Property of a Miami Dade Gentleman
A SILVER "LIGHTHOUSE" PRESENTATION PITCHER,
BALL, TOMPKINS & BLACK,
NEW YORK,
CIRCA 1850.
The inscription reads:
To STEPHEN PLEASONTON, ESQ., Fifth Auditor, Treasury Department,
late Genl. Superintendent of Light Houses etc. by his friends in New York District. January 1853.
Pleasonton is best known for having saved the Declaration of Independence and other documents when the British burned Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812.
weight 31 t oz (964g)
height 14 1/2 in.
Stephen Pleasonton was auditor of the United States from 1822 to 1853, a position which included overseeing the Lighthouse Department and implementation of the modern system of lights. Pleasonton is best known for having saved the Declaration of Independence and other documents when the British burned Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812. A clerk in the State Department, he evacuated the Declaration, laws, letters from George Washington and the unpublished journals of Congress to Leesburg.
They thus survived the British invasion of the city and the burning of the Capitol and the White House. In 1999, Pleasonton's act was remembered by the President in a speech at the White House.