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George Clymer Signature Bends over Backwards George Clymer Bends Over Backwards To Be Fair To a Debt

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:1.00 USD Estimated At:400.00 - 600.00 USD
George Clymer Signature Bends over Backwards George Clymer Bends Over Backwards To Be Fair To a Debt
<B>George Clymer Bends Over Backwards To Be Fair To a Debtor.</B></I> Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page, recto and verso, with integral address leaf, Philadelphia, January 6, 1796. To John Shippen Esq. In Philadelphia. A nascent tear at margin, else fine. Clymber was a wealthy merchant, a well-known politician, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, and just as famously, a great philanthropist. It seems unlikely, in this last connection, that the point of letter offered here was to increase the well-being of humankind by charitable aid, but it is certainly an appealing example of the man's scrupulous fairness. In part: "<I> ...Hearing nothing to the contrary I did not know that Cross's plantation had been already sold under the execution until his son called upon me a day or two ago with a small payment, requesting further time, alleging that a few weeks more would afford him the means of raising, from the sale of a portion of the land a sufficiency to satisfy the whole debt. This appeared so reasonable that I gave him an expectation, without an absolute promise, of a compliance with his request. He may be mean to deceive me for any thing I know but even this would be better than I had to do any thing that would bear the appearance of hardship. I would therefore wish to have the sale suspended for a month or ten weeks. By that time we shall know whether the expectation he has raised is to be valued... If not, after waiting so many years, I think no one can accuse me of too great haste in ordering the sale...</B></I>" From the Henry E. Luhrs Collection. Accompanied by LOA from PSA/DNA.