Beschreibung:

COOPER, JAMES FENIMORE. Autograph letter signed ("James Cooper") to Brig. Gen. Peter Gansevoort in Albany; Scarsdale in Westchester County, New York, 19 April 1820. 2 pages, 4to, with integral address leaf, offset staining to second page of letter from newsclippings affixed to facing blank third page, fold tears and a seal tear in address leaf. COOPER ON NEW YORK STATE POLITICS A very early Cooper letter (the 24th in Beard's edition), written some seven months before his first book, Precaution , was published and showing a rare form ("James Cooper") of his signature. It was not until 1826 that he had his name legally changed to "James Fenimore Cooper." Gansevoort -- Herman Melville's uncle -- was a leading New York lawyer and politician. In the 1820 Presidential Campaign the Republican ticket of James Madison and Daniel C. Tomkins (a former New York governor) would be re-elected over the Federalist slate. "Yourself a Brother in the Secretary to the Central Committee [of the New York State Republican Party] as am I to the West-Chester -- knowing you I have determined in my doubts to address you -- This is a difficult County [West-Chester] to get along with -- our Republican votes will not much exceed 300 -- but the Federalists are as strong as the whole Republican party when united...we shall give it every vote -- and a great Majority of the Federalists will vote for Mr. [De Witt] Clinton [New York Governor] between whom and Tomkins it will be hard work. The majority of the latter cannot I think exceed a hundred and if our friends are active we are as likely to obtain it as they by the same number..." Cooper continues in this vein for about a page, mainly discussing some local "dirty" politics and concludes: "We are all alive here and will do our duty -- I never worked at an election before -- but you who know me so well -- know I never do things by halves -- for six weeks I have given myself up to it -- and I sincerely hope the result will shew not in vein -- I find now I dabble in politics -- it is a pleasant thing to find your old Friends on the same side with you..." Letters , ed. J.F. Beard, vol. 1, no. 24. Cooper letters of this early date and content are rare. Provenance : Estelle Doheny (sale, Part IV, Christie's New York, 17 October 1988, lot 1216, $1,900) -- Unnamed consignor (sale, Sotheby's New York, 1 June 1995, lot 191, also $1,900).