Scope and Content: The Massachusetts state secretary provided certificates of citizenship and passports for seamen and travelers. Although an act of Congress, Aug. 18, 1856, prohibited nonfederal officials from issuing passports, Massachusetts continued to authorize passports per St 1857, c 224, because federal law made no provision for citizens or seamen of color. When this exclusion was corrected after the Civil War, St 1869, c 365 repealed the issuing of state passports, at the request of the U.S. secretary of state and the Massachusetts attorney general. –Application certificates for passports were statements of identity signed by the applicant or sponsor, sworn before a notary or other public official, and filed with the state secretary.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Files for 1833, 1835-1848 lacking
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Scope and Content: The Massachusetts state secretary provided certificates of citizenship and passports for seamen and travelers. Although an act of Congress, Aug. 18, 1856, prohibited nonfederal officials from issuing passports, Massachusetts continued to authorize passports per St 185, c 224, because federal law made no provision for citizens or seamen of color. When this exclusion was corrected after the Civil War, St 1869, c 365 repealed the issuing of state passports, at the request of the U.S. secretary of state and the Massachusetts attorney general. These two application certificates “of colored going south” are certified statements of identity and citizenship regarding African-Americans traveling to the south of the United States.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: As part of its responsibility for the education and training of mentally retarded youth, the Commonwealth, pursuant to Resolves 1851, c 44, paid tuition costs for indigent families at the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded (known until 1883 as the Massachusetts  School for Idiotic and Feeble-Minded Youth.)  The school in turn was to admit, at no charge, thirty indigent children approved by the governor.  Applications filed by parents or guardians were forwarded to the governor for authorization upon recommendation by the secretary of the Board of Education.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Formerly part of: Miscellaneous collection, box 101
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Scope and Content: The Commonwealth, pursuant to St 1828, c 113, s 7 as amended by Resolves 1833, c 28, was required to pay to the Trustees of the New England Asylum for the Blind (later known successively as the the New England Institution for the Education of the Blind (1832), the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind (1839), the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind (1877), and the Perkins School for the Blind (1955)) an annual sum to provide for the tuition of up to twenty indigent children certified by a physician to be blind.  Upon application from the parent, guardian, or town official, the governor was required to determine twenty beneficiaries.  Applications to the governor requested authorization for beneficiary status.  The state secretary, acting as the governor’s secretary, maintained these filings.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Formerly part of: Miscellaneous collection, box 106
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Scope and Content: The Commonwealth, in order to fulfill its responsibility to provide education to its deaf residents, was required to pay tuition to the American Asylum in Hartford (Resolves 1819, c 60), to the Clarke Institution for Deaf Mutes in Northampton, and to the Horace Mann School in Boston (Boston School for Deaf Mutes until 1887) (Resolves 1868, c 200) for students who qualified as state beneficiaries.  Applications for instruction certified that the student was deaf and in need of financial assistance.
Arrangement: Arranged by institution, thereunder chronologically
Notes: Some returns formerly part of: Miscellaneous collection, boxes 84, 101, 106
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Scope and Content: As early as the seventeenth century, the Massachusetts legislature provided pensions to soldiers wounded or disabled while in military service. Throughout the Revolutionary War, pensions continued to be issued at the state level to members of the Continental Army, as authorized by the Continental Congress. In addition, Massachusetts also provided post-war bonuses (bounties) in the form of monetary payment or a grant of land in Maine to veterans meeting certain requirements. Because so few individuals were disabled in service or qualified for bounties, the state granted pensions or bounties to only several hundred individuals. From 1789 pensions were funded by the federal government, from 1792 new pensions were administered by it, and from 1806 veterans of state troops and militia were also eligible. From 1818, Congress expanded pension eligibility for Revolutionary War service beyond invalidism, adding thousands to the rolls. However, to qualify, veterans often needed to obtain certificates of service from the state. –Massachusetts passed a bounty law in 1801 (Resolves 1800, c 139, Mar. 5, 1801) granting payment of
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by resolve, thereunder alphabetically by applicant
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Scope and Content: Following an Aug. 4, 1862 presidential call for troops during the Civil War, a subsequent federal War Dept. order of Aug. 8, 1862 required travel restrictions on anyone liable for the draft, to prevent evasion of military duty. Men between the ages of eighteen and forty-three were required to gain permission of the Massachusetts state secretary to leave the Commonwealth. –Applications for travel include many certificates of residency, containing date and place of birth, and a physical description including age; height; color of complexion, eye, and hair; and scars. –Applicants are listed in: Register for travel permission, 1862 ((M-Ar)130X)
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: The Massachusetts Constitution, in effect since 1780 (see: Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ((M-Ar)29X)), has been revised through the years by a series of amendments.  Beginning in 1820 amendments were proposed at special constitutional conventions and then put before the state’s voters.  Currently, amendments may be introduced into the legislature by legislative petition or by initiative petition.  If acted on favorably by two successive legislatures meeting in joint session, a proposed amendment is then submitted to the voters for approval (Const Amend Arts 48, 81).  As of 1980, 115 articles of amendment had been ratified as contained in this series.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: In keeping with traditions established in the colonial period, the state secretary is custodian of the foundation records of the Commonwealth, including this series
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Scope and Content: The state secretary, as record keeper for Massachusetts, was during the early years of the Commonwealth periodically directed by the legislature in various efforts to preserve, arrange, and inventory public records and state papers. The Governor’s address of 1836 proposed an appropriation for arrangement of archives of the Commonwealth. Resolves 1836, c 21 (Mar. 11) appropriated the monies; Resolves 1838, c 69 (Apr. 19), made further appropriation and directed the secretary to prepare a detailed description of the archives. With monies granted by the 1836 resolve, Gov. Everett appointed the Rev. Joseph B. Felt in Apr. 1836 to organize materials from the state’s archives and assemble them into 241 volumes of what is now known as the Massachusetts archives collection. Felt worked on the project from 1836-1846, assisted for a part of the time by an apprentice, and was paid initially an annual salary of
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Scope and Content: The governor was authorized by the Massachusetts General Court to procure books relating to crimes and punishments to enable the commissioners appointed under Resolves 1836, c 15, to codify common law (Resolves 1837, c 90).
Notes: Formerly part of: Miscellaneous collection, box 56
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