DOCUMENTS IN SUPPORT OF THE RIGHT OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, TO THE ALLUVION IN FRONT OF THE SUBURB OF ST. MARY, CONTESTED BY JEAN GRAVIER

Washington: A. & G. Way, 1809.. 53pp. Dbd. Contemporary ink ownership inscription on titlepage (see below), mild foxing. Very good. The New Orleans batture case was one of the bitter controversies of Jefferson's presidency and beyond. Jean Gravier, a major landowner in New Orleans, and then his successor to the property, Edward Livingston, a prominent New Orleans attorney, claimed ownership of a strip of beach (the batture) at New Orleans which had long been used as a common, publicly-accessible boat landing. President Thomas Jefferson took up the case for the city of New Orleans, asserting government ownership up to the high water mark, and had a federal marshal forcibly dispossess Livingston. In 1807, the Louisiana Supreme Court had awarded judgement to Gravier. This resulted in a celebrated, extensively-litigated case over the use of federal power which was bitterly argued, and continued by Gravier's successor in title, Edward Livingston, who battled not only the city of New Orleans but the national government in years of court struggles which became constitutional in nature, and resulted in Jefferson writing the one major published legal brief of his career. It also brought about one of the few civil suits ever allowed against a sitting President. The case set important precedent in the interaction of federal and state power, as well as having significant local ramifications.

The present work prints several affidavits, from French and American public officials and citizens dating back to the 1790s, supporting the municipality's claim that the rights to the use of the New Orleans batture should be shared by the citizenry, and not by private interests. The present documents speak loudly for the nullity of Gravier's title to the contested batture. This copy bears the ownership signature on the titlepage of Vermont Senator Stephen Row Bradley. Bradley (1754-1830) graduated from Yale and served in the Continental Army and in a variety of judicial and political posts in Vermont before becoming the first United States Senator from that state, in 1791. He served in that position until 1795, and again in the U.S. Senate from 1801 to 1813, as a Democratic Republican

An uncommon and important entry in the New Orleans batture controversy, with only fifteen physical institutional copies in OCLC. This is only the second copy handled by this firm; the previous copy was in a sammelband of ten pamphlets relating to the batture case. SABIN 20481/28362. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 18892. COHEN 11679. OCLC 5876220, 886821553.