Coxe writes:

 

“…Our last letter from you mentioned your intention of leaving Baden for Paris, where I presume you now are…Our political Revolution is complete and Harrison has 19 States with 234 Electoral Votes by 140,000 popular Majority besides overcoming 200,000 Officeholders and postmasters, etc. Van B.[uren] it is just ascertained gets Illinois by a very small majority which makes only 7 States out ot 26 for him including in the 7 Virginia also by a small  majority of about 1000. So much for the capacity of the People to judge of [measures?] and change their Rulers when dissatisfied with their Conduct. The result of this election is surely a proud triumph for Representative Government. G[eneral] Harrison being pledged to serve but for 4 years, will it is hoped and believed prove himself an independent and not a time serving Prest. - but of his Cabinet nothing is known as yet,  tho it is not supposed that H. Clay will be in it tho he may counsel and advise as a friend. Of Webster it seems to be thought his habits of [?] and otherwise will prevent his serving, tho perhaps he might make an able Minister to England as understanding thoroughly the N.E. Boundary question. In  the Senate U.S. there will be a Whig Majority of about 6 after 4 March and 60 or 70 in the House.  John Davis the new Govt. of Massachusetts is spoken of as Secy of the Treasury and Jno. Sergeant is mentioned by some as Secy of State, but as before said Harrison has not committed himself. Stocks and real Estate are here [?] and any important improvement must depend on financial matters and the State of the Currency and it is yet too soon to know what the next Congress (which may possibly be Convened at an early day) will do. The Banks here and elsewhere it is now believed will resume 15 Jany including the U.S. Bk with some [?]  stakes themselves may yet become the fiscal agent of Govt. having nearly paid off all its debt to the US and its paper (bk notes) being, notwithstanding its former mismanagement, more current throughout the Union than any other State Bk. It is impossible however to judge correctly of its prospects in that respect, or whether a new Bk of the US may not ultimately be established. Nathaniel Prime of NY, the great Broker who retired some yrs ago from business committed suicide a few days ago, which is attributed  in letters of the N. papers to a morbid state of mind from living in the Country, but many suspect that it is connected with money matters and losses - tho it is said he is rich and was happy in his family. I will try to send you the Report of the d'Hunteville case…by some private hand. It furnishes a serious lesson to Parents how they connect their family with foreigners…a marriage malaporte, the result of interested and ambitious motives on the part of the Parents… Dr. Randolph who married Miss Physick embarks shortly for France and his family are to follow in the spring. The universal confidence in the B.[ritish] Steamers and their rapid passages will soon render the voyage to and from Europe as easy as a journey to Niagara or Canada, especially those to Boston. We are going today to visit Mr. and Mrs. [Henry Alexander] Wise (Sarah Sergeant) who were married on Thursday last. Mr. W is a widower with 4 children and distinguished in Congress for talents and highmindedness but has bad health. Robt. Hare, son of Mrs. Chas. Hare, was married lately to a young French Catholic from the Island named Du Pestre which religious faith he is said to have embraced….”

Daniel Coxe, a younger brother of politically prominent Tench Coxe, who had died 16 years before, was not noted for his interest in politics; rather, he was a prominent Philadelphia merchant who had turned to extensive speculation in Spanish Grant lands in Louisiana and West Florida, and spent most of his later life in litigation (detailed in his papers at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania) to confirm his claims to a large Louisiana tract on the Ouachita River. This letter is unusual for its political content, revealing Coxe’s happy view of Whig William Henry Harrison’s defeat of Democrat Martin Van Buren, sentiments Coxe apparently shared with his correspondent, wealthy Philadelphia lawyer Edward Shippen Burd. It’s also interesting for Coxe’s choice of social news that he felt would interest a fellow member of the Philadelphia upper crust – particularly the suicide of Wall Street’s Nathaniel Prime, and the court battle for child custody between Boston heiress Ellen d’Hauteville and her husband, a Swiss nobleman, the moral of the story being the perils of rich Americans marrying their daughter to titled European aristocrats.