BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 04/10/1845 - HFSID 254653

BENJAMIN F. BUTLER. ALS: "B.F. Butler", 2½p, 7x9¾. New York, 1845 April 10. Addressed on verso of third page to: "His Excellency/James K. Polk/President United States/Washington City". Begins: "I beg leave to name to you, as a gentleman entitled, by his personal character & talents, as well his uniform & active devotion, during the darkest period of the last sixteen years, to the principles of the Democratic Party of the Union, to your favorable notice in the dispensation of official employments, John R. Livingston Jr. Esquire of this city. He held, at the coming of the Whig administration of 1841, the office of Navy Agent of this Port, to which he was appointed by Mr. Van Buren on the promotion of Mr. Paulding, and from which he was promptly removed...." JOHN R. LIVINGSTON, JR., was a nephew of Robert R. Livingston, first Chancellor of New York who swore in Washington as first President in 1789. While the records of the House and Senate show Livingston's appointment by VAN BUREN in 1838 and removal by Tyler in 1841, no appointment by POLK appears. BUTLER served as Jackson and Van Buren's Attorney General from 1833-1838. JAMES K. PAULDING was Van Buren's Secretary of the Navy from 1838-1841. The Letter: Lightly shaded folds. 1-inch semi-circular stain from wax seal on leaf (still present) touches 2 words of text. The Leaf: Shaded at folds, nicked edge.