November 2023 Auction Ends Thursday, November 30th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/30/2023
Interesting autograph letter signed by Elijah Day, one of the leaders of Shay's Rebellion, written on the day that the Rebellion started. Dated 29 August 1786, Day apologizes profusely to his friend Samuel Flowers, a tax collector and a colonel in the Massachusetts militia, for ''reproaching language and...assaulting your Person'' a month earlier. Trouble had been brewing for several months before the Rebellion began, as Revolutionary War veterans in western Massachusetts -- many of whom never received payment for their war service -- were being taxed to the point of having their farms and property foreclosed upon. Day was one such man, ultimately losing his membership in the Society of Cincinnati as a result of his leadership in the Rebellion. Interestingly, on this same day that Day apologizes to Flowers, Shay's Rebellion officially began just north in Northampton, where a mob closed down a courthouse in an attempt to stop property confiscation. Day's letter here reads in full,
''Brother Flowers, To err is human and the tol[l] of all in this Life in a greater or less - degree and I am abundantly warranted in asserting that none are exempt from the smallest Foibles and vices. But if ever we may be said to pursue the most just principles and be actuated by rectitude it seems to me to be the call if possibly no less when we are thoroughly convinced of our Offences and ready to atone, than when we are actuated by the divine impulse of forgiving injuries that I have most unprovokenly unjustly and unwarrantably abused and offended you whom I ought in a Brotherly manner to have assisted and relieved you. I blush to Confess particularly at West Springfield on the Twenty ninth of July last past near Benjamin Stubbins in using you with reproaching Language and was Assaulting your Person for which I beg your forgiveness and restoration of our former harmony and Esteem for each other and that we may after live like brethren indeed and think you will believe me when I assure you that I shall never be guilty of the like again but shall forever reprostrate the same / Elijah Day''.
Single page letter measures 8.125'' x 12.875''. Splitting along horizontal folds, with some tape repair to verso. Discoloration to one panel. Chipping to edges with small paper loss at upper left. Overall in good condition with no substantial loss of content.
Elijah Day Autograph Letter Signed, Penned the Same Day that Shay's Rebellion Began -- Day Begs Forgiveness from His Friend, a Tax Collector, for ''reproaching language and...Assaulting your Person''
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