Description:

Ellsworth Oliver 1745 - 1807 Oliver Ellsworth 1776 signed slip for gunpowder three weeks before Washington's Delaware Crossing.

Paper slip signed by Oliver Ellsworth as "O. Ellsworth" and two other officials in the lower right corner. This December 2, 1776 pay voucher instructed Treasurer Jonathan Lawrence to pay Benjamin Cheney "Six pounds Thirteen Shillings 10 ½ d for Purchase + Premium on 27 lbs Salt Petre". Also signed "Jn Lawrence Esq. Treasurer" inlower left corner. Benjamin Cheney's signature confirming payment found verso along with docket information. In very fine condition, with expected folds and isolated browning to a few edges, 8.125" x 4.25".

Except for later British raids on primarily coastal towns, Connecticut remained largely unmolested during the Revolutionary War. The "Provision State" was thus heavily relied on by other colonies to provide them with food, livestock, arms, or in this case, "Salt Petre". This Hartford, CT pay order was signed roughly three weeks before General Washington crossed the Delaware River at Trenton, New Jersey along with 2,400 troops in a surprise Christmas Day attack. Washington's success at Trenton was not of substantial military value, but it did reinvigorate Patriot morale.

Oliver Ellsworth (1745-1807) was one of Connecticut's first state senators. Ellsworth was very involved in revolutionary politics, and helped draft the U.S. Constitution. This Yale and Princeton graduate also trained as a lawyer and was appointed by 1st U.S. President George Washington (1732-1799) to serve as the 3rd Chief Justice of the Supreme Court between 1796-1800. Jonathan Lawrence is an interesting historical figure in that he served as treasurer before, during, and after the American Revolution, when Connecticut was first a colony and then a state.

Financing the Revolution laid a heavy burden upon each colony, especially those which balked at levying taxes. In order to meet immediate needs such as wages, the colonies relied upon wealthy revolutionaries, foreign loans, and taxes and gifts from abroad. Connecticut issued promissory notes such as this. Issuing paper money was only a temporary solution, and worthless without specie or gold and silver backing. The U.S. established its standard monetary system in 1791.

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