Adams, John

Printed broadside (9 x 14 3/8 in.; 230 x 367 mm, 'sight'), accomplished in a clerical hand, Philadelphia, 17 July 1798, appointing Thomas Dawes, Nathaniel Dummer, Nathaniel Wills, Nathan Dane, Eleazer Brooks, Beza Haywood, Joseph Allen, Abel Whitney, and William Bacon, all of Massachusetts, to be "Commissioners of the United States under the Act of the Congress, passed on the ninth day of July, 1798, entitled 'An Act to provide for the valuation of lands and dwelling-houses and the enumeration of slaves within the United States,'" countersigned by the Secretary of State ("Timothy Pickering"), embossed paper seal; a few light stains, some closed fold separations. Matted, framed, and glazed with a portrait of Adams, and a text plaque. 

rinted broadside (9 x 14 3/8 in.; 230 x 367 mm, sight), accomplished in a clerical hand, Philadelphia, 17 July 1798, appointing Thomas Dawes, Nathaniel Dummer, Nathaniel Wills, Nathan Dane, Eleazer Brooks, Beza Haywood, Joseph Allen, Abel Whitney, and William Bacon, all of Massachusetts, to be "Commissioners of the United States under the Act of the Congress, passed on the ninth day of July, 1798, entitled 'An Act to provide for the valuation of lands and dwelling-houses and the enumeration of slaves within the United States,'" countersigned by the Secretary of State ("Timothy Pickering"), embossed paper seal; a few light stains, some closed fold separations. Matted, framed, and glazed with a portrait of Adams, and a text plaque.
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President Adams issued these appointments for the nine districts of Massachusetts just eight days after Congress passed the "Act to provide for the valuation of lands and dwelling houses and the enumeration of slaves within the United States," which created the first federal property tax levied on U.S. citizens. The legislation was passed during the Quasi-War with France and was intended to raise funds to prosecute an actual war should relations with France continue to deteriorate.