To James Madison from Jared Mansfield, 26 October 1809 (Abstract)
§ From Jared Mansfield
26 October 1809, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Requests JM to continue David Phipps, presently a retired sailing master on half pay, in actual service so that he might “receive the full emoluments of that place.” Describes Phipps’s career as a naval officer during the Revolution and as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy during the Adams administration. Mentions that Phipps is a man of “republican principles” whose “property & the best of his life, have been exhausted at the call of his country, & he has received little or no compensation.”1
RC (DNA: RG 45, Misc. Letters Received). 3 pp.
1. JM referred this letter to the secretary of the navy, who informed Mansfield that “early attention will be paid to the Subject, and that there exists a strong disposition with me, to respect in any instance the claims of meritorious veterans.” Phipps evidently served as sailing master until his death in 1825 (Paul Hamilton to Mansfield, 22 Nov. 1809 [DNA: RG 45, Misc. Letters Sent]; , Naval Affairs, 1:1089; , p. 435).