Lear, Tobias

Three manuscript letter copybooks kept as U.S. Consul General at Algiers, being his retained official records including all letters sent during the period 3 August 1803 - 30 June 1809, along with transcripts of letters received by him, Algiers, 1803-1809



Manuscript, approximately two-thirds in Lear's hand, 3 volumes, folio (12 1/4 x 7 5/8 in.; 310 x 194 mm), 373, 347, 307 pages written, index of letters opening each volume; some leaves lightly browned, occasional light ink stain. Contemporary blind-ruled vellum; some tears at edges and backstrip with some mends. Maroon half-morocco slipcase. With typed expertise and modern biography of Lear in a second matching slipcase.

See R. Brighton, The Checkered Career of Tobias Lear (Portsmouth, NH: 1985), a copy of which is supplied with this lot.

some leaves lightly browned, occasional light ink stain. Contemporary blind-ruled vellum, in a maroon half-morocco slipcase; some tears at edges and backstrip with some mends. With typed expertise and modern biography of Lear in a second matching slipcase
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The American Consul in Algiers dealing with Barbary Pirates

After acting as personal secretary to General Washington during the Revolution (and after his retirement to Mount Vernon), Tobias Lear (1762-1816) was appointed as consul in Santo Domingo. Returning to Washington in 1802 to general commendation, he was appointed consul to Algiers with power to negotiate a treaty with Tripoli. This was an extremely delicate position, dealing with the rulers of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, bargaining for the release of three hundred Americans, and trying to establish a peace treaty. Plans for a treaty had been in discussion for two years when he suddenly (4 June 1805) signed an agreement with the Pasha of Tripoli, agreeing to ransom the prisoners. This agreement was widely criticized but upheld by the government, and he continued in Algiers until the outbreak of the War of 1812.

The present letterbooks provide an eyewitness unbroken record of the circumstances surrounding the treaty and indeed, his whole service as consul. Large portions of the letterbooks are written entirely in Lear's hand, and bear his informal and formal signatures approximately 465 times. Two of the volumes conclude with his dated attestation of accuracy and papered seal. Other pages are in the hand of his secretary Timothy Mountford, and portions of a few letters to President James Madison are written in code. Approximately 108 recipients are noted.

The originals of the letters sent by Lear, are in many cases, in the Madison Papers at the Library of Congress, and at the William L. Clements Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan.