BOSTON, MASS.- RR Auction's Spirit of '76: America's 250th Anniversary Auction celebrates the 250th anniversary of the United States through the words of the people who lived it. Featuring 76 lots, the sale brings together original manuscripts and artifacts associated with George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, the Marquis de Lafayette, Benedict Arnold, King George III, and others whose words and actions shaped the American Revolution and the nation that emerged from it.

Among the sale's leading highlights is George Washington War-Dated Letter Signed, Penned in the Hand of Alexander Hamilton Four Days Before the Battle of Germantown, Addressing the Philadelphia Campaign, Burgoyne's Northern Collapse, and the Road to Saratoga (1777). Written on September 30, 1777, and signed by Washington, the letter was penned by his trusted aide-de-camp, the 22-year-old Alexander Hamilton, during the critical Philadelphia campaign. Addressed to Major General William Heath, Washington discusses Continental military supplies, British movements, captured enemy prizes at sea, and reports that General Burgoyne had been “obliged to retreat, under circumstances that threaten his ruin.” Written just four days before the Battle of Germantown, the manuscript captures Washington confronting simultaneous military crises during one of the Revolution's pivotal campaigns.

Also featured is Benjamin Franklin Twice-Signed 1,500,000-Livre Promissory Note Binding the United States to Repay France for Funding the Revolutionary War – Printed on Franklin's Own Press (1782). Completed entirely in Franklin's hand and signed twice as Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States, the document commits the young republic to repay the Royal Treasury of King Louis XVI 1,500,000 silver livres with annual interest at five percent. Produced at Franklin's Passy press outside Paris, the promissory note documents one installment of the final French loan secured during the Revolution, highlighting Franklin's central role in obtaining financial support for the United States.





Another important manuscript is John Hancock Revolutionary War-Dated Letter Signed to Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll, Announcing George Washington's Arrival at Philadelphia in 1776 and the Exhaustion of the Congressional Treasury. Dated May 24, 1776, the letter records that “General Washington arrived here yesterday afternoon in good Health” while noting that Hancock had forwarded “all that was in the Treasury” to support military operations. In very good to fine condition, the document places Hancock at the center of wartime finance and military planning just weeks before Congress appointed the Committee of Five to draft the Declaration of Independence.

Completing the story from the British perspective is a King George III Signed Royal Military Commission, Countersigned by Lord George Germain, Appointing Sir Henry Clinton “General in America only” (1776). Signed by King George III and countersigned by Lord George Germain on April 1, 1776—less than three months before the Declaration of Independence—the official commission appoints Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton “General in America only” during the opening months of the Revolutionary War. Issued as Britain prepared for its major military campaigns of 1776 following the evacuation of Boston, the document illustrates how the Crown managed command and seniority within the British Army during the conflict.

The auction also includes John Adams Letter Signed Condemning Slavery Months Before the Missouri Compromise. Written on November 20, 1819, to Boston journalist William Tudor, Adams forcefully opposes the extension of slavery into the Missouri Territory. In the letter, he describes slavery as “an evil of Colossal magnitude” and writes that he was “utterly averse” to admitting slavery into the territory. The manuscript captures Adams addressing one of the defining political debates of the early republic while urging constitutional measures to prevent the expansion of slavery.

The sale brings together the manuscripts that lit the fuse, the military orders that directed armies, the financial documents that sustained the American cause, and the correspondence that shaped a new nation. Heroes and traitors. Kings and rebels. Together, these original documents preserve the voices of revolutionaries and loyalists, soldiers and statesmen, kings and rebels, offering a remarkable record of the people and events that shaped the birth of the United States.