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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Scope and Content: While Massachusetts session laws, commonly known as Province laws (1692-1780) and Acts and resolves (from 1780), and codes beginning with Revised statutes (1836) are readily available, such materials from the colonial period are considerably more obscure. –The Massachusetts General Court passed an order on Mar. 12, 1638 (Mass Recs 1: 222) to have drawn up a “compendious abridgement” of “necessary and fundamental laws” proposed by the freemen of every town, also a compendium of orders passed by the court to this point. As Governor John Winthrop noted a year later (History 1: 388), while the effort continued to produce a legal code, “the people had long desired a body of laws, and thought that their condition was unsafe, while so much power rested in the discretion of the magistrates.”  Both John Cotton and Nathaniel Ward prepared drafts, that of the latter being chosen as the basis for the colony’s first code. On Dec. 10, 1641, what was known as the Body of liberties (History 2:66) was voted by the General Court to “stand in force” (Mass Recs, 1: 346). It was circulated only in manuscript, a copy of which survives at the Boston Athenaeum, and was not printed until 1843 (Mass Hist Soc Coll 3rd ser, viii) –A 1648 revision authorized in 1647, The book of the general laws and liberties. Cambridge, 1648, exists in a unique printed copy at the Huntington Library. The existence of a printed 1650 supplement, not surviving, has been inferred. A 1660 revision authorized in 1658, was printed in Cambridge with the same title, followed by various supplements, 1664-1668. A 1672 revision was printed, The general laws and liberties of the Massachusetts Colony. Cambridge : S. Green, 1672, followed by supplements through 1686.
Notes: The state secretary is custodian of this and other foundation records of the Commonwealth
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Scope and Content: On Jan. 11, 1798, Gov. Increase Sumner led a parade from what was to become known as the Old State House to the newly completed  State House designed by Charles Bulfinch. This event was commemorated on its two hundredth anniversary (Jan. 11, 1998) by a similar parade led by Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin, Gov. Paul Cellucci, Senate President Thomas Birmingham, and House Speaker Thomas Finneran.  Speeches on the State House steps were followed in the Doric Hall inside the building by the dedication of a memorial  plaque.
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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. –On Apr. 23, 1782,  Congress authorized pensions for Revolutionary War soldiers who were sick or wounded. Massachusetts paid out the pensions through Commissioner of Pensions John Lucas, with the expectation of federal reimbursement. The Massachusetts General Court passed Resolves 1785, Feb 1786 Sess, c 134 ( Mar.17, 1786), requiring all officers and soldiers receiving or applying for a pension to provide proper evidence of their disability to Lucas, who was authorized to provide certificates attesting to their disability, with copies to go to the state secretary. The secretary was responsible for making an annual list of persons certified and transmitting it to the federal secretary of war. Resolves 1786,  May Sess,  c 123 (July 8, 1786) required Lucas to supply the governor with a list of pensioners fit for garrison duty, whom he could appoint as guards of the convicts at Castle Island.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: Under MGLA c 127, s 167, attorneys representing any person applying for a pardon, parole, commutation, or respite from sentence must file a written and signed statement that no payment or receipt of money, gifts, or services has been requested or taken beyond a reasonable fee for service.  Any additional payment must be detailed and filed with the Office of the Secretary of State.  All statements are maintained as permanent public records.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by decade, thereunder alphabetically by attorney
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