Lot 528
THOMAS NELSON, JR.
(1738 - 1789) Signer of the Declaration of Independence. Member of the Virginia Delegation to the Continental Congress. Later served as governor of Virginia. Extremely rare and superb content A.L.S. "Thos Nelson Jr" 2pp. 4to. York, Feb. 18, 1775 to Col. Landon Carter (1710 - 1778) discussing political affairs on the eve of the American Revolution, and expressing optimism that Parliament might redress American grievances, "sooner than was at first imagined". Nelson writes, in full: "Dear Sir, It gives me pleasure to find that I am not forgot by my friends at a distance, especially by so respectable a one as yourself. We have been much alarm'd at a report that the New Yorkers had deserted the cause, but it is with joy I acquaint you that that report is contradicted & that the Motion that was rejected was the postponing the consideration of the proceedings of the general congress to a future day; but that they immediately took the matter up & highly approved every thing the Delegates had done." In February 1775 Philip Schulyer introduced a motion in the New York General Assembly to adopt and approve the proceedings of the First Continental Congress of October 1774. The motion which included a provision that the colony elect a delegation to attend the Second Continental Congress in May 1775, produced heated debate which delayed the vote. However, Nelson's assessment that the measure was overwhelmingly or, "highly approved," is somewhat mistaken as there was significant opposition to the measure in the New York Assembly. Ironically, Nelson adds in the next thought: "Some people are apt to conceive that things are as they would wish them to be."
Nelson, however uses this statement as a segue dispel an unnamed rumor concerning the noted Massachusetts Tory, Timothy Ruggles. Ruggles, who had chaired the 1765 Stamp Act Congress, had ultimately opposed the resolutions it passed and became a firm Tory: "There is as little foundation for the report concerning, that vile Traitor Ruggles , as for the other. It is true he has drawn up a association in opposition to the Continental one but we are told he has not a single signer to it & that he is obliged to seek for he as[?] Fox like to hide himself in, but it is to be hoped, they will make him bolt before it be long & then I think his chance will be but a bad one."
Nelson then reports on events in Parliament. News of the speech to Parliament by George the III on November 30, 1774 had arrived in America at the end of January 1775. In the speech he condemned the Suffolk Resolve and declaed Massachusetts to be in a state of Rebellion: "A paragraph in a late English paper says that on the day appointed for the House of Commons to take his majesty's most gracious speech under consideration the Gallery & Lobby were so crowded, that (not by a common Mob, but by a very respectable body of the Peoples among them men of distinction) that they could not proceed to business, untill they were clear'd. I may be too sanguine, but I cannot help thinking but we shall be redressed sooner than was at first imagined. We have some powerful friends in England; I can not say whether, they are so from principle or from necessity, either will answer our purpose. " Indeed, many London merchants did not approve of the closure of the port of Boston or other measures which alienated their colonial customers and sought a more moderate policy toward America. While Nelson and others had reason for optimism, the opening of hostilities at Lexington and Concord only two months later would shatter it irrevocably. With integral transmittal leaf addressed in Nelson's hand. A superb letter by one of the rarest Signers of the Declaration of Independence, with particularly desirable content concerning the oncoming American Revolution. The recipient, Landon Carter is perhaps best known today for his detailed diary describing life on the eve of the American Revolution. When he died, he left to his heirs his mansion near Richmond, Va., Sabine hall, 50,000 acres of land and nearly 500 slaves. A few minor losses affecting several words of text, some minor partial fold separations, separated vertical crease repaired with glassine, else very good condition.
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