JOHN C. SPENCER - MANUSCRIPT LETTER SIGNED 09/19/1843 - HFSID 17176

JOHN C. SPENCER
As Secretary of the Treasury, he instructs the Collector of Customs at Salem to fire John Minot ("dispense with his services ... discontinue his employment").
Manuscript Letter signed: "J. C. Spencer" as Secretary of the Treasury, 1 page, 8x10. Treasury Department, 1843 September 19. To General James Miller, Collector of Customs, Salem, Massachusetts. In full: "As you represent in your letter of the 14th instant, that in your opinion the objects and purposes for which Mr. John Minot was appointed special Inspector of the Customs in accordance with the recommendation contained in your letter of the 20th of January 18, 1842 have not been accomplished, the Department approves of the suggestion as to the dispensing with that officers services. You will therefore pay Mr. Minot the compensation which may be due him and discontinue his employment in future. I am very respectfully your obedient servant". John Canfield Spencer (1788-1855), a judge advocate during the War of 1812, represented his New York district in the US House of Representatives as a Democratic-Republican (1817-1819), but vacated the seat in an unsuccessful effort to become US Senator. For the next two decades, he was a New York legislator and district attorney. Appointed special prosecutor in 1826, he helped incite the anti-Masonic movement, claiming that the Masons were a conspiracy aimed at controlling the country. Spencer hosted Alexis de Tocqueville during the latter's tour of upstate New York, and later edited the English-language edition of Tocqueville's classic Democracy in America. President Tyler appointed him to two Cabinet posts: Secretary of War (1841-1843), during which time his son, a navy midshipman, was executed (without trial) for mutiny; and Secretary of the Treasury (1843-1844). As Secretary of the Treasury, he had a special interest in customs collection, believing that tariffs should be raised in preference to levying new internal taxes. Tyler twice nominated Spencer twice for the US Supreme Court; each time the Senate rejected the nomination. Believing he could no longer be effective, Spencer resigned from the Cabinet. James Miller was brevetted to Brigadier General and awarded a Congressional gold medal for his heroism at the Battle of Lundy's Lane during the War of 1812. He was the first Territorial Governor of Arkansas (1819-1824), and Collector of Customs at Salem from 1824 to 1849. No information is available on John Minot, but another of Miller's employees at the Salem Customs House was Nathaniel Hawthorne, who dedicated a chapter of The Scarlet Letter to him. Left edge frayed. Two horizontal mailing folds. Paper clip impressions at top left corner. Corners lightly creased. Otherwise, fine condition.