The Book Shed

Significant wear to the entire volume, spine illegible, front board lacks leather, no front or rear endpapers, preliminaries or aftermatter, firmly bound but some pages proud and a few loose. The volume which is comprised of three separately paginated sections bound in one all dealing with the causes of and Vermont's response to the War of 1812. It opens with "Proceedings, &c. "(no title page or imprint) which is a 52 page chronicle by the Democratic Republican side of the controversy surrounding the election of Federalist Martin Chittenden by the Vermont House of Representatives in the contested gubernatorial election of 1813. An election that saw three term Governor Jonas Galusha fail to win a plurality due to voter anger over his support for the War of 1812. The Democratic Republicans complained of many schemes by the Federalists to secure the office. The Federalist success in the House election remains unexplained by anything other than chicanery and these pages have several examples of the schemes being carried out and inducements being offered. (Not in Gilman or Bassett) Section two (which carries the imprint of Wright and Sibley, Montpelier, 1813) is the "Protest of the Minority of the House of Representatives of the State of Vermont on the Question of Adopting the Reported Answer to His Excellency's Speech, November 10, 1813." (Not in Gilman or Bassett) Governor Martin Chittenden (His Excellency) opposed the War of 1812 and in one of his first official acts he ordered the Vermont Militia, of which he was the former commander, back to Vermont from Plattsburgh New York. Their officers refused to obey his orders. Subsequently the American victory at the Battle of Plattsburgh doomed Chittenden's future political prospects. Wright & Sibley published a partisan Democratic Republican newspaper in Montpelier, The Freemen's Press. Gilman says of them that they "appear to have been the leading Democrats of Montpelier, and the neighboring towns." There follows the main body of the volume, a 240 page section which sadly lacks the concluding 4 or 5 pages with last existing page being badly torn. This section begins with no title page or imprint however above the heading appears the signature of William Slade- Cornwall. The section (which is annotated, presumably by Slade, the following section appears to be annotated in the same hand) is comprised of letters between James Monroe & William Pinkney and their English counterparts regarding treaty negotiations. The treaty begins on page 146 titled "TREATY OF amity, commerce and navigation, between his Britannic majesty and the United States of America." This would be the so-called Monroe–Pinkney Treaty of 1806, a treaty drawn up by diplomats of the United States and Britain as a renewal of the Jay Treaty of 1795. It was rejected by President Thomas Jefferson and never took effect. The treaty was negotiated by minister to England James Monroe and his associate William Pinkney on behalf of the administration of President Thomas Jefferson, and Lord Holland and Lord Auckland on behalf of the government headed by Lord Grenville. The account herein closes with a letter from the new Foreign Secretary George Canning regretting the American response to the negations but happy that the Leopard-Chesapeake affair is no longer preventing discussion of other matters. This letter is the incomplete bit. Finally the volume turns to matter just alluded to with a new section (also without title page or imprint) letters between James Monroe, James Madison and George Canning, the British Foreign Secretary regarding the Chesapeake–Leopard Affair, an attack on an American military vessel in American waters by a British warship resulting in the impressment of four American sailors as deserters from the British Navy. The incident outraged the American public, as President Thomas Jefferson noted: "Never since the Battle of Lexington have I seen this country in such a state of exasperation as at present, and even that did not produce such unanimity." James Monroe, then a foreign minister acting under instructions from U.S. Secretary of State James Madison, demanded British disavowal of the deed, the restoration of the four seamen, the recall of Admiral Berkeley, the exclusion of British warships from U.S. territorial waters, and the abolition of impressments from vessels under the United States flag. The event raised tensions between the two countries and was one of the events leading up to the War of 1812. In fact, many Americans demanded war because of the attack, but President Jefferson turned to diplomacy and economic pressure in the form of the ill-fated Embargo Act of 1807. Regarding the signature, William Slade-Cornwall, it is difficult to say whether it is W. Slade Senior or Junior. William Slade, Esq. (Sr) of Cornwall was Sheriff of Addison County for many years, a Democratic Republican. According to Two Centuries of Cornwall Life, he was called Colonel Slade, having once been an officer in the Vermont Militia. It goes on to say he was "a man of public spirit and an earnest politician-an especially firm supporter of the opinions and measures of Madison in the War of 1812." The signature, however, does resemble that of William Slade, (Jr.) that appears with his portrait in Swift's History of Middlebury. W. Slade, Jr. was born in Cornwall but at the time these documents were written he was a resident of Middlebury having graduated from the college in 1807 and commenced on the practice of law in that town. He left the law, became a noted printer and bookseller in Middlebury and later was a U. S. Congressman and Governor of Vermont. His political career began around the time of the disputed Chittenden-Galusha election. A Democrat Republican like his father, "he entered with his whole soul into the conflict and became an active and influential partisan." quoting Swift's History of Middlebury. His first political office was as a Madison elector in the 1812 race. Later he served as a clerk in the State Department during the John Quincy Adams administration, beginning in 1824 two years before his father's death. While there he had access to the Monroe-Pinkney and Chesapeake-Leopard documents. At least one of the annotations is in Latin which may well indicate it is by W. Slade, Jr. A very interesting volume of documents from a tumultuous time in the history of Vermont and of the United States. Books and other items ship promptly with a tracking number and (generally over $15.00) jacket protectors if applicable. Clean recycled packing material will be used when possible. The Book Shed has a been a member of the Vermont Antiquarian Bookseller's Association since 1997. 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