Decb^r 8.^th 1852
WASHINGTON CITY, D.C. September 1st 1852

DEAR SIR: I take the liberty of addressing you a few lines to know if you can purchase Land Warrants in your county? If so, I will take all you can send me, and pay the following prices:
$139 $145 for 160 acre warrants, $69. $72 for 80 acre warrants, $39 for 40 acre warrants. $34.

On receipt of any warrants sent by mail I will promptly remit the amount in a draft on Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, or any city in your State you may designate.

I have no doubt you can purchase them at so much less than the above prices, that the profit will fully reward you for your trouble.

The assignment must be made on the back of the warrant, without inserting any name; but leave a sufficient space to have any name inserted hereafter, this being the object of the law making then assignable. They must be signed before a magistrate, and have two witnesses; and then the clerk of your court must certify, with the seal of your court, that the said magistrate was duly qualified according to law at the time of the signing. and that his signature is genuine.

If, on the receipt of the warrants from you, there should have been any material advance over the present market prices, I will make a corresponding advance on the prices I now offer.

Knowing the universal want of confidence we all have in our fellow beings, and more especially dealing with entire strangers, it is proper I should fully satisfy you that all warrants remitted will be honorably and punctually paid for. I therefore give you the names of some few of my friends to whom I can refer you.

Hon. Judge JOHN B. CLOPTON, Richmond Va.
Hon. JACKSON MORTON, Senate United States.
Hon. WM S.ARCHER, Ex-Senator U. S.
Hon. JOHN M. BUTTS, Ex-Member of Congress, Va.
Hon. J. M. H. BEALE, Member of Congress, Va.
Hon. JEREMIAH MORTON, Ex-Member of Congress from Virginia
Hon. THOS. M. HOWE, Member of Congress, Pa., and President Ex-Bank, Pittsburg, Pa.
Hon. Judge ALEXANDER HARPER, Member of Congress, Ohio.
Ex-Governor JOHN N. GREGORY Richmond Va.
JOHN W. MAURY, Esq., Mayor of Washington city, and also Bank of Metroplis.
JOHN S. GALLAHER, Esq., Third Auditor Treasury U. S.
R. H. GALLAHER, Esq., President, Bank of the Union, of this city.
CHUBB BROTHERS, Bankers, Washington city.
THOS. SWEENY, Esq., President, Farmers and Manufactures’ Bank of Wheeling, Va.
S. BRADY, Esq., Cashier, Farmers and Manufactures’ Bank of Wheeling, Va.
DANIEL LAMB, Esq., Cashier, Northwestern Bank of Wheeling, Va.
R. SMITH, Esq., Cashier, Farmers Bank of Richmond, Va.
JAMES ROBB, Esq., Banker, New Orleans.
R. SMITH, Esq., Cashier, Northwestern Bank of Virginia, Parkersburg, Va.
GEORGE JAMES, Esq., Attorney at Law, and one of the State Directors of the Central Ohio Railroad, Zanesville.

Besides lawyers, doctors, and merchants of Wheeling, Va., Washington city, Richmond, Va., Pittsburgh, Pa., Baltimore, and other cities.

If this however is not sufficient evidence of my punctuality and responsibility, you can remit any number of warrants to either the Cashier of the Bank of Washington, to the Bank of Metropolis, or to the Patriotic Bank of Washington, (all of this city) with instructions that the cash must be paid on delivery, and I will pay the premium on all drafts they may remit you in exchange.

The highest price in cash always paid for land warrants.

If you should decline in engaging in this business, will you accommodate me so far to hand this over to one of your friends among the lawyers or merchants of your county.

Your attention will much oblige.

JOHN M. CLARKE

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End Notes:

1. The Free Frank. 8 November 1775, The American Continental Congress authorized franking privileges to its members as a means of informing their constituents. The first U.S. Congress enacted a franking law in 1789. The rules governing franking have varied through the years but never had serious restrictions on just what could and could not be sent freely through the mails by Congressmen. In 1973, regulations became stricter.

This solicitation was carried through the mails without postage using the franking privilege. It was franked by Jackson Morton, (Whig Party) U.S, Senator from Florida (1849-1855). Morton was born 10 August 1794 near Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania County, Virginia. During the Civil War, he was deputy to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States in Montgomery, Alabama (1861); member of the Confederate Congress 1862-1865; died at his country home, “Mortonia,” near Milton, Santa Rosa County, Florida, 20 November 1874.

2. Robert C. Hamer, 12 Oct 1801 - 25 Jan 1878, buried at Saint Paul’s Methodist Church Cemetery, Little Rock, Dillon County, S.C.

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