Massachusetts General Court | Massachusetts prepares to elect her representatives to the nascent United States House of Representatives

Massachusetts General Court

Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In the House of Representatives, June 14, 1790. Resolved, that the Commonwealth be, and hereby is divided into eight districts, for the purpose of electing eight persons to represent the people thereof in Congress of the United States. … Boston: Printed by Thomas Adams, Printer to the Honourable the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1790

Letterpress broadside (427 x 233 mm) on a sheet of laid paper preserving deckle on all margins, woodcut arms of Massachusetts at head, text in two columns with type-ornament rule between, signed in type by Speaker of the Massachusetts House David Cobb, President of the House Samuel Phillips Jr., Governor John Hancock, and Secretary of the Commonwealth John Avery Jr., contemporary endorsement on verso, “Select men of Southboro … Precepts & Papers”; neat repair to separation at central vertical fold, costing bits of three letters.

Under the new Federal Constitution, Massachusetts prepares to elect her representatives to the nascent United States House of Representatives:

“Resolved, That the Commonwealth be, and hereby is divided into eight districts, for the purpose of electing eight persons to represent the people thereof in Congress of the United States, each district to elect one Representative, who shall be an inhabitant of such district, and that the division of the Commonwealth into districts, be as follows, viz.

“The County of Suffolk, be one district.

“The County of Essex, to be one district.

“The County of Middlesex, to be one district.

“The Counties of Hampshire and Berkshire, to be one district.

“The Counties of Plymouth and Barnstable to be one district.

“The Counties of Bristol, Duke's-County and Nantucket, to be one district.

“The County of Worcester, to be one district.

“The Counties of York, Cumberland, Lincoln, Washington and Hancock, to be one district.

“And be it further Resolved, That the Selectmen of the several towns and districts within this Commonwealth, shall in manner as the law directs for calling town-meetings, cause the inhabitants of their respective towns and districts, duly qualified to vote for Representatives in the General Court of this Commonwealth, to assemble on the first Monday of October next, to give in their votes for their respective Representatives, to the Selectmen who shall preside at said meeting: And the Selectmen or the major part of them, shall in open town-meeting sort and count the votes, and shall form a list of the names of the persons voted for, with the number of votes for each person set against his name; and the Town-Clerk shall make a record thereof, and the Selectmen shall make public declaration in town-meeting of the names of the person voted for, and of the number of votes they respectively have, and shall in open town-meeting, seal up said list certified by the Selectmen, and transmit the same, within ten days, next after such meeting, to the Sheriff of the county, in which such town lies, who shall transmit the same to the Secretary of this Commonwealth, on, or before the first Monday of November next: And the Secretary shall lay the fame before his Excellency the Governour and Council;—and in case of an election for any district, by a majority of all the votes returned from such diſtrict; His Excellency the Governour is hereby requested forthwith, to transmit to the person so chosen, a certificate of such choice, signed by the Governour, and countersigned by the Secretary. … And the Secretary is hereby directed to transmit reasonably to the Sheriffs of the several Counties in this Commonwealth, copies of this Resolve for the Selectmen of the several Towns and Districts in such Counties respectively, to be by said Sheriffs transmitted to the said Selectmen accordingly.”

Very uncommon: Rare Book Hub records only three copies, sold, respectively, in 1917, 1921, and 2016; and ESTC cites copies only at the American Antiquarian Society, Boston Public Library, and Massachusetts Historical Society.

REFERENCES

Bristol B7410; ESTC W10466; Shipton & Mooney 45904. Not in Evans or Ford, Massachusetts Broadsides