[MISSISSIPPI RIVER -- GOVERNMENT REPORTS]. Title Papers of the Clamorgan Grant... 1837. FIRST EDITION. RARE. With 8pp. opinion by Webster. [Bound with:] HALE, John Parker. In the Senate… Report to Accompany Bill S. No. 551.1852. -- And 55 reports.
8vo. Folding map. (Toning, light spotting). Modern brown cloth. FIRST EDITION. RARE WASHINGTON PRINTING WITH 8 PAGE OPINION BY DANIEL WEBSTER. Eberstadt 123:30.
[Bound with:] HALE, John Parker (1806-1873). In the Senate of the United States Mr. Hale Made the Following Report to Accompany Bill S. No. 551. [Washington: Government Printing Office], 1852. 8vo. (Light spotting to first page). Provenance: Dudley Bell Priester (1923-2017), Mississippi River collector and bibliographer (sold Bloomsbury, 19 November 2009). Jacques Clamorgan (1724?-1814) was a fur trader and adventurer who acquired vast tracts of land in the Louisiana Territory from then-Lieutenant Governor Charles Dehault Delassus in 1796 under a grant of colonization which he then sold to Auguste Chouteau, founder of the city of St. Louis. This led to a series of controversial and complicated court cases which debated the validity of grants of colonization issued by Spanish governors and whether or not the United States was legally obliged to recognize them.
[Together with]:
A group of 55 government reports relating to the exploration of the Mississippi Valley, ca 19th century. Many with folding maps and charts. Majority rebound in modern leather; some with early 20th-century bindings. Together, 56 works in 58 volumes, all 8vo, condition generally fine. Provenance for the lot: Dudley Bell Priester (1923-2017), Mississippi River collector and bibliographer (sold Bloomsbury, 19 November 2009, lot 56).