Apr 27, 2006 - Sale 2077

Sale 2077 - Lot 1

Price Realized: $ 2,760
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
ON THE TREATY OF PARIS (AMERICAN REVOLUTION.) Manuscript, unsigned and in an unknown hand, a fair copy of a letter concerning the proposed treaty with Great Britain to end the war, with a cover note to an unnamed recipient (but presumably a newspaper editor): "Will you be so obliging to have the following letters published after having made such alterations you will think proper." The essay, 5 pages, two folded 4to sheets. With a transcript. Philadelphia, 18 March 1783
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The essay, titled "Copy of a Letter dated Philadelphia March 18th 1783," warns that the preamble to the Treaty of Paris allows the terms to be vacated by the King. ". . . The result of this will be that England will take according to circumstances the part the most convenient to her and at her pleasure acknowledge or refuse to acknowledge our independence . . . But nothing is at an end; the War is not finished and the only means to bring it to a conclusion is to pursue it with vigour and to guard ourselves from being deceived by chemerical & revocable concessions." The unknown author next reviews the diplomatic treatment of the colonies since the start of the war and addresses Britain's reaction to America taking France as an ally. "We have been alternatively flattered or threatened according to circumstances. In 1776 and 1777 England speaks of nothing but destruction and devastation; She threatens to annihilate and swallow up the whole continent . . . In 1782 when the nation and the Parliament of England were informed of this memorable event and that an army of 8000 men were prisoners of the United States they fell again to the feet of these thirteen States whom they had so odiously treated." Finally, it explains the reasons for the delays in London. ". . . they prepared themselves gradually for the acknowledgement of our independence; but at every stop they discover their extreme reluctance against this decisive measure." While this is a copy of the original, the note which precedes the text suggests that it is in the hand of the author and written at a contemporary date.