Originally acquired by Raab from the descendants of Secretary of War Henry Dearborn, this letter, in which Jefferson anticipates his lasting achievement as president: a strong national defense
The Raab Collection announced today that it has sold a letter of Thomas Jefferson to Secretary of War Henry Dearborn stating that a strong national defense will be their parting gift to the American people. Written in 1808 during Jefferson’s final year in office, the president persuades Dearborn to remain with him until the end and declares, “It would make an honorable close of your term as well as mine, to leave our country in a state of substantial defense, which we found quite unprepared for it.” The letter was valued at $85,000.
Jefferson’s America
During much of Thomas Jefferson’s tenure as president (1801-1809), Britain and France were embroiled in the Napoleonic Wars, and the United States attempted to remain neutral.
Naval skirmishes between the U.S. and Britain became frequent, peaking with the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair, in which the British fired on a U.S. ship and captured sailors. Americans were irate, yet Jefferson managed to avoid war by signing the Embargo Act in late 1807. This essentially closed U.S. ports to all exports and restricted imports from Britain. He shored up the ports and home waters with naval patrols, and for a few years, war was averted.
Secretary of War Henry Dearborn, a Revolutionary War veteran, was a steady ally during this time, but was looking toward retirement in 1808. In this letter, Jefferson urges him to stay another year, expressing his desire that “You & I might both make our bow with approbation & satisfaction…. it will give me sincere joy to learn that you will ‘watch with me to the end.’”
This letter had been with the Dearborn heirs for almost two centuries before Raab discovered it, and it has since been in a private collection.
To learn more about this remarkable letter, Nathan Raab, president of The Raab Collection and author of The Hunt for History, is available for interviews.
