Description:

'JEFFERSON'S FINAL LETTER' BROADSIDE
A great content printed broadside bearing the text of the last letter ever written by President Thomas Jefferson before his death in 1826. The date of this printing is unknown, though it is almost certainly contemporary to Jefferson's passing. At the top is an illustration depicting Lady Liberty displaying the art of printing to figures representing the other four continents. Surrounded by a border, the text of the original letter was written in Monticello, June 24, 1826, to Washington D.C. mayor Roger Weightman (1787-1876) declining an invitation to join a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and expressing his hopes for its legacy. In part: '...The kind invitation I receive from you...as one of the surviving signers of an instrument pregnant to our own...is most flattering to myself...It adds sensibly to the sufferings of sickness...I should indeed with peculiar delight have met and exchanged there congratulations personally with...[those] who joined with us on that day in the bold and doubtful election we were able to make for our country, between submission or the sword...May it be to the world what I believe it will be...May it be to signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessing of security and self-government. That form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion...For ourselves, let the annual return of this day, forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminishable devotion to them...' Light toning, minor edgewear, small hole to the bottom left, else good. Jefferson would die ten days after writing this letter on Independence Day, July 4, 1826.

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December 9, 2021 10:00 AM EST
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
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