To James Madison from John S. Skinner, 13 August 1814
From John S. Skinner
13th. August. 1814.
Sir
The pamphlet which I take the liberty to enclose was given me with some news papers by Admiral Cockburn. It was taken from one, of several bundles containing apparently four or five dozen—for what purpose could they be printed & sent in such numbers to him & by whom? Were they furnished by his government to be circulated with Adml. Cochranes proclamations the one to the blacks of the south the other amongst the tories of the East?1
Rear Adml. Cockburn enquired what our Ministers thought of peace. I told him we had recd. no recent communication from them—he replied smiling—“I believe Mr. Skinner, that Mr. Maddison will have to put on his armour & fight it out, I see nothing else left.” Speaking of their Commissioners he said he was “well acquainted with them & that Mr. Hamilton was the only clever fellow amongst them.”2 With great respect Sir yr obt Sert.
J S Skinner
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM. Enclosure not found.
1. For Vice Adm. Sir Alexander Cochrane’s 2 Apr. 1814 proclamation inviting enslaved persons in the United States to escape to the British squadron, see William Jones to JM, 18 May 1814, 7:493, 494 n. 3. The second proclamation to which Skinner referred may have been that issued by Capt. Sir Thomas Hardy on 14 July 1814, following the British capture of Eastport, District of Maine, which advised the inhabitants that they must take an oath of allegiance to Great Britain or leave the vicinity (Daily National Intelligencer, 1 Aug. 1814).
2. The British commissioners appointed to negotiate at Ghent were Adm. James Lord Gambier, Henry Goulburn, and William Adams. Cockburn may have actually referred to George Hammond, former British minister to the United States, who was offered the spot on the commission that eventually went to Goulburn. Expected to be the lead British negotiator in Ghent, Hammond declined, citing lingering American resentment against him. Further confusion may have ensued on Skinner’s part between Hammond and William Hamilton, Lord Castlereagh’s undersecretary in the Foreign Office (Bradford Perkins, Castlereagh and Adams: England and the United States, 1812–1823 [Berkeley, Calif., 1964], 59; , Foreign Relations, 3:591, 593).