To James Madison from John Huston and Others, [ca. 16 December 1814]
From John Huston and Others
[ca. 16 December 1814]
The Undersigned Beg leave to set forth that Whereas at a General Court Martial of which Captain Steele was President held by virtue of an Order of Major General Gaines (dated the 19th. of October 1814) at Province Island Barracks on the 21st. of October 1814 and Continued by Adjournments untill the 28th. of the same Month—Jacob File A Soldier of the 16th. Regiment of the United States Infantry was tried for desertion and sentenced by the Court to be shot to death.1 The Commanding General approved of the proceedings and sentence of the Court in the Case of the said Jacob File and Ordered the Execution thereof on the 15th. day of the present Month December between the Hours of ten A.M. and two P.M at Fort Mifflin Under the direction of the Commanding Officer at that Post. That by reason of the Interference of divers respectable Citizens of the City and Country of Philadelphia the Execution of the sentence aforesaid hath been defered and a respite for some time given.2
The Undersigned further beg leave to set forth that the said Jacob File is a Man of a very weak Capacity in regard to understanding, and very probably not knowing the consequence that might be Incurred upon himself in case of desertion.3 The undersigned therefore request the Clemency and Mercy of the President towards the said Jacob File, to mitigate the sentence that he may be Pardoned for his past offence before mentioned so far as may extend to the salvation of his life he having a Wife and Family of small Children.
John Huston
[and seven others]
RC (DNA: RG 107, LRRS, C-159:8). Undated; conjectural date assigned based on evidence in nn. 2–3.
1. The transcript of File’s court-martial indicates that after having been pardoned for deserting at Princeton in March 1813, he repeated the crime at Philadelphia in September 1814. He pled guilty to the second desertion but not the first. No extenuating circumstances were mentioned (DNA: RG 153, General Court Martial Case Files, Y-96).
2. Filed with the RC is a petition addressed to Pennsylvania militia Brig. Gen. Thomas Cadwalader as commander of the Fourth Military District, dated 15 Dec. 1814 and signed by Jacob Cress and twenty-seven others (1 p.), requesting that File be pardoned because he had long been generally considered a “simpletion” and was also nearsighted, had nevertheless “always … conducted himself as an honest man,” and had a wife and five children in Philadelphia. Accompanying this petition are seven affidavits (1 p. each) taken by Philadelphia County justice of the peace John Goodman, four of which are dated in mid-December 1814. The deponents reiterated the above descriptions of File, stating in addition that he had been apprenticed and employed as a cedar cooper but, although “perfectly honest,” was so feeble-minded that he “could not be intrusted to do an errand correctly” and so near-sighted as to be unable to “distinguish a man from a woman across the street,” and noting that he had been exempt from militia service due to his infirmities. Also filed with the RC are a copy of Cadwalader’s 14 Dec. 1814 order (1 p.) suspending File’s execution “until the pleasure of the Prest. shall be known,” and his 17 Dec. 1814 letter to James Monroe (2 pp.), forwarding the petitions and affidavits and requesting that they be submitted to JM. Notes on the cover of the letter read: “Directed to transmit the proceedings when a pardon will be made out” and “Pardon sent.” Monroe enclosed the 20 Dec. 1814 pardon in a note to Cadwalader of the same date, and File was returned to duty (DNA: RG 107, LSMA; DNA: RG 94, Registers of Enlistments, 1798–1815, 9:103).
3. On the verso of the RC is a 16 Dec. 1814 affidavit sworn before Huston as a justice of the peace for Philadelphia County and signed by Henry Cress, Martin Bender, and Friedrich Kerber, also signers of the RC, stating that File was intellectually impaired.