ASSOCIATE JUSTICE BENJAMIN R. CURTIS - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED - HFSID 84783

BENJAMIN R. CURTIS
Supreme Court Justice Benjamin R. Curtis wrote this letter to stave off a dispute over pay that the recipient had not received.
Autograph Letter Signed: "B. R. Curtis", 4 pages, 4½x7. In full: "The enclosed formal note [not included] will partly explain itself. The truth is that the managers of the affair here intended to get along without retaining me, if they could. I promised Day that if applied to by their [illegible] I would give them notice. I was applied to, gave him notice, & the result was an offer to retain me. I replied as stated in the enclosed note, and they [illegible]. If you will take the trouble to write me a short note, saying what you were paid, which I can show to them, I will be obliged to you. I have not much stomach for the fight, which will inevitably come off here, or elsewhere (probably here,) but have concluded to these [illegible] if Mrs Stoughton is very well & though I fear she will have but a dull time t best, my children will do all they can for her comfort & pleasure. As all wants she will have [illegible] & [illegible] air. She has been impatient for a letter from you this morning there are two which I shall take down to her when I return to dinner. I wish you could come this way when you return to Vermont. Yours faithfully". Postscripted: "P. S. Mrs Stoughton is to dine on Tuesday with the two Chief Justices, I believe; so she will [illegible] he [illegible] of a [illegible] legal atmosphere while with us." Appointed by Millard Fillmore in 1851, Benjamin Robbins Curtis (1809-1874) 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 toned, stained and creased. Show-through touches signature and handwriting.Handwriting, but not signature, is lightly spotted and smeared in places but legible. Folded once vertically and twice horizontally and unfolded. Otherwise in fine condition.