DAVIS JEFFERSON: (1808-1889)

DAVIS JEFFERSON: (1808-1889) American politician who served as the first and only President of the Confederate States 1861-65. A.L.S., Jefferson Davis, two pages, 8vo, London, 31st July 1874, to Rt. Revd. William Mercer Green. Davis forwards a letter (no longer present) which was written to Revd. Dr. Tremlett, explaining that his reason for sending the letter ´will be briefly stated, together with the facts of the case´, and continuing ´On my arrival at Liverpool on the 12th of June last an invitation from the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury was handed to me, for a meeting to be held on the 14th June at their house in London. "Subject University Education in the ten southern Dioceses of the United States"´, adding that his former, agreeable acquaintance with Lord and Lady Shrewsbury ´would have sufficiently assured me of the character of a meeting to be held under their auspices, to consider the subject announced´, also informing Green that some business Davis had to attend to in Liverpool prevented him from being in London until after the date of the meeting and that he therefore sent a letter of regret to Lord and Lady Shrewsbury, and remarking ´Mr. Tremlett had written to me, asking me to attend that meeting, and enclosed a printed sheet explanatory of the special object for which it was to be held´. The letter does not conclude naturally at this point and, somewhat curiously, a portion of the third and fourth sides of the original bifolium would appear to have been neatly removed and the remaining lower third of the final pages (including the signature) neatly adhered to the second page in order to at least give the letter the physical appearance of just consisting of two pages. Some slight traces of former mounting to one edge, only very slightly affecting a few words of text and not the signature, G William Mercer Green (1798-1887) American clergyman, the first Episcopal bishop of Mississippi 1850-87. Charles Chetwynd-Talbot (1830-1877) 19th Earl of Shrewsbury. British politician, husband of Anna Theresa Cockerell (1836-1912).