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HANCOCK, JOHN

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HANCOCK, JOHN
(1737 - 1793) American Revolutionary politician and first signer of the Declaration of Independence, President of the Continental Congress and two-time Governor of Massachusetts. Important L.S. "J.H. Council Cham[bers] Jany 28th 1791" as Governor of Massachusetts, 2pp. legal folio, his retained copy of a message to the Senate and House of Representatives concerning the importance he places upon the education of Native Americans and others in Massachusetts. This letter accompanied a petition from the Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians which in 1789 had received a large private endowment for the purchase of Bibles, farm implements and other articles to be used for the education and eventual assimilation of the Indians. Here the Society seeks a state grant to enable missionaries to travel to eastern parts of the state to educate the population. Hancock's letter reads, in small part: "…I feel myself so much impressed with the disagreeable Situation of our fellow Citizens in the Eastern part of the Commonwealth [likely Maine]…that I cannot but urge …[you] to take measures for their relief…The People...are obliged to Suffer toil, hunger, and all the hardships which are incident to the Settlement of a new country; whilst every tree they cut down, and every acre of wild Land they Subdue contributes to the wealth of the State.... there will be a peculiar disadvantage in having so numerous a body of people, as the rising generation in that part of the Commonwealth will form, Situated upon a frontier point of the United States, almost entirely destitute of that knowledge and information which render the other parts of their Country so respectable…the resources of the State by the appropriation of Wild lands…are such, as will allow you to assist that Society…to disseminate the principles of Religion and morality amongst our fellow Citizens…". Weak folds with some splits just starting, small toned area of text on second page, overall very good.