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REVOLUTION PREVENTED CONTINENTALTREASURY
FROM PAYING DEBTTO MASSACHUSETTS
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(AMERICAN REVOLUTION.) HANCOCK, JOHN. Autograph Letter Signed,
“JH,” as Governor, to the Massachusetts General Court, retained draft, appointing a com-
mittee to settle the Continental Treasury’s debt to MA of $15,000, incurred in 1776.
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page, 4to; short closed separations at horizontal folds, minor toning at left edge, docketing
in holograph on verso. “Council Chamber” [Boston], 18 October 1783
[1,500/2,500]
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I am possess’d of a Note of hand given to me by the Continental Treasurer in 1776, upon which
there is due about Fifteen Thousand Dollars & is the property of this Common Wealth. I repeatedly
mention’d this Circumstance to former Assemblies, they Chose a Committee but never perfected the
Business. It would be too tedious to relate minutely the matter by message, but Submit to you the
Appointment of a Committee upon the Subject, that by a Settlement the Common Wealth may be
Avail’d of their property, & myself Discharg’d of the Note.”
The text of this letter appears in Supplement to the Acts and Resolves of Massachusetts, ed. Bacon,
Vol. I, 1896.
AMERICANA
LOTS 1-25