Feb 04, 2016 - Sale 2404

Sale 2404 - Lot 271

Price Realized: $ 3,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
NEW HAMPSHIRE THREATENS TO "CALL ON THE MILITARY" AGAINST VERMONT (VERMONT.) New Hampshire printing of a Congressional act concerning Vermont statehood. Letterpress broadside, 11 1/2x 7 1/2 inches, signed in type by George Bond and Josiah Bartlett; toned, pinholes at folds; untrimmed. (MRS) Exeter, NH, 27 September 1781

Additional Details

Prints an act of the Continental Congress concerning the Vermont dispute dated 7 August 1781, providing that a committee be appointed to confer with the residents of "the New-Hampshire Grants on the West Side of Connecticut River . . . respecting their Claim to be an independent State, and on what Terms it may be proper to admit them into the federal Union. . . . In Case Congress shall recognize the Independence of the said People of Vermont, they will consider all the Lands belonging to New-Hampshire and New-York respectively, without the Limits of Vermont aforesaid as coming within the mutual Guarantee of Territory contained in the Articles of Confederation."
This broadside was printed by order of the New Hampshire Committee of Safety led by Declaration signer Josiah Bartlett. It was issued to "the several Towns in the Counties of Cheshire and Grafton" (the entire western border of New Hampshire at that time) "in Order that the good People there may not be deceived by the Misrepresentations of those who are inimical to the United States . . . and to prevent all Usurpation of Power from any pretended Authority of Vermont within the said Counties, and for that purpose to call on the Military if need be." Bristol B5379. Only one copy in ESTC, and none others known at auction. Provenance: Charles Hamilton sale, 21 February 1974, lot 33, to the consignor.