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Rare Historic Thomas Jefferson Letter Found In Old Box

By Noelle Nicholas
Published on: 13:46 PST, Jul 5, 2016

Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States, author of the Declaration of Independence, and third American president, is well known for his writing. A large portion of Jefferson’s letters, documents, and pamphlets have survived the better part of the two centuries since Jefferson penned them. Occasionally, a new letter or document of some type belonging to Thomas Jefferson shows up in the unlikeliest of places.

Recently, a family in the southern part of the United States was cleaning out their attic and came across an amazing find — a four-page letter written by Thomas Jefferson himself. The letter, a response to a letter from the U.S. Ambassador to France William Crawford, was penned on Valentine’s Day, 1815, from the Jefferson home in Monticello.

According to the Daily Mail, in the letter Thomas Jefferson speaks of American liberation as well as the victory in the War of 1812. It is no secret that Jefferson held no love for the British, and he makes his feelings clearly known in the letter to William Crawford. The following is a short clip from the four-page letter.

“As in the Revolutionary War, (the British) conquests were never more than of the spot on which their army stood, never extended beyond the range of their cannon shot. We owe to their past follies and wrong the incalculable advantage of being made independent of them…

“We must sacrifice the last dollar and drop of blood to rid us of that badge of slavery, and it must rest with England alone to say whether it is worth eternal war, for eternal it must be if she holds to the wrong.

“She will probably find that the 6000 citizens she took from us by impressment have already cost her ten thousand guineas a man, and will cost her in addition the half of that annually, during the continuance of the war, besides the captures on the ocean, and the loss of our commerce.

“She might certainly find cheaper means of manning her fleet, or, if to be manned at this expense, her fleet will break her down.”

The strongly worded letter is just one example of Thomas Jefferson’s determination to keep the United States out of the clutches of the British.

According to Fox News, the southern family found the extremely rare letter from Thomas Jefferson in an old box in the attic, full of family heirlooms.

The Raab Collection in Philadelphia has retained the letter to sell for the people who found it. Nathan Raab says letters such as this are so rare they are found perhaps once a decade, or even a generation.

“This kind of letter is only seen up for sale once a decade, if not once a generation. You just never see this for purchase by the public. These types of letters that are owned by direct descendants are usually donated to private collections.”

The Jefferson letter is priced at $325,000 dollars.

The following tweet denotes a letter written by two Americans, from the viewpoint of the founding fathers, over the recent Brexit drama.

Rare letters such as this one from Thomas Jefferson to William Crawford are not found very often, and appear for sale to the public even more rarely.

[Image via Flickr]

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