SOLD
7,500.00USDto floor+ buyer's premium
This item SOLD at 2025 Jan 12 @ 16:19UTC-07:00 : PDT/MST
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Original notation of publication can be found on founders.archive.org. To the best of our knowledge this letter appears for all intents and purposes to be a British made transcription of the letter, made the day the original was captured by the British. Notated on the founders site it mentions that the original letter was never accounted for, and was more than likely "It may have been given to the printer, who in good 18th-century fashion, saw no need to preserve it once his type had been set". This letter bears the watermark shown, as is referenced to in literature regarding American Revolutionary correspondence (Great British Coat of Arms 1714-1800). Letter is 7 1/4" by 12" in size.
This is one of the two letters JA wrote from Philadelphia this day that fell into British hands when the bearer, Benjamin Hichborn of Boston, was captured at Conanicut Ferry near Newport, R.I., and foolishly failed to throw away a number of letters he was carrying. The other intercepted JA letter was addressed to James Warren; it alluded at its outset to John Dickinson (though it did not name him) as "A certain great Fortune and piddling Genius" who had "given a silly Cast to our whole Doings"; and it led to the historic quarrel between JA and Dickinson. (Texts of the letter to Warren are in JA, Works, 1:179–180, and Warren-Adams Letters, 1:88–89.) Brought to Boston on 6 Aug., JA’s letters were published in Margaret Draper’s Massachusetts Gazette; MS copies were sent to London by Gage, Graves, and others; British papers printed and reprinted them; and for some months—until events caught up with his sentiments—JA was notorious on both sides of the Atlantic as the arch-advocate of American military resistance and independence from Great Britain.
Transcribed as Follows:
J. Adams to his Wife
Philadelphia July 24 1775
My Dear
It is now almost three months since I left you in every part of which my anxiety about you and the children as well as our country has been extreme. The Business I have had upon my mind has been as great and important as can be entrusted to man (founders archive notes it mentioned the word "One" here however that is incorrect and aligns with footnote 2 on the website), and the difficulty and intricacy of it, is prodigious. When Fifty or Sixty men have a constitution to form for a great empire, at the same time they have a country 1500 miles extent to fortify; Millions to arm and train; a Naval power to begin; and extensive commerce to regulate, (the website states a line "numerous Tribes of Indians to negotiate with" which is missing from this transcription), a standing army of 27000 men to raise, pay victual and officers, I really pity that Fifty or Sixty men. (the site lists another paragraph that is missing from this transcription, "I must see you e’er long.——Rice, has wrote me a very good Letter, and so has Thaxter, for which I thank them both.——Love to the Children.")
I wish I had given you a complete history from the beginning to the end of the journey, of the behavior of my compatriots, no mortal tale would equal it. I will tell you in future, but you shall keep it secret. I will tell you in future, but you shall keep it secret. The Fidgets, the Whims, the Vanity, the Superstitions of some of us, is enough to -----
("Addressed To Mrs Abigail Adams Braintrie,5 to the Care of Col. Warren, favor d by Mr. Hichborne." is also missing from this transcription)
JA
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Infinite |
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Last Updated: February 15th, 2024
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