Books and Manuscripts

Massachusetts, September 2, 1803. One oblong sheet, 4 5/8 x 12 1/4 in. (117 x 311 mm). Partially-printed United States Loan-Office certificate for $1,000 (No. 196), issued to Major Moses Porter of the United States Army, "bearing interest at Five and an half per centum annum, from the first day of July 1803...payable quarter-yearly"; signed by Commissioner of Loans for Massachusetts, Thomas Perkins; engraved border; circular cancel perforation in Perkins' signature; inscribed on verso by Porter transferring the debt to Thomas Tudor Tucker, Treasurer of the United States, "in trust for said States at the United States Loan Office Massachusetts," dated September 3, 1807. Creasing from contemporary folds. Not in Anderson

Moses Porter (1756-1822) was a career army officer, and one of the only officers to serve both in the American Revolution and the War of 1812. During the Revolution he served in artillery at the Battle of Bunker Hill, and during the rest of his career was stationed at posts throughout the United States, including Fort Detroit, Fort Mackinac, Fort Niagara, and New Orleans. At the time of the issuance of this loan certificate he was a major of four battalions, and had been recently retained in that role under the Military Peace Establishment Act of 1802, that greatly reorganized the U.S. Military under President Thomas Jefferson. During the War of 1812 he was promoted to general and was stationed again in Fort Niagara before being placed in a command at Fort Norfolk, Virginia.