Beschreibung:

JEFFERSON, THOMAS . Document signed as Secretary of State. New York: 11 August 1790. Two page printed document with integral blank signed on the second page "Th. Jefferson," docketing to verso, housed in a gilt lettered folding cloth case. Document titled An Act for the Relief of the Persons Herein Mentioned. 15 x 9 7/8 inches (38.5 x 25.5 cm). Inlaid to larger sheet, stamps at header, folds with a few splits including a clean split affecting the signature, show through of signature, light thumbsoiling. This signed act from the second session of the first Congress provides pensions for the daughter of John Laurens and the wife of William Alexander Earl of Stirling - men of valor both killed in service during the Revolutionary War. Born in South Carolina but educated in London and Europe, during the Revolution John Laurens served as an aide-de-camp to General Washington, was Minister to France, fought alongside Alexander Hamilton, Baron von Steuben, and the Marquis de Lafayette, and, after Yorktown, was the principal spokesman in negotiating Cornwallis's surrender. He was killed at Battle of the Combahee River in his home state of South Carolina in 1782. From a prominent New York family, Lord Stirling married Sarah Livingston, the daughter of Philip Livingston and the sister of Governor William Livingston. A Major General after 1777, Stirling fought in the Battles of Brandywine and Monmouth and died in Albany in January 1783. Beyond providing for these men by name, the act further provides pensions to officers and soldiers wounded in service as well as pensions to the widows and orphaned children of those officers and soldiers killed in service. This is an important act providing for the families of fallen compatriots. C The New York City Bar Association