LETTER: ALS to Mrs. [Dolley Payne Todd] Madison.
Sigourney, L[ydia] H[unt]. Autograph Letter Signed. Hartford [Connecticut]: To Mrs. [Dolley Payne Todd] Madison, March 15, 1849.
4to (single sheet, 10-3/16 x 7-7/8”), folded in half, written on all four sides; paper is brittle with two chips, one at upper margin and other at right margin, neither effecting text; glue along inner margin of first leaf (likely from mounting); folded to fit an envelope. Very good in custom-made cloth portfolio case.
A heartfelt letter from the poet and writer Lydia Hunt Sigourney requesting Dolley Madison’s assistance: “I have an only son, eighteen years of age, who has for sometime desired admission into the Military Academy at West Point. Though I might have preferred for him a collegiate course, I have yielded to his strong & decided preference.” Though she realizes she asks a great or importune thing, “if so, one, who knows the heart of a mother, will forgive both the suggestion & the importunity which flow from that fountain of fathomless love.” Another hand has set off in brackets the following sentence “I have felt, my dear Mrs. Madison, that the new President [Whig Zachary Taylor] would refuse nothing to the most venerable and queenly Lady who has filled the highest seat of power, - over a- free people...” [over this the notation, “In Bracs. / — omitted / by D.P. M,” perhaps indicating that Mrs. Madison had a copy made of Mrs. Sigourney’s letter in order to pass along her request but edited out this effusion]. She concludes with every writer’s last resort, remarks upon the weather (“The cold has been unusually severe and protracted”), mentions her daughter’s ill health, and finally closes “Accept assurances of the delightful recollections, and changeless love, with which I am truly yours.” The letter was addressed to Mrs. Madison in the last months of her life; she died on July 12, 1849.
Lydia Hunt Sigourney (1791-1865), known at the height of her fame as “the Sweet Singer of Hartford” was an early advocate of women’s rights, in particular, education for women. In 1811, she opened a school for young ladies in Norwich, Connecticut. Three years later she was invited to Hartford to found a school there which she ran for the next five years. She gave up the school to marry the merchant Charles Sigourney. In 1832, she started selling poems and sketches to magazines and compiling edifying books like Pious Persons (1832) and becoming an immediate success. A prolific writer, Sigourney’s poetry and prose was widely printed in the many magazines and journals of the day as well as in book form. Her public was enthusiastic and steadfast.
Dolley Payne Todd Madison (1768-1849), wife of James Madison (the fourth President of the United States), was born to Quaker parents in North Carolina. Her father was persuaded by his Quaker beliefs in 1783 to sell off his plantation and free his slaves. He moved his family to Philadelphia where in 1790 Dolley married her first husband, John Todd, Jr. Three years later the young lawyer died while caring for victims of the Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic; their infant son died two weeks later. One other son survived the epidemic. The young vivacious widow attracted the notice of James Madison. The brilliant, introverted Madison and the outgoing, effervescent and kindly Dolley married in 1794; it was a remarkable marriage, each partner deeply devoted to the other. In 1801 Jefferson appointed Madison as his Secretary of State. As the ranking Cabinet officer’s wife, Dolley acted as the president’s unofficial hostess, a de facto position which became official with James Madison’s election to the presidency in 1809. Her decisive and quick reaction to news of the British advance on Washington during the War of 1812 has become American legend: she saved Stuart Gilbert’s portrait of George Washington as well as key state papers. The Madison presidency ended in 1817 and the couple 'retired' to their home, Montpelier, in Orange, Virginia. But the world con
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