Partly printed DS as president, signed “John Adams,” one page on vellum, 12 x 18, December 3, 1799. A scalloped-top ship’s papers issued at Charleston, South Carolina for the vessel Otsego, commanded by Daniel Bythewood and “mounted with fourteen guns, navigated with thirty men....” According to genealogical records, the British-born Bythewood (1764–1848) prospered as a sea captain and merchant before becoming a Baptist missionary at the behest of his wife. On the same day he signed this document, Adams delivered his third State of the Union address, during which he spoke on troubled relations with France and Great Britain over the issue of privateering by those nations in the Caribbean, difficulties with the Jay Treaty with Great Britain, and the forthcoming move of the seat of federal government from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. Countersigned by Timothy Pickering as secretary of state. A remnant of the seal remains at lower left. Intersecting folds (vertical fold just touching “A”), and light wrinkling, otherwise fine, bright condition. Adams’s signature is clear and quite large. Auction LOA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
