May 27, 2020 Founders & Patriots
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/27/2020
Henry Burford (1768-1818) as manager of Conrad & McMunn's Tavern and Boarding House in Washington, DC. Autographed document signed, 1 page (9 1/2 x 4 inches) with docketing on verso, dated March 4, 1801. Bill for Major George Lewis's expenses for lodging and "club" expenses during the week prior to- and during Thomas Jefferson's inauguration as 3rd President of the United States. Major George Lewis (1757-1821) was George Washington's favorite nephew, son of Fielding Lewis and Washington's only sister, Elizabeth. He was a volunteer aide to Washington in 1775-1776, and later commanded "Lady Washington's Horse, a troop of the 3rd Continental Light Dragoons attached as mounted guard to Washington's headquarters during 1777-1779. He later commanded the cavalry of Virginia that marched against the "Whiskey Rebels" of western Pennsylvania in 1794. In Washington's will, Lewis was given first choice of the late general's sword, choosing the "battle sword" now in the Smithsonian collections.
On November 24, 1800, "The National Intelligencer" reported that "Conrad and McMunn have opened houses of entertainment in the range of buildings formerly occupied by Mr. [Thomas] Law [one of the richest men in the District of Columbia and married to Martha Washington's granddaughter, Elizabeth Parke Custis], about 200 paces from the Capitol in New Jersey Avenue...." Three days later, President-Elect Thomas Jefferson took rooms there, along with 30 others politicians, all of them Democratic congressmen. With his close association to Washington, historians have always presumed that Lewis, if politically-inclined, was a Federalist, so the choice of that establishment for lodging, meals and club activities, seems a bit odd. On Inauguration Day, March 4, 1801, the new President walked back to lunch at Conrad & McMunn's, following a simple swearing-in ceremony in the Senate chamber. On that occasion, Thomas Jefferson was offered a better seat by the wife of a senator, "but he smilingly declined it, and took his usual place at the bottom of the [common] table." Later that day, Lewis's club dined in the room of one of its members, as seen on the bill, while that evening, a large Democratic party took over most of the public rooms. Conrad & McMunn's may have been the epicenter of Democratic social life in the new capital, but its proprietors, deeply in debt, closed their doors in fall 1801, the furnishings and goods sold to cover their debts. Only two invoices are currently known to survive from its one-year of operation, that offered here and Thomas Jefferson's now in the Massachusetts Historical Society collections. CONDITION: bright and clean, with period folds. JLK