Lot 46
Hancock, John. Autograph Letter, one page, 13 x 7¾ in., Boston, April 23, 1782. Overall toning; backed with japan paper; small paper losses at folds affect a few words, which are still legible. Being Hancock's retained copy of a letter written as Governor of Massachusetts in which he fires Isaac Sherman, the commissary officer of the garrison at Dartmouth, appararently for insubordination, after Sherman defied the state constitution and appealed directly to the General Court for funding. In full: "By a Resolve of the General Court which has been laid before me in consequence of a Petition from you as Commissary, I find you have been in Boston & have undertaken to lay a State of the Fort & Garrison at Dartmouth, its Defects & the necessaries wanting, before the Court, & Applied for their Aid; had you have been an officer appointed by the Court, & Amenable to them there might have been some propriety in the mode of your Application, but as in the present instance you have gone directly counter to the Constitution, which very explicitly points out the Line of your Duty, & as you have thrown such an open Contempt upon me as Commander in Chief, to whom only you were Amenable, I am now to inform you that it is my positive order that you immediately on Receipt of this deliver to Lieut. William Gordon what Public Stores & Provisions belonging to this Common Wealth you may have in your hands, and Exhibit the whole of your Accounts in order to a Settlement; I have appointed Mr. Gordon Commissary to the Troops that may be Stationed at Dartmouth, by order of the Governor of this Common Wealth, whom I shall Depend will strictly conform to the Constitution & Regulate his Conduct thereby."
Estimated Value $6,000 - 8,000.
The Hancock-Chase Collection, formerly housed at the National Museum of American History.
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