TALLEYRAND (Charles-Maurice de). Autograph letter signed "ch - Lot 90

TALLEYRAND (Charles-Maurice de). Autograph letter signed "ch. mau. talleyrand", addressed to Nicholas Low. PHILADELPHIA, June 8, 1796. One p. 1/2 in-4, address on back. "My dear Mr. Low, I DO NOT WISH TO LEAVE AMERICA WITHOUT HAVING GIVEN YOU MY GOODBYE, and having thanked you for all your obliging attentions to me. Please accept my regards and best wishes to Madame Low. SOMETIMES SAY AMONG YOURSELVES THAT YOU HAVE ONE MORE FRIEND IN EUROPE. I beg you to follow up the little affair you started with the French consul [a supply deal for French troops in the West Indies, in which he acted as a paid intermediary]. When it is completed, you will hand over the funds to Mr. Cazenove, who has been kind enough to advance me this sum. I have given him a draft on you to be drawn at the time you make this small recovery. I renew my thanks and my apologies for all the trouble this miserable affair has given you. I have the honor of renewing to you the assurance of the sentiments of esteem and respect with which I am, my dear Mr. Low, your... ch. mau. talleyrand". TALLEYRAND EMIGRATES TO THE UNITED STATES AS A BUSINESSMAN. Having left France for England in September 1792, he was soon expelled and, in April 1794, reached the United States, where he remained for over two years. Settling in Philadelphia, then the federal capital, he was well received, despite the initial hostility of the city's French consul, who was close to Robespierre, and whose protests prevented him from being received by Washington. He frequented Moreau de Saint-Méry, who had become a bookseller, and members of the liberal nobility in emigration, such as the vicomte de Noailles, La Fayette's brother-in-law. He made long excursions to New York State and Maine, living in the open air, sleeping in trapper's cabins... In Philadelphia, he stayed with Théophile Cazenove, a businessman he had met around 1780 in the entourage of Geneva banker Panchaud, who was at the center of a financial network linking Amsterdam, London, Philadelphia and New York, engaged in land speculation. He established ties with Alexander Hamilton, former aide-de-camp to George Washington, Secretary of the Treasury from 1789 to 1795 and founder of the National Bank of the United States. Because of his links with this privileged source of information and with financiers on the Old Continent, but also because of his keen eye for land and people, he became a key agent in the American-European speculative game, even earning the admiration of banker Alexander Baring (who doubted his honesty). He acted as an intermediary in numerous deals, and also conducted operations on his own behalf. His keen eye for detail led him to predict the rise of New York (then with a population of only 10,000), the future power of the United States and its enduring ties with England. THE AMERICAN PATRIOT BANKER AND POLITICIAN NICHOLAS LOW (1739-1826) was a member of the New York Assembly during the Revolutionary War, and a member of the New York Convention that ratified the Federal Constitution of 1787. A distant relative and friend of Alexander Hamilton, he became one of America's leading merchants and financiers after Independence, profiting from the settlement of the American debt. Appointed director of the Bank of New York and then of the New York subsidiary of the Bank of the United States, a large part of his fortune subsequently came from land speculation. He was also the business partner of Rufus King, who, as a senator, was deeply involved in the American banking system, and who served as U.S. ambassador to London from May to July 1796.