James Buchanan Autograph Letter Signed.

BUCHANAN, James [Mathew Carey].

$2,000.00

Item Number: 95838

Autograph letter signed entirely in the hand of the 15th President of the United States, James Buchanan to Philadelphia publisher Mathew Carey. Addressed to Mathew Carey, the letter reads, “Lancaster 24 October 1825. Dear Sir, I have a favor to ask you which I feel assured you will grant. Your maxim, I know, both in public and private life is to render justice to all men. I have heard with surprise from several respectable sources that I have been denounced in Philadelphia by many as an enemy to internal imprisonment. This has arisen from what is alleged in your city to have been my course in the canal convention. Upon this subject I think I have been hardly treated. Some of your editors published my resolutions and the speeches of others in support of them; but not one of them has ever published my observations. As I feel a high respect for the opinion of many of the citizens of Philadelphia I should be sorry they would labor under a false impression respecting me. I therefore take the liberty of requesting you to have my resolution and the few remarks I made or such parts of them that you may deem proper republished by some one of your editors. If you will see one justice done in this particular I shall feel forever obliged to you. Your opinion in this particular I shall feel forever obliged to you. Your opinion would at once correct every erroneous impression, I used every effort in my power for the Delaware and Chesapeake canal. With sentiments of the highest respect both for your intellectual and moral character. I remain your sincere friend, James Buchanan N.B. I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you in 2 or 3 weeks.” Accompanied by the original mailing envelope addressed to Carey in Buchanan’s hand. Irish-born American publisher Mathew Carey established himself as a publisher in Philadelphia by founding the Pennsylvania Herald in 1785 and Columbian Magazine in 1786. He published the first Roman Catholic version of the Bible printed in the United States, America’s first atlases, and frequently wrote on various social topics including debates in the state legislature. In very good condition with some browning to the page edges.

The 15th President of the United States, James Buchanan, served immediately prior to the American Civil War. Buchanan aspired to be a president who would rank in history with George Washington with his tendencies toward neutrality and impartiality. Historians fault him, however, for his failure to address the issue of slavery and the secession of the southern states, bringing the nation to the brink of civil war.