The Property of
A NEW ENGLAND LIBRARY*
HARRISON, WILLIAM HENRY, President. Autograph letter signed ("W.H. Harrison") to Congressman Thomas Chilton of Kentucky, North Bend, Ohio, 17 February 1834. 14 3/4 pages, folio, 312 x 190mm. (12 1/2 x 7 3/4 in.), with numerous emendations and deletions, minor defects at edges and small holes at a few folds, lightly browned.
Details
HARRISON, WILLIAM HENRY, President. Autograph letter signed ("W.H. Harrison") to Congressman Thomas Chilton of Kentucky, North Bend, Ohio, 17 February 1834. 14 3/4 pages, folio, 312 x 190mm. (12 1/2 x 7 3/4 in.), with numerous emendations and deletions, minor defects at edges and small holes at a few folds, lightly browned.
AN EXTRAORDINARY FIFTEEN-PAGE LETTER: HARRISON RECOUNTS THE WARS IN THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY, A "CONTINUATION" OF THE REVOLUTION, AND DESCRIBES HIS SOLDIERS' HARDSHIPS
A remarkable letter -- likely to be one of the longest ever written by the President who held office for the briefest term. An impassioned Harrison looks back on the wars in the Northwest Territory -- in which he was a participant -- to justify the veterans' right to military pensions. He has followed Chilton's proposal "...to extend the pension laws to embrace those who served in the Indian Wars of the Western & North Western frontier & with surprise & mortification I have observed the contempt with which that service has been spoken of by some of the members of your body. Is it possible that the events of a war...in which so much blood was spilt & so much treasure expended, are forgotten?...The Commissions of all these men...were signed by George Washington & countersigned by Henry Knox. That the North Western Indian War was a continuation of the Revolutionary Contest is susceptible of proof..." He provides a detailed history of Britain's incitement and supply of the Indians of the Northwest and asserts that "[t]his was the cause of the [British] retention of the posts of Detroit, Macanac, & Niagara so long after the treaty of 1783..." He reviews General Anthony Wayne's campaign (Harrison was Wayne's aide-de-camp), including the decision to attack Fort Miami even though "our small howitzers which had been transported on the backs of horses...could make no impression on its massive earthen parapet..."
Harrison describes the soldiers in this war, their recruitment, compensation (which he considers paltry), the size of the army and militia and the number of casualties they suffered. He notes their hope that the veterans might receive "a small portion of the countless millions of acres of land possessed by the Government..." Of the regiment he commanded, Harrison charges, "I do not know if there is a man of them now living...No one who has not been an eye witness...can conceive...the hardship of a war carried on in an uninhabited wilderness against an Indian enemy...whose greatest mercy to a prisoner was the immediate infliction of a Tomahawk..." He contrasts the hardships endured by the soldiers in the Northwest to those faced by soldiers in the Revolution: "In the erection of Fort St. Clair (from the vicinity of the enemy), nearly half the troops...were every other night on duty without shelter or fire." Harrison then recounts at length the military careers of two veterans known to him and the hardships they had endured, including Commodore Oliver Perry who "after his important victory on Lake Erie, did me the honor to act, as my aide de camp," and concedes that even a sailor's situation was not as severe as the soldiers in the Northwest or those "employed in defending the first settlements of Kentucky & Tennessee..."
He closes with a description of the savagery of the Indians in these wars and adds that he has written out of concern for "my brother officers & soldiers" only; he will claim no pension in the event Congress gives its assent to Chilton's proposal.
*This lot may be exempt from sales tax, as set forth in the Sales Tax Notice at the front of the catalogue.
AN EXTRAORDINARY FIFTEEN-PAGE LETTER: HARRISON RECOUNTS THE WARS IN THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY, A "CONTINUATION" OF THE REVOLUTION, AND DESCRIBES HIS SOLDIERS' HARDSHIPS
A remarkable letter -- likely to be one of the longest ever written by the President who held office for the briefest term. An impassioned Harrison looks back on the wars in the Northwest Territory -- in which he was a participant -- to justify the veterans' right to military pensions. He has followed Chilton's proposal "...to extend the pension laws to embrace those who served in the Indian Wars of the Western & North Western frontier & with surprise & mortification I have observed the contempt with which that service has been spoken of by some of the members of your body. Is it possible that the events of a war...in which so much blood was spilt & so much treasure expended, are forgotten?...The Commissions of all these men...were signed by George Washington & countersigned by Henry Knox. That the North Western Indian War was a continuation of the Revolutionary Contest is susceptible of proof..." He provides a detailed history of Britain's incitement and supply of the Indians of the Northwest and asserts that "[t]his was the cause of the [British] retention of the posts of Detroit, Macanac, & Niagara so long after the treaty of 1783..." He reviews General Anthony Wayne's campaign (Harrison was Wayne's aide-de-camp), including the decision to attack Fort Miami even though "our small howitzers which had been transported on the backs of horses...could make no impression on its massive earthen parapet..."
Harrison describes the soldiers in this war, their recruitment, compensation (which he considers paltry), the size of the army and militia and the number of casualties they suffered. He notes their hope that the veterans might receive "a small portion of the countless millions of acres of land possessed by the Government..." Of the regiment he commanded, Harrison charges, "I do not know if there is a man of them now living...No one who has not been an eye witness...can conceive...the hardship of a war carried on in an uninhabited wilderness against an Indian enemy...whose greatest mercy to a prisoner was the immediate infliction of a Tomahawk..." He contrasts the hardships endured by the soldiers in the Northwest to those faced by soldiers in the Revolution: "In the erection of Fort St. Clair (from the vicinity of the enemy), nearly half the troops...were every other night on duty without shelter or fire." Harrison then recounts at length the military careers of two veterans known to him and the hardships they had endured, including Commodore Oliver Perry who "after his important victory on Lake Erie, did me the honor to act, as my aide de camp," and concedes that even a sailor's situation was not as severe as the soldiers in the Northwest or those "employed in defending the first settlements of Kentucky & Tennessee..."
He closes with a description of the savagery of the Indians in these wars and adds that he has written out of concern for "my brother officers & soldiers" only; he will claim no pension in the event Congress gives its assent to Chilton's proposal.
*This lot may be exempt from sales tax, as set forth in the Sales Tax Notice at the front of the catalogue.