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| Title |
Samuel Huntington |
| Number |
51156 |
| Size |
8” x 13.25” |
| Date |
November 7, 1781 |
| Place |
Norwich, Connecticut |
| Category |
Signers of the Declaration |
| Price |
$8,500.00 |
Signer of the Declaration of Independence and the immediate past President of the United States in Congress Assembled congratulates the French Foreign Minister on “the Important Glorious success of our Combined Forces on the compleat capture of Ld Cornwallis and all his Army” – three weeks earlier, Lord Cornwallis had surrendered to General George Washington at Yorktown effectively ending the Revolutionary War.
Historic Draft Autograph Letter (unsigned), 1.5 pages, 8” x 13.25”. Norwich [Connecticut], November 7, 1781. Docketed by Huntington “Copy of letter to/the Minister of France/Novr 7th 1781.” With corrections and additions; words crossed out are in brackets.
In full, “I cannot deny myself the pleasure of Congratulating you on the Important Glorious Success of our Combined Forces in the compleat Capture of Ld Cornwallis and all his Army.
[I am truly charmed with] The conduct of Count de Grasse so far as [it] hath come to my knowledge charms me; his drupping the British fleet sufficient to [Convince] teach them [they might not & could] to keep at due distance & not [until the Cheasapeake or] again attempt to Interrupt the siege, & at the same time not Suffering himself to be too far diverted from his first main object, Evinces that he possesd Tallents accomplishments equal to his Station worthy of so Important Command in the Navy. May our Successes this Campaign be in proportion to the Generous imparalled aids [which these United States have] received from his most Christian and proved Eventually productive of the happiest Consequences to [France and America] the perpetual advantage of both nations. I have the honour to be ” On laid paper watermarked “I Taylor.”
Thin mounting strip at right edge on second page. Minor chipping at lower right edge. Chemical reaction of the dark ink in Huntington’s straight line cross-out of “the Cheasap” ate through the paper, resulting in a very narrow cut. Show-through because of dark ink does not affect legibility at all.
Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes (1717-1787), served as Foreign Minister of France under King Louis XVI from 1774 until his death. On February 6, 1778, de Vergennes and U.S. commissioners Benjamin Franklin, Arthur Lee, and Silas Deane signed a Treaty of Alliance and a Treaty of Amity and Commerce with France. The Treaty of Alliance contained the provisions the U.S. commissioners had originally requested, and also included a clause forbidding either country to make a separate peace with Great Britain, as well as a secret clause allowing for Spain, or other European powers, to enter into the alliance.
On September 28, 1779, Samuel Huntington was elected sixth president of Congress and began serving his term. During that term, on March 1, 1781, the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the new nation, was ratified. The Continental Congress ceased to exist and the United States of America in Congress Assembled became the federal government of a “Perpetual Union between the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts-bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
The first section of the Articles of Confederation designated the new nation as the “United States” for the first time. Samuel Huntington was the first President of the United States in Congress Assembled under the nation’s first constitution. He retired on July 6, 1781 and returned to his home in Norwich, Connecticut.General George Washington and his French allies were planning a move against British occupied New York City in May 1781 when news came from General Lafayette of the possibility of attacking and trapping General Lord Cornwallis in Virginia. The British commander had moved his 7,000 to the Chesapeake in order to link up with supplies and reinforcements on the way from the Royal Navy. But Washington had his own powerful naval weapon which Huntington refers to in this letter: Admiral J.P. Comte De Grasse. The arrival of 29 French warships and 3,000 troops off the coast of Virginia on August 26, 1781 was crucial to victory. De Grasse defeated a British squadron under British Admiral Thomas Graves in the Battle of the Chesapeake and sailed back to New York for repairs, leaving Cornwallis without reinforcements or supplies. The combined British and Hessian forces were trapped, their escape routes blocked on the sea by Admiral De Grasse and on land by Generals Washington, Lafayette, and Rochambeau. On October 19, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered to Washington. French Foreign Minister Comte de Vergennes then served the chief French representative at the peace negotiations between Great Britain and the United States, France, and Spain which resulted in the Treaty of Paris in 1783 formally ending the Revolutionary War.
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