LS signed “M. Van Buren, Vice President of the U. States & President of the Senate,” one page both sides, 8 x 10, December 10, 1835. Letter to Governor Henry W. Edwards of Connecticut. In part: “In obedience to an instruction from the Senate of the United States, I am to perform the melancholy office of informing you, that the Honorable Nathan Smith, late a Senator of the United States from the State of Connecticut, departed this life on the morning of Sunday last…This is not a place in which I am permitted to indulge those reflections which the loss of so worthy a public servant and by a death so sudden and unexpected, naturally suggests. It rests with you Sir, to make that use of this information which is necessary for supplying his place as speedily as may be in the Senate of the United States.” The address panel on the reverse of the second integral page is filled out in another hand and franked in the upper right, “Free, M. Van Buren.” In fine condition, with intersecting folds and partial separation at the top of the adjoining fold. Senator Smith passed away on December 6, 1835, and Governor Edwards appointed Democrat John Milton Niles to fill the vacancy, beginning on December 21. When he wrote this letter, Van Buren was serving as Andrew Jackson’s vice president; he was subsequently elected president and served from 1837 to 1841, and in 1840 appointed John Milton Niles to his cabinet as postmaster general. A politically interesting and well-preserved letter, rarely seen with the free-franked panel still intact. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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