The Property of
A WEST COAST COLLECTOR
MORRIS, ROBERT, Signer (Pennsylvania). Autograph letter signed ("Robt. Morris") TO GENERAL CHARLES LEE, Philadelphia, 24 June 1776. 1 1/2 pages, 4to, integral address leaf, neatly silked, several small holes from acidic ink affecting three or four words (still readable), modern red morocco gilt-lettered protective case [with] Autograph address leaf, to "His Excellency Gen;. Charles Lee Commanding in the Southern Department," straightline "Phila June 25" handstamp, one blank corner patched.
細節
MORRIS, ROBERT, Signer (Pennsylvania). Autograph letter signed ("Robt. Morris") TO GENERAL CHARLES LEE, Philadelphia, 24 June 1776. 1 1/2 pages, 4to, integral address leaf, neatly silked, several small holes from acidic ink affecting three or four words (still readable), modern red morocco gilt-lettered protective case [with] Autograph address leaf, to "His Excellency Gen;. Charles Lee Commanding in the Southern Department," straightline "Phila June 25" handstamp, one blank corner patched.
TEN DAYS BEFORE THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, MORRIS PROPHESYS THAT "OUR GOVERNMENT WILL SOON BE CHANGED"
A letter remarkable for anticipating the passage of the independence resolution of Richard Henry Lee, introduced on 7 June 1776, and soon to come to a vote before the assembled delegates. Ironically, Morris initially opposed the measure and, when the crucial vote of July 2 came, did not cast a vote. "I have not wrote to nor heard from you this long time indeed it is impossible for one to support any correspondence with my Friends while I am overburdened with Publick business in the manner I now am -- however this will probably not be of long continuance as our Government will soon be changed & with it there will be a change of Men in the Publick stations[.] Such a change will be most agreeable to me so far as it respects myself for I have been totally in a state of slavery for 18 months past & long to be once more my own Master, when this happens I shall probably trouble you with more letters[.] The present is only to tell you that Mr. James Nourse wants to buy some more Cattle for your Farm & wants for that purpose Two Hundred & fifty Pounds...."
Robert Morris, elected to the Continental Congress in November 1775, was of more conservative bent than many of his colleagues, particular on the crucial issue of independence. In a letter to an unidentified correspondent of December 9, in fact, Morris vowed that, "if I have any influence...it shall be exerted in favour of every measure that has a tendency to procure Accomodation [with Great Britain] on terms consistent with our just claims....The subject is so important that it's ever uppermost....I will finish by sincerely praying that a speedy end may be put to the unhappy contest" (Letters of Members of the Continental Congress, ed. E.C. Burnett, 1:386). In spite of this, Morris's sincerity and self-evident probity impressed even delegates of a more radical hue, like John Adams, who confided to Horatio Gates that Morris "has a masterly understanding, and open temper and an honest heart: and if he does not always vote for what you and I should think proper, it is because he thinks that a large body of people remain, who are not yet of his mind" (ibid., 1:433). When the first vote on the resolution for independence was taken, on 1 July, Morris joined John Dickinson, Charles Humphries and Thomas Willing of the Pennsylvania delegation in voting against it, while fellow Pennsylvanians Banjamin Franklin, John Morton and James Wilson voted affirmatively. Arguements and exhortations failed to shake Morris and his three colleagues in their opposition, but at last a compromise was reached: Morris and Dickinson agreed not to officially take their seats as delegates the next day, allowing a majority of Pennsylvania's delegates to carry the colony for the cause of independence in the momentous vote on July 2. Once independence had been proclaimed, Morris was a staunch supporter of all measures necessary to defend the new nation.
TEN DAYS BEFORE THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, MORRIS PROPHESYS THAT "OUR GOVERNMENT WILL SOON BE CHANGED"
A letter remarkable for anticipating the passage of the independence resolution of Richard Henry Lee, introduced on 7 June 1776, and soon to come to a vote before the assembled delegates. Ironically, Morris initially opposed the measure and, when the crucial vote of July 2 came, did not cast a vote. "I have not wrote to nor heard from you this long time indeed it is impossible for one to support any correspondence with my Friends while I am overburdened with Publick business in the manner I now am -- however this will probably not be of long continuance as our Government will soon be changed & with it there will be a change of Men in the Publick stations[.] Such a change will be most agreeable to me so far as it respects myself for I have been totally in a state of slavery for 18 months past & long to be once more my own Master, when this happens I shall probably trouble you with more letters[.] The present is only to tell you that Mr. James Nourse wants to buy some more Cattle for your Farm & wants for that purpose Two Hundred & fifty Pounds...."
Robert Morris, elected to the Continental Congress in November 1775, was of more conservative bent than many of his colleagues, particular on the crucial issue of independence. In a letter to an unidentified correspondent of December 9, in fact, Morris vowed that, "if I have any influence...it shall be exerted in favour of every measure that has a tendency to procure Accomodation [with Great Britain] on terms consistent with our just claims....The subject is so important that it's ever uppermost....I will finish by sincerely praying that a speedy end may be put to the unhappy contest" (Letters of Members of the Continental Congress, ed. E.C. Burnett, 1:386). In spite of this, Morris's sincerity and self-evident probity impressed even delegates of a more radical hue, like John Adams, who confided to Horatio Gates that Morris "has a masterly understanding, and open temper and an honest heart: and if he does not always vote for what you and I should think proper, it is because he thinks that a large body of people remain, who are not yet of his mind" (ibid., 1:433). When the first vote on the resolution for independence was taken, on 1 July, Morris joined John Dickinson, Charles Humphries and Thomas Willing of the Pennsylvania delegation in voting against it, while fellow Pennsylvanians Banjamin Franklin, John Morton and James Wilson voted affirmatively. Arguements and exhortations failed to shake Morris and his three colleagues in their opposition, but at last a compromise was reached: Morris and Dickinson agreed not to officially take their seats as delegates the next day, allowing a majority of Pennsylvania's delegates to carry the colony for the cause of independence in the momentous vote on July 2. Once independence had been proclaimed, Morris was a staunch supporter of all measures necessary to defend the new nation.