MORRIS, Robert (Signer, Pennsylvania). Autograph letter signed (“RM”), to [John Nicholson] unidentified, 21 November 1794. 1 page, 4to.

MORRIS, Robert (Signer, Pennsylvania). Autograph letter signed (“RM”), to [John Nicholson] unidentified, 21 November 1794. 1 page, 4to.

“HELP, HELP, IF YOU CAN”

A desperate plea from Morris to his partner in the crumbling house of debt, The North American Land Co.: “Mr. Summers insisted on & got yesterday the $3,000 you mention. The enclosed letter is necessary to be signed by you & sent to prevent the money, if it arrives at Salem, lying there.” In a plaintive postscript he writes, “Help, help, if you can.” Four years later, Morris would suffer the indignity of imprisonment for debt, between 1798 and 1801.