Beschreibung:

MIFFLIN, THOMAS, President of the Continental Congress . Letter signed ("Thomas Mifflin") AS PRESIDENT OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, to Delaware Governor [John Dickinson], Philadelphia, 23 November 1783. 1 page, folio, 335 x 213mm. (13 3/16 x 8 7/16 in.), verso neatly silked, a few tiny losses at folds (not affecting text). [ With :] Autograph free frank ("Tho Mifflin") as President, on integral address leaf to the above, marked "On public service," "24/NO" Franklin mark, "FREE" handstamp, repairs along one edge , WITH INTACT RED WAX SEAL: the "E pluribus unum" motto within a circlet of clouds surrounding thirteen stars (one for each colony). THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS ANNOUNCES THE ACHIEVEMENT OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE AND THE END OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR An important letter carrying historic news. In a formal, rather stilted tone, Mifflin reports the momentous news of the signing of the Treaty of Paris by which Britain conceded American independence, and calls for immediate steps to ratify the treaty. "I have the honor to inform you, that Mr. [John] Thaxter, the private Secretary to Mr. [John] Adams, arrived here from France last evening; being dispatched, by our Minister at Paris [Benjamin Franklin], with a copy of the definitive treaty of peace between the United States of America and Great Britain; which was signed on the 3rd of September last. As I find by the last article of the treaty, it is stipulated that ' the ratifications thereof, expedited in good & due form, shall be exchanged between the contracting parties in the space of six months or sooner if possible '; to be computed from the day of the signature; and as much of that time is elapsed, I think it proper to give your Excellency this information, to the end that the delegates of your State may be impressed with the necessity of their attending in Congress as soon as possible..." Mifflin (1744-1800), a Pennsylvanian, served several terms as a delegate to the Continental Congress with short intervals as aide to Washington (1775), Quartermaster-General and Major-General in the field. He served a brief and mostly uneventful seven-month term as President of Congress (from November 1783 to July 1784); the key event during that term was the arrival of news from Paris of the signing of the Treaty of Paris. Although negotiations between the United States and Great Britain had begun in 1780, preliminary articles were not signed until 3 September 1783 and it was several weeks before official word reached the newly independent nation. See Richard B. Morris, The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence , p. 447.