Martin Van Buren Autograph Letter Signed as President on Labor Leader Ely Moore’s Federal Appointment - “He is identified with a class (the working men)...for whom too much cannot be done”

ALS as president, signed “M.V.B.,” one page both sides, 8 x 9.75, May 1, 1839. Handwritten letter to Benjamin Butler, in part: “Say to my friend Mr. Hoyt that he has no idea of the interest taken in Mr. Moore’s appointment in other parts of the U. S. besides N. York. He is identified with a class (the working men) who have on more occasions done…themselves…great hardship in defence of democratic principles & for whom too much cannot be done.” In fine condition.

Ely Moore rose from New York’s organized labor movement to national politics, working as a printer and labor organizer before serving two terms in Congress from 1835 to 1839 and briefly as political editor of William Cullen Bryant’s New York Evening Post. Following his departure from Congress, Van Buren appointed him Surveyor of the Port of New York, a federal customs post he would hold from 1839 to 1845.

The appointment connected Moore with several of Van Buren’s longtime associates. Benjamin F. Butler, the recipient of this letter, had been Van Buren’s law partner, while Jesse Hoyt had studied law under Van Buren and practiced with both men in Hudson. By 1839, Hoyt was Collector of the Port of New York, placing Van Buren’s former associate at the head of the Custom House in which Moore would serve as surveyor.