Beschreibung:

WASHINGTON, GEORGE, President . Autograph letter signed ("G:Washington") to Mr. Edward Snickers of Frederick, Maryland; Mount Vernon, 10 March 1775. 1 page, 4to, 230 x 184 mm. (9 1/8 x 7 1/4 in.), verso addressed by Washington: "To Mr. Edwd. Snickers In Frederick by Arthur Fenton," with recipient's dockets, the sheet damaged at edges along central horizontal fold, with small triangular sections carefully renewed with loss of five or six words, two corners neatly repaired. AS REVOLUTION BREWS, WITH LEXINGTON AND CONCORD LITTLE MORE THAN A MONTH AWAY, THE FUTURE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF PREPARES FOR A PROLONGED ABSENCE FROM MOUNT VERNON A letter whose rather mundane contents contrast vividly with the larger issues looming in the background and soon to occupy Washington's attention upon the outbreak of armed hostilities between Great Britain and the American colonies. Washington writes to Captain Edward Snickers, who had served in the French and Indian War and lived at a pass in the Blue Ridge Mountains, near present-day Bluemont, Virginia. He writes: "I have received your Letter of the 6th Inst Inclos[in]g Rec[eip]ts for the delivery of Col. Mercers wheat, as also an acct. of what is due to you for Hauling it to my Mill, & Threshing it out, by which you make a Bal[anc]e of Forty four pounds, seven shillings and nine pence due to you, which I dare say is right, & therefore acknowledge it to be so, as I keep the Millers rec[eip]t. "I had sold my corn for ready Money which was to have been taken away by the first of the month & of course I ought to have [been in] cash to have answered yours & other d[emands but h]ave not received a farthing of the [money for] which reason I can send you by [Mr Fento]n only Twenty pounds - the remaining #247.9 I will pay to your Order, so soon as I receive the Cash. If you do not send your wheat soon, it will be of little use to me...." Washington had represented Virginia in the First Continental Congress in the Fall of 1774 (attending from 5 September to 5 October). With relations between the King and the Colonies deteriorating rapidly, Washington was named on 20 February 1775 to represent Fairfax County at a convention at Richmond scheduled for 20 May (10 days after this letter). He "was prompt to make all necessary arrangements for absence from Mount Vernon..." (Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington: A Biography , New York, 1951, 3:401). At the Richmond Convention, there were still many who hoped for reconciliation with the Crown, but these sentiments were overwhelmed by Patrick Henry's address on the 23rd, which concluded with the memorable declaration, "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" On March 20 Washington was re-elected as one of seven Virginia delegates to the Continental Congress and on May 4 he left Mount Vernon for Philadelphia, where on 18 June he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the United Colonies. Two years later at the height of the Revolution, in January 1777, Washington offered Snickers the post of Wagon Master General in the Continental Army, which Snickers declined on account of age (see Writings , ed J.C. Fitzpatrick, 3:226n and 7:36). The present letter is published (with the few gaps filled) at 3:275-276. Provenance : Anonymous owner (sale, Sotheby's, 22 June 1981, lot 286).