Lot Details
Lot 57
VAN BUREN, MARTIN Autograph letter to Governor Daniel Tompkins offering a legal opinion.
New York: 13 October 1815. A signed letter with a separate signed postscript, sent together. Each sheet 10 x 8 inches (26 x 20 cm; in a heavy antique style double-sided frame with portraits. Usual folds, a few short tears, unexamined out of frame.
An interesting opinion from Van Buren as Attorney General of New York offered to Governor Daniel Tompkins ("D.D. Tompkins") regarding the erection of gates on the Montgomery Turnpike. Van Buren here repeats the language of the law and offers "This is the only authority given to the Governor that I know of to permit the erection of gates - my opinion therefore is that his excellency cannot permit the erection of gates in the case of the Montgomery Turnpike until ten miles of the road shall be completed." On the next sheet, Van Buren provides a postscript, reporting "had I not been in the legislature when the law passed, I would say that the section is disgracefully explained & ambiguous..."
C
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