Fascinating Historical Item With Questions

I acquired this gem at an auction recently. It's from Colonel W. j. Mills (Of the Seminole wars) to General Duff Green (Noted Jackson and Calhoun confidant and southern industrialist).
My questions are:
1. I wonder who's free frank was used.
2. Also the colonel is discussing in the letter about selling some property the two gentlemen share ownership of. He refers to it as "Stock" WITH the quotes. Were these men dealing in slaves? Warren would have had the opportunity to acquire recaptured slaves in Florida during his tenure in the army.
3. The letter is datelined Jacksonville Fl , But postmarked from Wash DC. How did that happen?
Any info you guys can dig up would be appreciated.

The body of the message:

I don't know about the historical background of their agreement or it's content but this is an amazing piece in it's own right! Thank you for showing it!

Just to clarify, it would seem the letter is from Colonel W.J. Mills (not Warren), most likely, Colonel William J. Mills.

You are right of course. My apologies for the mistype!

"an amazing piece in it's own write!"

I love looking at the old envelopes for the amazing examples of script handwriting from days of yore.

"Were these men dealing in slaves?"
Very possibly.
It's obvious from their records that both men were strongly pro slavery. General Duff Green was owner and editor of the United States Telegraph which was originally a strong supporter of Andrew Jackson (and Green was part of his kitchen cabinet), later he became a strong supporter of John C. Calhoun, Jackson's vice president when they had a falling out. John C. Calhoun was famous for his defense of slavery and was a major force behind the Fugitive Slave Law.
Colonel W.J. Mills issued orders during the Seminole wars "to arrest and detain unaccompanied Negros" whether slave or free.

Interesting and intriguing...

What can we write nowadays on a circulated postcard, to hope to generate as much interest 100 years from now, let's say? :)

It also looks as if there was another sheet with this that is long gone. You can just make out the ghost writing where it bled through to the top sheet if you look real hard.

To take your question seriously (smiley, be damned!), if you want your text to be taken seriously 100 years from today, I see two choices: 1) get famous, or 2) write predictions.

For example, given the American infrastructure issues, you could mail cleanly-postmarked postcards of bridges marked "before it fell down".

A more likely winner would be to print & mail DIY postcards of politicians with the text "before all was revealed".

Text aside, I would think that, even 100 years from today, folks handling New York City skyline (city view) postcards will be comparing the postmark, text, and presence/absence of the WTC.

Post-2001 postmarks will classify the cards as achronistic junk, and expertized pre-1979 cards will be worth a fortune ;)

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

In College I wrote a paper about the Seminoles Wars all three of them called "The 50 Year Hunt" as there secondary purpose was to reaquire run away slaves in Florida!