Lot 350
Hancock, John. AL as Governor of Massachusetts, 1p, 13" x 7¾", Boston, 1782 April 23. Hancock's retained copy to Isaac Sherman, commissary officer of the garrison at Dartmouth. Very good; overall toning; archivally reinforced with japan paper on verso; two lines of text at horizontal folds have tiny areas of paper loss, but still legible. Boldly penned.
In this letter, an incensed Hancock fires Sherman for insubordination, after Sherman defied the state constitution and appealed directly to the General Court for funding. In full: "By a Resolve of the General Court which has been laid before me in consequence of a Petition from you as Commissary, I find you have been in Boston & have undertaken to lay a State of the Fort & Garrison at Dartmouth, its Defects & the necessaries wanting, before the Court, & Applied for their Aid; had you have been an officer appointed by the Court, & Amenable to them, there might have been some propriety in the mode of your Application, but as in the present instance you have gone directly counter to the Constitution, which very explicitly points out the Line of your Duty, & as you have thrown such an open Contempt upon me as Commander in Chief, to whom only you were Amenable, I am now to inform you that it is my positive order that you immediately on Receipt of this deliver to Lieut. William Gordon what Public Stores & Provisions belonging to this Common Wealth you may have in your hands, and Exhibit the whole of your Accounts in order to a Settlement; I have appointed Mr. Gordon Commissary to the Troops that may be station'd at Dartmouth, by order of the Governor of this Common Wealth, whom I shall Depend will strictly conform to the Constitution & Regulate his Conduct thereby."
Estimated Value $5,000 - 7,500.
The Hancock-Chase Collection, formerly housed at the National Museum of American History.
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