Remarks of General Harrison, Late Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to the Republic of Colombia, on Certain Charges Made Against Him by that Government.

Notes

First edition of this extremely uncommon publication, this a presentation copy, inscribed and signed by Harrison on the title-page: "John C. Wright Esq. of Steubenville Ohio from his friend W. H. Harrison." This is the only presentation copy of Harrison's Remarks ever to have appeared at auction, at the Streeter sale, 1967 (ticket to front pastedown). Harrison was appointed minister to Colombia by President John Quincy Adams in May 1828, arriving early in 1829, at a time when the "government of Colombia was in a perilous condition" (DAB). The country was in a more or less permanent state of insurrection, and the neighbouring state of Peru had just declared war. Against this background of crisis Harrison "became convinced that Bolivar was planning to make himself emperor a plan which was repugnant to Harrison's republican principles". Recently inaugurated president Andrew Jackson decided to recall Harrison, making way for one of his "pronounced partisans" Thomas Patrick Moore, of whom the recently defeated president John Quincy Adams remarked that his "only public service was the servility of his prostitution to the cause of Jackson's election". But before the changeover was effected, Harrison sent Bolivar "a letter of extraordinary temerity, urging him to adhere to the tenets of republicanism the Colombian government threatened to arrest him and did force him to set out on his return journey ". His Remarks offered a justification of his actions on the grounds of political principle, and a defence against possible misrepresentation by the new administration. The recipient, the lawyer and journalist John C. Wright, was a member with Harrison of Ohio's congressional delegation, serving in the House of Representatives during the latter's term in the Senate and actively supporting Harrison's diplomatic appointment. He later served as a delegate to, and honorary president of, the Washington Peace Conference of 1861, held in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war, and died while serving in that capacity.