Two letters: ALS, signed “H. Clay,” one lightly-lined page, 7.75 x 9.5, February 24, 1834. Letter to Charles James Faulkner, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, with suggestions for a suitable replacement for resigning Virginia Senator William Cabell Rives. Marked “Confidential” at the top, letter reads, in full: “Mr. Rives resigned his seal in the Senate on Saturday, and accompanied his resignation by observations which clearly indicate that he intends to appeal from the highest at use to the people. You will therefore have to buckle on your armor. Who will you send in place of Mr. Rives? If Mr. Leigh would come, his fine talents would undoubtedly, at this important crisis, add quality to the hopes of the Country. If he cannot consent to make the sacrifice, would it be not well to check Mr. Richer? Without intending, in the smallest degree, to interfere in so delicate an affair you will, I hope, allow me to impress the satisfaction which would be felt by all of us with his election, in the event of neither Mr. Leigh or Mr. Johnson consenting to serve. From the movements making in the North, and especially in Penns'a we are authorized still to believe that we shall finally prevail in congress on the deposit question.” Integral second page bears an address panel partially in Clay’s hand, and franked in the upper right, “Free H. Clay.”
Second letter is a third-person ALS, one page, 8 x 10, no date. Letter reads, in part: “Mr. Clay requests to Mr. Faulkner, and he will be very happy to see him and the rest of the Virginia Delegates tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock, agreeably to the…in his note, the verbal answer to which Mr. Clay was obliged to return, in consequence of his being in the…of members of the Convention, he hopes Mr. F will have the goodness to excuse. Wednesday evening 10 o' clock." Moderate toning to first letter, intersecting folds to both, a few edge chips to second letter, and mounting remnants to reverse of both, otherwise very good condition.
Clay wrote these letters in the run up to the May 22, 1835, Democratic convention in Baltimore. His recipient was Charles James Faulkner, a lawyer and member of the Virginia House of Delegates. In the first letter, Clay discusses William Cabell Rives resignation from the US Senate in anticipation of Rives’s nomination for vice president at the Democratic convention. He puts forward Benjamin Watkins Leigh, who would later be elected to fill Rives’s Senate seat. Closing the letter, Clay mentions the “deposit question,” alluding to his longstanding advocacy for a strong national bank. At the 1835 convention the following year, Rives was favored by Martin Van Buren as a running mate, but the political tide was against him and Richard Mentor Johnson became the Whig vice presidential candidate. An exceptional pair of letters from the illustrious Kentucky senator. RR Auction COA.
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