THE DUPLICATE LETTERS, THE FISHERIES AND THE MISSISSIPPI. DOCUMENTS RELATING TO TRANSACTIONS AT THE NEGOTIATION OF GHENT...

Washington: Printed by Davis and Force, 1822.. 256,3pp. Original tan and blue paper boards, printed paper label, expertly rebacked retaining most of the original paper backstrip. Label a bit chipped, corners bumped, early manuscript title on front board. Contemporary presentation inscription on front free endpaper, contemporary ownership inscriptions on titlepage (see below). Front flyleaf partially torn away. Leaf with pages 249-250 with a small tear, affecting a few letters of text; leaves with pages 165-166 and 171-172 bound out of order (as issued). Tanned, occasional light foxing. Good plus. Untrimmed. In a modern cloth clamshell case. A copy with a fascinating provenance, given from a future President of the United States to his youngest brother, Thomas Boylston Adams. A pen inscription on the front flyleaf of this volume in the hand of John Quincy Adams, reads: "Thomas B. Adams from his brother John Quincy Adams." On the titlepage is the ownership signature of Thomas Adams and the slightly later signature of an A. Dunlop. Thomas B. Adams served as a representative in the state legislature for the Adams family's hometown of Quincy, Massachusetts, and later was a senior magistrate in the Massachusetts State Circuit Court. He accompanied his older brother to the Netherlands and Prussia, serving as Ambassador John Quincy Adams' secretary from 1794 to 1798.

This text brings together the correspondence and reports of the negotiations conducted by John Quincy Adams with the British to resolve the War of 1812. As ever, Adams was very sensitive to criticism, and thus exhaustively defends his work. It appeared in 1822 when Adams was Secretary of State, in an attempt to counter rumors that he had offered navigation rights on the Mississippi River to the British during the negotiations. SABIN 276. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 7740.