AUTOGRAPH LETTER ON PICTORIAL LETTERHEAD SIGNED BY CO-FOUNDER OF THE NEW YORK TIMES HENRY JARVIS RAYMOND.

New York: January 15, 1859., 1859.. Very good. - 34 words penned in black ink on a cream sheet of 9-3/4 inch high by 7-5/8 inch wide sheet of Times Office letterhead with a handsome engraving of the Times building at top left. Signed "W. J. Raymond". The bottom edge of the letter is slightly darkened with some light creasing. Once mounted into an album with paper remnants adhering to the corners of an integral attached blank leaf. A couple of small chips are torn from the corners of the blank. Folded 3 times for mailing. Very good. <p>Raymond writes agreeing to an exchange with another publication: "We shall be very happy to send you our semi-weekly Edition in Exchange for the W. & R. We would send the Daily but for the fact that our Exchange list is already inconveniently large."<p>Henry Jarvis Raymond [1820-1869] was an American journalist and politician and co-founder of the New York Times. Between 1841 and 1851 he worked as a journalist and associate editor for various newspapers, including Horace Greeley's New York Tribune and James Watson Webb's Courier and Enquirer. In 1851 Raymond convinced George Jones, who had also worked at the Tribune, to become his partner and publish a new paper that would report the news in a neutral manner. They co-founded the New York Times and Raymond edited the paper until his death. Raymond was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1850 and 1851 and was elected Speaker in 1851. A member of the Whig party's northern radical anti-slavery wing, he was nominated for Lieutenant Governor of New York in 1854 over Horace Greeley. He was elected and served from 1855 to 1856. Raymond has sometimes been called "the godfather of the Republican Party". He played a prominent role in the party's formation and drafted the Address to the People adopted by the Republican organizing convention in 1856.