Adams, Samuel, as Governor of Massachusetts

Document signed ("Samuel Adams") plus two testimonies signed by the secretary John Avery, in all 7 pages (12 5/8 x 7 3/4 in.; 320 x 196 mm), Council Chamber, Boston, Massachusetts, 29 February 1796, to the Magistrates of the County of Lincoln; formerly folded, very clean. Blue half-morocco clamshell box.

formerly folded, very clean.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Samuel Adams served four terms as governor of Massachusetts and as leader of his state's Jeffersonian Republicans, but he strayed from his party by supporting the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. The present document was written one year before his retirement, and his signature shows signs of the tremor that made him, in the last decade of his life, unable to write.

Lawlessness had again reared up in Massachusetts when Ephraim Ballard was, while surveying the boundaries between the state's land, the Plymouth claim, and the Waldo patent in Lincoln County [now Maine], attacked and insulted. Testimonies to this incident are provided by Ballard, and by member of the Jones family in a separate affadavit. The local magistrates had so far neglected to redress this injustice.

These testimonies are included with Adams's order to bring the attackers to justice: "The Legislature of the Commonwealth being desirous to bring to an end, those litigations respecting Land titles in the County of Lincoln, which have for a long time embarrassed and retarded the settlement and cultivation of that part of the Commonwealth ... It is with the advice of the Council that I address you on this important subject. The Supreme Executive cannot admit the idea that the execution of the Laws has been for a moment restrained by fear; for should your candid and friendly explanation, and your firm determination to carry the laws into execution ... prove insufficient to produce actual submission, such part of the force of the Commonwealth as shall be necessary must be exerted to suppress every opposition to the Government."