A Guide to Letters of James Barbour , 1830, 1833 #11111-a

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Abstract

In a 1830 letter to Richard Smith, cashier of a Washington bank, James Barbour answers a request for additional security, discussing other financial matters as well. In a 1833 letter to Thomas Aspinwall, U.S. Consul at London, Barbour introduces Col. [Edward Douglass?] White, a U.S. Congressman who is touring Europe.

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Preferred Citation

James Barbour Letters to Richard Smith and Thomas Aspinwall, 1830 and 1833, Accession #11111-a , Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This material was purchased by the Library from Timothy H. Bakken, of Halvor Americana, Clarendon Hills, Illinois, on January 13, 1994.

Scope and Content Information

These are two letters, 1830 and 1833, of James Barbour of Barboursville, Virginia. In his letter of August 31, 1830, to Richard Smith, Cashier, [Bank], Washington, he discusses in depth his debt to the bank, the securities pledged, and the profitable state of his properties, in answer to the bank's requiring additional security. The letter of February 19, 1833, to Colonel Thomas Aspinwall (1786-1876), U. S. Consul to London, 1815-1853, serves as an introduction to Col. [Edward Douglass] White (1795-1847), who "has for many years been a distinguished member of Congress," and "his lady" [Catherine S. (Ringgold) White], of Washington, D. C., who are taking a tour of Europe.

According to information located in Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography , Vol. VI [E176.A659] and The Dictionary of American Biography , Vol. XX [E176.D56 1928], the White referred to is probably Edward Douglass White, representative from Louisiana, December 7, 1829 to November 15, 1834, and governor, 1834-1838. He was known as a man of good humor, kindly disposition, and unusual common sense; was the owner of a sugar plantation in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana; and, worked as both lawyer and planter in Thibodaux, Louisiana, following his retirement from government. On May 19, 1833, he was on the steamer "Lionness" when she was set on fire by an explosion of gunpowder, narrowly escaping death.