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A rare, handwritten letter by Thomas Jefferson, in which the founding father and third president expounds the right of citizens to bear arms in a revolutionary cause, has been uncovered in New England and offered for sale to mark the Fourth of July holiday.
The holiday also marks the 199th anniversary of his death.
Jefferson penned the letter to Virginia’s then governor Benjamin Harrison on 31 December 1783, shortly after the conclusion of the revolutionary war that ended British opposition to the US declaration of independence seven years earlier.
Written from Annapolis, the temporary capital of the fledgling country, the letter is notable for Jefferson’s observation of a rising tide of revolutionary fervor in Europe, and his citing of the insistence of citizens there to be able to take up arms against their rulers, as residents of the 13 colonies had done against the British crown.
He tells Harrison that “citizens of the Dutch states are all in commotion” against the stadtholder regime of William V, the prince of Orange. He goes on to say that “of 80,000 men able to bear arms among them it is believed scarcely any will refuse to sign this demand”.
The original was in the hands of a private collector for more than half a century, dealer Nathan Raab of the Pennsylvania-based Raab Collection said. It was considered missing by custodians of the Jefferson papers at the University of Virginia.
“We are not aware of any letter having reached the market from a signer, let alone author of the declaration of independence on the right of democratic citizens to bear arms and oppose autocracy,” said Raab, who values the document at about $90,000.
“To see Jefferson, whose declaration of independence lit the spark of … western hemisphere liberty, rejoicing that these independence movements are gaining steam, and the people are making demands … it’s about as evocative an expression of the democratic right to bear arms of the people as you can get.
“He’s basically saying the momentum is toward democracy, not royalty.”
While the letter showcases Jefferson’s thoughts on justice overseas, his life in the US was much darker and less stable. He was the owner of more than 600 slaves – more than any other person who became president.
Another letter uncovered by Raab last year highlighted Jefferson’s financial misadventures that left him also penniless immediately before, and during, his time in the White House from 1801 to 1809.
The letter to Harrison, Raab said, also reflects Jefferson’s growing anxiety over ratification of the Treaty of Paris, which was signed in France in September 1783 by Britain, the US and others, to end the revolutionary war.
The agreement required at least nine of the 13 new states to sign the document at a congressional summit in Annapolis called for November, and send it back to London – a two-month voyage away – by March 1784.
But bad weather prevented several delegations from reaching the summit, and in his 31 December letter Jefferson wrote: “We have yet but seven states, and no more certain prospects of nine than at any time heretofore. We hope that the letters sent to the absent states will bring them forward”.
Raab said: “It’s like you’re at the finish line and waiting to cross it. This is not a situation where you send it over by email; it had to cross the Atlantic twice. It’s also the 1700s. You’re not hopping on transatlantic flights, these people are coming from distant destinations on horseback.”
Representatives from Connecticut and South Carolina eventually arrived days later, and the treaty was ratified on 14 January and dispatched urgently to London.
The letter, Raab said, provides an intriguing snapshot of a crucial time in American history, with a brand new nation beginning to find its feet and in turn inspiring others to challenge centuries of established rules of governance overseas.
“It speaks to us today on many levels,” he said. “We can see the power and inspiration of Jefferson’s pen as he can begin to reflect on the success of his work and the American revolution, and witness democratic ideals spreading worldwide.”
