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BURR, Aaron. Autograph letter signed ("Aaron Burr") as United States Senator from New York, to Nathaniel Lawrence, Philadelphia, 8 April 1792.
One page, 247 x 203mm, (light toning) with integral transmittal leaf addressed in his hand and adding his franking signature ("A Burr") (Loss from seal tear and toned along folds.)
Burr writes on his confidence that pending pro-canal legislation pending in Albany would pass. "I wrote you a few days ago about the Canal bill, and some other matters — I have no doubt but the proposed amendment to that bill would pass, but whatever may be the prospect of Success I hope the attempt will be made unless reasons with which I am unacquainted forbid it—" The "Canal bill," to which Burr refereed was likely one of the first official acts passed by the New York Assembly and Senate supporting what would become the Erie Canal, allowing for the incorporation of companies to compete its construction. Early efforts proved too ambitious, but work finally commenced in 1817 and completed in 1825. As Burr speculated widely in western New York real estate, the passage of a bill enabling the construction of a canal to the Great Lakes would have been of some interest to the New York senator. According to the New York papers, the bill had passed both houses by the time Burr wrote the present letter. (Albany Gazette, 29 Mar. 1792, p. 2; the text of the act was published in two parts in The New-York Journal & Patriotic Register, 12 & 16 May, 1792.)