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Sale 12
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Lot 219
Franklin, Benjamin (1706-1790) American scientist, inventor, intellectual, politician and diplomat; one of the best-known personages of the 18th century. Naturally curious and incredibly intelligent, Franklin established himself as a printer and publisher, invented a safer stove, wrote numerous scientific treatises, experimented with electricity and developed the bifocal. In the political sphere, Franklin was one of the framers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, secured military and financial help from France during the Revolutionary War and helped to negotiate the treaty that finally ended the War. Although he found Pennsylvania politics a "fatiguing business," Franklin spent his final years guiding his state and the nation through the turmoil of post-War change and the establishment of the structures of democratic government, serving as President of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania and playing a prominent role at the Constitutional Convention. At his death in 1790, Franklin's funeral was attended by 20,000, the House of Representatives passed a motion for official mourning and the entire body of the National Assembly of France donned black in his honor.
Document Signed ("B Franklin Pres"). As President of the Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Partially printed, accomplished in manuscript. One page, 7¼ x 5½", Philadelphia, December 7, 1785. Countersigned at left (vertically) by David Rittenhouse as Treasurer of the State of Pennsylvania. Being an order of payment for one year's interest on the depreciation certificate of one Adam Sybert, late of Schott's Company. Endorsed and docketed on verso. Framed and matted with an engraving of Franklin, to an overall size of 20½ x 12½". Apparent water damage has caused manuscript ink to bleed to a very minor degree throughout the document and Franklin's signature is slightly affected, particularly at the "B Fr", minor adhesive residue and ink bleed-through at the bottom edge, minor chips at right edge. Not examined out of frame, but overall condition (despite ink bleed) is good.
The issuance of depreciation certificates to Adam Seybert and other soldiers of the Pennsylvania Line was a result of the men having been paid for their Revolutionary War service in depreciated currency -- the interest payments helped to mollify the soldiers concerns over compensation and encouraged economic growth. Concern over pay was so great that in June 1783 almost three hundred soldiers of the Pennsylvania Line surrounded the State House and demanded that Congress issue assurances they would receive back pay before being mustered out. Facing these economic and the many other conflicts inherent in building a new society and government, the citizens of Pennsylvania cheered Franklin's 1784 return to Philadelphia, relying on him to broker compromise between the many factions seeking to control the state. Elected President of the Council almost unanimously, Franklin (at age 80) confided to a friend "I apprehend they expect too much of me." But he did indeed calm the troubled waters, serving three years as President of the Council and moving the state through the most tumultuous times of the young Republic.
Estimated Value $7,500-UP.
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