ROBERT MORRIS (1734-1806)
27.01.2026 00:00UTC +00:00
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CHRISTIE'S| Auctioneer | CHRISTIE'S |
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| Veranstaltungsort | Vereinigtes Königreich, London |
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ID 1539267
Los 929 | ROBERT MORRIS (1734-1806)
Schätzwert
2000USD $ 2 000 – 3 000
Autograph letter signed, 3 June 1787
MORRIS, Robert (1734-1806). Autograph letter signed ("Robt Morris") to Messrs. Carey & Tilghman, Philadelphia, 3 June 1787.
Three pages, 258 x 200mm. (some ink erosion on Morris's signature). Housed in a quarter blue morocco folder with an engraved portrait.
Soon after taking his seat at the Constitutional Convention, Morris attends to his strained finances: "I have your favour of the ult[im]o and shall make the proper entries of all articles of amounts mentioned therein. I am glad also that you went about sending money to Mess Henderson Fergusson & Gibson and to Mr. Montgomerie but hope at the same time you would not have disenabled yourselves so as that any delay or disapointment could happen in the payment of my draft for $6000 to Gavin Lawson & co if it was necessary. I hope you could raise the money by some means or other." Morris then turns to a trading voyage soon do depart abroad the "The Chesapeake [led by ]Capt Sharpe is to go for Havre de Grace Consigned to Mess Ruellen & co on my account & I hope she is ready to depart. I am sorry that Mr Gilman should have raised the price again & am almost tempted to interfere in that business which hitherto I have not done from motives of delicacy & because I did not care to give room for any Heart burnings with my postures. I shall not restrain you from accepting Messrs. Wallace & Muirs Comm[ission]s but if this tends to raise the price you must see plainly that it will injure my general purchase therefore if the proposed rise is at any time considerable let me know it. You will receive herein Hubert Tarins Two drafts dated 4th June 1787 at 15 days sight my favour, one on Mr James Ryan of Balt[imor]e for €50.11.4 & the other for €103.1.6 Curr[enc]y on Mr Robt Walsh of Balt[imor]e both of which you will please to receive & bring to my credit, advising when you receive the money. I want to make some considerable remittances to Mr. Tho[ma]s Montgomerie at Dumfries as expeditiously as possible & shall be glad of your assistance. Therein, the sooner I can place $8,000 to $10,000 in Specie with him the better. Perhaps it may facilitate this remittance if I place with you some of my notes & accordingly I send you enclosed $2080 thereof besides which you will draw on me & sell bills on Europe at my limits and remit to him as money & opportunities will enable but the sooner the better.... "
Morris's letter discussing his payments to his creditors reflects on his failed efforts to corner the French tobacco market earlier in the decade and also likely due to his growing involvement in land speculation. His "belief in the potential value of the undeveloped lands west of the settled areas, together with his audacious confidence in himself... led to his downfall. He had not foreseen the Napoleonic wars, the paralysis of Europe, and the distress which at such a time must follow in the wake of a great extension of business founded upon borrowing and credit.... The foundations of a really vast fortune were shaken, and all went down together for want of the opportunity to sell what Morris had so hopefully acquired, and of means to pay the taxes upon it and to meet interest charges upon his loans" (DAB). In 1798 a small creditor caused him to be arrested and he was confined in a debtors' prison for more than three years before his release in 1801.
| Kategorie des Auktionshauses: | Briefe, Dokumente und Manuskripte |
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| Kategorie des Auktionshauses: | Briefe, Dokumente und Manuskripte |
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