Beschreibung:

WASHINGTON, George. Autograph letter signed ("G o: Washington") as Commander-in-Chief, Continental Army, to Governor [William] Livingston, (1723-1790), the text in the hand of David Cobb, Washington's aide-de-camp, Head Quarters, Newburgh [New York], 12 June 1783. 23 pp., folio (12 7/8 x 7 15/16 in.), the sheets originally sewn together, with three small binding holes in left-hand margin, minor browning at edges and folds, neat repairs or silking to short marginal tears or fraying at extreme edges, penultimate leaf with small marginal patch, last leaf reinforced along one fold and with upper right-hand corner torn away with loss of two words ("nation" and "be" in Washington's final sentence). A full transcript of the letter is available on request. [With:] WASHINGTON. The Last Official Address of his Excellency General Washington . Hartford: Hudson & Goodwin, 1783. 8vo, 48pp., stabbed and sewn, uncut as issued, minor fraying to margins; half morocco slipcase. Evans 18259; Sabin 101533. WASHINGTON'S FIRST FAREWELL ADDRESS, THE "CIRCULAR TO THE STATES" AT THE END OF THE WAR, WITH THE UNITED STATES NOW "POSSESSED OF ABSOLUTE FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCY," WASHINGTON SPELLS OUT THE PRINCIPLES ESSENTIAL TO THE NEW NATION'S FUTURE EXISTENCE, BIDS "A LAST FAREWELL TO THE CARES OF OFFICE, AND ALL OF THE EMPLOYMENTS OF PUBLIC LIFE," AND PROPHESIES THAT "WITH OUR FATE WILL THE DESTINY OF UNBORN MILLIONS BE INVOLVED" One of thirteen official secretarial manuscripts, signed by Washington, of Washington's first farewell address, the so-called Circular to the States. Although (like the later Farewell Address), it was never delivered as a speech, this historic letter marked Washington's retirement as Commander-in-Chief on the eve of the signing of the Treaty of Paris that confirmed the independence of the new nation after seven long years of warfare. This lengthy, thoughtful, and at times almost visionary communication ranks in importance with the 1796 Farwell Address, and undoubtedly constitutes one of the most significant of all Washington's public statements on his nation's inception, its promise and its future. With an outspokenness which he rarely allowed himself in later life, Washington carefully sets out what he believes to be the critical issues facing the newly independent republic, warns against a panoply of pitfalls it must avoid, and admonishes his fellow citizens to observe four critical principles which he conceives to be essential to the very "existence of the United States as an independent power." "The great object for which I had the honor to hold an appointment in the Service of my Country being accomplished, I am now preparing to resign it into the hands of Congress, and to return to that domestic retirement which it is well known I left with the greatest reluctance; a retirement for which I have never ceased to sigh, through a long and painfull absence; and in which...I meditate to pass the remainder of my life, in a state of undisturbed repose. But before I carry this resolution into effect, I think it a duty incumbent upon me, to make this my last official communication, to congratulate you on the glorious events which Heaven has been pleased to produce in our favor, to offer some important sentiments which appear to me to be intimately connected with the tranquility of the United States, to take my leave...as a public character, and to give my final blessing to that country in whose servivc I have spent the prime of my life, for whose sake I have consumed so many anxious days and watchfull nights, and whose happiness being extremely dear to me, will always constitute no inconsiderable part of my own..." "The citizens of America, placed in the most enviable conditions, as the sole Lords and Proprietors of a vast Tract of Continent, comprehending all the various solid and climates of the World, and abounding with all the necessaries and conveniences of life, are now by the late satisfactory pacification, acknowledged