ASSOCIATE JUSTICE BENJAMIN R. CURTIS - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED - HFSID 254666

BENJAMIN ROBBINS CURTIS
Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Curtis wrote this letter to New York lawyer and longtime correspondent E. W. Stoughton. He thanked Mrs. Stoughton for making his time in New York so pleasant and said that he was sending some wine.
Autograph letter signed "B. R. Curtis". Black ink notations on verso in unknown hand. 4 pages, 5x8, 1 sheet, front and verso. Written at "32 Haverick St." on "Tuesday". Addressed to E. W. Stoughton, Esq., New York. In full: "My Dear Stoughton I wrote you a long letter today about law [illegible]. Now, after finishing my evening, I wrote again to day [sic], that I went down to Williams's [sic] this afternoon & ordered a ¼ cask of sherry at $2 a gallon to be sent to you, as you desired. It is the wine which I & my friends drink at our tables, & I prefer it to most which I find at a much higher cost. This Williams is an old, established, & with all, a very rich importer, knowing & honest. I hope you will not be disappointed in your expectations; it is hazardous to buy wine for a friend; tastes differ so much. I have not forgotten the [illegible] of [illegible] I made, some time since, of the potatoes raised on my farm, and I should, 'eer this, have tried to verify it, had I been at Pittsfield. When I go there in May, I hope to be able to give the [illegible] any direction to have some [illegible] & [illegible]. Here I can not will do so. Give my kindest regard to Mrs Stoughton & thank her, on my behalf, for making my passage through New York so entirely pleasant as it was. I had the happiness to find all well at home & every thing as cheerful & pleasant as I could hope. In addition to all which I am occupied, not too much, but sufficiently, I hope to go fishing at the end of this week. Is not that enough to satisfy all reasonable human wants. Yours Faithfully". E. W. STOUGHTON was a New York lawyer and longtime correspondent with Curtis. Appointed by Millard Fillmore in 1851, BENJAMIN ROBBINS CURTIS (1809-1874, born in Watertown, Massachusetts) served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court until he resigned in 1857. Curtis, who had written one of the two dissenting opinions in the 1857 Dred Scott case, resigned due to the bitter feelings engendered by the case. One of the nation's leading lawyers, Curtis was Chief Counsel to Andrew Johnson at the President's impeachment trial in 1868. Lightly soiled. Show-through touches signature and handwriting. Folds and creases (not near signature). Otherwise in fine condition.