Declaration Signer and Governor Samuel Huntington, Important Native American Missionary Pamphlet

This inscribed pamphlet has great association value between author Samuel Huntington, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and governor of Connecticut, and recipient James Cogswell, a Yale graduate and minister for more than fifty years. Samuel Huntington's wife was the daughter of James Cogswell's second wife. She could not care for his youngest son from his first marriage, Mason Fitch Cogswell (1760-1830), so the Huntingtons cared for Mason Cogswell as if he were their own child. Together with Thomas Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc, Mason Cogswell established the first school for the deaf in the United States in 1817.

The pamphlet itself describes the efforts of Connecticut citizens to appoint and support short-term Congregationalist missionaries in the northern and western parts of the United States (then western and northern New York and Vermont). The pamphlet details the areas that the missionaries visited. Among the missionaries was David Huntington (1745-1812), likely a relative of Governor Huntington.

SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, Printed Document Signed, Inscription to James Cogswell ("The Revd Docr Cogswell Windham from his humble Servt / Saml Huntington") on cover of A Narrative of the Missions to the New Settlements According to the Appointment of the General Association of the State of Connecticut: Together with an Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of the Money Contributed by the People of Connecticut, in May 1793, for the Support of the Missionaries, According to an Act of the General Assembly of the State, 1st ed. New Haven: T. & S. Green, 1794. 20 pp., 5.75" x 8.75". Disbound, with one string-binding still present; text toned, worn, and soiled; a few leaves neatly trimmed a bit at margins, with no loss of text.

Samuel Huntington (1731-1796) was born in the Connecticut colony, the fourth of ten children of Nathanael and Mehetabel Huntington. He was apprenticed to a cooper but read law and gained admission to the bar in 1754. He married Martha Devotion (1739-1794) in 1761, but they did not have any children. When his brother died, they adopted his two children. In 1765, Huntington was appointed King's attorney for Connecticut. He resigned to join the Revolutionary cause and beginning in 1775 represented the state as a delegate to the Continental Congress. Huntington signed the Declaration of Independence, and in 1779, members elected him as the president of the Continental Congress. During Huntington's presidency (1779-1781), the states ratified the Articles of Confederation as America's first constitution, and the Congress of the Confederation replaced the Continental Congress. Afterward, Huntington briefly retired from public life, hoping to revive his law practice and fortune. In 1784, voters elected him as Lieutenant Governor, a post that also made him Chief Judge of the Connecticut Superior Court. Elected Governor in 1786, Huntington served until 1796. Although Huntington favored strengthening the powers of the national government and ratifying the Constitution, he also jealously guarded the rights of Connecticut to its western lands based on its colonial charter. During his administration, Connecticut gave up its claim to the northern third of Pennsylvania and most of the Northwest Territory but achieved recognition of its preemptive land rights in the "Western Reserve" (now northeastern Ohio). Connecticut's ability to sell western lands strengthened its fiscal status, and Huntington, while governor, ensured that his state was well-represented at treaty councils with Native Americans of the Ohio territory.

James Cogswell (1720-1807) was born in Connecticut and graduated from Yale College in 1742, then studied theology. He became the pastor of the church in Canterbury, Connecticut, and remained there for more than 26 years. He married Alice Fitch (1725-1772) in 1745, and they had six children. In 1771, he resigned his pastorate at Canterbury, Connecticut, and became the pastor in Windham, Connecticut, where he remained for more than 30 years. Two months later, his wife died, and in 1773, he married Martha Lathrop Devotion (1716-1795), the widow of his predecessor as pastor. In 1797, he married the twice-widowed Irene Ripley Hebard (1729-1804). In 1804, he resigned from his pastoral duties and retired to his son Mason's home in Hartford.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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