Details
MIDDLETON, ARTHUR, Signer (South Carolina). Autograph document unsigned, A DRAFT RESOLUTION FOR THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, written on the verso of a leaf with Middleton's bold inscription, "The Honorable The United States of America in Congress Assembled...," n.p., n.d. [circa 1782]. 1 page, 4to, 210 x 215 mm. (8¼ x 8½ in.), two small holes in blank upper margin (not affecting text), laid in a custom made brown morocco folding case, upper cover gilt-lettered and with gilt Great Seal of the U.S..
EQUALIZING THE PAY OF SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN OFFICERS: A VERY RARE AUTOGRAPH DOCUMENT BY ARTHUR MIDDLETON
A manuscript of highly interesting content, consisting of Middleton's draft of a proposed resolution to Congress calling for the appropriation of funds to equalize pay of Continental Army officers serving in the Southern campaign, who were being paid less than their counterparts in the North. Middleton writes: "Resolved, that the Superintendant of Finance take immediate order, and cause to be paid to the Paymaster General...the Sum of £22818½ ...[to be] delivered...by him forthwith forwarded to the army under General [Nathanael] Greene on the first Instant by the said Paymaster, as so much deficient in the pay of the Officers in the So[uthern] Departments towards putting them on a footing with the Officers serving in the main army, and that every appearance of partiality in the distribution of publick Property may be done away, and in the future avoided..."
Arthur Middleton (1742-1787), the South Carolina Signer, is generally rated one of the five rarest Signers of the Declaration of Independence. A high proportion of Middleton's extant manuscripts are unsigned, signed with initials, or signed with a pseudonym adopted for concealment.
See Joseph E. Fields, "The Autographs of Arthur Middleton," in Manuscripts: The First Twenty Years, pp.85-104. On Fields's census, the present document is no.35, then owned by the legendary Forest H. Sweet.
EQUALIZING THE PAY OF SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN OFFICERS: A VERY RARE AUTOGRAPH DOCUMENT BY ARTHUR MIDDLETON
A manuscript of highly interesting content, consisting of Middleton's draft of a proposed resolution to Congress calling for the appropriation of funds to equalize pay of Continental Army officers serving in the Southern campaign, who were being paid less than their counterparts in the North. Middleton writes: "Resolved, that the Superintendant of Finance take immediate order, and cause to be paid to the Paymaster General...the Sum of £22818½ ...[to be] delivered...by him forthwith forwarded to the army under General [Nathanael] Greene on the first Instant by the said Paymaster, as so much deficient in the pay of the Officers in the So[uthern] Departments towards putting them on a footing with the Officers serving in the main army, and that every appearance of partiality in the distribution of publick Property may be done away, and in the future avoided..."
Arthur Middleton (1742-1787), the South Carolina Signer, is generally rated one of the five rarest Signers of the Declaration of Independence. A high proportion of Middleton's extant manuscripts are unsigned, signed with initials, or signed with a pseudonym adopted for concealment.
See Joseph E. Fields, "The Autographs of Arthur Middleton," in Manuscripts: The First Twenty Years, pp.85-104. On Fields's census, the present document is no.35, then owned by the legendary Forest H. Sweet.