?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
SENDING AMBASSADOR TO SETTLE DISPUTED BORDER BETWEEN MAINE AND NEW BRUNSWICK VAN BUREN, MARTIN. Three letters Signed, "MVanBuren," as Secretary of State, to U.S. Minister to the Netherlands William Pitt Preble: Autograph Letter * two Typed Letters. The first, ALS, introducing Auguste Davezac and proposing to appoint him Secretary of the Legation at the Netherlands. 2 pages, 4to, written on the recto and verso of a single sheet; folds. The second, sending books and documents to be presented to the Court of the King of the Netherlands [not present], remarking that his main duty is to arbitrate in a territorial dispute between the U.S. and Great Britain. 14 1/2 pages, tall 4to, written on the recto and verso of 5 folded sheets, bound together with silk ribbon; few scattered short closed separations at horizontal folds. The third, stating that transcriptions and translations of the response from the King of the Netherlands concerning the border dispute would be transmitted to the Governor of Maine, granting a leave of absence, instructing him to introduce Chargé d'Affaires Davezac to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 3 pages, tall 4to, written on two sheets; each leaf encapsulated (but removable), complete closed separations at horizontal folds of both leaves repaired on versos with tissue. [Washington], 20 June; 2 November 1829; 17 March 1831
20 June 1829: "Allow me to make you acquainted with Auguste Davezac Esquire of New Orleans. . . . [who] is the brother in law of our excellent friend E[dward] Livingston of Louisiana. The friends of Mr. D[avezac] have asked the Place of Secretary of Legation at the Netherlands for him . . . . 2 November 1829: ". . . [O]f the subjects committed to your charge, the most . . . important is the reference of the disputed points of boundary between the United States and Great Britain to his Majesty the King of the Netherlands as arbitrator, in pursuance of the Convention of the 29th of September, 1827. "The . . . dispute which has so long engaged the attention of the two Governments . . . the settlement of which has become essential to the preservation of harmony between them . . . and the extent and value of the territory whose title is made to depend upon it, have rendered it the subject of deepest solicitude to the President. He looks forward with the most intense anxiety to the decision of the high tribunal to which the two nations have . . . referred this momentous question . . . ." In 1829, President Andrew Jackson appointed William Pitt Preble Minister to the Netherlands, whose King had agreed to mediate the dispute between the U.S. and Great Britain concerning the border between Maine and New Brunswick. Although Preble's mission was largely successful, the state of Maine rejected the new border line and tensions continued to mount, culminating in 1838 in the "Aroostook War."
