Apr 17, 2012 - Sale 2276

Sale 2276 - Lot 34

Price Realized: $ 2,400
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
SIGNER FROM CONNECTICUT HUNTINGTON, SAMUEL. Autograph Document Signed, "Sam'l Huntington," as Justice of the Peace, ordering the constables to arrest four men for failing to attend public worship. 1 page, folio; signature a bit smeared, folds, faint glue remnants along one edge verso, constable's note on verso. Norwich [CT], 11 January 1773

Additional Details

Huntington served a term as president of Continental Congress from 1779 to 1781. The Articles of Confederation were ratified on his watch, giving him an argument to be considered the first president of the United States. In this document, he can be seen ordering the constables of Norwich and New London to enforce Connecticut's pre-war Blue Laws: "In his Majesties name you are hereby required to arrest the bodies of Palmer Carew, Samuel Foster, Elisha Clarke & Simon Caulkins . . . [who] did without any reasonable excuse absent themselves from attending the public worship of God in any religious assembly on the 19th day of April 1772, being Sabath or Lord's Day." The constables are also ordered to summon two witnesses for the trial.