“SAM’L.  FREEMAN, Speaker, P.T.

     “IN COUNCIL, Sept. 14, 1776.  Read and concurred as taken
     into a new draught.  Sent down for concurrence.

“JOHN AVERY, Dpy.  Secy.

     “IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Sept. 14, 1776.  Read and
     non-concurred, and the House adhere to their own vote.  Sent
     up for concurrence.

“J.  WARREN, Speaker.

     “IN COUNCIL, Sept. 16, 1776.  Read and concurred as now taken
     into a new draft.  Sent down for concurrence.

“JOHN AVERY, Dpy.  Secy.

     “IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Sept. 16, 1779.  Read and
     concurred.

“J.  WARREN, Speaker.

     “Consented to.

“JER.  POWELL,       JABEZ FISHER,
W. SEVER,           B. WHITE,
B. GREENLEAF,       MOSES GILL,
CALEB CUSHING,      DAN’L HOPKINS,
B. CHADBOURN,       BENJ.  AUSTIN,
JOHN WHETCOMB,      WM. PHILLIPS,
ELDAD TAYLOR,       D. SEWALL,
S. HOLTEN,          DAN’L HOPKINS.”

On the Journal of the House, p. 106, appears the following record,—­

“David Sewall, Esq., brought down the resolve which passed the House yesterday, forbidding the sale of two negroes, with the following vote of Council thereon, viz In Council, Sept. 14, 1776.  Read and concurred, as taken into a new draught.  Sent down for concurrence.  Read and non-concurred, and the House adhere to their own vote.  Sent up for concurrence.”

The resolve, as it originally appeared, was dragged through a tedious debate, non-concurred in by the House, recommitted, remodelled, and sent back, when it finally passed.

     “LXXXIII.  Resolve forbidding the sale of two Negroes brought
     in as Prisoners; Passed September 14, [16th,] 1776.

“Whereas this Court is credibly informed that two Negro Men lately taken on the High Seas, on board the sloop Hannibal, and brought into this State as Prisoners, are advertized to be sold at Salem, the 17th instant, by public Auction: 

“Resolved, That all Persons concerned with the said Negroes be, and they are hereby forbidden to sell them, or in any manner to treat them otherwise than is already ordered for the Treatment of Prisoners taken in like manner; and if any Sale of the said Negroes shall be made it is hereby declared null and void, and that whenever it shall appear that any Negroes are taken on the High Seas and brought as Prisoners into this State, they shall not be allowed to be Sold, nor treated any otherwise than as Prisoners are ordered to be treated who are taken in like Manner."[589]

It looked like a new resolve.  The pronounced and advanced sentiment in favor of the equal rights of all created beings had been taken out, and it appeared now as a war measure, warranted upon military policy.  This is the only chaplet that the most devout friends of Massachusetts can weave out of her acts on the Negro problem during the colonial period, to place upon her brow.  It attracted wide-spread and deserved attention.