Lot 58
  • 58

Franklin Pierce, fourteenth President

Estimate
2,000 - 3,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Autograph letter signed ("Frank. Pierce") regarding a potential conflict of interest in a legal case concenring water rights
  • Paper, Ink
1 page (9 3/8 x 7 1/2 in.; 237 x 192 mm) on blue paper, Concord, New Hampshire, 3 December 1846, to Samuel Lawson, autograph address on verso; a couple of ink smudges, inlaid to a larger sheet.

Catalogue Note

Pierce painstaking explains his hesitation in taking up a legal case. "An application has been made to me to act as counsel for interests supposed to be in conflict with yours connected with the use of the waters of the Winnipesaukee Lake … and of the Pemigewasset and Merrimack rivers. I suppose my engagements terminated with services before the Legislature while the acts of July 10 '46, in relation to which I had an interview with yourself & others at Boston, was pending. This is my understanding of the matter and I suppose I might properly have given an answer without any hesitation to my proposed clients, but to provide against any possible misapprehension I have thought it best first to address you."