A letter written by George Washington offered a rare understanding of his confidence in ordinary Americans to fight and win the Revolutionary War and was put for sale on President’s Day.
The first US president wrote a document as the leader of the Continental Army in 1777 shortly after the British sacked a vital military supply depot in Danbury, Connecticut. ”.
A handwritten reply, published for decades in a private collection in New England, shows that Washington refused to view the episode as a crippling blow to his military campaign. Instead, he was encouraged by the reaction of settlers and local militias as he launched a rushed but intense counterattack.
“I would like to believe that they (the British) will pursue such measures very carefully. They can afford a store in Danbury, but it has caused considerable losses and they will have an impression Whenever they give it, the country is sure to re-released into weapons,” Washington wrote.
Based in Morristown, New Jersey, the Washington Army was formed into soldiers from 13 colonies that previously became the first US state, and was ultimately forced to surrender Britain with the help of France and Spain. Ta.
A revelation letter written from Morristown on May 7, 1777 is expected to be sold for $150,000 through the RAAB collection.
“What Washington says is that Danbury revealed one of his assets to British people, everyday citizens, these civil militias, and autonomous farmers. In this case, it was not a function in the past. ” said historian Nathan Raab, president of the collection.
“There’s an awareness that the British may have left with a few bags of flour, but they have learned a truly valuable lesson. Our country takes arms against them. They are the UK. We may not be fighting an army of the same size and experience as the army, but this is an asset we have.
“You definitely feel optimism and confidence in the letter. The letter is quite long and two aspects, and this is not the only subject he deals with. He says it at the end. He says it. As you can see, it’s about putting together the situation.”
Raab refers to another interesting passage in which Washington mentions “invalid or (they) are still too weak and too weak to proceed from inoculation.”
Three months ago, Washington had ordered all Continental Army recruits to receive a rough inoculation of natural POs.
“I rarely see Washington talking about this first American vaccination campaign. Right after that happened, that’s one of the things I like about this letter,” Raab said. .
“It’s a key moment in science and medicine, and certainly from a military perspective. So when I see Washington talking about his everyday companion picking up his arms to fight the British, I see. I’ve never seen anything like it on the market. Calling it rare probably isn’t going well enough.”
As more collectors and enthusiasts join the fast-growing market, interest and sales in unusual and historically important documents and crafts have skyrocketed in recent years.
Many items are sold at auctions, and prominent international homes such as Sotheby’s frequently offer individual documents and collections. The most expensive one was a copy of the 1863 Emancipation Declaration of Abraham Lincoln, owned by the family of another assassinated President John F. Kennedy, which sold for $380,000 at a Sotheby’s auction in New York in 2010.
A signed copy of Lincoln’s 1864 election victory speech was sold for $3.4 million in one of Christie’s, one of five documents to achieve a selling price of over $3 million.
Private sales, such as those promoted by the RAAB, often include documents that have never been seen before, and letters from Lincoln, the country’s third president. It features documents that reveal unknown facts about the His strategic thinking in the early days of the civil war.
Raab said the Lincoln and Washington signatures are the most highly regarded of the 45 men who are US presidents, primarily because of their increased rarity.
“As it gets more and more difficult to find materials that really matter,” he said, “demand continues to increase.”
“The challenge is not to sell it, it’s to buy it. When we see this level of rarity that evokes something special, such an important element of our shared heritage, we jump on it. ”
