MCHENRY JAMES Autograph Letter Signed as aide de camp to Laf

Sale 2276 - Lot 68

Price Realized: $ 5,760

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

Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500

MCHENRY, JAMES. Autograph Letter Signed, as aide-de-camp to Lafayette, to merchants William Smith, Daniel Bowley, William Niel, and Hugh Young, retained draft, humorously thanking them for their loan to Lafayette. 1 page, 8vo; retained draft, 2-inch repaired tear in upper right, edges and folds reinforced on verso, very small inked stamps in lower margin. "Head Quarters, 20 miles from Williamsburg" [VA], 1 July 1781

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The recipients were Baltimore merchants who had agreed to loan money to Lafayette for the support of the troops. McHenry, from a Baltimore mercantile family himself, sent this humorous acknowledgment of their patriotic assistance. "Be assured, gentlemen, I have made use of the first moment Lord Cornwallis has been pleased to indulge us with, to complete the contract between you and the Marquis. I enclose it, and a copy of a further security from Congress. The General sends you also additional compliments, so that if you should never be paid in coin, yet between him and Congress, you are sufficiently be-praised. Many a man to my knowledge has given more money for less flattery. I hope there will arise no dispute about sharing it. As I am on the spot where it chiefly grows, I give up my part to be divided equally among the subscribers."