Autograph Manuscript (with a possibly secretarial signature). A Watch-Word In love to Friends in This Land. 4 pp. 14x8".

Scarce manuscript copy of a rare broadside of which so few were printed that copies like this had to be written by hand. The American Art Association auctioned one of the printed versions in 1917 with the notation that it was “very scarce…few copies issued and apparently intended for private circulation among ‘Friends’ as evident by the writing on present copy”, which listed the names of 13 men to whom the “Watch-Word” was to be forwarded (presumably in manuscript) “without unnecessary delay”.  The author, an Irish immigrant, came to America as an uneducated youth; while apprenticed to a Philadelphia paper-maker, “ his manners were raw and uncouth, and his language vulgar and profane” because of “exposure to the contaminating influence of vicious companions”. About the time that the Revolutionary War ended, he underwent a religious conversion and became a Quaker Minister in Darby, south of Philadelphia. There, in 1789 – while President Washington was being inaugurated, the first Congress organized and the Constitution ratified – Langstroth wrote and published the “Watch-word”, which, according to an 1836 Quaker reprint, “breathes a spirit of pure love, and manifests his heart-felt concern for the safety and preservation of Friends…” While apparently intended to “recall the ‘deep anxiety and distress’” of Quaker Pacifists during the Revolutionary War, Langstroth’s prose is subtle, conveying clear meaning to his co-religionists without being overtly offensive to their fellow Americans:  “…we have lately passed through a day of great commotion and distress, wherein the foundations of many were tried and shaken” by “that spirit of strife and contention which is sorrowfully prevalent in this depraved age… now seeing that storm hath passed over and the spirit which sought our ruin seems to be at peace with us... soliciting our friendship…let us beware of the friendship of the world, for however clothed it may appear with specious pretences, it will prove to be a snare and an enemy as to our progress in the way or truth and righteousness... beware that we mix not with the people, neither run with them into a party spirit to join in setting up or pulling down any...earthly powers…watch that we be not hurried into the commotions of the day”, but rather “contribute more to our own peace and safety…" Very rare. Only the Lilly and Clements Libraries and Swarthmore hold copies of the printed broadside; this manuscript version does not seem to be held by any American institution.