(PONY EXPRESS) Waddell William B; Russell William H and Majo

Sale 2108 - Lot 244

Price Realized: $ 4,080

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,500

(PONY EXPRESS.) Waddell, William B.; Russell, William H. and Majors, Alexander. Manuscript document signed by each, rescinding a "contract of purchase" dated 19 April 1860. With a postscript amending the agreement additionally signed by each. 2 page (postscript on verso), single 4to sheet, blue paper; usual folds. Np, 25 January 1861

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Additional Details

On 11 April 1860 Russell, Waddell & Majors signed a two year contract for transportation of military supplies along the New Mexico route. A week later, the firm subcontracted with Majors to fulfull those terms on his own. The reason for the agreement was the financial strain on the company, the lack of capital required and the short span of time allowed to assemble the needed supplies. Of the present contract which rescinds that agreement, Settle writes: "Since no copy of it has been found, much that one would like to know about it is obscure . . . Just why this was done is uncertain and subject to speculation"--War Drums, page 140. Settle, however, assumed that this agreement was dated in the Fall of 1860. Dated January 1861, it comes in the midst of the congressional investigation of Russell for defrauding the government by selling hypothecated Indian Trust Fund bonds.