Description:

(JAMES MADISON)
THOMAS E. MCKENNEY (1785-1858) Superintendent of Indian Affairs in 1816 by under James Madison. He went on to author the three-volume History of the Indian Tribes and maintained a relationship with the Madison Family. Fine association, lengthy A.L.S. 3pp. 4to., New York, Dec. 29, 1848, to Dolley Madison, whom he addresses as "Mrs. James Madison". In part: "...I hope it to be excused for taxing you with a Call upon your memory, touching an Incident which Mr....Armstrong has published as having taken place at the President's House...while previous to the separation of General Armstrong from Mr. Madison's Cabinet, as Secretary of War. That incident is, in the words of Kosciusko Armstrong, that the Committee purporting to represent the Citizens of the district was chosen to wait, on the President, and demand General Armstrong's removal from Office. The selectmen were Messrs. Hanson, Bowie and McKenney, the first, a Federal Editor, whom the spirit of party rancor moved to this action, and the two last warm personal friends of Mr. Monroe, whose motives are easily understood. He proceeds to say 'When their names...were announced, The President declined communicating with none than one of these unwelcome visitors and designated Mr. McKenney as the least anxious of the Three. With him he was Closeted for upwards of an hour, and what passed between them is known only by report...'...As I never was of this Committee, and never had been, and or afterwards on speaking terms with Mr. Hanson, and never spoke a Word to Mr. Madison on the subject of General Armstrong's removal, either in the President's House, or out of it much less being 'Closeted with him'...I want to ask you, to inform me, if you ever heard of any such Committee, in the persons of Hanson, Bowie, and McKenney, in Connexion with that object, or any other...I was not of the Committee. And yet, it has occurred to me, as I have a name in Washington, a Col. McKenney (John, I believe...) who was at that time Commissary of purchase for the army...and who will doubtless recollect that if there was ever any such Committee with a 'Mr. McKenney' attached...The only Interview I ever had with Mr. Madison upon any subject connected with General Armstrong, was on F. Street, (he being on horseback) when I was Commissioned by General Smith, in Company with Major Williams, to report to the President, the state of revolt in which the Troops on Windmill Hill, were thrown, on the appearance of General Armstrong among them, after the Conflagration of the Capitol... What I am in quest of is, evidence that there was, or was not, any such Committee...It is for History I ask this Information -- as well as to show before it shall have passed to the final record, the falsehood of connecting me with this 'Hanson and Bowie' Committee...if I had been associated with any Citizens of the District of Columbia in times so exciting as were those times, and for such an object, I should have served, promptly, nor ever deemed it a mission, other than an honorable one, and certainly as furnishing no Grounds of a denial of my personal agreeing in such a matter...I wish to put the materials in the hand of History, that truth may go down to posterity and not falsehood...". McKenney was heavily involved in the intrigue. Armstrong was at the time Secretary of War, while James Monroe was serving as Secretary of State. The committee, allegedly organized by disgruntled Washington citizens following the British capture of the city, saw that Monroe took Armstrong's place. Whispers spread that Monroe had a hand in the coup, a charge Monroe denied until his death. With integral address leaf. One small burn to final page, otherwise very good condition.

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January 20, 2010 10:00 AM EST
Stamford, CT, US

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