COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS THE SELECTMEN OF THE TOWN OF Sherburne IN THE FIRST DISTRICT, VIZ SUFFOLK, ESSEX AND MIDDLESEX. GREETING. THESE ARE IN THE NAME OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO WILL AND REQUIRE YOU.TO GIVE IN THEIR VOTES. [caption title and beginning of text]. [Printed with:] THESE CERTIFY, THAT THE RETURNS FROM THE SEVERAL TOWNS, WITHIN THE FIRST DISTRICT, VIZ - SUFFOLK, ESSEX, AND MIDDLESEX, RESPECTING THE CHOICE OF REPRESENTATIVES TO REPRESENT THE PEOPLE, THEREOF, IN THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, HAVE BEEN EXAMINED.[beginning of text]

[Massachusetts]: [Elections]

Published by Printed by Thomas Adams, [N.p., but likely Boston, 1793

Two separate texts printed on one folio sheet, 13 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches. Paper seal affixed to upper left corner. Original folds, minor edge wear. Near fine. An apparently unrecorded pair of election documents recording early ballot vote tallies and a subsequent call for another ballot for the two remaining candidates for the at-large seat in the First District of Massachusetts for the Third United States Congressional seat in 1792. The elections for the Third Congress in 1792 were important in the political development of the United States, as they further cemented the fledgling two- party system in the country. President George Washington, who won unanimous reelection in 1792, remained unaffiliated with any political party while in office, but his allies were largely members of the Federalist Party. The opposition to Washington's policies generally centered on the Democratic-Republican Party. The text in the upper part of the sheet instructs qualified voters to cast a further ballot in the 1792 Congressional election, while the bottom document lists the two remaining candidates for the at-large seat in the first district, Samuel Holten and Benjamin Austin. The later imprint is at the top of the present sheet, while the earlier vote tally is printed at the bottom. The later imprint, dated February 15, 1793, calls for "the freeholders and other inhabitants of the town of Sherburne duly qualified to vote for Representatives" to assemble and cast their ballots, which the Selectmen will "sort and count." The earlier document is a certified return declaring vote totals for Holten and Austin, with Holten receiving 1,100 and Austin garnering 1,260. The 1792 elections for the Massachusetts' First Congressional District were hotly contested. After some redistricting based on the 1790 census, Massachusetts' representation in the House jumped from eight to fourteen seats; the First District received an at-large seat along with one representative for each county - Suffolk, Essex, and Middlesex. With no single member winning a majority of the vote in a series of ballots for the at-large seat, the balloting continued into the fall, and then into the spring of 1793 before it was settled. The first vote was held on November 2, 1792; the second on January 14, 1793; and the election was settled on the third ballot on April 1, when Samuel Holten won almost seventy percent of the vote as an anti-administration candidate. The document printed at the bottom here must have been an early preliminary ballot, as it reports more votes for Austin than it does for Holten, and it is dated four months before the first official ballot was cast in the at-large race. The four candidates eventually elected to the Third Congress from the Massachusetts First District were Samuel Holten (at-large), Benjamin Goodhue (Essex), Samuel Dexter (Middlesex), and Fisher Ames (Suffolk). Three of the four elected from the First District of Massachusetts were allies of President Washington: Goodhue, Dexter (who unseated the anti-administration Gerry), and Ames. Samuel Holten was the only anti- Washington representative from the First District of Massachusetts, and would help turn the majority of the House of Representatives to the anti-administration faction, though it was a narrow majority. The top document is filled out for the town of Sherburne. Both documents are signed in manuscript by John Avery, the First Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Avery served in this position from 1780 until his death in 1806. Both documents are also signed in print by Governor John Hancock. While not yet reporting final results for the 1792 race, this document does call for the final ballot which decided the election, and provides an important view of federal-period electoral politics in Massachusetts. No copies of either of these imprints appear in OCLC. Evans records a couple of documents similar to the first imprint here, both for the selectmen of an unnamed town in the Second. Seller Inventory # WRCAM56587

Bibliographic Details

Title: COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS THE SELECTMEN ...
Publisher: Printed by Thomas Adams, [N.p., but likely Boston
Publication Date: 1793