The Clements Library website includes events, exhibits, subject guides, newsletter issues, library staff, and more.

Rufus Choate AMs; s.l., 2 pages. Rufus Choate’s manuscript notes concerning the salvage of the barque Missouri while moored near the coast of Sumatra.

Home » Adopt a Piece of History » Rufus Choate AMs; s.l., 2 pages. Rufus Choate’s manuscript notes concerning the salvage of the barque Missouri while moored near the coast of Sumatra.

William Clements Library Adopt a Piece of History Bookplate

Rufus Choate AMs; s.l., 2 pages. Rufus Choate's manuscript notes concerning the salvage of the barque Missouri while moored near the coast of Sumatra.


Adopted by

Martha Krieg

In honor of

Elissa Krieg and Katherine Kramp

[Rufus Choate] autograph manuscript, [circa 1854]. 2 pages.

This manuscript was penned by prominent Massachusetts lawyer and U.S. Congressman Rufus Choate (1799-1859). At the time, he was prosecuting attorney for a Boston trial on the embezzlement of cargo/specie salvaged from the Barque Missouri off the coast of Sumatra. These manuscript notes are a fine example of Choate’s sometimes extravagant and at times illegible handwriting. His friend and colleague Edwin Whipple remembered his script in a courtroom setting, saying “The judge replied that the case was one in which he [Choate] might write out his argument. With a mock solemnity . . . he replied, ‘I write well, your Honor, but slowly.’ As his handwriting resembled the tracks of wild-cats, with their claws dipped in ink, madly dashing over the surface of a folio sheet of white paper, the assembled bar could not restrain their laughter. Indeed, it is affirmed that he could not decipher his own handwriting after a case was concluded, and had to call in experts to explain it to himself.” (E. P. Whipple, Some Recollections of Rufus Choate. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1879: 36).

Even as many of the words remain mysterious, this manuscript takes us into the courtroom with Choate as he furiously scribbled notes and tossed them aside. It puts us there with his colleagues and with the public, who even at the time marveled over his penwork. We can share in their laughter and shake our heads with confusion when we sit in front of this sheet. It is a vivid window into one lawyer’s courtroom presence and a powerful reminder to students–who increasingly struggle reading even neat cursive–that even people of the 19th century also struggled to read handwriting.