PICKERING ON THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. PICKERING, TIMOTHY. 1745-1829. Autograph Letter Si...

PICKERING ON THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. PICKERING, TIMOTHY. 1745-1829. Autograph Letter Signed ('T. Pickering'), to Theophilus Parsons, reminiscing about the writing of the Declaration of Independence, 1 p, 4to (250 x 204 mm), Washington, December 10, 1808, with a portion of a free franked conjoined leaf addressed to Pickering in Boston, browned, tape residue around edges on verso. A PRECURSOR TO ADAM'S FAMOUS 1822 LETTER TO PICKERING ON THE DRAFTING OF THE DECLARATION. Not only was Pickering a signer of the Declaration of Independence, he also served as Secretary of State appointed by Washington, and continuing under Adams, before being dismissed by Adams over a number of rather contentious disagreements. Pickering here writes to Theophilus Parsons, Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, regarding the preparation of the Declaration of Independence. 'I have been informed that the Com[it]tee, who brought in a draught of the declaration of independence, in 1776, clubbed their ideas — in conversation certainly — but I believe in writing; and with the plan thus matured, the whole of the contributions were put into Mr. Jefferson's hands to compile the report. The Com[it]tee were Jefferson, Dr. Franklin, Mr. John Adams, Robert R. Livingston, and Mr. Sherman. Mr. Adams can tell all the facts in the case: if you fall into his company, I would wish you to ascertain them.' Interestingly, Pickering's line of enquiry would arise many years later in 1822, when he wrote to Adams requesting clarification on the drafting of the Declaration. Adams responded with a full description of events leading up to the drafting of the Declaration, as well as an account of the events inside the committee of five. Primarily of interest, Adams asserts that the committee had asked he and Jefferson to author the declaration, but that he had handed the responsibility over to Jefferson. And perhaps more surprisingly, in an otherwise laudatory letter, Adams made a disparaging remark about the originality of Jefferson's composition, 'As you justly observe, there is not an idea in it but what had been hackneyed in Congress for two years before. The substance of it is contained the declaration of rights and the violation of those rights in the Journals of Congress in 1774. Indeed, the essence of it is contained in a pamphlet, voted and printed by the town of Boston, before the first Congress met, composed by James Otis, as I suppose, in one of his lucid intervals, and pruned and polished by Samuel Adams.' The events took an even more public turn, when Pickering quoted Adams's letter publicly in an address at a 4th of July celebration in Salem, in which he disparaged Jefferson's contribution. Unsurprisingly, word of Pickering's (and thus Adams's) comments reached Jefferson, who responded gracefully in a letter to James Madison, in part, '... whether I had gathered my ideas from reading or reflection I do not know. I know only that I turned to neither book nor pamphlet while writing it. I did not consider it as any part of my charge to invent new ideas altogether, and to offer no sentiment which had ever been expressed before.' Adams and Jefferson famously feuded during their political careers, but revived their friendship in retirement, continuing a voluminous and wide-ranging correspondence before they both passed away on the same day, July 4, 1826, 50 years since the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing