To James Madison from Richard Riker and Others, 28 April 1826
From Richard Riker and Others
NewYork 28th. April 1826.
Sir
The Corporation of the City of NewYork have caused medals to be struck to commemorate the completion of the Erie Canal which unites the great Western Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean.
The Corporation influenced by a deep and profound respect for those citizens who by eminent public services have secured the confidence of our Country, and attained the highest office in the gift of the Republic, have instructed us as a committee to prepare medals of gold of the highest class, and present in the name of the City of NewYork, one to the President, and one to each of the ex Presidents of the United States.
In obedience to the order of the common council and in the name of the City of NewYork, we have the honor to transmit to you, Sir, a medal of gold of the highest class.1
It affords us the greatest satisfaction to convey to you this testimonial of Public respect. We accompany the medal with a box made of maple brought from Lake Erie in the first canal boat, the Seneca chief.
A memoir on the NewYork Canals will be transmitted to you as soon as it is printed. With the utmost respect We subscribe ourselves Your Obedt. servants
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM.
1. The medals were prepared by artist Archibald Robertson, engraver Charles Cushing Wright, diesinker Richard Trested, and metalworker William Williams, and they were struck in gold, silver, and semimetal by silversmith Maltby Pelletreau. Duncan Phyfe, in collaboration with turner Daniel Karr, made the boxes of bird’s-eye maple and cedar (Deborah Dependahl Waters, “‘Silver Ware in Great Perfection’: The Precious-Metals Trades in New York City,” in Art and the Empire City: New York, 1825–1861, ed. Catherine Hoover Voorsanger and John K. Howat [New Haven, 2000], 358; Catherine Hoover Voorsanger, “‘Gorgeous Articles of Furniture’: Cabinetmaking in the Empire City,” in Art and the Empire City, 287).
2. Richard Riker (1773–1842), a New York City lawyer and friend of DeWitt Clinton, was recorder of the city, 1815–19, 1821–23, and 1824–38 (Benson J. Lossing, History of New York City, Embracing an Outline Sketch of Events from 1609 to 1830, and a Full Account of Its Development from 1830 to 1884 [2 vols.; New York, 1884], 1:242–43 n.).
3. John Agnew was alderman of New York City’s Fourth Ward in 1826 (A. Everett Peterson, ed., Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, 1784–1831 [19 vols.; New York, 1917], 15:688).
4. Thomas Bolton (1773–1863), a New York City lawyer, was assistant alderman of the First Ward, 1818–27; president of the Phoenix Fire Insurance Company, 1831–35; and clerk of the Common Council (Barrett, Old Merchants of New York City [1968 reprint], 4:101–2).