Brooks, John (1752-1825) [Proclamation relating to separation of Maine from Massachusetts]
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03794.01 Author/Creator: Brooks, John (1752-1825) Place Written: Boston, Massachusetts Type: Manuscript document Date: 24 August 1819 Pagination: 4 p. : docket ; 24.8 x 19.5 cm. Order a Copy
Marked "Copy." Written in clerical hand and signed by Brooks as Governor of Massachusetts. Co-signature of Alden Bradford, Secretary of the Commonwealth. Proclamation announced after an act was passed on 19 June 1819 which separated Maine from Massachusetts. That act allowed for town meetings on the fourth Monday in July to vote on the question " Is it expedient that the District of Maine shall become a separate and independent State upon the terms and conditions provided in the Act aforesaid?" The 19 June act also stated votes should be returned to the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by the fourth Monday in August 1819. Says if the votes for separation exceed those against separation by 1500 votes, then the governor is to begin procedures to call a constitutional convention for Maine. In this proclamation Brooks states that the measure passed by close to 10,000 votes. Therefore, Brooks announces that each town should hold meetings on the third Monday of September to select delegates to the convention.
Brooks was Governor of Massachusetts 1816-1823. Maine held it's Constitutional Convention in October 1819. William King presided over the convention, and would become the state's first governor. Maine became state on 15 March 1820 after the passage of the Missouri Compromise on 3 March 1820, which allowed Maine to join the Union as a free state with Missouri as a slave state to preserve the North-South balance.
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