[Rarebooks] FS: SIGNED Manuscript by Dolley Madison, 1848

[Charles Agvent]

MADISON, Dolley. AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT SIGNED (AMS). n.p., 17 July 1848. 
A SIGNED AUTOGRAPH QUOTATION on a 4-1/8" x 6-5/8" sheet from the novel 
FALKLAND by Edward Bulwer Lytton, dated 27 July 1848, written to William 
W. Stickney, U. S. Attorney for the state of New Hampshire. In full: 
"The passions are like sounds of nature, only heard in her solitude. Our 
senses may captivate us with beauty; but in absence we forget or can 
conquer so superficial an impression. Our vanity may enamour us with 
rank; but the affections of vanity are traced in sand; but who can love 
genius and not feel that the sentiment it excites partakes of its own 
intenseness and its own immortality." Dolley Madison, wife of James 
Madison, President of the United States from 1809 to 1817, did much to 
define the role of the President's spouse, known only much later by the 
title First Lady -- a function she had sometimes performed earlier for 
the widowed Thomas Jefferson. It is believed that Aaron Burr introduced 
her to Madison, 17 years her senior. She was noted for holding 
Washington social functions in which she invited members of both 
political parties, essentially spearheading the concept of bipartisan 
cooperation, albeit before that term was in use. She worked with the 
architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe to furnish the White House, the first 
official residence built for the president of the United States. She was 
the only First Lady given an honorary seat on the floor of Congress and 
the first American to respond to a telegraph message. She became a 
national heroine when, as popular lore goes, she rescued the Stuart 
painting of George Washington during the British burning of Washington 
in 1814, although modern scholarship credits another in directing 
servants, many of whom were slaves, in the crisis, and that house slaves 
were the ones who actually preserved the painting. Light stains at 
corners from previous mounting. About Fine and scarce.

The former First Lady was fond of this quote as we found two other 
examples of her using it, including in her younger sister's friendship 
album (see J. Madison Cutts, "Dolly Madison," in RECORDS OF THE COLUMBIA 
HISTORICAL SOCIETY WASHINGTON, D.C., III (1900), page 49). This example 
comes from the collection of the late Joseph Rubinfine, having 
previously sold at Smythe Auctions on 26 February 1998 (lot 437). 
(#020226)        $3,500

https://www.charlesagvent.com/pages/books/020226/dolley-madison/autograph-manuscript-signed-ams

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