Details
HARRISON, WILLIAM HENRY, President. Partly printed document signed ("W.H. Harrison") AS PRESIDENT, Washington, D.C., 23 March 1841. 1 page, 4to, 253 x 202 mm. (10 x 8 in.), partially dampstained, with some lightening of the letters "arri" in the signature and portions of the accomplished text, the document tipped to a gold-ruled mount protected by two sheets of UV-30 plexiglas and laid in a custom display case of red morocco, spine gilt-lettered, by R.R. Donnelly & Sons of Chicago.
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON IN OFFICE
"I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of State to affix the seal of the United States to the remission of one hundred dollars, in the case of the United States against James H. Birch as surety of George Wilson..."
A document signed only 12 days before Harrison's untimely death. On the day of his inauguration--a chilly, windy March day--the 68-year-old President delivered an inaugural address which lasted for an hour and forty minutes. Later drenched in a cold rain, he came down with a severe cold which grew steadily worse in the course of the next month. His doctors diagnosed his condition as "bilious pleurisy," and by early April he was clearly declining. He died on the fourth, exactly a month after assuming office. His last words are recorded as "I wish you to understand the true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more." Harrison was the first President to die in office.
Documents signed by Harrison in office are extremely rare. Most authorities estimate that there are approximately half a dozen handwritten letters in office extant and that no more than two dozen documents signed in that brief one-month term exist. Two have been sold recently by Christie's, both from the FORBES Magazine Collection. One was an order to affix the Great Seal, dated 19 March 1841 (15 December 1995, lot 179, $70,000), the other an engraved ship's passport dated 29 March 1841 (17 May 1996, lot 136, $75,000).
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON IN OFFICE
"I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of State to affix the seal of the United States to the remission of one hundred dollars, in the case of the United States against James H. Birch as surety of George Wilson..."
A document signed only 12 days before Harrison's untimely death. On the day of his inauguration--a chilly, windy March day--the 68-year-old President delivered an inaugural address which lasted for an hour and forty minutes. Later drenched in a cold rain, he came down with a severe cold which grew steadily worse in the course of the next month. His doctors diagnosed his condition as "bilious pleurisy," and by early April he was clearly declining. He died on the fourth, exactly a month after assuming office. His last words are recorded as "I wish you to understand the true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more." Harrison was the first President to die in office.
Documents signed by Harrison in office are extremely rare. Most authorities estimate that there are approximately half a dozen handwritten letters in office extant and that no more than two dozen documents signed in that brief one-month term exist. Two have been sold recently by Christie's, both from the FORBES Magazine Collection. One was an order to affix the Great Seal, dated 19 March 1841 (15 December 1995, lot 179, $70,000), the other an engraved ship's passport dated 29 March 1841 (17 May 1996, lot 136, $75,000).