While the identity of Stoddert's agent cannot be established with certainty, he probably was one John Davis of Salisbury, England, as described in the text. "Jo" was then used for John as much as for Joseph; and Davis was frequently spelled "Davies." A John or "Jo" Davis or Davies, an Englishman, was a very busy person in America during the first decade of the nineteenth century. (See Loshe: Early American Novel, 74-77.) Naturally he would have been against the War of 1812, and he was just the sort of person that an impracticable man like Stoddert would have chosen for such a mission.
[109] Stoddert to McHenry, July 15, 1812, Steiner, 582.
[110] See King, v, 266.
[111] Adams: U.S. v, 375-78.
[112] Smith: An Address to the People of the United States, 42-43.
[113] Marshall to Smith, July 27, 1812, Dreer MSS. "American Lawyers," Pa. Hist. Soc.
[114] Am. State Papers, For. Rel. iii, 603; and see Charming: U.S. iv, 449.
[115] See vol. ii, 243-44, 245-47, of this work.
[116] Marshall to Smith, July 27, 1812, Dreer MSS. "American Lawyers," Pa. Hist. Soc.
A single quotation from the letters of Southern Federalists will show how accurately Marshall interpreted Federalist feeling during the War of 1812: "Heaven grant that ... our own Country may not be found ultimately, a solitary friend of this great Robber of Nations." (Tallmadge to McHenry, May 30, 1813, Steiner, 598.) The war had been in progress more than ten months when these words were written.