On defending New York's City's harbor and the state's frontier - photo 1
On defending New York's City's harbor and the state's frontier - photo 2

On defending New York's City's harbor and the state's frontier

Lot 18
22.04.2021 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
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$ 37 500
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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ID 517664
Lot 18 | On defending New York's City's harbor and the state's frontier
Estimate value
$ 20 000 – 30 000
JEFFERSON, Thomas (1743-1826). Autograph letter signed ("Th:Jefferson") as President, [to New York Governor Daniel D. Tompkins,] Washington, 4 May 1808.

Two pages, bifolium, 244 x 200mm (minor marginal tears, neat cuts to integral leaf repaired, light toning).

Jefferson offers his counsel on building harbor defenses for New York City and questions the necessity of constructing fortifications the state's northern and western frontiers. A detailed and thoughtful letter from Jefferson replying to New York Governor Daniel D. Tompkins who had requested "an opinion of the application of those sums." The state had appropriated $100,000 for the purpose of defending the city and port of New York with an additional $20,000 for the defense of the northern and western frontiers. In 1807, the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair had caused a war-scare that initiated a spree of fortification building up and down the eastern seaboard. New York, which had been funding its own harbor defenses for a number of years, was also the beneficiary of federal largesse: "In carrying into execution the provisions of Congress, at their last session, for fortifying our ports & harbours, we shall distribute the means put into our hands on a just view of the relative importance of the places, combined with their degree of exposure, & capability of defence, and in such way as to require a moderate permanent force of regulars, relying much, in case of sudden attack, on the aid of the militia. among the objects of our care, New York stands foremost in the points of importance & exposure; and, if permitted, we shall provide such defences for it as, in our opinion, will render it secure against attacks by sea." Jefferson admitted however that the federal government might not be as cognizant of local needs: "it is probable these may not comprehend every thing which the anxieties of the citizens might think of service in their defence, I suggest, for your consideration, the idea of applying the fund appropriated to this object, by your legislature, to such supplementary provisions as in your judgment might be necessary to render ours adequate to fulfil the views and confidence of your citizens. of this however, you are the best judge."

As to the defense of the frontiers, Jefferson was more critical in his assessment: "It appears to me that it would be well to have a post on the Saint Lawrence as near our line as a commanding position could be found, that it might afford some cover for our most advanced inhabitants. but if a rupture takes place now, such a post would too soon lose all it’s value, to be worth building at this time. it is only in the event of a solid accomodation with Great Britain and their retaining their present possessions, that it might become worthy of attention. I do not know that the 20,000. D. appropriated by the state of New York ‘to aid in, & contribute to, the defence of the Northern & Western frontiers’ could be better applied than as supplementary to our provisions in this quarter also. we cannot, for instance, deliver out our arms to the militia, until called into the field. yet it would be a great security had every militia man on these frontiers a good musket in his hands." As a result of the state and federal largesse, New York Harbor became the best-defended in the United States, and for that reason it was spared attack during the War of 1812 — unlike Washington, where poor defenses resulted in its burning by the British in 1814. Provenance: Parke-Bernet, 23 April 1963, lot 183.
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