Partly-printed vellum DS, signed “James Monroe” as president and “John Quincy Adams” as secretary of state, one page, 10.5 x 15, November 29, 1817. Scalloped-top ship’s pass issued to the “Ship Franklin of Baltimore William Graham master or commander…mounted with no guns navigated with eighteen men To Pass with her Company Passengers Goods and Merchandize without any hinderance seisure or molestation.” In good condition, with intersecting folds, one vertical fold passing through each signature, scattered toning, soiling, and wrinkling, the seal absent, and the writing faint but mostly legible. It appears as though Graham and the Franklin were involved in the slave trade, as inward slave manifests for the port of New Orleans show him arriving with slaves on board in November 1819. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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