Bidspirit auction | HENRY LAURENS

HENRY LAURENS - (1724 - 1792) American Revolutionary statesman and first President of the Continental Congress, captured by the British while attempting negotiations with the Dutch and later exchanged for Gen. Cornwallis. Fine content and association signed letter 'Henry Laurens', 1p. 4to., Charleston, July 13, 1792 to SAMUEL JOHNSTON (1733–1816), North Carolina statesman who represented that state in both the Continental Congress and the Senate. Johnston was elected the first President of the United States in Congress Assembled under the Articles of Confederation, but he declined the position. Laurens forlornly appeals for time to repay debts he owes to Johnston, in part: '...the delinquency on my part is entirely owing to Sickness, the Papers which I have received from England have found me ill in Bed, where I lay eight Weeks, my strength is so reduced...I cannot write at all, much less am I able to draw out Accounts. I have used my Utmost efforts to procure a clerk...But none will adventure into the country at this Season of the Year...I do not think it will be in my power to make out the Accounts which You require Before the month of October. I am totally Incapable of executing them myself & from the fancies of People of the Sickliness of the Country I cannot expect to obtain assistance until that time...not one moment shall be unnecessarily delayed...” Fine condition. Laurens suffered huge losses following the British occupation of Charleston and the burning and pillaging of his estate. He lived on the estate the rest of his life, working to recover the estimated £40,000 that the revolution had cost him. He would die five months after sending this letter. Ex: Sotheby's