?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
"THE . . . DESTINY OF OUR COUNTRY [IS] . . . THE TOTAL ABOLITION OF SLAVERY" ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY. Letter Signed, to Representative Julius Rockwell, explaining that his health is improving but that he is not expecting to return to Congress, quoting two lines in Latin [from the fourth Eclogue by Virgil], stating that the abolition of slavery is the destiny of the country, anticipating that it would not be realized in his lifetime and hoping that Rockwell would live to welcome it. 1 1/2 pages, 4to, faintly ruled paper, with integral blank; faint scattered staining, folds. With the original envelope, with postmark, intact wax seal, and his Franking Signature ("J.Q. Adams"). Quincy, 18 June 1847
". . . My health has been slowly improving and leaves me some hope of returning to the seat of Government . . . . "Were the unimpaired rigor of youth still mine I might hope to devote it . . . to the cause of our Country and of Freedom. A cause needing sacrifices more trying to the Soul, and of deeper devotion than have ever before occurred in our History or in that of the World. "'A great order of the ages is born afresh / great months begin [in Latin]'. "'The mighty years have begun' and I trust it is the future destiny of our Country to accomplish the glorious prophecy of improvement in the condition of Man and the total abolition of Slavery throughout the whole Human race. "That consummation is not to bliss my eyes, nor to delight my ears in my present state of existence. May you live to welcome its approach and contribute to its advancement."
