Auction Closing: March 30, 2024 at 11:59 PM Pacific Time
Lot Number: 67
Estimate Range: $1,000 - $1,500
Secretary of the Navy Samuel Southard’s Signed General Order July 10, 1826 Announcing the Death of John Adams & Thomas Jefferson on July 4, 1826 to the Navy & Marines

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SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD (1787-1842). 7th Secretary of the Navy (1823-1829); Governor of New Jersey (1832-1833); U.S. Senator (1821-1823 & 1833-1842); he was a member of the committee that produced the Missouri Compromise.

July 10, 1826-Dated, Manuscript Document Signed, “Sam L. Southard”, 1 page, measuring 10" x 7-7/8" headed, “Navy Department” (Washington, D.C.), Very Fine. This is an original, historic and important "General Order" in which 7th Secretary of the Navy Southard, officially announces to the Navy and Marine Corps the Death of Ex: President John Adams. His Navy department orders that the same funeral honors be paid to him as those that were ordered to be paid to Thomas Jefferson by a General Order of July 7th. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day, July 4, 1826 - the 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Southard's order shows that the news of the deaths of Adams & Jefferson was received days apart. This handwritten Document reads, in full:

"General Order. ---- Navy Department 10. July, 1826.

It has become the painful duty of the Department, to announce to the Navy and Marine Corps, the death of another venerated Patriarch of the Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and former President of the United States; whose talents, virtues, services and pubic honors, demand an expression of national respect and national sorrow.

John Adams died at Quincy, about 6 o'clock on the 4th day of the present month, the fiftieth anniversary of our National Independence.

The same funeral honors will be paid to him which were directed to be paid to Thomas Jefferson by the General Order of the 7th instant."

This Draft Order boldly Signed “Sam L. Southard” in dark brown ink measuring 3.5” long at its conclusion. Page laid onto a heavier backing sheet, having some light even tone and a small 1” edge tear at right central margin edge,

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF

AMBASSADOR J. WILLIAM MIDDENDORF II (Apparently acquired circa 1976 from noted Autograph dealer Walter Benjamin, with a related letter enclosed.)


Samuel Southard (1787-1842) -- 7th Secretary of the Navy, 16 September 1823 - 3 March 1829

Samuel Lewis Southard was born in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, on 9 June 1787. After graduating from college in 1804, he lived for several years in Virginia, where he studied law and was admitted to the bar. He returned to New Jersey in 1811. Elected to the State Assembly in 1815, Southard was appointed to the State Supreme Court shortly thereafter. He left the Court in 1820 and entered the U.S. Senate, where he was a member of the committee that produced the Missouri Compromise.

President James Monroe selected Senator Southard to be Secretary of the Navy in September 1823, and he remained in office under President John Quincy Adams. Southard proved to be one of the most effective of the Navy's early Secretaries. He endeavored to enlarge the Navy and improve its administration, purchased land for the first Naval Hospitals, began construction of the first Navy dry docks, undertook surveys of U.S. coastal waters and promoted exploration in the Pacific Ocean.

Responding to actions by influential officers, including David Porter, he reinforced the American tradition of civilian control over the military establishment. Also on Southard's "watch", the Navy grew by some fifty percent in personnel and expenditures and expanded its reach into waters that had not previously seen an American Man-of-War.

In 1829, after leaving his Navy post, Samuel Southard became Attorney General of New Jersey. After briefly serving as that state's Governor in 1832-33, he reentered the U.S. Senate. During the next decade, he was a leader of the Whig party and a figure of National political importance. Failing health forced his resignation from the Senate in 1842. Samuel Southard died in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on 26 June of that year.

USS Southard (DD-207, later DMS-10), 1919-1946, was named in honor of Secretary of the Navy Samuel Southard.