Nov 08, 2018 - Sale 2492

Sale 2492 - Lot 51

Price Realized: $ 1,430
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
"THE FRIGATE MEDUSA . . . COMMITTED PIRACY AND MURDER ON THE HIGH SEA" CHARLES LEE. Autograph Letter Signed, as U.S. Attorney General, to Consul General of France Philippe Joseph Létombe, reporting that he has done his duty by forwarding Létombe's papers concerning the alleged acts of piracy at Norfolk. 3/4 page, 4to, with integral blank; horizontal folds, faint scattered foxing, loss of upper portion of integral blank. Philadelphia, 3 February 1797

Additional Details

"Your letter . . . relative to certain persons on board the frigate Medusa at Norfolk in Virginia supposed to have committed piracy and murder on the High Sea, has been laid before the Secretary of State for the purpose of communicating it . . . to the President of the United States that he may direct what shall be done. . . . This is all that belongs to me in my official character to do, until I receive orders from the President."

From the Collection of William Wheeler III.