Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Mary LaskerMary Lasker
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 1143

employ some Italians to do other work around his place, but who also played musical instruments, and he named what he wanted them to play and asked his friend to help find these people, and said that perhaps these people would come and work for a few years and they would be given safe transport home through France, since that was the only way they could possibly get back. At the end of the letter, of which there is another copy in Jefferson's hand in the Cong ressional Library, there is a postscript from a man named Bellini, who was the Secretary of State of Virginia, in which he tells Fabroni that he's the Secretary of State of Virginia and that the colonies are going to win because the Americans are much better sharpshooters than the British because they've had to lie from infancy with their guns, and he gives him numerous messages for friends in Italy.

This letter, with the postscript from Bellini, is unique. There were two letters. This one was probably captured by the British, because it was in some way related to something of General Clinton's. The other letter is in the Congressional Library. I don't think Fabroni ever got either letter. Evidently it was a routine thing to make two copies of a letter, just as we make a copy to a letter. They sent two copies because they felt that the chances of anybody getting it -- there were so many hazards especially in wartime, and the ships were not always very safe. So they sent two copies.





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help