Post-Revolutionary War to Civil War
1828 Letter to a Former US Secret Agent to South America Advising the Seeking Help From Former President Monroe
February 13, 1828-Dated, Great Historical and Political Content Manuscript Letter, from Virginia Colonel Braxton Davenport to his Friend Jeremy Davenport, a "Confidential" U.S. Agent in South America During the Struggles for Independence from Spain, Advising Him to Seek Help From Former President James Monroe to Obtain Pay Due Him for His Services and also Writes Expectantly of Andrew Jackson Becoming President in 1828, and comments on the Cowardly Behavior of the Mayor of Georgetown, DC. during the War of 1812, Very Fine.
1828 Choice Content, Handwritten Letter from Colonel Braxton Davenport (1791-1862), of Jefferson County, Va. (now WV), (the son of Revolutionary War Major Abraham Davenport), 3+ Handwritten folio pages, measuring 7-7/8" x 12-1/2", in easily readable condition.
Col. Braxton had served in the US Army during the War of 1812; served as a Jefferson County Magistrate and 4 terms in the Virginia State Legislature (1819-1824). This wonderful political oriented Letter is sent to his friend, Jeremy Robinson, who had been Appointed by President James Monroe as a Secret and Confidential Agent for the United States in South America, particularly serving in Chile & Peru, during their struggles for Independence from Spain. In 1832, Robinson was again employed as a Special Agent for the US State Department, and sent to Havana, Cuba in an attempt to obtain the Florida land records held there by Spain. He died in Cuba after 2-1/2 years in an unsuccessful effort.
This Superb content Letter is concerning Jeremey Robinson's efforts to obtain payment from the U.S. Government for his services in South America, and with a recommendation that Robinson seek the aid of former President James Monroe, who is, "full of years and full of glory".
Col. Braxton Davenport also writes to Robinson that President J.Q. Adams is too concerned with being reelected to give the matter much attention, and also writes expectantly of General Andrew Jackson soon being elected President of the United States later in 1828, when Jackson will "work out corruption." Davenport concludes with a discussion of the cowardly and near treasonous actions of the Mayor of Georgetown, D.C. when the British were attacking nearby Washington in 1814.
This great historic content letter reads, in part:
"... I am sorry that the government should yet think it necessary to postpone the settlement of your claims on it. I presume that Mr. Adams and 'the safe precedent', are so engaged in their endeavor to secure a reelection that all things else are made to bend to the accomplishment of their ends. But I think 'the sun of Austerlitz' has risen. I esteem your prospects brighter now, than at any period since your return from S. America. The period has arrived too without your intervention. You have had no agency in producing it.
I believe that Jackson in '28, like Jefferson in 98 will be the instrument in the hands of a righteous and just God, to work out corruption from the vineyard of an abused, nay, an insulted people. Dorsey's amendment to Hamilton's substitute for Chilton's radical resolutions, by carrying the investigation to disbursements from the department of State for secret services in their intercourse with foreign governments to 1790 will bring up a review of all agencies with the South American governments - consequently your employment by Mr. Monroe, as secret and confidential agent.
You can so manage as to call the attention of the Committee particularly to the disbursements for S. American agencies. How long was Jeremy Robinson employed by the government as its secret & confidential agent? is a question which will naturally present itself to the mind of an enquiring member of the Committee. The answer from the department must be 6 or 7 years... What compensation did Mr. Robinson receive for those services? I have, if not at error in recollection, heard you say about a thousand dollars. That being the case, must not the apparent disparity between the time of employment & services rendered and the compensation received be so strikingly glaring as almost to startle an apprehension the most dull... My advice to you, long since was to board Mr. Monroe and obtain from him some favorable expression of opinion of your services, rendered the government as its agent, secretly employed in S. America.
The present time is most auspicious for such an attempt. He has retired from office, from the business and concerns of government. He is full of years & full of glory. Can any other than feelings of honesty and justice actuate the bosom of a man grown gray in the services of his country, who has reaped the reward of a well spent life - the chief magistracy of an undivided, a great and growing nation? Can it be possible that a man thus venerable by age, thus distinguished and thus retired from the cares & bustle of political strife, should retain, if he ever felt, hostility to an agent of the government?
Mr. Monroe may relieve himself of an embarrassment without any difficulty. He may say & probably with some, nay, much truth, that your papers were all lost (for I think I have heard you say so) and that during the balance of the term for which he was reelected, that is, from your return, 'till his retirement from office, he felt much difficulty, and was in hopes that some fortunate chance might place your papers in hands from which they might be recovered, and thus enable the government to do you justice without being subject to the imputation of prodigality. That which delicacy or fear prevented him from doing, he, by declaring his conviction of the high merit of your services might induce the present government to do. He would be a witness better than one just risen from the dead...
... If convenient, or rather upon some black day, when you want employment of a light or trifling nature to chase the devil of blues from your imagination, take a trip to the War Office and if Mr. Sec'y Barbour does not fear you want information for something of a blow up, examine yourself the muster roll of the Militia in the 10th Military district, of which Maryland, the District of Columbia & part of Va. were part, from July to Dec'r of the year 1814 and inform me, if John Peter, who is styled Major was mustered into the U. States service with that part of the Militia of the District of Columbia which met the British on their way from Benedict to the City in August 1814... John Peter, I think at that time was Mayor of Geo. Town & instead of fighting the British was engaged in celebrating this & the Cossack victories and was prepared, and probably proposed to meet the British, as did the Alexandrians, and submit to them without a struggle, if they advanced on Geo. Town. That was certainly the report of the day. I remember it well...".