JEFFERSON THOMAS Partly printed vellum Document Signed ThJef

Sale 2686 - Lot 86

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APPOINTMENT REWARDING PERSONAL SECRETARY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON JEFFERSON, THOMAS. Partly-printed vellum Document Signed, "Th:Jefferson," as President, appointing Tobias Lear General Commercial Agent at St. Domingo [Saint-Domingue]. Countersigned by Secretary of State James Madison. 9¾x13 inches; faint toning along left edge, folds, paper seal intact. Washington, 26 January 1802

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Tobias Lear (1762-1816) served as George Washington's personal secretary during his presidency and was a friend to him in his final years; Lear's journal provides a first-hand account of Washington's death, and he shaped the first president's legacy by attending to the funeral arrangements and personal papers after his death. Lear had done much unpaid work for Washington to the detriment of his finances, and Jefferson's appointment to the potentially lucrative post of General Commercial Agent [Consul] at Saint-Domingue was partly meant to redress this. Lear's term of office, however, happened to coincide with the Haitian revolution, forcing him to return to VA with his debts little improved.