The Property of a Distinguished American Private Collector
by Profiles in History
Platinum House 298 lots with images
December 18, 2012
Live Auction26901 Agoura Road
Suite 150
Calabasas Hills, CA, 91301 USA
Phone: 310-859-7701
Fax: 310-859-3842
Email: Info@profilesinhistory.com
Viewing NotesAmerican History -- Lots 1-104
American Literature -- Lots 105-131
Art & Architecture -- Lots 132-147
English Literature -- Lots 148-165
English History -- Lots 166-181
Entertainment -- Lots 182-190
European History -- Lots 191-205
European Literature -- Lots 206-215
Music -- Lots 216-246
Science & Medicine -- Lots 247-287
Sports -- Lots 288-299 Descriptive definitions Manuscripts: Autograph letter signed- entire letter and signature is in the hand of the author. Letter signed- only the signature is in the hand of the author. The body of the text is in the hand of a secretary. Typed letter signed- only the signature is in the hand of the author. The body of the letter is typewritten. Document signed- only the signature is in the hand of the author. The body of the Document is in the hand of a secretary or scribe. Autograph note signed-entire note and signature in the hand of the author. Autograph musical quotation signed- entire musical quotation, text and signature is in the hand of the composer. Autograph Manuscript Signed - entire manuscript and signature is in the hand of the author. Books: In bibliographical contexts, format is used to indicate the size of a volume in terms of the number of times the original printed sheet has been folded to form its constituent leaves. The most common forms are: Folio- each sheet is folded once-approximately 11 x 14 inches or larger. Quarto- each sheet is folded twice-approximately 8 x 10 inches. Octavo- each sheet is folded three times-approximately 5 x 7 inches. Condition definitions Manuscripts and Books: Foxed/foxing- spotted or discolored patches on manuscript pages of book leaves. Washed- cleaning of manuscript pages or book leaves with a chemical rinse to remove spots, stains or blemishes. Silked- when manuscript pages or book leaves are very fragile or in need of repair, they can be faced on both sides with a thin, virtually transparent textile like fine silk or cotton gauze for reinforcement.
Sale NotesIn the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Fraunces Tavern and Museum remain closed. The public exhibition of highlights for our 18 December sale, The Property of a Distinguished American Private Collector, Part I, has been moved to the following venue: Douglas Elliman's Madison Avenue Gallery 980 Madison Avenue (between 76th and 77th Street) New York, New York 10021 The exhibition will be open to the public December 3-9 from 11am to 6pm daily. Private viewings by appointment only will take place December 10-14. Please contact Marsha Malinowski at info@marshamalinowski.com or Profiles in History at 310-859-7701 to schedule an appointment.
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Lot 1: Adams, John, Fine autograph letter signed as President, 1 pages (10 x 8 in.; 254 x 203 mm.)
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Description: 1. Adams, John,Fine autograph letter signed as President, 1 pages (10 x 8 in.; 254 x 203 mm.), “Washington,” 30 December 1800 to “Hon. Mr. Gerry” - fellow signer of the Declaration of Independence Elbridge Gerry, with Gerry’s twelve-word autograph docket on the verso of the integral leaf: “Washington Letter, President Adams, 30th Decr 1800, & Gerry’s answer 20th Jany 1801”discussing the uncertainty over who would succeed Adams as President; repair to folds, light browning. Who will succeed Adams as President of the United States? Adams writes to Elbridge Gerry regarding the outcome of the “election” of 3 December 1800. The “election” was, in fact, a series of local contests to choose Presidential electors. In a number of cases, the outcome had already been determined months before. In other cases, electors were chosen on various dates during the month of November. The day set for the electors to actually cast their votes in their respective states was 3 December 1800. The possibility loomed that it might be Aaron Burr, as Adams explains in full: Dear Sir I have rec’d your favour of the 18th. It has been an invariable usage twelve years, for the P. to answer no Letters of Solicitation or recommendation to Office. But with you in full Confidence I will say that it is uncertain whether I shall appoint any Consuls to France. Mr. Lee is represented to me as a Jacobin, who was very busy in a late Election in the Town of Roxbury on the wrong Side. His Pretensions however shall be considered with all others impartially, if I should make any appointments. Your anxiety for the issue of the Elections is by this time allayed. How mighty a Power is the Spirit of Party? How decisive and unanimous it is! 73 for Mr Jefferson and 73 for Mr Burr. May the Peace and Welfare of the Country be promoted, by this result. But I see not the way, as yet. In the Case of Mr. Jefferson there is nothing wonder full: but Mr Burr’s good fortune surprises all ordinary rules, and exceeds that of Bonaparte. All the old Patriots, all the Splendid Talents, the long experience, both of Feds and Antifeds, must be subjected to the humiliation of seeing this dexterous Gentleman rise like a balloon, filled with inflam[m]able air, over their heads, and this is not the worst. What a discouragement to all virtuous Exertion and what an Encouragement to Party Intrigue and corruption? What course is it We steer and to what harbour are we bound? Say, man of Wisdom and Experience, for I am wholly at a loss. I thank you Sir and Mrs Gerry for your kind condolence with us in our afflictions under a very melancholly [sic] and distressing Bereavment. I thank the Supream [sic] that I have yet two Sons, who will give me Lone consolation, by a perseverance in those habits of Virtue and Industry which they have hitherto preserved. There is nothing more to be said, but let the eternal Will be done. With great regard, I have the honor to be, Sir, your obliged friend and obedient Servant. John Adams. The election of 1800 was a battle between the Federalists - who advocated a strong central government with only such political power for the various states as was absolutely necessary - and the Democratic Republicans - who believed that the states should yield to the federal government only that which was necessary. The Federalist candidates were President John Adams (for a second term) and Charles C. Pinckney as his running mate. The Democratic-Republican candidates were Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. Both the President and Vice President were elected by the same ballot. One faction of the Federalists - led by Alexander Hamilton - hoped that Pinckney would receive the Presidency and that Adams, with the second largest number of votes, would then become Vice President. Reports came in very slowly, prolonging the outcome. As time progressed, it became certain that neither John Adams nor Charles Cotesworth Pinckney could be considered the winner, but the outcome of the voting concerning the other two candidates was still unknown. One thing was clear: the Federalist Party had lost its grip in the new nation. Of the 276 votes cast, 73 went to Thomas Jefferson and 73 went to Aaron Burr. [Adams received 65, Pinckney received 64 and John Jay received 1 vote.] The election was referred to the House of Representatives (which was dominated by Federalists) to decide which candidate would be the President - and which would be the Vice President. [Some Federalists believe Burr to be the lesser evil of the two - and plotted to elect him President.] Balloting to decide the tie took place on February 11, 1801. The representatives did not vote individually - but by state groups, each state being entitled to one vote. To win, Jefferson or Burr had to carry nine states, a majority of the sixteen in the Union. On the 36th ballot (February 17, 1801), Federalists in the Vermont and Maryland delegations abstained, thereby giving those two deadlocked states to Jefferson. Ten states voted for Jefferson, four for Burr, and two voted blank (Delaware and South Carolina). Jefferson was declared elected President and Burr his Vice President. Provenance: The Collection of Philip D. Sang, Sotheby’s, New York 26 April 1978, lot 5.
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Lot 2: Adams, John. Fine autograph letter signed ("J. Adams"), 3 pages (9 x 7 ¼ in.; 229 x 184 mm.)
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Description: 2. Adams, John, Fine autograph letter signed (“J. Adams”), 3 pages (9 x 7 ¼ in.; 229 x 184 mm.), Quincy, 12 April 1807 to Benjamin Rush regarding the fate of Pennsylvania amid all the political turmoil of the times; with integral address leaf addressed to: “Dr. Benjamin Rush, Philadelphia” and red wax seal remnant on third page, with Adams’ free frank, docketed by Rush “Quincy, Apl. 13th. 1807 Free” and “J. Adams”. Former President John Adams worries about the fate of Pennsylvania, particularly in light of the enormous political influence of men such as Adams’ enemy, former Vice President Aaron Burr. Benjamin Rush had served as a member of the Continental Congress (1776, 1777) and was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. At the time of this letter, he was serving as Treasurer of the U.S. Mint (1797-1813), appointed by President John Adams; it was Adams who mediated the reconciliation between Rush and Thomas Jefferson after both had retired from active politics. A reflective Adams, now retired in Quincy after years of public service, writes freely to his close friend. He writes in full: Dear Sir, Your favour of the third is received. I am willing to allow your Philosophers your Opinion of the universal Gravitation of Matter, if you will allow mine that there is in Some Souls a principle of absolute Levity that buoys them irres[is]tably into the Clouds. Whether you call it etherial [sic] Spirit or inflammable air it has an uncontrollable Tendency to ascend, and has no capacity to ascertain the height at which it aims or the means by which it is to rise. This I take to be precisely the Genius of Burr, Miranda and Hamilton, among a thousand others of less or more Note. These Creatures have no Prudence. If a Man is once So disarranged in his Intellect as to deliberate upon a Project of ascending to the Seven Starrs, it is natural enough that he should first attempt to Seize the two Horns of the New Moon and make her his first Stage. Burr’s project of making himself V.P. of U.S. to a reasonable Man would have appeared an high degree of Extravagance, for there were ten thousand Men in the United States, who were as well qualified for it and had merited it by much greater Services, Sufferings and Sacrifices. Yet in this he succeeded. Buoyed up by the flattery of the Presbyterians in Connecticutt, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and all the Southern States, from the Veneration in which they held his Father and Grandfather, the Factions of Clintons and Livingstons alternately employed him as their Instrument, till the Virginians conceived the Project of engaging him to corrupt the State of New York from the Federal Interest. In this They and he succeeded: but all the rest of his Projects have been whimsical and without Success. What could have inspired Burr with hopes of being an Ambassador, a Chief Justice of Pensilvania [sic] or a Governor of New York or Vice P. of U.S.? Omnia Numina Absunt, Sui absit Prudentia. Prudence is the first of Virtues and the root of all others. Without Prudence, there may be abstinence but not Temperance; there may be rashness but not Fortitude; there may be insensibility or obstinancy but not Patience. Without Prudence, to weigh and deliberate on the Nature and consequences of an Enterprise, and to consider his means and his End, a Man who engages in it, commits himself to Chance, and not Seldom when a thousand Chances are against him to one in his favour. I pity my old Friend, [Thomas] McKean [(1734-1817) - signer of the Declaration of Independence, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania (served 1777-99) and Governor of Pennsylvania (served 1799-1808)]. Like many others of our Antedeluvian Patriarchs he was carried away into Error by the French Revolution and delivered himself into the hands of a Party with whom he never could cordially cooperate. In the Time of Robespierre [(1758-1794) - French revolutionary leader responsible for much of the Reign of Terror] and his bloodyest Cruelties I dined once in Company with McKean, [Albert] Gallatin [(1761-1849) - Secretary of the Treasury (served 1801-14)] and Burr and they were all very loud in praise of Robespierre. ‘He was honest, and the Savior of France.’ Some of the Company presumed to censure their Patriot and Hero, and all three of these Gentlemen cried out ‘Robespierre’s Crime is his Honesty.’ How many Instances do We See every day which prove that Honesty is not the best Policy. They have all of them tried a different Policy, but I believe they will all come to a sad End and find at last that Honesty would have been a better Policy. I now come to a Mystery in your Letter. I have but four Grandsons; two of them are Boys under Seven Years of Age [George Washington Adams (1801-1829) and John Adams II (1803-1834)] and have been at my House and in Boston all Winter. They are the Children of my son John [Quincy Adams (1767-1848)]; the two others are Sons of my Daughter [Abigail - or Nabby] Smith [(1765-1813)], the youngest of whom whose name is John [Adams Smith (1788-1854)] is now with me, and has not been in Philadelphia since last May; the oldest is William [Steuben Smith (1787-1850)] Now to my great grief in Trinidad. No Letter therefore can have been left at your House from any Grandson of mine. I cannot unriddle this Mystery but by Supposing that some adventurer has forgot a Letter: but for what End I know not. I thank you with all my heart for your kind Intentions towards my Supposed Grandson. They are as authentic proofs of Friendship, as if it had been my real Grandson. Pennsylvania can fall down on one broadside and then roll over to the other Broadside, and then turn Mast upwards and then right her self up again. She is a Ship however so violently addicted to pitching and rolling that I should not wonder if she dismasted herself. To quit the figure and Speak plain English I have long thought that the first Serious civil War in America will commence in Pensilvania [sic]. The two Nations of Irish and Germans who compose the principal Part of the People, are so entirely governed by their Passions, have So little reason and less Knowledge that it will be impossible to keep them steady in any just System of Policy. They will one day repent in Sac[k]cloth [a coarse cloth, made of goats’ hair, worn as a symbol of penitence] the ascendency they have given to the Transaleganian [Trans-Alleghanian, i.e., the states containing the Allegheny Mountains - Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia] and Southern Atlantic States [North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia] and So will New York. But So contagious is Folly that we in the Mass[achusetts]. are running the Same Course. I do not believe how even that Sullivan, if he should be chosen, will harmonize long with his Party. Not half so long as McKean has. He is in heart and in head no more of a Democrat than McKean. I have known him not much less than forty years. He has never been a steady nor a [obscured by wax seal] Man. But he is not malevolent Enough for his Party nor ignorant. His general aim has been to be of the Strongest Side and consequently has often offended all Parties at times. I should be glad to receive your explication of the Strange Story of my Grandson. You do not say that the Letter was from Col. Smith. What can the Tenet be? My Family reciprocate the friendly Sentiments of yours and none of them more heartily than J. Adams As described in the previous lot, the election of 1800 turned into a contentious drawn out affair and weighed upon Adams enormously. Little wonder that years after the election of 1800, Adams continued to harbor great resentment at the powers wielded by Burr in influencing the outcome of the New York elections. Provenance: Christie’s New York 19 May 1995, lot 2.
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Lot 3: Adams, John. Important autograph letter signed ("John Adams"), 1 page (9 ¾ x 8 in.; 248 x 203 mm.)
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Description: 3. Adams, John. Important autograph letter signed (“John Adams”), 1 page (9 ¾ x 8 in.; 248 x 203 mm.), Quincy, 26 January 1814, to Richard Rush, the son of signer Benjamin Rush regarding his position to a successful conclusion to the War of 1812; light browning, mounting remnants on verso. To push the War with Vigour, till We have a Peace, neither disgraceful to the Nation or the Government is the Sincere hope and ardent Wish of my heart . . . Like his father, Richard Rush was born to serve his country. He served as comptroller of the U.S. Treasury (1811), Attorney General (1814-17), Secretary of State (1817), and Minister to Great Britain (1817-25). Later he served as Secretary of the Treasury (1825-28) and Minister to France (1847-49). Adams first comments on a legal treatise written by George Hay (1765-1830), American jurist, who is best remembered as U.S. Attorney for the District of Virginia, in which capacity he conducted the prosecution of Aaron Burr for treason; then, in the second paragraph, Adams, discussing “universal law”, refers to Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780), British jurist, whose history of the doctrines of English law were very influential on jurisprudence in the United States. Adams writes in full: Dear Sir If I may judge of others by myself, Mr. [George] Hay had no cause of apprehension that he should be tedious: for when I had read the first page I could not lay aside the book till I had read the last. I know not when I have seen a discussion of any legal or political question pursued with so dispassionate a temper; or written with more perspicuity, accuracy or luminous arrangement. The author is Master of his Subject and all the Learning necessary to support is Position. What can [Sir William] Blac[k]stone mean by universal Law? Are the cannon Law and the feudal Law, universal Laws? Are the Pope or his eldest Son the Emperor universal Legislators? Is any Law universal, but the law of our natures, written on our hearts, and obligatory on all Men from their beginning and through all their dispersions? The Doctrine of Universal and perpetual, inherent and inalienable Allegiance has no other foundation, than in a degrading Superst[it]ion and an unrelenting Despotism. To push the War with Vigour, till We have a Peace, neither disgraceful to the Nation or the Government is the Sincere hope and ardent Wish of my heart: Your assurance therefore of a determined Spirit in all Branches of the Government, is delightful to me. Our northern gentry are foaming to stop the wheels: but all will end in securing their state elections. I am &c John Adams Former President John Adams states his position with regard to a successful conclusion to the War of 1812 with the words that the United States must “...push the War with Vigour”. At the time of this letter, the United States was still at war with Britain, motivated by Britain’s unyielding position on neutral shipping - specifically, the impressment of seamen, interference with trade and the blockade of American ports, as well as by the British encouragement of Indian hostilities. It was not until late 1814, after two years of war, that Britain was willing to engage in peace talks. Though the Treaty of Ghent (December 24, 1814) restored the peace between Great Britain and the United States, many of the leading demands of the U.S. were not met - including satisfaction on impressment, blockades, and other maritime grievances. In fact, the treaty was silent on the very issues over which Great Britain and the U.S. had initially clashed, and gave to neither party what it originally proposed. News of the signing of the treaty reached New York on February 11, 1815. It was unanimously ratified by the Senate on February 15, 1815, and proclaimed by President James Madison on February 17, 1815.
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Lot 4: Adams, John. Book signed (8 ¼ x 5 in.; 210 x 127 mm.)
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Description: 4. Adams, John. Book signed: A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, London, 1787. (8 ¼ x 5 in.; 210 x 127 mm.). Original boards, blank interleaves; general wear to boards. First edition, presentation copy inscribed and signed by John Adams to Richard Henry Lee and also signed by John Quincy Adams. Adams inscribes the blank leaf just before the title page: “Mr. Lee’s acceptance of this is requested. It is sent him in Boards interleaved that at his Leisure Mr. Lee may make his Remarks in it, and communicate them if he will be so good to the Author.” Also signing the blank leaf is “John Quincy Adams”. The title page contains the bold signature of “Ludwell Lee.” Adams’ book A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America was to contain Adams’ defense of the constitutions of the various American states, and was to clarify the true and proper basis of sound government. It was Adams’ hope that the work would establish beyond question the principle of separate and balanced branches by using the lessons of history and the writings of philosophers to defend his arguments. It was his major work - an anthology or disquisition on the nature of true government. Adams’ wife, Abigail, wrote to her son John Quincy, that the work was “an investigation into the different forms of government both ancient and modern - monarchal, aristocratical, democratical, and republican - pointing out their happiness or misery in proportion to their different balances.” Feeling the need to finish the work as soon as possible, Adams, in London as Minister to Great Britain, completed the work in a few short weeks, but due to his haste, the finished product was haphazard, disorganized, and filled with errors. Nonetheless, Adams had effectively stated his main theme. He wrote: “Without three orders and an effectual balance between them in every American constitution, it must be destined to frequent, unavoidable revolutions; though they are delayed a few years they must come in time.” Adams supported a free government with a solid democratic base in the form of a popular assembly responsive to the people. He asserted the need for “democratical branches” or popular assemblies in government that represented the mass of the citizens of the state. The response to the book was favorable - and considerable. It sold very well, and appeared in a number of editions, which were widely read and hotly debated. It was the first extensive examination by an American of the nature of government. The book was Adams’ longest work, and his only multi-volume work - as long as all the other published works in his lifetime. It was also the last great statement of a certain political school of thought - the classical Republican. In January of 1787, Adams sent off a rough manuscript copy of his Defense to the printer for a limited printing. When the printer returned printed copies, Adams discovered many typesetting errors, but proceeded, in any case, to get copies off to Jefferson and Lafayette, as well as a number of close friends in America, including Cotton Tufts, President Willard of Harvard, Professor Williams, Tristram Dalton, Richard Cranch, John Thaxter, General Warren, Samuel Adams, and Francis Dana. He also sent copies to each of his sons, and 30 volumes to a Boston bookseller chosen by Tufts. The blank sheets in the present volume were probably purposely inserted by the book binder, as Adams puts it in his inscription to Lee: “It is sent him in boards interleaved that at his Leisure Mr. Lee may make his Remarks in it, and communicate them if he will be so good to the Author.” This particular volume is the first edition of Adams’ London edition, and appears to be the actual copy that Adams personally gave to Richard Henry Lee (1732-94) - a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress (1774-79) and a fellow signer of the Declaration of Independence - and a man whom Adams had pronounced to be “a masterly man” when the two first met at the Congress of 1775 in Philadelphia. At that time, Lee and Adams agreed that it was time that the colonies adopt their own governments. [At Lee’s suggestion, Adams was encouraged to draw up his Thoughts on Government (1776).] Lee was instrumental in urging the resolution (formally presented on June 7, 1776 - then adopted on July 2, 1776 and formally endorsed on July 4, 1776) that became known as the Declaration of Independence - the manifesto in which the representatives of the 13 American colonies asserted their independence and explained their reasons for their break with Britain, with the words: “...these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.” The date when Lee received the book from Adams is probably April or May, 1787, when copies of the work first reached Philadelphia, though there is a slight chance that it might have been later - between 1789 and 1792 - when Adams and Lee were together on virtually a daily basis - Adams serving as Vice-President and Lee as a member of the Senate. (Lee wrote to Adams in September, 1787 from New York that Adams’ book was “here”, though he may not have been referring to this particular presentation copy, but to the fact that the book was now in this country.) Ludwell Lee (1760-1836), son of Richard Henry, has signed the book across the title page. Apparently, the book passed down from Richard Henry to his son. It is interesting to note that Ludwell’s son, also named Richard Henry (1802-65), carried on a sizeable correspondence with John Adams’ son, John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) during the years 1824-43. The book is not only signed by John Adams (signing as “the Author”), but is also signed by his son John Quincy Adams. It is highly likely that, at some time c. 1830-40, Ludwell’s son Richard Henry, who received the book from his father, asked John Adams’ son John Quincy to sign the book (note John Quincy’s shakey hand). The book has gone “full-circle”, so to speak, “signed” by both Adams (first by the father and then, much later, by the son), inscribed to Richard Henry Lee (the father), signed by his son Ludwell Lee, and passed on to his son Richard Henry. The book is also signed and dated 1846 (beneath John Adams’ inscription and John Quincy Adams’ signature) by John Strohm (1793-1884), a Pennsylvania congressman (March, 1845 - March, 1849). The route of the book from the Lees to Strohm is undetermined, though the book was either acquired directly from Richard Henry Lee (or his heirs) or perhaps, from John Quincy Adams (who would have received the book from either Ludwell Lee or his son, Richard Henry Lee). There is also no available information on specifically why the volume passed out of the hands of the Lee family. There is some additional handwritten content in the volume. On a blank leaf bound between the Table of Contents and the first page of text, there is a quotation (in French) in an unidentified hand taken from and attributed to Memoires de Commines, regarded as one of the classics of medieval history, written by the French chronicler Philippe de Commines. The passage states: “Entre toutes les Seigneuries du monde dans j’ai connaissance, ou la choice publique est mieux trait,e, & ou regne moins de violence sur le peuple - c’est l”Angleterre”. Excessively rare in original boards and the associations with two generations of the Adams and Lee families is nothing short of extraordinary. Provenance: Francis K. Gaskell (bookplate).
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Lot 5: Adams, John Quincy. Autograph letter signed as President, 1 page (10 x 7 ¾ in.; 254 x 197 mm.)
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Description: 5. Adams, John Quincy. Autograph letter signed as President, 1 page (10 x 7 ¾ in.; 254 x 197 mm.), “Washington,” 9 March 1827, to Richard Riker Esquire, Recorder of the City of New York, regarding the completion of the Erie Canal; marginal split at horizontal fold. President John Quincy Adams on the successful completion of the New York Canals [i.e., the Erie Canal] which have mingled the waters of the Western Lakes with the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. President Adams sends thanks to his correspondent for two copies of an elegantly bound narrative on the completion of the Erie Canal (October 26, 1825). He writes in full: Sir. I have duly received your Letter of the 26th. ulto. [February 26, 1827] together with two copies elegantly bound of the very interesting Memoir of Mr. Colder upon the New York Canals, and the annexed authentic narratives of the Celebrations upon the completion of those great Works which have mingled the waters of the Western Lakes with the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. One of these copies was intended by the kindness of the Corporation, for my deceased father [John Adams, d. July 4, 1826], and in his name, and in that of his Representatives, I pray you to tender to that body our thanks for this civic tribute to his memory. For the copy of them designed and forwarded for me the Corporation will please to accept my acknowledgements. It contains in itself evidence that many of the Arts which adorn, as well as those which comfort human life, are prospering in our Country and evinces that the Spirit, which was found equal to the great undertaking of inland communication is persuading every portion of your community, and moving in happy concert towards that object of the aspirations of the wise and good, the improvement of our common condition. Accept also for your self, the thanks and Respects of your fellow Citizens. John Quincy Adams. On October 26, 1825, the Erie Canal was completed - then officially opened at Buffalo. It connected the Hudson River with Lake Erie by way of the Mohawk River, channels in Lake Oneida and short stretches of other rivers. Mules pulled flat-bottomed barges through the four-foot deep, 363-mile long canal at the rate of a mile and a half an hour. During its first year of operation, the Erie Canal saw 7,000 barges travel its course from Albany to Buffalo. Those who had worked on the canal, begun in 1817, remained to establish towns along its route. The flow of goods along the Erie Canal and the Hudson River - a combined distance of 550 miles - soon made New York the nation’s busiest seaport, as well as the nation's financial center. The completion of the Erie Canal signalled the beginning of a major era of canal building; 3,000 miles of inland waterways were constructed by the 1840s. Combined with the surge of road building, the construction of these inland waterways helped open up many new territories in the west to commerce and settlement. A number of other Western canals were completed between 1825-56 linking the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers with the Great Lakes. They included: (1) the Ohio Canal connecting Portsmouth and Cleveland (1825-32); (2) the Miami Canal connecting Cincinnati and Toledo (1825-45); (3) the Louisville and Portland Canal around the falls of the Ohio River (1826-31); (4) the Wabash and Erie Canal, linking Toledo with Evansville - the longest canal in the U.S. (1832-56); (5) the Illinois and Michigan Canal connecting Lake Michigan and the Illinois River (1836-48); and (6) the original Welland Canal around Niagara Falls connecting Lakes Erie and Ontario (built by Canada, 1829-33). Of all the canal projects, the Erie Canal was unique in that it achieved a profit. Most of the other canals eventually failed because their construction required an insurmountable debt that could not be recouped from users’ fees. The new age of the railroads brought an end to the role of canals in the commercial growth and westward expansion of the nation.
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