slavery). He and Lafayette were already in correspondence (Gottschalk, Guide, p.188), and Jackson was one of Lafayette’s escorts at the dinner held in his honour in Washington on New Year’s Day. It seems probable therefore that this letter was sent by Carroll to Washington -over five hundred miles distant from Murfreesboro - and there delivered to Jackson for him in his turn to deliver to Lafayette, especially as its enclosure is dated 7 January. Seemingly unaware that Lafayette already knew Jackson (which bears out our hypothesis that Jackson was not with him when he composed the letter), Carroll writes : “I have now the pleasure of inclosing an additional copy of those papers with a duplicate of my letter of that date which will be presented to you by Major General Andrew Jackson. I cannot withhold the expression of my Satisfaction in having the opportunity of presenting the grateful feelings of Tennessee to you through one who shared with you in the toils of the Revolution : who contributed so largely in the late war with Great Britain to maintain those rights for which you both bled and who now fills so conspicuous a place in the public esteem". When Jackson was eventually able to achieve his ambition in 1829, he was to be the last President to be a veteran of the Revolution.
