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LS as Governor of Massachusetts, signed “J. H.,” one page both sides, 7 x 11.75, January 28, 1791. Letter to the "Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives," in part: "I have directed the Secretary to lay before you, an Address presented to me, by the Select Committee of the Society for propagating the Gospel among the Indians, and others, in North America. The Institution of that Society does great honor to the wisdom, and humanity, of our Government…I feel myself so much impressed with the disagreeable Situation of our fellow Citizens in the Eastern part of the Commonwealth, which I believe to be justly represented in the address of the Committee, that I cannot but urge it upon you Gentlemen, to take measures for their relief, so far as it is within your power to do it. The People, whose situation is the subject of this Message, 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. And as the strength, numbers and respectability of the Commonwealth, are encreased by extending our settlements into the wilderness, the men who undertake the arduous business, ought to have every possible encouragement…
Besides this, 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 intirely destitute of that knowledge, and information, which render the other parts of their country so respectable."
Hancock concludes by encouraging the legislature to "assist that Society in their laudable endeavours, to disseminate the principles of Religion, and morality, amongst our fellow Citizens, who are the objects of their present attention." A detached leaf is docketed: "Message communicating an address from the Society for propagating the Gospel among the Indians." In fine condition, with a block of toning to the center of the signed page and small archival repairs to fold splits.
The Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians and Others in North America, formally chartered in 1787 by a group of prominent Massachusetts citizens, was the first Protestant missionary organization of its kind in North America. The Society's object was 'the dissemination of Christian knowledge, and the means of religious instruction among all those, in their country, who were destitute of them.'
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