An important piece of U.S. presidential history is back home in the archives of the New York State Library thanks to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office and a University of Tennessee historian. Curtis Schick has the story.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- "If the nation shall call me to her first office, it must be her act, not mine."

The New York State Library's Loreta Ebert reads the words of seventh President Andrew Jackson. You're taken back in time to 1824. Jackson wrote the letter a few months before that year's contentious presidential race.

“Here he confides in this gentlemen because he feels he's a supporter, he's a confidant. So we hear some of his most inner thoughts, rather than what he thinks is publically or politically acceptable,” Ebert said.

The election would see Jackson win the regular vote, but not get enough electoral votes. The race was decided by the House of Representatives with John Quincy Adams picked, with a little help from Henry Clay.

The Attorney General's office discovered the letter was missing from the State Library's collections while investigating Daniel Lorello. He's in prison for stealing other historic state documents. Ebert said it was spotted on an auction website by a Tennessee-based Andrew Jackson researcher where it was going for $35,000.

“Any letter of a president is significant. It certainly is is historical - but also valuable to the collectors,” said Ebert.

It was pulled off the auction block. And for now, the Attorney General's office is holding onto the nearly 200-year-old document. The letter was delivered home, after a little help was delivered from Jackson's home state.