HANCOCK FOR WASHINGTON'S SECOND ELECTION. HANCOCK, JOHN. 1737-1793. Document Signed ('John Hanco...

HANCOCK FOR WASHINGTON'S SECOND ELECTION. HANCOCK, JOHN. 1737-1793. Document Signed ('John Hancock'), certifying Daniel Cony as an elector in the presidential election, 1 p, folio (290 x 209 mm), Boston, November 17, 1792, with embossed seal on paper affixed to upper left corner above Hancock's signature, countersigned by John Avery as Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at bottom. Fold creases with separations repaired on verso, creases, browning, HANCOCK APPOINTS DANIEL CONY AN ELECTOR IN THE FIRST FULLY SUBSCRIBED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1792. Daniel Cony, esquire as an elector in the 1792 presidential election, instructing him to report to the Massachusetts State House on the first Wednesday of December 'for the purpose of exercising the business of your appointment.' The first presidential election was held in 1789, unanimously electing George Washington as the new nation's first President, however, three states failed to appoint electors, and this did not vote. New York, with legislative tempers still simmering after a brutal battle over ratification of the U.S. Constitution, could not find common ground on the selection of their 8 electors, and thus failed to appoint them on time. North Carolina and Rhode Island still had not ratified the Federal Constitution, and thus did not participate. With the electoral process largely left to individual states, on March 1, 1792, Congress passed an act regulating the process of the presidential election, stipulating that electors from each state meet on the first Wednesday in December, leaving the statewide elections to the states. Each elector was to cast two votes, with the highest vote tally electing the President, and the next highest tally electing the Vice President. Thus, this rare certification mandates Cony 'to meet on the first Wednesday of December next at the state-house in Boston at ten o'clock in the forenoon for the purpose of executing the business of your appointment.' Once again, Washington was unanimously elected President of the United States with all 132 electors, including those from the newly admitted states Kentucky and Vermont, wrote Washington on their ballot. The next highest vote getter was Vice President John Adams. All 16 Massachusetts electors cast one of their votes for Adams in his re-election. Daniel Cony served in the Continental Army, joining General Horatio Gates as an adjutant at Saratoga, and helping to force Burgoyne's surrender there in 1777. He moved to Augusta in the Western Settlement, now Maine, where he became a judge, and eventually a physician. In 1815, in honor of his four daughters, he founded and endowed the Cony Female Academy, providing 'instruction gratis to such number ... of orphans and other females, under the age of sixteen.' This appointment as an elector in the first full presidential election is a fantastic memorial to the democratic process and the legacy of George Washington. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing