manuscript postmark with matching "25" rate on folded lettersheet to "Peter Wagner Esq., Third Auditor of the Treasury" in Washington, DC, blue docketing at left (same ink used to cancel rate), extremely fine, although Madison is known as the "City of the Four Lakes" there was once a nearby post office which served as a rival in the selection of the state capital, the City of the Four Lakes post office operated intermittently from 1837-41 to service the "paper town" of the same name, this is the only recorded cover from this office and one of the great rarities of Wisconsin postal history, for further discussion see Badger Postal History May 1998, ex-Mueller, 2003 APEX certificate