AUTOGRAPH DOCUMENT SIGNED by future New York City Mayor STEPHEN ALLEN, City Recorder RICHARD RIKER, City Comptroller GARRETT NOEL BLEECKER, and City Chamberlain and Treasurer JOHN FLEMING, authorizing payment of City funds to Fleming towards the Sinking Fund.

New York, May 12, 1821., 1821. Good. - Over 40 words penned on 7-1/4 inch high by 6-1/2 inch wide watermarked paper. "Comptrollers Office / New York 12 May 1821" is penned at the head of the document, followed by the sum of "$11,598.75". The document calls for the City to "Pay to John Fleming Eleven Thousand five hundred & Ninety Eight 75/100 Dollars, for 75 per Cent of [__] retained by Commis.r of Sinking fund out of a Loan of City Stock of 1821." Signed in full by "Stephen Allen", "R. Riker" and "G.N. Bleecker" as commissioners of Sinking Fund, as well as "J. Fleming Esq." as City Treasurer. The document is annotated as "No.21" in red at top left. Folded horizontally with two cross-hatched cancellation perforations through the document at right. Very good. Stephen Allen (1767-1852) served three terms as mayor of New York City from December 1821 through 1824. Under the new constitution, New York City's mayor was appointed by the Common Council. Allen was the first elected mayor of the city. A financial innovator, Allen helped establish municipal sinking funds to cover New York City's debt. The American lawyer and politician, Richard Riker (1773-1842) served as the first district attorney of New York County. He subsequently served as Recorder of the City. Riker was notorious for abusing the Fugitive Slave Act by sending free African-Americans to the South to be sold into slavery. Abolitionists considered Riker, along with Daniel D. Nash and Thomas Boudinot members of the "Kidnapping Club". Boudinot boasted that he could "arrest and send any black to the South". Fitz-Greene Halleck's satirical poem "The Recorder" mocked Riker and the members of the New York party machine. New York City Comptroller Garrett Noel Bleecker (1768-1833) served under several mayors, including DeWitt Clinton and Walter Bowne. He was a signer of the Buttonwood Agreement of 1792 which established the basis for the New York Stock Exchange. The New York City banker John Fleming (d.1837) was first the Cashier and subsequently President of the Mechanic's National Bank of New York, located on Wall Street. He served as the Chamberlain of New York City, essentially the city's treasurer and chief financial officer. Fleming died on May 4, 1837, a day after he was forced to resign his position as President of Mecanic's Bank which was nearing impending collapse due to a national economic crisis.…