On George Washington's aide-de-camp - photo 1

On George Washington's aide-de-camp

Lot 192
02.02.2024 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
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$ 10 080
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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ID 1129813
Lot 192 | On George Washington's aide-de-camp
Estimate value
$ 5 000 – 8 000
JEFFERSON, Thomas (1743 - 1826). Autograph letter signed ("Th. Jefferson") to David Easton, Monticello, 14 January [18]22.

One page, 200 x 250mm (mounted to similarly-sized sheet, some spots of staining).

Jefferson regrets his lack of knowledge of the career of Col. Robert Hanson Harrison, aide-de-camp to George Washington, as his young daughters gather evidence to fight for their pensions. In response to a prior letter, Jefferson writes: "I am truly sorry it is not within my power to give you any information on the subject of the enquiries in your letter of the 9th ... during the revolutionary war Col. Harrison's services were employed in the army, mine chiefly in the cabinet ... at the close of the war, I was sent to Europe and did not return...until Mar. 1790 in which month I believe Col. Harrison died. I recollect the general expression of regret on that event. I should have been much gratified by the communication of anything within my knolege [sic] which might have been useful to his family and feel considerable relief that nothing could add to the weight of the testimony of the President & General la Fayette as to the facts they attest..."

David Easton was a clerk within the treasury department at the time of writing and married to Sarah Harrison Easton, one of Harrison's two daughters. In his January 9th letter to Jefferson, Easton forwarded support from Major General Lafayette, James Monroe, and George Washington, and states his object to gather "...evidence that Col. Harrison when he retired from the army in ill health in 1781, actually did so on furlough." Harrison's official papers were apparently lost roughly two years after the death of his widow, thus Easton pleads that Jefferson's attestation regarding his service: "...would probably be attended with beneficial consequences to his daughters in enabling them to establish their just claim to the gratitude of their Country, for their fathers long, faithful & important services, which remain unrequited by the U[nited] States until this day..." (“David Easton to Thomas Jefferson, 9 January 1822,” Founders Online, National Archives [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 18, 1 December 1821 to 15 September 1822, ed. J. Jefferson Looney et al. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021, pp. 134–135.]) However, despite the wealth of support from high-ranking officials, it wouldn't be until 1840 that the Maryland General Assembly would provide his two daughters with the appropriate pension: a sum equal to three year's half pay of an aide-de-camp to the commander-in-chief.
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