VAN BUREN MARTIN: (1782-1862)

VAN BUREN MARTIN: (1782-1862) American lawyer and politician who served as President of the United States 1837-41. A.L.S., M. Van Buren, two pages, 4to, Sorrento, 29th May 1854, to John Hodge, the United States Consul at Marseille. Van Buren writes to make a request of his correspondent, asking for a ´Basket of Champagne in Pints which cannot be obtained at Naples´, adding that his teeth have longed for ´some of the Clos-Vougeot you so eloquently described´ and further writing ´Will you do me the favor to direct the proper person to send me a dozen of the latter & a Basket of the former, each of the best quality, with a Bill of the cost for which I will send them a check on my Banker at Naples´. Van Buren also refers to a family with whom he had spent a delightful time, although ´regretted very much the loss of your agreeable compnay´. In a postscript Van Buren adds ´The wine may be sent to Naples to the care of our Consul, Mr. Hammett´. With integral address leaf (one small hole). Some very light, extremely minor age wear, VG

John L. Hodge was an American diplomat who served as United States Consul at Marseille in the early 1850s, representing American commercial and maritime interests at the important Mediterranean port.

Van Buren was enjoying an extended European tour when he wrote the present letter from Sorrento; just three weeks later, on 21st June 1854, he began writing his autobiography at the nearby Villa Falangola. His evident appreciation of fine French wine is particularly appealing in view of champagne's earlier association with his public image. During the presidential election campaign of 1840, Van Buren's Whig opponents notoriously caricatured him as an aristocratic lover of luxury, contrasting his supposed taste for ‘White House champagne’ with William Henry Harrison's rustic ‘log cabin hard cider’. Indeed, as early as 1838, a New York wine merchant advertised 300 baskets of twelve bottles each of ‘Martin Van Buren brand’ champagne from Chanoire Frères of Épernay. The present letter, with its request for both champagne and Clos-Vougeot, provides an engaging private counterpart to a taste which had once been exploited so effectively by his political opponents.