Collection Now Available: Military Records and Correspondence of Hugh Maxwell, a Colonel in the American Revolution

Recently processed, a collection of military records and correspondence of Hugh Maxwell (Manuscript 27) are now available for research in the Special Collection Department of the State Library.  Maxwell was an army officer who first saw battle when he volunteered for the American army during the French and India War.  He later reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel during the American Revolution.  Maxwell participated in the battles of Bunker Hill, Trenton, Princeton, Saratoga, and Monmouth, as well as the siege of Boston. 

A letter written by Maxwell during the American Revolution,
addressed to “My Dear,” assumedly his wife or one of his daughters,
to whom he wrote frequently while on tours.

The military records include a muster roll of Maxwell’s men while he was captain in Colonel Prescott’s Regiment in the Continental Army in 1776.  The roll includes the names and rank of the other officers in the company and the list of soldiers.  Also included are correspondences of General William Heath, Colonel John Baily, Lieutenant William Taylor, Captain Adam Baily, and Joseph Thomas.

Of note in the collection are items that evidence the struggles of the government to pay its soldiers and the worries of soldiers of how they would manage to live when they left the army.  Many of the officers and enlisted men had gone months, and in many cases years, without being paid for their services.  The treasury was empty and Congress lacked the means and power to raise money.  The little pay the army had received had not been in cash, but instead paper securities based on a future promise by the government to redeem them in cash. 

Congress, as the war was nearing an end, was becoming increasingly fearful of the ramifications of discharging a large mass of unpaid men all at once. To remedy the situation, Congress furloughed most of the men instead of discharging them, justifying the action by arguing that, while an army in the field was no longer necessary, it may be needed if negotiations with Britain broke down. Maxwell’s papers include a record of Maxwell’s men who had been paid for the month of July, 1776, a promissory note from Joseph Thomas concerning money owed Maxwell as a member of the Second Mass. Regiment, and a copy of a certificate of pay from the Office of Massachusetts Treasurer to Hugh Maxwell.

Caitlin Walsh

Special Collections Intern

Fall From Favor: Massachusetts U.S. Representative Charles Hudson’s Address to the Citizens of His District

“The sum of my offending, as you all know, consists in this: I preferred Gen. Taylor to Martin Van Buren. I exercised the right of every freeman, and gave my vote in accordance with the dictates of my own conscience.”

In 1849 in Washington D.C., Massachusetts U.S. Representative Charles Hudson of penned a 12-page address to the citizens of Massachusetts’ 5th congressional district, which he represented, regarding his retirement from office.  Still reeling from his (possibly expected) failure to secure reelection, and from the constant accusations hurled against him (“cowardice and pro-slavery, desertion and treachery”), the published speech was intended as an explanation and justification of the beliefs he held and the choices he made, as unpopular as they were among his fellow Whigs and supporters, during the latter part of his tenure in office.

As a member of the Whig party, which was prevalent in Massachusetts and other northern states, Hudson strongly opposed slavery and the further annexation and admittance of territories into the Union.  This was most apparent in 1845 when the annexation of Texas became a hot button issue in Congress.  Hudson and his fellow Whigs feared that Texas would eventually establish itself as a slave state and wield substantial congressional influence, putting northern anti-slavery states at a great disadvantage.  Despite the opposition’s protests, Texas was admitted into the Union during that same year.

Hudson’s fall from favor occurred in 1848 at the conclusion of the presidential election.  Three candidates were on the ticket: Zachary Taylor (Whig), Louis Cass (Democrat), and former president Martin Van Buren (Free Soil).  Despite Taylor’s party affiliation, he was a southerner and former slave-owner—which did not sit well with Whigs in the north.  Cass’ campaign favored the annexation of territories and threatened to not sign any bills that included the Wilmot Proviso, which went against the Whigs’ political policies.  Instead, they gave preference to Van Buren, a northerner and former Whig who chose to run as a third-party candidate.  Unfortunately, Van Buren’s unpopularity, resulting from his administration’s inaction during the Panic of 1837, was still high, and Hudson felt that a vote for the former president was essentially throwing it away; in other words, voting for Van Buren would ultimately benefit Cass.  Against his party’s wishes, Hudson, who argues that he “exercised the right of every freeman” and never swayed from his principles, voted for Taylor.  The backlash the legislator received from his fellow party members, supporters, and friends— who all felt he betrayed the Whigs’ political cause—was ugly and personal, and Hudson was not reelected for another term.

The original 1849 publication, titled An address of Charles Hudson, of Mass., to the citizens of the fifth congressional district of that state, on retiring from the Office of Representative in Congress, can be viewed in person in the library; it’s also available online . 

Kaitlin Connolly
Reference Department

FDSYS -- Federal Digital System

The Government Printing Office (GPO) offers electronic access to federal documents at a new web site: www.fdsys.gov. FDSYS offers the breadth of United States Government information.

Full text legislative documents are available such as: Congressional Bills, the Congressional Record, Public and Private Laws, the Code of Federal Regulations, Public Papers of the Presidents, Budget of the United States Government and many others.

Among the myriad of publications, there is also access to MEDLINE, the National Library of Medicine database and to Science.gov, publications from the scientific community.

See your government at work.

The Government Documents Staff

New Exhibit Now on Display

Please visit the State Library to view the newest exhibit, Congressional Redistricting Through the Years. This exhibit highlights the changes in U.S. Congressional districts in response to population growth. Maps included in the exhibit range in date from 1842 to 2002. The exhibit can be viewed outside of the library, room 341 of the State House, Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5 pm.