Details
COOPER, JAMES FENIMORE. Autograph letter signed ("James Cooper") to Brig. Gen. Peter Gansevoort in Albany; Scarsdale in Westchester County, New York, 19 April 1820. 2 pages, 4to, with integral address leaf, offset staining to second page of letter from newsclippings affixed to facing blank third page, fold tears and a seal tear in address leaf.
COOPER ON NEW YORK STATE POLITICS
A very early Cooper letter (the 24th in Beard's edition), written some seven months before his first book, Precaution, was published and showing a rare form ("James Cooper") of his signature. It was not until 1826 that he had his name legally changed to "James Fenimore Cooper." Gansevoort -- Herman Melville's uncle -- was a leading New York lawyer and politician. In the 1820 Presidential Campaign the Republican ticket of James Madison and Daniel C. Tomkins (a former New York governor) would be re-elected over the Federalist slate.
"Yourself a Brother in the Secretary to the Central Committee [of the New York State Republican Party] as am I to the West-Chester -- knowing you I have determined in my doubts to address you -- This is a difficult County [West-Chester] to get along with -- our Republican votes will not much exceed 300 -- but the Federalists are as strong as the whole Republican party when united...we shall give it every vote -- and a great Majority of the Federalists will vote for Mr. [De Witt] Clinton [New York Governor] between whom and Tomkins it will be hard work. The majority of the latter cannot I think exceed a hundred and if our friends are active we are as likely to obtain it as they by the same number..." Cooper continues in this vein for about a page, mainly discussing some local "dirty" politics and concludes: "We are all alive here and will do our duty -- I never worked at an election before -- but you who know me so well -- know I never do things by halves -- for six weeks I have given myself up to it -- and I sincerely hope the result will shew not in vein -- I find now I dabble in politics -- it is a pleasant thing to find your old Friends on the same side with you..." Letters, ed. J.F. Beard, vol. 1, no. 24. Cooper letters of this early date and content are rare.
Provenance: Estelle Doheny (sale, Part IV, Christie's New York, 17 October 1988, lot 1216, $1,900) -- Unnamed consignor (sale, Sotheby's New York, 1 June 1995, lot 191, also $1,900).
COOPER ON NEW YORK STATE POLITICS
A very early Cooper letter (the 24th in Beard's edition), written some seven months before his first book, Precaution, was published and showing a rare form ("James Cooper") of his signature. It was not until 1826 that he had his name legally changed to "James Fenimore Cooper." Gansevoort -- Herman Melville's uncle -- was a leading New York lawyer and politician. In the 1820 Presidential Campaign the Republican ticket of James Madison and Daniel C. Tomkins (a former New York governor) would be re-elected over the Federalist slate.
"Yourself a Brother in the Secretary to the Central Committee [of the New York State Republican Party] as am I to the West-Chester -- knowing you I have determined in my doubts to address you -- This is a difficult County [West-Chester] to get along with -- our Republican votes will not much exceed 300 -- but the Federalists are as strong as the whole Republican party when united...we shall give it every vote -- and a great Majority of the Federalists will vote for Mr. [De Witt] Clinton [New York Governor] between whom and Tomkins it will be hard work. The majority of the latter cannot I think exceed a hundred and if our friends are active we are as likely to obtain it as they by the same number..." Cooper continues in this vein for about a page, mainly discussing some local "dirty" politics and concludes: "We are all alive here and will do our duty -- I never worked at an election before -- but you who know me so well -- know I never do things by halves -- for six weeks I have given myself up to it -- and I sincerely hope the result will shew not in vein -- I find now I dabble in politics -- it is a pleasant thing to find your old Friends on the same side with you..." Letters, ed. J.F. Beard, vol. 1, no. 24. Cooper letters of this early date and content are rare.
Provenance: Estelle Doheny (sale, Part IV, Christie's New York, 17 October 1988, lot 1216, $1,900) -- Unnamed consignor (sale, Sotheby's New York, 1 June 1995, lot 191, also $1,900).