Morris, Gouverneur, as Minister Plenipotentiary to France

Autograph manuscript, 3 pages 4to (9 1/8 x 7 5/8 in.; 232 x 192 mm), [Paris, 4 July 1794], being an Independence Day address, docketed "4 July address | 1794" on the verso by Morris; second leaf inlaid.  Beige linen folding case, tan morocco spine, black lettering pieces.  

Elsie O. and Philip D. Sang (sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 20 June 1979, lot 791) — Dr. Max Thorek (stamp on blank verso of second leaf and sale, Parke Bernet, 15 November 1960, lot 398)

The United States Minister addresses the French nation on American Independence Day. "It has been assigned as my duty on this occasion to read the Declaration of our Independence. The circumstances that gave birth to that great event are recent and too well impressed on all your minds to need any observations. Many are here who were active in its achievement and some too perhaps who ratified the deed ... Posterity will view with lively pleasure the pages of history that record the names of those virtuous sages who firmly made this declaration ... As impressed with that sentiment I cannot but observe how much we are indebted to our Gallic brothers ... "