29 September 1789

Otis, Samuel A., 1740-1814

Printed document signed

Title: An Act providing for Payment of the Invalid Pensioners of the United States

Signed by Otis as Secretary of the Senate and co-signed by John Beckley as Clerk of the House. Transfers the payments of military pensions from the state to the federal government.

GLC04855

1789/06/01

Otis, Samuel A., 1740-1814

Document signed

Title: First act of Congress. Act to regulate certain oaths, to support Constitution

Printed act of Congress setting the form of oath: "I, A.B. do solemnly swear or affirm (as the case may be) that I will support the Constitution of the United States." Certified and Co-signed by Samuel A. Otis as Secretary of the Senate and John Beckley as Clerk of the House.

GLC04856

28 October 1779

Walton, George, 1740-1804

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Benjamin Lincoln

Written by Walton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, as a Colonel of Georgia militia to Major General Lincoln as commander of the Southern Department. Walton, who was wounded and captured during the defense of Savannah in December 1778, was exchanged in September 1779. He was elected Governor of Georgia November 1779-January 1780, before returning to Congress. References letter he wrote to Lincoln on 23 October 1779. Says he needed to publish Lincoln's letter in a Charlestown, South Carolina paper to assist him politically. Says Augusta is in a dangerous position. Claims it is…

GLC04857

October 21. 1944

Wayne, Anthony, 1745-1796

Header Record

Title: [Twenty-two orders of the day including pardon of all who were under sentence of death].

Written as general in command of the United States Army in Greeneville, Ohio.

GLC04864

1789/05/20

Wayne, Anthony, 1745-1796

Autograph letter signed

Title: to James Wilson re: Wilson's role in ratifying Constitution, appointment

Wayne congratulates Wilson on the adoption of the Federal Constitution: "permit me to add that it was to a display of the perfect knowledge you entertained, & the plain elucidation you gave of the components of the System, which caused it to be approved by the [Ratification] Convention of Penna being the first that met...." Also congratulates Wilson on being appointed to the Chief Justiceship of the US (sic), and seeks a judicial appointment for himself.

GLC04865

August 12, 1776

Williams, William, 1731-1811

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Jabez Huntington

Summarizes affairs in first weeks of independence. Opens by commenting on his arduous journey to Philadelphia to join the Continental Congress. Informs that Silas Deane has arrived from France with the report of the French court's unfavorable reception of the American request for aid. Discusses the Declaration and comments that it has spurred the colonies to form governments. Informs that South Carolina, Virginia, and New Jersey have established them and indicates who these colonies have chosen or might choose for governors. Mentions John Alsop, a Continental Congress member from New…

GLC04867

9 April 1823

Carroll, Charles, 1737-1832

Autograph letter signed

Title: to William Gibbons

Writing to his overseer regarding a slave he has just purchased, a blacksmith named Clem. Says Clem does not get special treatment but that "he was promised, if sold, that his wife should live with him." Also discusses buying horses. Signed "Ch. Carroll of Carrollton."

GLC04868

16 February 1789

Hamilton, Alexander, 1757-1804

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Pierre Van Cortlandt

Refers to an enclosed letter (not present). Asks New York Lieutenant Governor Pierre Van Cortlandt to support the Federalist strategy to defeat New York Governor George Clinton by withdrawing from gubernatorial race. ". . . withdraw from a competition in which your friends can promise themselves no advantage to you and perceive much disadvantage to the cause they have so earnestly at heart-the removal of the present governor."

GLC04869

circa 1781-1782

Hanson, John, 1715-1783

Printed document signed

Title: [Congressional certificate authorizing vessels to engage in military activity]

Signed below seal by John Hanson. Countersigned by Charles Thompson, Secretary of the Continental Congress. Contains blank spaces designated for the name of commander and vessel, the vessel's weight and type, and the number of men on board. Created to authorize vessels (possibly privateers) to "set forth ... in a warlike manner ... to attack, subdue, seize, and take all ships and other vessels, goods, wares and merchandizes, belonging to the King or Crown of Great Britain ..." Features paper seal.

GLC04870

12 June 1783

Harrison, Benjamin (ca. 1726-1791)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John Dickinson

Written by Harrison, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, as Governor of Virginia to Dickinson as President of Pennsylvania. Written "In Council." Regarding the ownership of land along the Virginia-Pennsylvania border. This problem dated to the 1740s and was temporarily resolved during the Revolution, but became an issue after the war. Surveys were finally done in 1784 that gave the land definitively to Pennsylvania by 1786. This letter is asking Dickinson for an update on the problem.

GLC04871

1820/06/26

Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John C. Calhoun

General Jackson writing to Secretary of War Calhoun, attempting to mediate a dispute between General Daniel Bissell and the Ordnance Department. Jackson emphasizes the need to maintain a proper chain of command.

GLC04872

June 21, 1788

King, Rufus, 1755-1827

Autograph manuscript signed

Title: to the Public accusing R.I. legislature of acting "contrary to the Articles"

Probably intended for publication. The essay attacks the Rhode Island legislature for not sending representatives to Congress or the Constitutional Convention. King, who signs himself five times in the text but signs "Procolus" at the end, argues that states like Rhode Island endangered the Union and that the legislature acted "contrary to the Articles of Confedreration."

GLC04873

1796/06/30

Pickering, Timothy, 1745-1829

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Oliver Ellsworth re: asking advice in interpreting treaty on privateering

Discusses the sale of prizes taken from the British by the French which violates the 24th Article of Jay's Treaty (1794) with Britain.

GLC04875

30 November 1783

Cruger, Henry, 1739-1827

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Peter van Schaack

Reports American occupation of New York City. Decribes the conditions and mixed sentiments in the city after the British evacuation. Feels that the peaceable citizens are a result of the successful leadership of Governor George Clinton, who is second only to George Washington. Assures van Schaack that the government has a plan and it will lead New York and the United States to greatness.

GLC04776

October 19, 1873

Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John E. Williams re: solving banking crisis, Panic of 1873

Grant writes in part: "Cannot the bank presidents be brought together & resolve to aid each other?"

GLC04784

27 October 1777

Harrison, Robert H., 1745-1790

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Major Clarke

Written by Harrison as secretary to George Washington to Clarke, whose larger identity is unknown. Says the five extra dollars will be charged. Claims there are no hand bills or he would have sent him one. Reports that the articles of capitulation got to Washington yesterday. Says Burgoyne and his army of 5,600 are prisoners and that Colonel James Wilkinson is on his way to Congress with General Horatio Gates's official report. Wilkinson caused a mini-scandal by not showing up in York, Pennsylvania, where Congress was meeting, until 31 October 1777 and did not present a written report until 3…

GLC04786

1836/12/05

Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845

Manuscript

Title: [Draft of Jackson's seventh and final address to Congress]

Written in the hand of Andrew Jackson Donelson, the President's nephew. Page 68 is missing, typed transcript included.

GLC04793.01

1774/09/05

United States. Continental Congress.

Broadside

Title: Letter from the General Congress at Philadelphia, September the 5th, 1774, to the People of Great Britain.

This document is a long broadside, printed in four columns and addressed to the people of Great Britain. The broadside says: "Know then, that we consider, and do insist that we are, and ought to be, free as our fellow subjects in Britain, and that no power on earth has a right to take our property from us without our consent." Mentions numerous rights, including trial by jury. Someone has circled misspellings (or variations?) in pencil. (Sothebys suggested that this broadside was printed in Bristol, England. Apparently unrecorded.)

GLC04774

18 July 1781

Cornwallis, Charles Cornwallis, Marquis, 1738-1805

Letter signed

Title: to Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de Lafayette

Written by Cornwallis as commander of British forces in the South to Lafayette who commanded American troops in Virginia. Says some of the prisoners settled on for exchange have been sent to Lafayette and that the remainder will be sent on Lafayette's assurance that he will release an equal number of British prisoners and send them to James City Island where the Flag vessels will remain to rescue them. Trusts that Lafayette will keep the newly released prisoners inactive for a reasonable interval until returned British prisoners can be put back into active duty. Separate note written in…

GLC04775

1 October 1772

Drayton, Stephen, 1736-1810

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John Houstoun

Discusses an ongoing land dispute between Button Gwinnett and himself. Houstoun was a lawyer in Savannah, Georgia.

GLC04777

7 October 1777

Dumas, Charles Guillaume Frédéric, 1721-1790

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Arthur Lee [in French]

Report from a French agent on French and Dutch politics.

GLC04778

1 November 1792

Ellery, William, 1727-1820

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Nancy Ellery

Comments on Nancy's recovery from a smallpox inoculation (variolation). Congratulates her and suggests that she will make a better wife after having smallpox because it must have filled her with patience and resolution, and made her immune. Reports that Nancy's friends in Newport were surprised to learn she had undergone variolation. Ellery has also been inoculated. Comments on his old age. A Member of the Continental Congress from 1776 until 1785, William Ellery was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Nancy was his daughter.

GLC04780

1775/06/12

Gage, Thomas, 1718-1787

Broadside

Title: Proclamation of amnesty in Boston to all but Samuel Adams and John Hancock

Authorship attributed to John Burgoyne. With woodcut royal seal of George III at top. Gage writes: "In this exigency of complicated calamities, I avail myself of the last effort within the bounds of my duty, to spare the effusion; to offer, and I do hereby in his Majesty's name, offer and promise, his most gracious pardon to all persons who shall forthwith lay down their arms, and return to the duties of peaceable subjects, excepting only..., Samuel Adams and John Hancock, whose offences are of too flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration than that of condign punishment."…

GLC04781

16 October 1777

Gates, Horatio, 1727-1806

Manuscript document

Title: Articles of Convention between Lt. Gen. Burgoyne & Majr. Gen. Gates

Two clerical signatures for Gates, once to affirm the document and again to confirm that Burgoyne's name is understood to be used throughout. Treaty documents the terms of surrender of Burgoyne's army after its defeat at the Battle of Saratoga by Gates. Negotiations started on 13 October 1777 and Burgoyne attempted to draw them out as long as possible to see if Sir Henry Clinton's expedition from New York would be able to save him. On 16 October 1777 Burgoyne again tried to stall by claiming militia leaving Gates's army made the initial conditions of his surrender void. Burgoyne was…

GLC04782

7 October 1775

Sackville, George Germain, Viscount, 1716-1785

Autograph letter signed

Title: to William Eden

Written a month before Germain became Secretary of State for the Colonies to Eden as Deputy Secretary of State for the Northern Department. Recipeint was a inferred by Donald Londahl-Smidt. See collateral file for full explanation. References Eden's letter (collateral file says it was 3 October 1775). Says he is happy with the draft of a speech Eden has prepared. Says New York might have been kept as Loyalist if it was attended to properly. States "I always wish'd that the whole power of the State should be Exerted, that one campaign might decide whether the American provinces were to be…

GLC04783