Item #77548 Autograph letter to John Ladd. Joseph FOX.

Autograph letter to John Ladd

Item #77548

FOX, Joseph. Autograph letter to John Ladd, signed, dated Philadelphia, February 9, 1764. 1p. Folio. Housed in custom tan morocco-backed slipcase, inner cloth chemise. An eyewitness report on the Paxton Boys. In January 1763, an armed backcountry mob marched on Philadelphia in a manifestation of ill feelings towards the eastern government. The previous month a band of frontiersmen from Paxton, Pennsylvania, had murdered twenty peaceful Native Americans without fear of court action. This gave the "Paxton Boys" rebellion its name. On 6 February the rioters were camped near the city, but the wisdom of Governor John Penn and Benjamin Franklin quelled the uprising without further violence. But the Paxton Boys affair set the tone for ongoing enmity between the government and the backcountry that continued for years, flaring up noticeably during the Whiskey Rebellion and Fries' Rebellion. This letter offers a colorful eyewitness account of preparations to receive the attack in Philadelphia, where rumors were flying. "On forth day our city was a Larmed By a fals Reporte of a New or fresh party of Riotous Raschals Coming to Town the Bells Rung and Drums Beat to Arms and to the Glory of the Cittizens thay Tuck up thare Arms in grater than Ever that in about halfe an nouer thay had formed them selves into a Body Capapble to Receive them had they Bin Ten times the Numbers that Ever appeared at Jourmtown and waited for Nothing But orders to a Tack them the millitary Spirit semed to increase so fast that I Believe where thay have departed to go home and slink away as if thay had stole sumthing and I Belive thay will Before thay get their I cant Larne what they demand." Joseph Fox, a carpenter, became wealthy and prominent through inheritance. A political associate of Franklin and longtime member of the Pennsylvania assembly, he was inclined to militancy as this letter demonstrates, and was disowned by the Quakers for that reason. During the Revolution he was a patriot.

Price: $5,000.00

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