A Gift For
The Newlyweds
"Mr. Coolidge must do me the favor of accepting this [gift]. Its imaginary value will increase with years, and if he lives to my age, or another half-century, he may see it carried in the procession of our nation's birthday, as the relics of the Saints are in those of the Church."
-Thomas Jefferson, November 1825
Elleanora and Joseph
Joseph Coolidge married Thomas Jefferson's granddaughter Elleanora Randolph in the parlor of Monticello in the spring of 1825
That autumn all of Eleanoras possessions at Monticello that had been packed and shipped to her new home in Boston were lost at sea
Later that autumn Mr Jefferson sent the Declaration Desk to them as a wedding present in lieu of Ellen's accumulated possessions that were lost, which included an intricate inlaid table made by Jefferson's slave John Hemmings for the couple
They maintained possession of the precious desk until their deaths and subsequently their heirs graciously donated the important historical object to the nation in 1880
". . .the captain of the brig Washington is in Boston, & from him we have learnt the particulars of our loss. the storm was a terrific one, the vessel completely destroyed, & the crew saved with difficulty. of the cargo, one barrel of flour was the only thing rescued from the waves; my trunks were dashed to pieces in the captain’s sight, who saw the books & papers actually ground into a paste. . . like the pulverised rag of a paper mill."
-Ellen to her Mother Martha November 17, 1825
The note Jefferson wrote to Coolidge and affixed to the Desk
"Th: Jefferson gives this Writing desk to Joseph Coolidge junr as a Memorial of affection. it was made from a drawing of his own, by Ben Randall, cabinet maker of Philadelphia, with whom he first lodged on his arrival in that city in May 1776. and is the identical one on which he wrote the Declaration of Independance, Politics, as well as Religion, has it’s superstitions. these, gaining strength with time, may, one day, give imaginary value to this relic, for it’s association with the birth of the Great charter of our Independance.
Monticello, Nov. 18. 1825."
" I am at this moment writing at the precious desk which has served my dear Grandfather so many years, & would be invaluable to me for this reason only, even were it not a political relick associated with one of the greatest events of American history. the inscription too in grandpapa’s own writing was most grateful to us both, & I felt proud that my husband should receive such a mark of kindness & consideration . . ."
Ellen to her Mother Martha, January 1826
“When I think of this desk, ‘in connection with the great charter of our independence,’ I feel a sentiment almost of awe, and approach it with respect; but when I remember that it has served you fifty years… I would fain consider it as no longer inanimate, and mute, but as something to be interrogated, and caressed.”
-Joseph Coolidge to Thomas Jefferon, November 1825
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Ellen died in the April of 1876 and Joseph, who followed her in death 3 years later and as Jefferson prophesied, did indeed live to see the little desk from which was born a great nation “carried in the procession of our nation's birthday, as the relics of the Saints are in those of the Church”
On July 4th, 1876 Robert C Winthrop carried the relic of the revolution from the Coolidge home to the Boston Music Hall and gave a lengthy speech on the founding and first hundred years of the United States. He had this to say about Jefferson's desk:
"And here, by the favor of a highly valued friend and fellow citizen, to whom it was given by Jefferson himself a few months only before his death, I am privileged to hold in my hands, and to lift up to the eager gaze of you all, a most compact and convenient little mahogany case, which bears this autograph inscription on its face, dated '' Monticello, November 18, 1825 : "
"Thomas Jefferson gives this Writing Desk to Joseph Coolidge, Jun"". as a memorial of his affection. It was made from a drawing of his own, by Ben Randall, Cabinet-maker of Philadelphia, with whom he first lodged on his arrival in that City in May, 1776, and is the identical one on which he wrote the Declaration of Independence."
" Politics, as well as Religion," the inscription proceeds to say, '' has its superstitions. These, gaining strength with time, may, one day, give imaginary value to this relic, for its association with the birth of the Great Charter of our Independence."
"Superstitions! Imaginary value! Not for an instant can we admit such ideas. The modesty of the writer has betrayed even "the masterly pen." There is no imaginary value to this relic, and no superstition is required to render it as precious and priceless a piece of wood, as the secular cabinets of the world have ever possessed, or ever claimed to possess. No cabinet-maker on earth will have a more enduring name than this inscription has secured to " Ben Randall, of Philadelphia." No pen will have a wider or more lasting fame than his who wrote the inscription.
"The very table at Runnymede, which some of us have seen, on which the Magna Charta of England is said to have been signed or sealed five centuries and a half before, — even were it authenticated by the genuine autographs of every one of those brave old Barons, with Stephen Langton at their head, — who extorted its grand pledges and promises from King John, — so soon to be violated, — could hardly exceed, could hardly equal, in interest and value, this little mahogany desk.
"What momentous issues for our country, and for mankind, were locked up in this narrow drawer, as night after night the rough notes of preparation for the Great Paper were laid aside for the revision of the morning ! To what anxious thoughts, to what careful study of words and phrases, to what cautious weighing of statements and arguments, to what deep and almost overwhelming impressions of responsibility, it must have been a witness! Long may it find its appropriate and appreciating ownership in the successive generations of a family, in which the blood of Virginia and Massachusetts is so auspiciously commingled !
"Should it, in the lapse of years, ever pass from the hands of those to whom it will be so precious an heirloom, it could only have its fit and final place among the choicest and most cherished treasures of the Nation, with whose Title Deeds of Independence it is so proudly associated.”
Four years later in the spring of 1880 Mr Winthrop would again transport the precious mahogany desk, this time to Washington DC on the behalf of the Coolidges’ four children and present it to a grateful nation
The Declaration Desks
