Butler, Benjamin F. - [Als] Benjamin Franklin Butler, U.S. Attorney General, to Prosper M. Wetmore on the Eve of a New York Gubernatorial Election

1836. [1 pp.] with integral address on verso. 8 x 10 inches. Dated October 25, without a notation of year but most likely 1836. Benjamin Franklin Butler declined to attend a political meeting as there is "reason to doubt, whether it would be proper or expedient, on the very eve of such an election, as you are to have, for a number of the administration to take such a part, as I should probably be obliged to take, if I attended." New York was having an election for governor in less than two weeks. Butler (1795-1858) was at that time the U.S. Attorney General under Andrew Jackson. He was a prominent lawyer from New York and an ally of Martin Van Buren and a founder of New York University. Prosper Montgomery Wetmore (1798-1876) was a writer and politician with some ethical shortcomings, one of the Regents of the University of the State of New York, and one of the founders of the American Art Union. Very good, edges chipped where seal broken, contents clear, but for slight ink bleed through.