The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To HENRY LEAVITT ELLSWORTH,1 16 March [1842]

Text from facsimile in Heritage Auctions online catalogue, Apr 2020. Closing and signature in CD’s hand; body of letter written by George W. Putnam, CD’s travelling secretary.

Fullers Hotel2 March 16th

My dear Sir

     I cordially thank you for the redemption of your friendly promise; and for your kind and most acceptable note. And let me beg you to

          Believe me

     Faithfully Yours

          CHARLES DICKENS

• 1. Henry Leavitt Ellsworth (1791–1858), son of Oliver Ellsworth, a member of the Constitutional Congress, the leader of the Federalist Party in the National Senate, and a Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court under George Washington. A graduate of Yale University, in 1830 he was appointed by President Andrew Jackson as Chief Commissioner of Indian Tribes. In 1836 he became the first Commissioner of the United States Patent Office. During his administration the electric telegraph was invented and patented. He assisted Samuel F.B. Morse in obtaining the Congressional appropriation of $30,000 to test the practicability of the device.
• 2. Fuller’s Hotel, in Washington, D.C.; described in chapter 8 of American Notes.