RICHARD RUSH - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 09/13/1828 - HFSID 322869

RICHARD RUSH
Former Secretary of the Treasury signs Treasury Department memo
Typed letter signed: "Richard Rush" in brown ink. 1 page, 8x10. Written on Treasury Department "Revolutionary Claims" memo letterhead. September 13, 1828. In part: "Sir: Your letter of the - with its enclosures, presenting your claim under the abovementioned act, has been received. The claim will be examined with all convenient dispatch, and the result communicated to you. I am, sir, very respectfully, Your obedient servant". RICHARD RUSH (1780-1859) was the son of Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was Attorney General of Pennsylvania (1811) before serving as U. S. Attorney General under Presidents James Madison and James Monroe (1814-1817). He was also Monroe's Secretary of State ad interim from March 10, 1817 until Sept. 21, 1817, while newly appointed Secretary of State John Q. Adams was in England. As Secretary of State ad interim, Rush negotiated the Rush-Bagot Treaty with Great Britain, which demilitarized the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain and limited the number of naval vessels there and internal waterways leading to the lakes. When Adams became President in 1825, Rush was appointed Secretary of the Treasury, serving until 1829. He was also U. S. Minister to Great Britain (1817-1825) and France (1847-1849). As U. S. Minister to Great Britain, Rush negotiated the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, which set the U. S./Canadian border between the Lake of the Woods in Minnesota and the Rocky Mountains at the 49th parallel and allowed for joint settlement of the Oregon Territory by the U. S. and Great Britain for 10 years. In 1836, Rush secured a bequest from James Smithsonian in Great Britain for over half a million dollars, which was used to establish the Smithsonian Institution. Andrew Stewart (1791-1872) was a US Representative from Pennsylvania (1821-1835, 1843-1849). One of the major issues of the 1828 Presidential election had been whether the federal government should invest in national infrastructural development or leave such projects to state government. John Quincy Adams and Rush - as his running mate - had favored projects like extension of the Cumberland Road, called the National Road. Andrew Jackson opposed such projects on both constitutional and fiscal grounds. The Cumberland Road Bill of 1829, which would have extended the National Road through Kentucky, passed both Houses of Congress but was vetoed by President Jackson. Normal mailing folds. Toned. Creased throughout. Soiled and worn. Small tears in edges. Stained throughout. Otherwise, fine condition.