Oct 22, 2015 - Sale 2394

Sale 2394 - Lot 1

Price Realized: $ 1,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
REVOLUTION PREVENTED CONTINENTAL TREASURY FROM PAYING DEBT TO MASSACHUSETTS (AMERICAN REVOLUTION.) HANCOCK, JOHN. Autograph Letter Signed, "JH," as Governor, to the Massachusetts General Court, retained draft, appointing a committee to settle the Continental Treasury's debt to MA of $15,000, incurred in 1776. 1/2 page, 4to; short closed separations at horizontal folds, minor toning at left edge, docketing in holograph on verso. "Council Chamber" [Boston], 18 October 1783

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"I am possess'd of a Note of hand given to me by the Continental Treasurer in 1776, upon which there is due about Fifteen Thousand Dollars & is the property of this Common Wealth. I repeatedly mention'd this Circumstance to former Assemblies, they Chose a Committee but never perfected the Business. It would be too tedious to relate minutely the matter by message, but Submit to you the Appointment of a Committee upon the Subject, that by a Settlement the Common Wealth may be Avail'd of their property, & myself Discharg'd of the Note."
The text of this letter appears in Supplement to the Acts and Resolves of Massachusetts, ed. Bacon, Vol. I, 1896.