DOI: 10.7910/dvn/pux7u
title: Council; Council Files December 19, 1842, Case of Nahum Harrington, GC3/series 378, Petition of Nahum Harrington

description: &lt;p&gt;Petition subject: Appointment of Justice of the Peace &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Original: &lt;a href="http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:12232908"&gt;http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:12232908&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Date of creation: 1842-06-27 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Petition location: Westborough &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Selected signatures:&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Nahum Harrington&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Total signatures: 1 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Legal voter signatures (males not identified as non-legal): 1 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Female only signatures: No &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: Nahum Harrington, confinement, house of correction at Worcester, vagabond, vagrant, fire, petition, petitioning, redress of grievances, groundless assertion, evidence, overseers of the house of corrections, refuse to set the man at liberty, sheer fabrication made for a gull trap, three respectable witnesses, trial, sufficient alone to convict and justify the sentence, examination, facts, truth, papers, Homan Halleck, American board of commissioners for foreign missions, Samoa, Constantinople, John A. Fayerweather, college graduate, merchant, [Phinehas ?], tin manufacturer, Boston, Unionville, Hopkinton, [Ashland?], rage, railroad, Brigham's hotel, barn, begging, saw, pipe, locofoco match, [Locofocos], barns and houses on fire in the night, arson, Worcester, deputy sheriff, [Whiting Peter?], taverns, danced and sung and carried on, Hinsdale, letter, correspondence, Asa Matthews, William Parker, supreintendant of the Boston and Worcester railroad, felon, George Denny, an old inveterate enemy of mine drew the petition, brother in law, so benevolent and sublime a crusade, no retraction, let justice be done though the heavens shall fall, violence, a viper come out of the heat and fasten on my hand, gather up a bundle of sticks, magistrate, to shake off the many headed beast into the fire and feel no harm, tantamount to an impeachment, copy of the whole petition and signers, that I may know my opponents, pardon, touching the things whereof they accuse me, threaten, dangerous, ["…because he refused to tell his name, & he was a negro, that he was, of course, a runaway slave and that, if he was not immediately liberated, his master at the South would be informed of his place of abode & would come and take him into bondage again."], ["...that the decision of the magistrate turned solely on the whoolly pate and the jetty skin, and therefore, all was illegal, downright oppression & barbarity!!"], ["...to exercise your high constitutional prerogative in pardoning, the black man, name unknown, so that he may have a grand jubilee on the 4th of July! I have no doubt you will do right."], [includes quotes from Bible, religion] &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Location of the petition at the Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth: Governor Council Files, December 19, 1842, Case of Nahum Harrington &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;