Sep 27, 2018 - Sale 2486

Sale 2486 - Lot 212

Price Realized: $ 2,375
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(AMERICAN REVOLUTION--1778.) Dickinson, Philemon. A New Jersey founding father renounces public money for his service. Autograph Letter Signed to William C. Houston and James Mott Junior of Princeton, NJ. One page, 11 1/4 x 8 1/2 inches, plus integral address leaf without postal markings; moderate foxing, tape repairs along horizontal fold. Trenton, NJ, 29 July 1778

Additional Details

Philemon Dickinson (1739-1809) was the able commander of the New Jersey militia (reaching the rank of Major General), and later served in the United States Senate. Here, shortly after the Battle of Monmouth, he explains his principled avoidance of accepting public money for his expenses in the service. "I perfectly remember the ordinance of the convention which you mention, but I absolutely refused having the money paid into my hands, as I never had any public accounts in my life. I cannot possibly recollect to what amounts I gave orders. . . . I never rec'd a single shilling of this money & left the accounts solely to the treasurers to settle, which must appear by their books of vouchers. There is no public account of any kind to settle, having intentionally avoided it." Provenance: Rosenbach catalogue, 1949.