LAFAYETTE, GILBERT DU MOTIER, Marquis de. Autograph letter signed ("Lafayette") to Chancellor Robert R. Livingston in Clermont, New York; La Grange, 26 December 1811. One page, 4to, integral address leaf with panel in Lafayette's hand, neat repair to seal tear on address leaf. In this affectionate letter to his old friend, Lafayette introduces a Portuguese gentleman named de Correa and comments on current affairs: "...While I was lately in town every symptom seemed to announce a speedy and pleasant answer to the representations of Mr. Barlow. I hope our expectation has by this time been fulfilled...". Joel Barlow, whom Jefferson had recently appointed Minister to France, had been trying for over a year to obtain from Napoleon a favorable trade agreement. After a final frustrated attempt to meet with the Emperor in Poland, he succumbed to pneumonia on the return trip and died two weeks after this letter. "...It had been thought the defeat of the Turks on the Danube would bring on a peace between them and the Russians. The probability is now against it, the more so as preparations are making in France and Germany which point out [sic] towards a Russian War... I am very well pleased with the intelligence that our friend [Robert] Fulton has hoisted his flag on the waters of the Mississippi...."

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LAFAYETTE, GILBERT DU MOTIER, Marquis de. Autograph letter signed ("Lafayette") to Chancellor Robert R. Livingston in Clermont, New York; La Grange, 26 December 1811. One page, 4to, integral address leaf with panel in Lafayette's hand, neat repair to seal tear on address leaf. In this affectionate letter to his old friend, Lafayette introduces a Portuguese gentleman named de Correa and comments on current affairs: "...While I was lately in town every symptom seemed to announce a speedy and pleasant answer to the representations of Mr. Barlow. I hope our expectation has by this time been fulfilled...". Joel Barlow, whom Jefferson had recently appointed Minister to France, had been trying for over a year to obtain from Napoleon a favorable trade agreement. After a final frustrated attempt to meet with the Emperor in Poland, he succumbed to pneumonia on the return trip and died two weeks after this letter. "...It had been thought the defeat of the Turks on the Danube would bring on a peace between them and the Russians. The probability is now against it, the more so as preparations are making in France and Germany which point out [sic] towards a Russian War... I am very well pleased with the intelligence that our friend [Robert] Fulton has hoisted his flag on the waters of the Mississippi...."