Martin van Buren
Washington, D.C., March 25, 1828
Martin van Buren Seeks a Running Mate "…It does not require a handshake to make me comprehend about the Presidential election…"
ALS

Fine political content, lengthy autograph letter in which van Buren discusses his hesitancy about running for the Governorship of New York signed "M.V.Buren" to Septimus Evans, state assemblyman for Seneca, New York. 5pp on two bifolia sheets, 8" x 10", Washington, D.C., March 25, 1828. Van Buren openly and frankly discusses a political crisis approaching, and turns to Evans to run with him as Lieutenant Governor in the upcoming election. Slight wear to the top margin with the expected transmittal folds, overall in very good condition.

Marked "Strictly Personal" at top, the letter reads, in most part: "…I have been sick a great part of the winter but am getting well & of course turning my mind towards New York. It struck me that when you first came to Albany last summer & about the time of your wedding, there was a sort of reserve about you that indicated a mind not exactly at ease in reference to myself. I put off from day to day a determination to [ask] you on the subject until I perceived the unfavorable appearances had disappeared. Conscious that my heart [?] had always been wide open to you I could not conceive from what…cause it could have arisen & I therefore the more readily reconciled myself to the conclusion that I had been mistaken. Will you do me the favor to unravel the mystery. I am induced to revive it by what I am going to say. A crisis in my political life is approaching which must be very consequential in its results. In it I shall make large drafts upon our friendship if I am not discouraged. This I beg you to do in advance if your feeling or interests require it & I depend on it. I am quite quick at a hint. It does not require a handshake to make me comprehend about the Presidential election. I have no other concerns than that our State should give a respectable vote. Its general result is beyond any contingency save death. The matter that plagues me is the office of Governor. My interests & the true interests of all require that I should be continued here. But I have already been greatly persecuted upon the point & I expect to be more. It will disappoint me if I do not succeed in staving it off. But suppose the worst comes to worst & I cannot avoid the nomination without a rupture with my party which I never will occasion. Is there a reasonable or any chance we if we can get rid of [Nathanial] Pitcher that you will run with me as a Lieut. Gov. What earthly objection can you or the Holland Company have. Surely the more weight and consideration you acquire in the State the better for the security of their great interest. Your attendance at Albany might be as long or as short as you please for as long as you did not take pay the public would not complain of your having the nominal duties of the chair to be discharged by the President pro term. The probable result I know would have no weight with you, but of that there could be no doubt. The [?] who have taken the anti-Masonic excitement, under their charge will. If I am not greatly desired, I find before long their only safety in a political point of view to be by backing out…they will split their party to atoms…So far as the excitement is directed to secure delegation & abhorrence…its virtues will be lost & met with approbation…Think well upon what I ask & let me hear from you…'.

Nathanial Pitcher (1777-1835) became the eighth governor of New York upon the death of DeWitt Clinton. Indeed, van Buren would defeat Pitcher in the polls but with Enos T. Throop, not Evans, as his running mate. He took office but for a very short time: on March 5, 1829, van Buren would resign and join Andrew Jackson's cabinet as Secretary of State.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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8" x 10"