STEPHEN ADAM Autograph Letter Signed A Stephen to General Ho

Sale 2228 - Lot 23

Unsold

Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000

ON CHARTER FOR BANK OF NORTH AMERICA STEPHEN, ADAM. Autograph Letter Signed, "A Stephen," to General Horatio Gates ("My Dear General"), remarking on the rainy weather, reporting receipt of a letter from Major [David?] Richmond, conveying that [General George?] Weedon had left a letter for Gates, wishing that he might visit Gates in better weather, and expressing his view that [Thomas] Paine fails to adequately answer objections [in the controversy concerning the charter for the Bank of North America]. 1 page, small 4to, two seal tears with minor loss to text expertly repaired with paper, inlaid, folds, docketing on verso in Gates's hand. Np, 2 June 1786

Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

"Are you not apprehensive of another Deluge? . . . I would be apt to fear it. You are well Situated off the Creek. We have been overflowed again.
". . . I had a letter from Major Richmond . . . he keeps the forked End downwards, and would have wrote you but heard you was below in Virginia.
"You recvd a letter from G. Weedon . . . . This is bad Weather for their Racing, but will answer for Dissipation.
"I wish the Weather and Waters would give me leave to come and live with you.
"I think there is no hope of the Charters being returned to the Bank. I have seen both Sides, and in my Opinion, Payne [sic] is worsted. He endeavours to turn to Ridicule what objections he can't Answer. There is a pamphlet wrote by an American, By Franklin I suppose, or one under his Eye, very worthy of him, Clear and demonstrable, the Author, Master of the Subject."
The Continental Congress granted a charter in 1781 for the establishment of the nation's first bank, the Bank of North America. In 1785, after the bank refused to issue paper money to ease the post-Revolution scarcity of money, the Pennsylvania Assembly repealed the charter. In February of 1786, Thomas Paine published his pamphlet Dissertations on Government, in which he argued that the Assembly's repeal was unconstitutional. Benjamin Franklin wrote repeatedly on the subject of paper money, including his tract, "Of the Paper Money of America," 1781.
Stephen (1730-1791) served with distinction in the French and Indian War, and during the Revolution, he commanded first a regiment, later a divison as major general. At Germantown, confused by fog, his division mistakenly fought the troops of General Anthony Wayne, after which Stephen was accused of intoxication and dismissed in 1777.