Langdon, John

Autograph letter signed ("John Langdon"), 3 pages, 4to (9 1/2 x 7 1/4 in.; 242 x 185 mm), Portsmouth, 10 November 1777, to Robert Morris, with sympathy for the fall of Philadelphia to the British, eyewitness news of Burgoyne's surrender, and suggestions for transporting supplies from Portsmouth to Boston and for regulating "marine business"; washed and pressed, pp. 2–3 skillfully reinforced with Japanese tissue to close holes caused chiefly by ink oxidation. Blue cloth folding case, blue morocco spine lettered gilt.

A loud report of satisfaction over the defeat of General Burgoyne at Saratoga. Langon smugly writes to financier and Pennsylvania delegate Robert Morris (by way of consolation for the recent loss of Philadelphia to the British): " [P]ermit me to tell you that the polite Mr. Burgoyne with all his Army are at Cambridge, in the very quarters and lines that were occupied by General Washington's Army with this Difference that Mr. Burgoyne's Army have no arms in their hands ... You can better Conceive than I can Describe, the Satisfaction it gave me to be one of those, to whom the British Army were Obliged to Submit. The Scene was grand."  After Ticonderoga fell to Burgoyne in July 1777, there was a general fear that New Hampshire would be his next target. The state legislature needed to raise an army to protect its western frontier but lacked the money to do so. Legend has it that Langdon, then speaker of the house, offered $3,000 in hard cash and pledged the plate in his home for another $3,000. It isn't clear whether Langon actually donated his personal fortune, but the legislature authorized General John Stark to raise a militia on 18 July. He recruited 1,500 militiamen in six days and defeated a detachment of Burgoyne's army at Bennington on 16 August 1777. The battle was an important victory as it reduced Burgoyne's army by almost 1,000 men, caused his Indian support to largely abandon him, and deprived him of needed supplies, all factors contributing to his surrender at Saratoga on 17 October 1777.