(AMERICAN REVOLUTION 1776) Long Pierse A New Hampshire patr

Sale 2444 - Lot 19

Price Realized: $ 938

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION--1776.) Long, Pierse. A New Hampshire patriot praises Congress for having "judged so wisely in taking up government." Autograph Letter Signed to "Respected sir" [Josiah Bartlett?]. 3 pages, 9 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches, on one folding sheet; mount remnants along fold, minimal wear. With typed transcript. (MRS) Portsmouth, NH, 4 June 1776

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Pierse Long (1739-1789) was a Portsmouth merchant who had served on the Committee of Correspondence and as a militia colonel. This letter was apparently written to a member of the Continental Congress then meeting in Philadelphia. It was obtained from an auction house which in those years handled Josiah Bartlett's correspondence, so he can be considered a likely recipient. Just a month before the Declaration of Independence, Long writes "I am pleased to hear that the different governments have judged so wisely in taking up government. England can only blame themselves for pushing us on to the measure, and I truely wish we may have no alteration, save only such as we may think proper to make ourselves." He passes on the first two issues of the just-launched "Freeman's Journal or New-Hampshire Gazette" (not included here), and reports on the fortifications in Portsmouth. He concludes with a rather rose-tinted "flying storey" on the American retreat from Quebec: "Our reinforcements got near Quebec and cut off the advance guard of the enemy who were pursuing our people, and killed and made all prisoners, and recovered a quantity of artillery. I wish it may all be true." Provenance: Charles Hamilton sale, 28 September 1967, lot 225, to the consignor.