Pray rest on my shell as a pillow.”
THE DE VINNE PRESS, NEW YORK
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Robert Stewart, second Marquis of Londonderry, was known by courtesy until the death of his father in 1821, as Lord Castlereagh. He held at this time the position in the British ministry, then in power, of First Secretary for Foreign Affairs.
[2] The retreat from Moscow had been ordered and begun just six days before this letter was written.
[3] The United States had formally declared war with Great Britain on the eighteenth of June preceding the writing of this letter.
[4] The Presidential election of 1812, occurring in the midst of the war with England, was closely contested. James Madison was a candidate for reëlection, representing the so-called Republican party. De Witt Clinton of New York was the candidate of the Federalist party. A change of twenty electoral votes would have turned the scale. The Federalists in Massachusetts had a majority of 24,000, and the Peace party swept the Congressional districts throughout New England and New York. Madison, however, received 128 votes in the Electoral College, out of a total of 217.
[5] The name “Isaac” was underlined and emphasized in this letter by Mr. Adams to distinguish the commander of the Constitution, in its flight with the Guerrière, from the uncle of that commander, General William Hull, who had surrendered Detroit to the British commander on the sixteenth of August—three days before the naval battle. General William Hull was subsequently [January, 1814] tried before a court-martial, and convicted. His sentence—that of death—was modified in execution, however. His name was ordered to be struck from the army roll.