Jun 25, 2024 - Sale 2674

Sale 2674 - Lot 91

Unsold
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
TO AARON BURR LIVING IN EXILE AT BENTHAM'S HOME BENTHAM, JEREMY. Autograph Letter Signed, twice (in full and "J. Bentham's" in address panel), to Aaron Burr, complaining that Etienne Dumont would not yet allow Bentham to review Dumont's French translation of "An Essay on Political Tactics," speculating that Dumont has made Bentham's text into something of his own [see Dumont, "Tactique des assemblees politiques deliberantes" (1816)], instructing him not to punish Dumont if he has done as suspected, requesting that he gather some of Bentham's works for [Burr's daughter] Theodosia, explaining how the sculptor Turnarelli charged inconsistent prices for his busts, requesting that he send the set of Joseph Townsend's Travels in Spain [A Journey through Spain in the Years 1786 and 1787 (1791)] and, in a postscript: "I wish to God you were here: you ruin me by the scribbling tax you impose upon me." The last three lines on recto are a note from Bentham to Turnarelli, intended to be torn from the letter (but still attached), authorizing Turnarelli to sell statues of Bentham to Burr, including the letter's only full signature at lower right. 1¼ pages, written on the recto and verso of a single sheet, addressed in holograph on verso to Burr at Bentham's residence in Queen's Square Place; seal tear and some short closed separations at folds repaired verso with cello tape, few scattered abrasions and small holes with loss to few letters (but still legible), left edge unevenly trimmed (without loss to text), remnants of hinging at upper corners verso. "Barrow Green" [Oxted, Surrey], 3 September 1808
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"Dumont's story, about so many months for revisal, is a put-off . . . . I have no expectation that he will let either you or me see it, till he has taken whatever course he thinks fit to take with it. Not long ago, in pursuance of the half-formed design I hinted to you about the utility of religion, I was desirous of seeing what he had made of some Chapters of mine on the subject of Delits contre la Religion (including atheism and Cacotheism [belief in evil gods]) which . . . had made a strong impression on him. . . . [A]t last, upon my pressing and insisting, a peremptory refusal. . . . He had begotten upon his own brain a God of his own, and fathered the bastard upon me. . . . Being made . . . after his own image his God will (I make no doubt) be a tolerably good sort of God, better than most people's, and will not, I hope, do much mischief. . . . [I]f he should not let you see his Translation of the Tactics--and I don't think it is in the power of my eloquence, [or] even of that which melted the whole American Senate into tears [Burr's eloquence], to persuade him--don't you trouble yourself to cut his throat, for he has drudged hard at it, and deserves whatever he has made of it for his pains.
"Make up (if you can find room) for my dear little Theodosia a packet of all my combustibles that you can find, viz., Hard labour Bill, Panopticon, Pelham Letters and Plea for Constitution, Poor Management, Judicial Establishment, Tactics, and Emancipation . . . ."
Published as letter No. 1999 in The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham, vol. VII, 1802-1808, ed. Dinwiddy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988).
In 1807, Aaron Burr was acquitted in a trial for treason, but America had become inhospitable for him because of the relentless pursuit of creditors and those who, despite the acquittal, nevertheless doubted his patriotism. The following year, Burr moved to England, living for many weeks in one or another of the homes of philosopher Jeremy Bentham.