Details
ATCHISON, DAVID RICE, Acting President for one day, Senator. Autograph letter signed ("D.R. Atchison") to Capt. J.W. Denver, Washington, D.C., 5 April 1850. 2 pages, 8vo, 188 x 124mm. (7 3/8 x 4 7/8 in.).
[With:] Autograph free frank ("Free D.R. Atchison") on original envelope addressed by Atchison to Denver in Weston, Missouri, orange circular "Free Washington D.C. Apr. 5" postmark.
THE "PRESIDENT FOR A DAY" ON STATEHOOD FOR CALIFORNIA AND THE WILMOT PROVISO, WITH A VERY RARE FREE FRANK
A fine political letter of Atchison, President pro tempore of the Senate, written at the key period when the Senate hammered out the Compromise of 1850 which admitted California as a free state, strengthened the Fugitive Slave Law and allowed other territories to decide by ballot whether to allow slavery. Atchison writes about the delegates of certain counties in his state "to the Congressional Convention...Will it not be well if Hall cannot be nominated to put up Bela Hughes...or has free soil so far the advantage that all opposition is useless [John C.] Calhoun is dead therefore his want of popularity will be no longer in our way. Our old friend General [Lewis] Cass has been released from his instructions to vote for the Wilmot Proviso, indeed that proposition I think is dead. What kind of settlement of the Slavery question will be made I can not tell but California will be admitted as a State, governments for the Territories without the proviso, a fugitive Slave Bill, etc..."
On Sunday, 4 March 1849, President Polk closed his term as President. Zachary Taylor's inauguration, however, was scheduled to take place on March 5. In the one day interval, Atchison, as President pro tempore of the Senate, was technically President, by virtue of the Constitution's provision for Presidential succession (Article I, Section 3).
Letters of content of Senator Atchison are rare and his free frank is extremely rare: only three examples are known. Neither the Stern (1926 and supplements), Hessel (1990) or Grunin (1993) collections featured an Atchison.
[With:] Autograph free frank ("Free D.R. Atchison") on original envelope addressed by Atchison to Denver in Weston, Missouri, orange circular "Free Washington D.C. Apr. 5" postmark.
THE "PRESIDENT FOR A DAY" ON STATEHOOD FOR CALIFORNIA AND THE WILMOT PROVISO, WITH A VERY RARE FREE FRANK
A fine political letter of Atchison, President pro tempore of the Senate, written at the key period when the Senate hammered out the Compromise of 1850 which admitted California as a free state, strengthened the Fugitive Slave Law and allowed other territories to decide by ballot whether to allow slavery. Atchison writes about the delegates of certain counties in his state "to the Congressional Convention...Will it not be well if Hall cannot be nominated to put up Bela Hughes...or has free soil so far the advantage that all opposition is useless [John C.] Calhoun is dead therefore his want of popularity will be no longer in our way. Our old friend General [Lewis] Cass has been released from his instructions to vote for the Wilmot Proviso, indeed that proposition I think is dead. What kind of settlement of the Slavery question will be made I can not tell but California will be admitted as a State, governments for the Territories without the proviso, a fugitive Slave Bill, etc..."
On Sunday, 4 March 1849, President Polk closed his term as President. Zachary Taylor's inauguration, however, was scheduled to take place on March 5. In the one day interval, Atchison, as President pro tempore of the Senate, was technically President, by virtue of the Constitution's provision for Presidential succession (Article I, Section 3).
Letters of content of Senator Atchison are rare and his free frank is extremely rare: only three examples are known. Neither the Stern (1926 and supplements), Hessel (1990) or Grunin (1993) collections featured an Atchison.