1863 ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LETTER DETAILING THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THIS 87 YEAR OLD MAN WHEN HE LIVED IN NEW YORK CITY IN 1791

On offer is a fascinating, historic, original manuscript letter written by an unknown elderly Baltimore man and likely a member of the Adams family and related to Thomas Boylston Adams (September 15, 1772 - March 13, 1832), the third and youngest son of John and Abigail (Smith) Adams in response to a request he write of his life and times in New York City. [The letter was part of a greater group from the Thomas Boylston Adams papers.] The writer relates what an active, involved and intelligent teenager and young man experienced in the heady historic days of New York City from 1791 to the turn of the Century. The author gives a real person's view of the French Revolution from the American perspective, the feeling of the 'street' to Jacobin views and much more of the politics of the era. The 87 year old man begins "You wish me to communicate for publication such facts and information in regard to Men and things in the City & State of New York, as I may, from my residence in that City have been connected with, or acquired a knowledge of, in the early period of my long life." It goes on, in part: "Having an ardent desire to see General Washington, I soon found my way to Cherry Steer and the Franklin House, near Pearl Street, where he resided..." "It was I think in 1793, or certainly soon after, that Francis who had been General Washington's Steward, established on or near the Battery his celebrated Ice Cream & Cake house, probably the first public house of its kind in the United States." "In his speech at the opening of Congress, 1795, the President, General Washington..[said] "Government founded upon the genuine principles of rational liberty and with mild and wholesome laws, was it too much to say that our Country exhibited a spectacle of National Happiness never surpassed, if ever before equalled." Dated Baltimore, March 1863, 15 pages on 15 leaves, recto side only, 8vo, 25 x 21 cm. VG.