CONGRESSMAN BRIGHAM 1816 FUNERAL BROADSIDE WITH A. WARD LETTER ON HIS DEATH.

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/27/2020

"ORDER OF PROCESSION, FOR THE HON. ELIJAH BRIGHAM, DECEASED, A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE UNITED STATES, FROM THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS." Printed broadside, 10 3/8 x 8 3/8 inches, printer unknown, Washington, DC, dated February 22, 1816. Previously unrecorded (no copies found on Worldcat), this is the earliest-known broadside for a Congressional funeral in Washington, DC. The members of the two houses are directed to gather in their respective chambers at the Capitol, after which the procession will being, led by the doctors who attended Brigham and chaplains of Congress, followed by the hearse flanked by six named pallbearers from the House, after which in succession, Massachusetts senators and representatives, the officers and members of both houses, the President of the United States, department heads, foreign ministers and finally, citizens and "Strangers", escorting the late representative to his final resting place in the Congressional Cemetery. [with] Artemas Ward, Jr. (1762-1847) as Congressman to his sister Sarah, informing her of the death of her husband, Elijah Brigham in Washington, DC, April 22, 1816. Autographed letter signed, 2 pp. (9 3/4 x 7 3/4 in.), with free-franked envelope addressed to "Mrs. Sarah Brigham / Westborough Mass." After relating the events of Elijah Brigham's illness and death and expressing his shared sense of loss, he explains why he enclosed the "order of procession [the broadside above], knowing that every thing which relates to his memory, and this melancholly event, his death, will have value." Son of Revolutionary War General and Congressman Artemas Ward, Sr., the younger Ward graduated from Harvard University in 1783, studied law and began a practice in Weston. He was active in the militia, commanding the Weston Light Infantry Company as its captain, 1789-1793. Ward served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, 1796-1800, relocating to Charlestown in 1800. In 1810 he was named to Harvard's Board of Overseers, serving until 1844. In 1811 he served again in the state house and was elected as a Federalist to the U.S. House in 1812, serving two terms, and was a leading opponent of US involvement in the War of 1812. CONDITION; bright and clean, the ink strong, but paper separating at the folds. JLK Provenance: by descent in the General Artemas Ward-Elijah Brigham Family until 2012; private collection to present.