Document Type
Text
Contributing Institution
Maine State Archives
Identifier
C327343
Broad Creation Date
circa 1838
Language
English
Other Location
Washington, D.C.
Recommended Citation
"Letter Regarding Death of US Representative Jonathan Cilley, 1838" (2017). Historical Documents. 11.
https://digitalmaine.com/hist_docs/11
Rights Statement
No Copyright - United States. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
The organization that has made the Item available believes that the Item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. The Item may not be in the Public Domain under the laws of other countries. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information.
Description
Undated letter regarding the death of United States Representative Jonathan Cilley of Thomaston. Correspondent is unknown though may have been J.A. Chandler, clerk of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
Jonathan Cilley, an abolitionist, was challenged to a duel by New York newspaper editor James Watson Webb, whom Cilley had called corrupt. William Graves, a legislator from Kentucky, was Webb's stand-in, and he killed Cilley on February 24, 1838.
Cilley, Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives prior to his election to Congress, was the son-in-law of Hezekiah Prince, a merchant of Thomaston.