Sold – Hancock Sends a Delegate to Congress to Join Debate on the Treaty of Paris

A Delegate to represent this Commonwealth in the Congress of the United States of America

The crux of the disputes that led to the American Revolution was over representation. The colonies had no elected representatives in Parliament, and the colonists believed that it was a breach of their rights as Englishmen to have laws passed that applied to them without their participation. “No taxation without representation” was the cry, and the right to freely elect representatives the demand.   

The formation of a representative body to act for the colonies was job one when the need arose to organize resistence to British measures. The First Continental Congress met briefly in 1774, and the delegates organized an economic boycott of Britain in protest and petitioned the King for redress of grievances. These actions failed to change British policy. The Second Continental Congress, its successor, was gaveled into session on May 10, 1775, less than a month after the battles at Lexington and Concord started the war. Its members included such luminaries as Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and its long-time president, John Hancock. It determined policy, raised funds, ran the war, declared independence, and guided the new nation to liberty and fulfillment of its own destiny. In 1781, the Articles of Confederation were enacted, and the Continental Congress assumed its third aspect as the Convention Congress.     

In 1787, issue of elected representation was so fundamental to the Constitutional Convention that the United States Constitution dealt with it in Article One. That Article established the legislative branch of the United States government, which it continued to call Congress, and described the powers of the House of Representatives and the Senate. It also set forth the manner of election and qualifications of members of each house. In addition, it outlined legislative procedure and enumerated the powers vested in the legislative branch. In September 1788, just three months after the U.S. Constitution was ratified, the Continental Congress, as its last major work, ordered the organization of the new government, including the Senate and House of Representatives. Within a few months, the states held elections to choose the 26 senators and 65 representatives. On March 2, 1789, upon adjournment of its final session, the Continental Congress passed into history.   

Now the United States Congress took over the nation’s legislative responsibilities. The First United States Congress officially convened on March 4, 1789, though it was not until April 1 that the House of Representatives held a session with its first quorum. Its initial order of business was the election of a Speaker, selecting Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg, a Representative from Pennsylvania. The next order of business was the election of the Clerk, and that post went to Virginian John Beckley. The Senate achieved its first quorum five days later. The First Congress served until March 3, 1791, during the first two years of George Washington's presidency, initially at Federal Hall in New York City and later at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

Considering the centrality of the question of representation, the right to serve as a representative had to be properly documented. Members of the Continental Congress received credentials certifying that they had been duly elected to Congress and had the right to serve, and sometimes they were given written instructions as well.  The 1774-80 credentials were most often in the form of resolutions passed by state assemblies and the resolutions are attested, usually by the clerk of the state council/assembly, to be true copies extracted from the journal proceedings or minutes of the assemblies. These copies were presented by the member to the Clerk of Congress, Charles Thomson, who entered their text in journals. Those resolutions that survive now repose in The Continental Congress Papers in the National Archives.     

Starting with the Confederation Congress in 1781 and lasting until the demise of the Continental Congress, some form of the true copy arrangement was retained in certain states (such as Maryland, where credentials to Congress are found signed by officials of its legislature). However, examination of the original documents in the National Archives indicates that other states now proceeded differently. They had original credentials prepared with their state seals and sent these documents to their governor’s office for execution. In some places, they might be signed either by the state governor or a clerk in the governor’s absence (South Carolina is an example of this). In still other states, they appear to have been signed principally if not solely by the governors themselves (Pennsylvania and Massachusetts had this practice. Some of their credentials in the National Archives were signed by Benjamin Franklin and John Hancock in their capacity as governors). Upon taking their seats, these credentials, however prepared and signed, were presented by members of Congress to Thomson. They are also in the National Archives. Did any of the delegates hold onto their original credentials rather than leave them with Thomson??The National Archives has no knowledge of any other holdings of such documents, and indeed very few delegates seem to have done so, as we can discover just three. Interestingly, the documents handed over to Thomson often take the form of appointments to a state position, but are actually credentials to Congress, as their presentation to Thomson and subsequent retention in the National Archives papers proves.   

The Governor of Massachusetts at war’s end was John Hancock, former President of the Continental Congress who affixed the first signature to the Declaration of Independence. Nobody was more fitted than he to certify the credentials of elected members being sent to Philadelphia. Document Signed as Governor, Boston, November 12, 1783, being James Sullivan’s original credentials to serve in the Continental Congress. It reads in part: "Whereas the General Court of the Commonwealth aforesaid did on the twenty eighth day of June A.D. 1783…appoint the Honorable James Sullivan Esq. a Delegate to represent this Commonwealth in the Congress of the United States of America…I do by these presents…commission the same James Sullivan Esq. to represent this commonwealth in Congress…” The verso is docketed “Honorable James Sullivan Esq. -Commission as a member of Congress.”    

James Sullivan was a Massachusetts patriot, judge, congressman, governor and the first benefactor of the Massachusetts Historical Society. At this time in his life, he was an attorney and justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court. His duties prevented him from attending Congress, so though he received and accepted a credential, in the end he never had the opportunity to present it to Thomson. It survived in his papers.    

An extensive search of auction records, going back to 1968, has failed to turn up any other credentials of the Continental Congress having reached the market. Additional consultation with colleagues has revealed at most two other such documents (for New York and Delaware) in the same 40+ year time span, and online research has not turned up any such documents privately held. This document is therefore one of three known Continental Congress credentials findable outside of the National Archives, as well as the sole one signed by John Hancock (whose name is virtually synonymous with the Continental Congress).