Autograph Letter Signed, as Member of Congress, Washington, July 13, 1841, to his wife, Harriet Jack, Brookville, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania

quarto, one page, on a folding letter sheet, plus stamp less address leaf, formerly folded, in good, clean, and legible condition.

Jack writes his wife that he will be detained in Washington sometime, and excoriates his Whig colleagues:

"My Dear Wife,

I would have wrote you on Sunday agreeable to my promise but was very unwell… I have been in the House all day - & am about as well as usual I wrote Sidney last evening & least you might be uneasy – have concluded to give you assurance of my being very well –

When we may adjourn I am not able to say – it may take place in a few days which I wish very much – yet the prospect is we may be detained for three weeks yet. We are at the mercy of the Whigs and have to submit to whatever course they may direct. Every democrat wishes an adjournment & would willingly vote the same to take place tomorrow. The Whigs have yet much wickedness to put in practice. The doings of this Congress will be distinguished for many acts of unholy & vile character – my only hope for the welfare of the country is that the next Congress will undo – whatever we may do - …. William Jack"

William Jack was born in Greensburg, Westmoreland County, July 29, 1788; studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practiced; moved to Brookville, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, in 1831 and engaged in mercantile pursuits; division inspector of militia for Westmoreland and Fayette Counties 1830-1835; sheriff of Brookville in 1833; was a contractor and builder in Mississippi, and assisted in the construction of a canal in that State; returned to Pennsylvania, county judge of Jefferson County about 1840; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1841-March 3, 1843); engaged in agricultural pursuits; returned to Greensburg in 1846, and died there on February 28, 1852.