151. McKenney, Thomas L. Autograph letter signed (“Tho L McKenney”), 3 pages (7.5 x 10 in.; 190 x 254 mm.), front and verso on conjoined sheets, New York City, 29 December 1848, addressed to Dolley Madison (prior First Lady as wife of President James Madison). A few unrelated pencil notations and a brief red manuscript biography of McKenney appear on the blank back panel. Exhibiting expected light even tone and one small perforation.

Thomas L. McKenney, author of the History of the Indian Tribes of North America, writes to Dolley Madison “...to report to the President, the state of revolt in which the Troops on Windmill Hill, were thrown, on the appearance of General Armstrong among them, after the Conflagration of the Capitol...It is for History I ask this Information”

McKenney writes in part:...I hope to be excused for taxing your memory... the only Interview I ever had with Mr. Madison, upon any subject connected with General Armstrong, was on F. Street, (he being on horseback) when I was Commissioned by General Smith, in Company with Major Williams to report to the President, the state of revolt in which the Troops on Windmill Hill, were thrown, on the Appearance of General Armstrong among them, after the Conflagration of the Capitol... It is for History I ask this Information -- as well as to shew before it shall have passed to the final record, the falsehood of connecting me with this ‘Hanson and Bavie’ Committee...

Thomas L. McKenney was a Georgetown merchant, appointed Superintendent of Indian Trade in 1816 by President James Madison and he served that position until 1822 when the Indian Trade Program was abolished. Secretary of War John C. Calhoun created a position without legislation within the War Department entitled Superintendent of Indian Affairs (this later became part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs). McKenney was appointed to this position and held it from 1824-1830. He was an advocate of the American Indian “civilization” program and became an avid promoter of Indian removal west of the Mississippi River. President Andrew Jackson dismissed McKenney from his position in 1830 when Jackson disagreed with his opinion that “the Indian was, in his intellectual and moral structure, our equal.”

McKenney’s dismissal ushered in the second phase of his career. Perhaps as early as 1816 McKenney had imagined an Indian archive, which would be “preserved for the information of future generations and long after the Indians will have been no more”. During the years McKenney worked in the War Department he had made it standard procedure that members of Indian delegations would, at War Department expense, have their likenesses recorded in oil paint. By 1830 the artist Charles Bird King had painted about one hundred and twenty portraits, which McKenney did not permit any other artists to copy; his intention, from the start, had been to publish them himself.

Shortly before being fired by President Jackson, McKenney announced plans for the portfolio of hand-colored lithographs of these portraits, “with biographical sketches and anecdotes of the principal chiefs”. McKenney moved to Philadelphia, where his publisher was, and had the paintings sent to him one at a time, to be copied in oil for the lithographer to work from. The final work became the 3-volume History of the Indian Tribes of North America. $3,000 - $5,000