Apr 12, 2018 - Sale 2473

Sale 2473 - Lot 226

Price Realized: $ 312
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400
(WAR OF 1812.) Cathalan, Stephen. Diplomatic circular letter implying (incorrectly) that war had been averted. Manuscript circular letter to "the consuls of the United States in the ports of Barbary, or at the Islands of Minorca or Malta." 4 pages, 15 x 9 3/4 inches, on one folding sheet, with inked seal of the American consulate in Malta on the first page; folds, minor wear. Marseilles, France, 12 July 1812
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An interesting diplomatic letter from the War of 1812. On 18 June 1812, the United States officially declared war on Great Britain, in part because of Britain's oppressive Orders in Council. On 23 June 1812, those Orders in Council were repealed in an effort to avoid war. The news of both actions took several weeks to cross the Atlantic, and by that point the war was underway. They could have really used a trans-Atlantic cable to straighten this out.
Many American diplomats abroad learned of the repeal before the declaration of war. In this document, the good news originated with the American minister at Paris, Joel Barlow, whose original 3 July message states "I have the pleasure now to inform you that the British Orders in Council, which violated our neutral rights, are revoked without any restriction." This "agreeable intelligence" was sent to Stephen Cathalan, the American consul at Marseilles, France, who then sent a manuscript copy to the American consulate at Malta nine days later. The new conciliatory Orders in Council are also appended. There is no hint that Cathalan knew that war had already been declared in their home country on 18 June--he likely thought that this news meant that war had been averted. However, the document took a full four months to cross the Mediterranean to Malta--it is docketed as "Rec'd Nov. 13th 1812." By that point, the war was very much in progress. Perhaps the British naval presence made communication difficult.