NARA Collection fdr-hisman — Collection fdr-hisman

Original Exhibition Caption: Attorney Aaron Burr (1756-1836) was acting as a landlord's agent when he wrote this February 1784 letter seeking rent money owed by a building tenant. Burr served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution and, later, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1782. He would embark on a political career that included serving as Vice President of the United States from 1801-1805. In July 1804, he fatally shot Alexander Hamilton in a famous duel. In 1805-1806, Burr became involved in a plot to create an empire encompassing the Mississippi Valley, Mexico, and the American West. The scheme disintegrated and he was tried for treason. Though he was acquitted, his political career was over. Burr lived in self-imposed exile in England from 1808-1812 before returning to America, where he practiced law in New York. He died there in 1836.

Original Exhibition Caption: In December 1776, the Continental Congress sent Benjamin Franklin to France to gain French assistance for America in the War for Independence. Franklin soon developed a close relationship with Leray de Chaumont, a French aristocrat in the court of King Louis XVI who was sympathetic to the American cause and invited Franklin to live at his chateau in Passy. In this letter to Chaumont, written from Passy, Franklin discusses recent political and military developments, including the excitement in Paris surrounding the Marquis de Lafayette's preparations to return to America with fresh troops.

Original Exhibition Caption: President Lincoln signed this short directive on the back of a letter sent to him by Brigadier General Stephen Burbridge of the 23rd Army Corps in Lexington, Kentucky. Burbridge's letter requests presidential clemency in a case involving an officer under his command. Lincoln's directive reads: "Let the suggestion of this letter be acted upon."

Original Exhibition Caption: FDR had two important motives for acquiring this 1798 patent for his personal collection. It was issued to his distant ancestor, Nicholas James Roosevelt, and it bears the signatures of President John Adams, Secretary of State Timothy Pickering, and Attorney General Charles Lee. There was no federal government patent office during the early years of the American Republic. The Patent Act of 1793 directed patent seekers to petition the Secretary of State, who would then direct the Attorney General to examine the petition and determine if a patent should be granted. Nicholas James Roosevelt was an inventor and land investor who later partnered with Robert Fulton in the introduction of steamboats on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.