To James Madison from Alexander Parker, 12 February 1815
From Alexander Parker
Westmoreland Feby. 12th. 1815.
Sir,
The accompanying memorial, would have been delivered by a deputation from those Officers, whose names are subscribed to it, but I have requested Colo. Tayloe to be its bearer to whom I refer you for information on the subjects to which your enquiries will be directed by the memorial.1 I am Very respectfully Your most obt. Servt.
A Parker.
RC and enclosure (DNA: RG 107, LRRS, T-120:8). Forwarded under cover of John Tayloe to JM, 20 Feb. 1815 (ibid.; 1 p.), explaining that illness had prevented him from delivering the documents personally, but that he hoped to be in Washington shortly and would then answer any questions JM might have on the subject. For enclosure, see n. 1.
1. The enclosed memorial (7 pp.), dated February 1815 and signed by Parker and twelve other militia officers “of the four lower Counties of the Northern Neck of Virginia,” stated that an earlier request for federal assistance in defending the region (see Richard E. Parker and John T. Lomax to JM, 6 Sept. 1813, 6:598, 599 n. 1) had not produced significant aid. As a result, they wrote, “from 1000 to 1200 of our primest Negroes, making a loss to us of $3 or $400,000, have been seduced away and armed against us—an equal number, to the great inconvenience, if not the entire ruin of the owners, removed to places of greater security. Our other property to an immense amount has been plundered, and many of our houses burnt, our farms have been abandoned, & the whole face of the Country presents one melancholy aspect of chilling desolation.” The militia lacked the expertise and resources to prevent such depredations, and the citizens were losing the will to resist British incursions and demands. The memorialists therefore asked again that federal troops be sent to protect the region.