Autograph letter signed to David Gelston, New York

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Autograph letter signed to David Gelston, New York

• March 18, 1818 (Vervaardig)

"Attorney Charles Baldwin reassures his client, Gelston, U.S. Collector of Customs for the Port of New York under Presidents Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, that Congress would pass a bill to pay the $130,000 court judgement against him in the case of the ship American Eagle. Eight years earlier, Gelston had seized the vessel, which was being fitted out in New York to carry arms or supplies to Alexandre Petion, first President of the Republic of Haiti, who was then locked in civil war with his rival, Henri Christophe. Gelston maintained that he was merely following orders from Washington, being told that President Madison believed the ship was being 'fitted out for illegal purposes' as defined by the 1794 Neutrality Act, which forbade any 'military expedition or enterprise,' including a 'foreign vessel,' from being 'set on foot' within U.S. territory against 'any foreign prince or state.' After the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the judgment against Gelston, his only recourse was to petition Congress to appropriate funds to pay the judgment in favor of the ship's owner. Baldwin was certain that in light of the 'gross injustice' of the court judgment, Congress would appropriate the money to compensate Gelston for his legal debt. This proved to be correct. One month later, the bill passed the House of Representatives by the narrow vote of 59 to 60.

Coincidentally, it was the same month that Alexandre Petion died from yellow fever. Though none of the contemporary news reports of the American Eagle case mentioned the political complications that may have influenced the seizure of the vessel, Petion was a 'quadroon,' a free mean 'of color,' born to a wealthy French father and a mixed-race mother. Despite his exalted status in the 'Black Slave Republic,' Petion, as President, 'often showed support for the oppressed;' he seized commercial plantations from the rich gentry, redistributed land to his supporters and the peasantry, and established the foundation for a system of public education. One wonders if these principles made him unpalatable to President Madison, the wealthy slave-owner, and may have led to Washington's order to prevent the American Eagle from sailing to Petion's support.

Gelston himself had been caught in the middle of the legal muddle which ensued. He was himself a New York lawyer and politician who had served in the Continental Congress before first being appointed to the Collector's position, a powerful political plum, by President Jefferson. He remained in office for two more years after being saved by Congress from a debtor's prison, and before his death in 1828, he was considered for a seat on on the U.S. Supreme Court." –Michael Brown Rare Books