Nov 25, 2014 - Sale 2368

Sale 2368 - Lot 276

Price Realized: $ 8,125
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500
(RHODE ISLAND.) Group of 4 substantial letters to Continental Congress member David Howell. 24 manuscript pages in total, condition generally strong with a few closed tears, the Smith letter with wear along one fold, and the Nicholas Brown letter missing a couple of lines from one page; plus a small letter fragment signed by the Rev. James Manning. Vp, 1783-86
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David Howell (1747-1824) of Providence, RI represented his state in the Continental Congress from 1782 to 1785, and was an important figure in the early history of Rhode Island College, which became Brown University.
The earliest and most important letter in this lot was written by John Brown (1736-1803), the forceful Providence patriot-slave trader (and notoriously poor speller), on 23 October 1783. This 7-page letter is full of less than tactful advice for the new congressman. Brown was particularly upset about the recent decision to sell off naval vessels for cash rather than credit, which left all but "Mr. Morris and a very fue others" unable to enter the bidding: "If you permit me to taulk as plain at 300 miles distance as I do face to face, I should tell you that every member of Congress who voted for selling the Continentell friggits as they was sold, ought never to have another voice in national business," adding that if a twelve-year-old boy in his counting house had acted so foolishly, " I should immediately dismiss him as an ediot." He goes on to insist that Congress should only meet six months a year, in the spring and fall, to save money and allow men with other careers to participate. He wasn't angling for a job himself, though: "As to your nomination of me to searve in your place, I totally, frankly and positively forbid your doing it, and as to my son's going, I have not yet consulted with him on the subject" (Brown was selected the following year but never attended a single session).
Brown was also involved in Rhode Island College matters (having helped found the school in 1764), and wanted Howell to go on a fund-raising trip to Europe: "If you could go and get a handsome sum of money to indow the collage I should like it extremely well. . . . I yet hope to see the institution flourish, and doubt not but it will when you fulley imbarke in the cause by going to Urope." He expects the college to soon have "as good a library & apparatus as in any collage in these states, Cambridge excepted." He also promises that Howell could be re-appointed as law professor when his congressional stint was over: "If your being realected would fill the collage with students, you should not want for a reasonable salary." Brown also mentions his own business, including what soon became the first American merchant vessel to visit China: "I have a fine new ship of 330 tons now siting at my wharf called the Genl. Washington, a better vessel has not been built in New England."
That letter is hard to top, but the others are also interesting. Rhode Island Governor William Greene writes on 14 March 1785 to say that the state's General Assembly is "empowering Congress to regulate the foreign trade with these United States, whenever the other states may pass similar laws." John Brown's brother Nicholas (also an important Providence merchant) weighed in with his own 11-page letter on 26 March 1785, filled with detailed insight into trade law and national finances, though with considerably less bluster than his brother. Finally, New York congressman Melancton Smith wrote on 27 March 1786 concerning the proposed impost amendment, which would be scuttled when New York rejected it. Smith complains that the controversy had led to New Jersey "threatening us with free ports, prohibitory laws & war," but hopes that if this crisis is averted, "our commerce is to flourish exceedingly and we will be a queen among the states." His letter includes a substantial discussion of the nation's fragile finances under the last years of the Continental Congress.