Relocating Loyalists... Wishing for the life from before independence...
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January 10, 1784
THE LONDON CHRONICLE, England, Jan. 10, 1784
* Post Revolutionary War
* Plight of the Loyalists
Page 2 has a report from New York noting in part: "...a considerable number of soldiers, whose regiments had been disbanded by authority, have settled in the territories of the United States rather than go to Nova Scotia where they would have been sent at government expense. Several of these soldiers too had received arrears of pay...". Further on: "...people begin to be a little settled in their minds & no further search or inquiry is now made about the Loyalists...the people only want a regular form of government...".
Page 6 has a letter from Boston concerning troubles with paper money: "...Congress is trying their utmost to bring them to par, & propose to erect a bank at Philadelphia...Our troubles seem to increase with our independency. I most heartily wish I had my old connections in England again, upon the same footing I was in ten years ago."
Eight pages, 8 1/2 by 11 1/2 inches, very nice condition.
Background: This excerpt from The London Chronicle in January 1784 captures a critical, volatile turning point in Atlantic history: the immediate, chaotic aftermath of the American Revolutionary War following the signing of the Treaty of Paris in late 1783. The historical significance of these reports lies in their raw, unfiltered look at the immense economic instability and social reorganization facing the infant United States. Nationally, the United States was drowning in severe inflation and war debt, causing intense "buyer's remorse" among citizens who openly longed for the financial stability of old British rule; this widespread economic panic and distrust of paper money eventually forced Congress to charter the Bank of North America in Philadelphia, a foundational step toward a centralized American financial system. Socially, the texts document the massive geopolitical shift of the Loyalist diaspora. While over 35,000 British sympathizers and disbanded soldiers fled to the harsh wilderness of Nova Scotia, these paragraphs reveal the surprising reality that many regular soldiers chose to risk staying in the U.S. due to receiving back-pay and a rapidly cooling political climate. As the initial revolutionary fervor died down and the persecution of Tories subsided, the American populace shifted its focus away from wartime retribution and toward a desperate demand for a "regular form of government"—a growing domestic anxiety that directly catalyzed the abandonment of the weak Articles of Confederation and the drafting of the U.S. Constitution a few years later.
* Post Revolutionary War
* Plight of the Loyalists
Page 2 has a report from New York noting in part: "...a considerable number of soldiers, whose regiments had been disbanded by authority, have settled in the territories of the United States rather than go to Nova Scotia where they would have been sent at government expense. Several of these soldiers too had received arrears of pay...". Further on: "...people begin to be a little settled in their minds & no further search or inquiry is now made about the Loyalists...the people only want a regular form of government...".
Page 6 has a letter from Boston concerning troubles with paper money: "...Congress is trying their utmost to bring them to par, & propose to erect a bank at Philadelphia...Our troubles seem to increase with our independency. I most heartily wish I had my old connections in England again, upon the same footing I was in ten years ago."
Eight pages, 8 1/2 by 11 1/2 inches, very nice condition.
Background: This excerpt from The London Chronicle in January 1784 captures a critical, volatile turning point in Atlantic history: the immediate, chaotic aftermath of the American Revolutionary War following the signing of the Treaty of Paris in late 1783. The historical significance of these reports lies in their raw, unfiltered look at the immense economic instability and social reorganization facing the infant United States. Nationally, the United States was drowning in severe inflation and war debt, causing intense "buyer's remorse" among citizens who openly longed for the financial stability of old British rule; this widespread economic panic and distrust of paper money eventually forced Congress to charter the Bank of North America in Philadelphia, a foundational step toward a centralized American financial system. Socially, the texts document the massive geopolitical shift of the Loyalist diaspora. While over 35,000 British sympathizers and disbanded soldiers fled to the harsh wilderness of Nova Scotia, these paragraphs reveal the surprising reality that many regular soldiers chose to risk staying in the U.S. due to receiving back-pay and a rapidly cooling political climate. As the initial revolutionary fervor died down and the persecution of Tories subsided, the American populace shifted its focus away from wartime retribution and toward a desperate demand for a "regular form of government"—a growing domestic anxiety that directly catalyzed the abandonment of the weak Articles of Confederation and the drafting of the U.S. Constitution a few years later.
Item from last month's catalog - #365 - released for April, 2026
Category: British
