LIBERIA
1841 (June) entire lettersheet to Benjin. Coates in Philadelphia with Monrovia dateline, ms. "U.S. Schooner Grampus Capt. Pain," partial BOSTON circular datestamp and SHIP handstamp, both in red, and ms. "20." Some light staining. Ex-Cockrill on his album page.
Written and signed by Lt. Gov. J. J. Roberts, who would succeed Governor Thomas Buchanan after the latter's sudden death mere months later. Please see scans for contents.
Roberts later became first (1848-1856) and seventh (1872-1876) President of Liberia.
The Grampus was a 97-foot U.S. Navy schooner serving as part of the "African Squadron" deployed off West Africa to cooperate with the Royal Navy in ending the slave trade. She was commanded by Lieutenant Paine. He was ordered to cruise off Africa in an effort to seize slavers. Paine conferred with Royal Navy Commander Tucker and agreed to coordinate their operations. The plan was to cruise jointly and to turn over ships seized as appropriate. Paine would turn over British slavers to Tucker and vice versa. The arrangement became known as the Paine-Tucker Agreement and was formalized by inclusions in the Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842).
[Previously] The Van Buren administration ordered the Grampus to New Haven, Connecticut. The mission was to sureptiously spirit the Amistad captives out to the city to defuse the politcally explosive issue. President Van Buren saw that he needed to carry the South to win the election was not about to support what amounted to a slave rebellion. The Grampus was to take them back to Cuba where they would have been executed for mutiny or reduced to slavery. The mission, however, failed. TheAmistad Africans bacame involved in a complicated legal battle which was finally settled by the Supreme Court (1841). The Court ordered them freed. They were subsequently returned to Africa (1842). After the mission in New Haven proved impossible to carry out, the Navy issued very different orders.
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