2004-09
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/31/2004
On June 22, 1807, the United States frigate Chesapeake was engaged by the British ship Leopard and fired upon by her, killing killing three men and wounding eighteen before Captain Barron struck his colors. The British boarded the ship and removed three men whom they labeled deserters. This incident caused national outrage. Printed Letter signed in type “G.W. Campbell”, 3p. folio, January 22, 1808, Washington City, and reads in part: “...At a crisi so interesing as the present, you, and my fellow citizens in general, will, no doubt, feel more than usually anxious to be informed in regard to the present state of our foreign and domestic relations....At the commencement of the present session, it was made known to us by the President in his message to both Houses, that instructions had been sent to our ministers at London to demand of that government the just reparation for the outrage committed on the Chesapeake, a public vessel of the United States, by a British ship of war, to which this nation was of right intitled, as well as security against the recurrence of such unwarantable acts in future...The attack upon the Chesapeake, without any justifiable cause, by a ship of war of Great Britain, was such a manifest violation of the law of nations, and so contrary to the known usages of all civilized powers for centuries past, that it excited a degree of universal indignation among all class of the people of this country, hitherto unexampled...” Much More. VG.
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