ICAR Research Data Repository for Knowledge Management

Petition subject: Military companies

Original: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:11018094

Date of creation: (unknown)

Petition location: Massachusetts

Legislator, committee, or address that the petition was sent to: Committee on militia

Selected signatures:

1. Robert Morris
2. John S. Rock
3. John V. de Grasse
4. George T. Downing
5. A.L. Barrett
6. Alexander Roberts
7. George Teamoh
8. William Dunn
9. John Oliver
10. John Bayley
11. John J. Smith
12. Fleming T. Johnson
13. J.L. Ruffin
14. T.R. Watson
15. Jeremiah Harvey
16. Thomas G. Williams
17. John H. Colbert
18. James Watkins
19. Richard L. Greener
20. John B. Bailey
21. Mark R. DeMortie
22. W.H. Simpson
23. Benjamin F. Washington
24. William Butler
25. L.D. Johnson
26. Lewis Hayden
27. John H. Jinkins
28. Joseph H. Johnson
29. William Redding
30. John Thomas
31. John T. Holley
32. William H. Christipher
33. J.W. Butler
34. H.G. Scott
35. George Churchwell
36. [Enoch Saunders?]
37. Francis Watkins
38. J. Samuel Thompson Jr.
39. Samuel Wye
40. J. Henry Smith
41. John Harris
42. William H. Atkins
43. P.E. Hawkins
44. John Atkins
45. J.B. Smith
46. Mathias H. Lewis
47. Joseph H. Smith
48. P.M. Howard
49. John Cotton
50. Joseph L. Barbadoes
51. William Grose
52. James F. Williams
53. Henry Smith
54. Isaac W. Smith
55. Cornelius A. Weeden
56. Charles Francis
57. James Gardner
58. Nathaniel Lee
59. Thomas W. Steamburg
60. Charles Jackson
61. Robert Johnson Jr.
62. W.H. Davis
63. W.W. Johnson

Actions taken on dates: 1861-05-22,1861-05-22

Legislative action: Received in the House on May 22, 1861 and referred to the committee on militia and sent for conurrence and received in the Senate on May 22, 1861 and concurred

Total signatures: 66

Legislative action summary: Received, referred, sent, received, concurred

Males of color signatures: 66

Female only signatures: No

Identifications of signatories: colored citizens, [males of color], ["others"]

Prayer format was printed vs. manuscript: Manuscript

Additional non-petition or unrelated documents available at archive: additional documents available

Additional archivist notes: That colored citizens may form military companies; includes M.D. next to de Grasse signature, a ready disposition to be identified with a maintenance of the government in opposition to those who would overthrow it for the sake of slavery and having never done anything to forfeit the respect or our rights as equal citizens of the commonwealth; having always been loyal, as were our fathers in times of peace, as well as when the country was periled by the fathers of some now taken into your embrace, prohibition (as is alledged) exists on the part of the national government against the enrollment of colored men in the militia, chapter 13 section 36 of the general statutes of the state, elect officers

Location of the petition at the Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth: House Unpassed 1861, discharged by committee

Acknowledgements: Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-5105612), Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University, Institutional Development Initiative at Harvard University, and Harvard University Library.