DOI: 10.7910/dvn/4abra
title: House Unpassed Legislation 1861, laid on the table, SC1/series 230, Petition of J. Sella Martin

description: &lt;p&gt;Petition subject: Against the constitutional amendment that would disenfranchise colored citizens &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Original: &lt;a href="http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:11018096"&gt;http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:11018096&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Date of creation: (unknown) &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Petition location: Massachusetts &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Legislator, committee, or address that the petition was sent to: John Branning, Lee; committee on federal relations &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Selected signatures:&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;J. Sella Martin&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;George T. Downing&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Mark R. DeMortie&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Charles Thompson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;B.D. Jackson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;W. Anderson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Russell Goul&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Henry Mitchell&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Henry Wilson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Peter Hawkins&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;John B. Bailey&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;J. Lockley Marshall&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;T.G. Williams&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;E.F.B. Mundrucu&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;[J.L. Ruffin?]&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;H.F. Lee&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;B.C. Gregory&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;R. Willson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;G.F. Barreau&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;James W. Flint&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Joseph A. Sprague&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Jonas W. Clark&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;George W. Brown&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;William H. Miller&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Benjamin DeShields&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Coffin Pitts&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Richmond Johnson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Thomas Lee&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;S.H. Lewis&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Horace J. Martin&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;J.H. Colbert&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;W.H. Smith&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;J.H. Smith&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;William H. Stout&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;B.H. Glove&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Daniel Cavalier&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Joseph Harris&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Nelson Perkins&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;George F. Casttell&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Thomas Washington&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Samuel Locke&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;John E. Robinson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Richard Greener&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A.F. Clark&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A.F. Clark Jr.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;J.L. Ruffin&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;J.L. Marshall&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Henry Randolph&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Eugene Bradley&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;John F. Brown&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;R.W. Holloway&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Joshua Brothers&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Asa Booth&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Nathaniel Booth&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;John W.B. Smith&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Robert Johnson Jr.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Francis L. Girard&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Edward W. Johnson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;John W. Anderson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;James B. Watkins&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;James B. Watkins&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;William R. Brown&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;[Charles H. Storms?]&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;J.P. Miles&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;L.A. Sampson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Frederick H. Johnson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Charles Henson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;William H. Washington&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Francis Watkins&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;William Redding&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;George H. Bradford&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;James H. Bradford&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;John Holley&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;James Murray&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Louis E. Blair&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;[Littleton Wateter Bradly?]&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Sidney Dorsey&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;John Atkins&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;George Washington&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Charles Stewart&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;William Proctor&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Thomas Lee&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;[Zimei Lew?]&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Henry Tilford&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Robert Johnson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;John V. de Grasse&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Joel Johnson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;J.A. Sprague&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;William B. Savoy&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;W.H. Christopher&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;J.H. Christopher&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;P.Y. Smith&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;John L. Bailey&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;George Thompson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Charles Williams&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;J.R. Andrews&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;William H. Jones&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;John E. Barreau&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Henry Bean&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;John J. Smith&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A.B. Lee&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Henry Z. Burckmeyer&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Joseph Edwards&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;George Colman&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Lawrence David&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Joseph Harris&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;George Jones&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;James Watkins&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;D.W. Richards&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;[John Heston?]&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Milton Multrie&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Edward C. Day&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;William C. Nell&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;James M. Titus&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;William Thompson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Actions taken on dates: 1861-02-06,1861-02-07 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Legislative action: Received in the House on February 6, 1861 and referred to the committee on federal relations and sent for concurrence and received in the Senate on February 7, 1861 and concurred &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Total signatures: 118 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Legislative action summary: Received, referred, sent, received, concurred &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Males of color signatures: 118 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Female only signatures: No &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Identifications of signatories: undersigned, citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, colored citizens of Massachusetts, [males of color], ["others"] &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Prayer format was &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing"&gt;printed&lt;/a&gt; vs. &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuscript"&gt;manuscript&lt;/a&gt;: Manuscript &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Additional non-petition or unrelated documents available at archive: additional documents available &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Additional archivist notes: Reverend, heretofore felt perfectly secure in the enjoyment of the rights pertaining to such citizenship, defender of the rights of the minority when they are threatened by the actions of the majority, commissioners to Washington D.C. to represent this state in the convention there assembled, alteration of the national constitution, Virginia, disfranchises her colored citizens, The elective franchise and the right to hold office, whether Federal, State, Territorial, or municipal, shall not be exercised by persons who are in whole or in part of the African race., disenfranchisement, deeply humiliated as Americans to know that fellow countrymen could be guilty of even conceiving the injustice contained in the proposition referred to, never abused the right of franchise or any trust imposed upon us by the state &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Location of the petition at the Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth: House Unpassed 1861, laid on the table &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;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.&lt;/p&gt;