Beschreibung:

more than 200 letters spanning 1741-1815 (bulk 1780-1799). Majority are unsigned, draft copies of letters written by Holten and sent to family, friends, and fellow politicians, each meticulously cataloged in his hand with a note identifying the intended recipient and the date written. Most correspondence unfolds during later stages of the Revolutionary War, and during critical early years of the new nation as the Massachusetts state constitution was written, the US Constitution was drafted, and as states and politicians debated and approved these documents. A smaller selection of letters in the archive was written to Holten, from correspondents including: Revolutionary War hero and statesman, HUTCHINSON, Col. Israel (ca 1727-1811); educator and statesman, LOVELL, James (1737-1814); diplomat for the United States in Paris and to Spain, CARMICHAEL, William (ca 1739-1795); and Massachusetts minister, WADSWORTH, Benjamin (1750-1826). References to George Washington, John Adams John Hancock Joseph Warren, Elbridge Gerry, and more. [With:] Monthly account statements spanning 1807-1811 related to Holten's service as Probate Judge for Essex County, each page approx. 6.75 x 8 in., approx. 120pp. Physician by trade and politician by passion, Samuel Holten was a zealous Patriot who dedicated his life to public service. Born in Salem Village (now Danvers), Holten studied medicine and was a practicing physician in his hometown as hostilities with the British reached a crisis point in the 1770s. He served as a major in the First Essex County Regiment militia. Alongside such notables as Paul Revere Samuel Adams, and John Hancock he began his political career serving as a member of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress from 1774 to 1775 and the Massachusetts Committee of Safety in 1775. Holten served as a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress from 1778-1780, and the United States in Congress Assembled 1783-1785, and 1787. During his terms, he signed the Articles of Confederation and was elected to serve as the legislative body's president pro tempore in August 1785. In 1792, Holten was elected to the US House of Representatives for the Third US Congress. At the state level, he was a member of the 1779 Massachusetts constitutional convention; served as a state senator from 1780-1782, and in 1784, 1786, 1789, and 1790; and served on the Governor's Council. In 1796 he was appointed judge in Essex County Probate Court, a position he held until his resignation in 1815. The earliest documents in the collection (4 in total) are dated 1741, 1749, 1762, and 1767 respectively, and bear little relation to the rest of the archive. Documents from the 1770s (11 documents) are mostly personal in nature but begin to introduce Holten's political activity, most strikingly in a document identified by Holten as "A Copy of a Complaint from [sd?] Town Clerk of Salem & warrant thereon." Dated June 1777, the document was drafted in response to a May 1777 Act of the State of Massachusetts Bay, "An Act for Securing this and other United States against the danger to which they are exposed by the internal Enemies thereof." Holten's draft indicates that on the 27th of May "the selectmen of said Town of Salem did lay before said Town a list of all such persons belonging to said Town as they did know or believe have been endeavoring since the nineteenth day of April In the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy five to counteract the United struggles of this and the United States for the preservation of their liberties & privileges," and continues then to name such persons and authorize their arrest. As a Justice of the Peace, Holten was one of the men to which the document was addressed. Four additional documents relate to Boston merchant Elias E. Warner (ca 1749-1781), brother of Holten's wife Mary Warner Holten (1737-1813). More than 100 documents span 1780-1790, with another 50 documents dating from 1790-1799. Comprised almost entirely