Original congressional bill to remove Seminoles from Florida to Oklahoma

THIS JUST IN: Here is a copy of the 1839 original bill from Congress authorizing $10,000 for the removal of Seminole Indians from Florida to the Oklahoma territory. Only a few were printed. It comes in a gilt-stamped protective case. Andrew Jackson called for shipping the Indians west when he took office in 1829 but it was 10 years (and half way through the Martin Van Buren administration) before Congress acted. The legislation led to the Second Seminole War, one of the longest and costliest wars in American history. Click to enlarge photo.

Legacy of Chief Justice John Marshall

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He didn’t sign the Declaration of Independence like his president, John Adams, did but John Marshall was about as busy as any one patriot could be.

He was a friend of George Washington and wrote his biography, he was a member of the U.S. House and a White House cabinet member, and he served as fourth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for 35 years, longer than any other Supreme Court Justice in history.

A letter he wrote in 1800, a few months before he became Chief Justice, is in the collection of rare and unusual items at Lighthouse Books, ABAA. It is framed along with an engraved portrait taken from a painting by Henry Imman, a noted New York artist. Asher Brown Durand, one of the best engravers in New York at the time, is responsible for the engraving. (Later Durand became one of the leaders of the Hudson River School painting style.)