ALS signed "M. V. Buren," three pages on two adjoining sheets, 8 x 9.75, May 2, 1822. Letter to Thomas W. Olcott. In part: "I regret to inform you that the result of my negotiation with the Quartermaster Genl. has been unfavourable to your claim. The ground taken by him & in the correctness of which I am constrained to acquiesce, is that he ought not to pay any assistance of Captn. Bannon for which his bail would not be responsible to the government. That Captn. Bannon had no right to draw on the government & that therefore if you had advanced the money directly to him & taken his draft the government would not have been authorized to pay if the money had not been actually expended in the Service." The reverse of the second integral page is addressed in Van Buren's hand to "Thomas W. Olcott Esq, Albany, New York," and franked in the upper right, "Free, M. V. Buren." Some adhesive remnants and tiny tears to left edge, light toning, and repaired areas of paper loss from seal removal to the second integral page. At the time Van Buren wrote this letter he had just arrived in Washington as New York's junior senator, about to begin his quick rise in the political world; in 1828 he was appointed as secretary of state. A highly desirable, lengthy handwritten letter enhanced by the presence of Van Buren's free frank.
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