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Autograph Letter Signed, William Stephens Smith

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War of 1812

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War of 1812 Dated Letter By William Stephens Smith the Son-in-law of John Adams and the Brother-in-law of John Quincy Adams

Autograph Letter Signed, "W. S. Smith," dated 1814, City of Washington, with Integral Address Leaf, Very Fine.
This important letter is dated February 4, 1814, at the City of Washington, 8" x 14", where William S. Smith has written to his brother, Justus B. Smith, regarding the War of 1812 Period talks in Washington, DC, and about a specific speech he gave that saved the nation 5 million dollars! This letter closes with "God bless you and yours, W. S. Smith", and has a docket on the other side reading "Wm. S. Smith Feby. 4th 1814." With some usual folds and wax seal tears where opened, the letter is franked with "Free" on the integral address leaf. This letter reads in part:
"Enclosed I send you a Baltimore paper in which you will observe I have been making a war talk in Congress - which in the course of a day or two I will send you - It is acknowledged on all hands that my speech produced an immediate change in the minds of the Military Committee and of the blind adherents to the Administration, and produced a clear savings to the nation of five millions of dollars ...."
A veteran of the Revolutionary War, Smith was at this time a Congressman, and wrote this letter from Washington, which not long before had been burned by the British.

William Stephens Smith (1755-1816) was the Son-in-law of President John Adams and the Brother-in-law of President John Quincy Adams. He served in the Revolutionary Army as Aide-de-camp to General Sullivan in 1776, was on the staff of General Lafayette in 1780 and 1781, and then transferred to the staff of General Washington. He was the Secretary of the Legation at London in 1784, and was appointed by President Washington to be United States Marshal for the District of New York in 1789. He was one of the founders of the Society of the Cincinnati, serving as its President from 1795 to 1797. He was elected to the House of Representitives as a Federalist to the Thirteenth Congress 1813-1815.

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