Thomas Jefferson Papers

George P. Stevenson to Thomas Jefferson, 10 August 1815

From George P. Stevenson

Baltimore August 10th 1815

Dear sir

Rather more than three months since I sent you the astonishing news of Bonaparte’s reascending the throne of France, I now enclose accts of equally surprizing nature—. In addition to the printed account, I have seen letters of respectability from Marseilles stating that the Emperor had been beheaded & both houses of the Legislative body massacred by the populace—What now must be the fate of a once great nation? A people whose feelings and whose conduct have been as changeable as extraordinary scarcely merit our pity—and we are only1 induced to feel, from the mere fact of such a strong barrier being removed from the views & ambition of our late nay I may safely say our constant enemy, Great Britain—Will the Bourbons return? or will some new claimant such as Wellington assume the throne of France? or will each of the allied powers share a part of a country unfit to be left to it’s own control?

With sentiments of high respect

Yr Obed. Servt

Geo: P: Stevenson

RC (DLC); endorsed by TJ as received 16 Aug. 1815 and so recorded in SJL. RC (DLC); address cover only; with PoC of TJ to Mathew Carey, 13 Oct. 1815, on verso; addressed: “Thomas Jefferson Esqr near Milton Va”; franked; postmarked Baltimore, 10 Aug. Enclosures not found.

The Baltimore Patriot & Evening Advertiser, 10 Aug. 1815, contained rumors that Napoleon had been either hanged or beheaded and that all members of his family in Paris as well as eight hundred French legislators had been massacred.

1Word interlined in place of “almost.”

Index Entries

  • Baltimore, Md.; newspapers search
  • Baltimore Patriot & Evening Advertiser (newspaper) search
  • France; Bourbon dynasty restored search
  • France; rumored massacre in search
  • Great Britain; and U.S. search
  • Napoleon I, emperor of France; defeated at Battle of Waterloo search
  • Napoleon I, emperor of France; returns to power search
  • Napoleon I, emperor of France; rumored death of search
  • newspapers; Baltimore Patriot & Evening Advertiser search
  • Stevenson, George Pitt; letters from search
  • Stevenson, George Pitt; sends news to TJ search
  • United States; and Great Britain search
  • Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of (formerly Viscount); defeats Napoleon search