DURING
HIS TOUR OF EUROPE, FILLMORE SENDS THANKS FOR A GIFT
RECEIVED FROM A DUKE WHO IS “AS MUCH HONORED AND ESTEEMED
IN MY OWN COUNTRY AS IN EUROPE”
MILLARD FILLMORE. Autograph Letter Signed
to Charles Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, The Hague
[The Netherlands], 2 November 1855. 1 page, 9½” x 7¼”.
With the original envelope addressed and signed by Fillmore.
A New York Whig, Millard Fillmore was elected Vice-President on a ticket
with Zachary Taylor in 1848. He became President upon Taylor's death
in July 1850, and during his administration, he signed into law the
measures that made up the Compromise of 1850. Fillmore would run again
for the Presidency in 1856, as the candidate of the American or Know-Nothing
Party.
In 1855, Fillmore traveled through Europe, and this fine letter dates
from his trip abroad. Writing to Charles Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach,
he declares, “I regret that my absence from the city yesterday,
deprived me of the pleasure of meeting your Highness again; and were
it not for the necessity of being in Paris immediately, I should be
tempted to remain another day that I might do myself the honor of paying
my respects to you in person.
“On my return last evening,” Fillmore continues,
“Mr. [August] Belmont made me acquainted with the contents
of your flattering note to him, and I received at his hands the splendid
Map of Holland which you were so kind as to send me, and for which I
return you many thanks. I have begged of him your letter that I might
retain that with the Map, as precious and invaluable Souveniers of one
whose acquaintance I value so highly, and whose name is as well known
and as much honored and esteemed in my own country as in Europe.”
He has signed in full, “Millard Fillmore.” The
letter is accompanied by the original envelope, addressed by Fillmore
to the Duke and signed by him at the lower left, “M. Fillmore.”
Charles Alexander (1818-1901) had become Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
in 1853. His grandfather, the Grand Duke Charles Augustus, was renowned
for having given his duchy the first liberal constitution in a German
state in 1816, and he had also been a lifelong patron of the arts, notably
of the scholars Goethe, Herder, and Schiller, making Weimar an intellectual
and cultural center in Germany. Both his son and then his grandson,
the Grand Duke Charles Alexander addressed here, were well-known for
continuing this patronage of the arts. Charles Alexander had married
Princess Sophia of The Netherlands in 1842, and consequently spent much
time there.
August Belmont (1816-1890) was a noted American banker, art connoisseur,
and sportsman. He served as the U.S. minister to the Netherlands from
1853 to 1857.
Both the letter and envelope are in very good condition.
A
letter with a fine and most unusual association. $1500.00
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