Found 3 collections related to Massachusetts -- Politics and government -- To 1775

The Boston Committee of Correspondence was formed at the Boston Town Meeting of November 2, 1772 in response to the British government’s decision to pay the governor and Superior Court judges of Massachusetts with Crown stipends, thereby making them dependent on the Crown rather than the people in assembly. With the participation of Samuel Adams and others, the Committee prepared statements of the colonists’ rights and the violation of those rights by Great Britain, and sent them to other Massachusetts towns in pamphlet form, asking for their support and advice. In response to what became known as the Boston Pamphlet, similar committees formed in towns across Massachusetts and in other American colonies, helping to create a network of colonial communication ultimately leading to independence from Great Britain. The Boston Committee of Correspondence records, dated 1772-1784, document the Committee’s initiatives in colonial political action in Massachusetts, from the writing of the Boston Pamphlet in November 1772 through the early months of war with Great Britain in 1775, as well as the Committee's contact with other colonies. The records also document its continued work as the Committee of Correspondence, Inspection and Safety, 1777-1784, largely concerned with investigating suspected enemies of the American cause. less

Joseph Hawley (1723-1788) of Northampton, Massachusetts, a lawyer, legislator and militia officer, was one of the foremost political leaders of the American revolutionary movement in Massachusetts. The Joseph Hawley papers, dating 1653 to 1804, consist of letters and documents relating to him or members of his family dealing with public and private affairs, especially during the colonial wars and the Revolutionary era. Among these are letters to and from Joseph Hawley and his brother Elisha Hawley; Elisha Hawley’s brief journal of the Crown Point expedition, 1755; items pertaining to the ministry of Jonathan Edwards in Northampton; and papers of the Northampton Committee of Correspondence, of which Hawley was chairman. The collection also includes Joseph Hawley's writings on religious, legal and political topics, circa 1740s-1783, notably concerning the Stamp Act and the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention; sermon notes, 1724-1750, taken by Joseph Hawley with his own Bible commentaries, the early notes probably taken by Joseph Hawley's father; Hawley's legal notes on a dispute between a Mr. French and Joseph Allen of Deerfield, [1750]; and two undated texts in Latin, possibly from Hawley’s student days. less