Crocker, Joseph (1749-1797) to Henry Knox
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.04401 Author/Creator: Crocker, Joseph (1749-1797) Place Written: Boston, Massachusetts Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 1 November 1789 Pagination: 2 p. ; 30 x 18.3 cm. Order a Copy
Relates details of George Washington's visit to Boston in October 1789, and praises the Triumphal Arch that was erected to honor the occasion: "The Reception of the President in this Town, was beyond discription [sic] superb: you will see Accounts of it in our Papers but they are vastly short of the real pomp & parade. The Assemblee at Concert Hall, I am enformed by several Gentlemen, was superb beyond description. The Triumphal Arch adjoining the State House is yet standing, & does [g]reat Honor to the Inventors." Mentions an illness sweeping town, noting that it is called the "President's Cough" because its emergence coincided with Washington's parade. Describes the parade in detail: "The parade reach.d from the fortification to the State-House, opening to right & left & waiting the arrival of their beloved Father, from 11- O.Clock A.M. till 2 O. Clock PM, when he rode thro' the different Orders till he arrived at the Arch. The Affections of the Inhabitants have been like a troubled Sea, & have as yet not arrived to a proper calm. The President left Town on thursday morn." Page two contains a continuation of an apparently unrelated letter, GLC02437.04402. Address and docket for this letter appear on verso of GLC02437.04402.
Crocker was a Harvard graduate, Revolutionary War soldier, and a member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati (for a full biography of Crocker, please refer to the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati's records).
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