Beschreibung:

Collection of 23 papers related to Samuel Holten (1738-1816) spanning from 1751-1814, including: land deeds, requests to pay debts, notes to Holten concerning legal cases, receipts, documents signed and written by Holten, and more. Physician by trade and politician by passion, Samuel Holten was a zealous Whig who dedicated his life to public service. 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. A curious portion of a document in the lot simply labeled A draft concerning grievances reads: The King of Britain is our Sovereign, we bear true allegiance to him and are pleading for his just [illegible] expecting the colonies- That part of the government of the colonies, which of right belongs to the crown ought to be unrestrained and free from every their check but what arises from that share of the Government which our own Houses of Assembly hold of exercise by charter, and should be left to the free exercise of all that [illegible] granted to them by charter there would be no danger of Indepency on the crown. Our charter gives great Power to the crown in its Representative fully sufficient to alliance analogous to the [illegible] all the Liberty privileges reserved to the People--not alaw can pass not a penny of public money can be raised or disposed of by his consent, and should any act of assembly that may be disagreeable to the King accidentally obtain the Governor's consent it may be annuled in time three years by the King. The government has appointment of all executive officers with the Consult of council and solely all of the military officers. He has a negative upon the choice of counsellors, upon the speaker of the House and upon the few civil officers, that are chosen by both Houses, he has also the Power of cutting, prorogning(?) adjourning and dipardoning(?) the General Assembly. whosoever considers this powering all its branches given by our charter to the crown, will be far from thinking that out political [illegible] according to the charter, bears too much on the popular side; or that our fellow subjects in Great Britain can be in any danger of being injured by any acts of Government here, when their Sovereign who resides with them and whose predilection, if he may be summoned to have any, must be on their side, has such a check by his authority and so great an influence by his appointments upon the government of this Province. and there is so little reason from the construction of our charter to apprehend that the Democratic part of our Government will ever lie beyond its due bound. that even with all the favorable allowances to the People of which the [illegible] of the charter will bear, the danger seems to be on the other side and that their rights and privileges may by degrees be improved by the great power and indulgence on the other scale so ballance all this power and influence what is reserved to the people? The sale right of granting their own property and giving their consent to the laws by which they are to be governed--take away these, and the government expentially(?) differs from that of our fellow subjects in Great Britain and at once becomes despotic(?) after al that we have said upon these points we would be far from being understood to have in the law abated that just sense of Allegiance which we owe to the King of Great Britain our rightful sovereign. The document is not in Holten’s hand. However, an annotation on the margin of the document appears to be written by him. His annotation suggests that another individual drafted the proposal and either sent or gave it to Holten to review. The draft of grievances was most likely produced for either the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, Massachusetts Committee of Safety, or at a local Town Meeting prior to the American Revolutionary War. On May 20, 1774 the Parliament of Great Britain passed the Massachusetts Government Act and revoked t