ALS, three pages on two adjoining sheets, 4.75 x 7.5, April 19, 1857. Letter to his former private White House secretary Sidney Webster, written from Andover, Mass., 46 days after leaving the presidency, in part: "I must thank you for your thoughtful note of the 16th which came to me at Concord by the 11 o'clock train yesterday. I hope there was nothing serious in the cold which Mrs. Pierce thought she might have taken the day before and that I shall still have…reports when I return to Concord tomorrow. I have not seen Mr. Quincy yet he having been absent at Haverhill Court, but am fully satisfied that my debt is safe. After full conversation with Judge Minot & my brother I have decided not to purchase a large farm at least for the present, but have given a pretty thorough examination to certain parcels of real estate about which I shall converse with Mrs. Pierce & you when I return. Peter Dunbar wrote me last Wednesday that the horses had arrived safely at Boston after a very rough passage and that he had advised Henry to let them rest for three days before starting for Concord. I had heard nothing more from them up to the hour that I left for this place yesterday. I think they can hardly fail to be at Concord tomorrow and in that event I shall leave for Philadelphia Thursday—I can report my conversation with Judge Minot better when we meet than by letter—He was grateful that I had thought of it but saw objections so far as you are concerned." In fine condition. Josiah Minot (1818-1891) was a law partner of Pierce between the years 1844 and 1852. Pierce, who had a talent for making money as a lawyer but not for retaining it, later entrusted Minot, a first-class businessman and manager, to oversee all of his finances and investments. When Pierce became president in 1853, Minot accompanied him to Washington and, in due time, was appointed as Auditor of the Treasury, and then, as Commissioner of Patents.
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