Beschreibung:

3pp.+stampless address leaf. To Messrs. Newton, Gordon and Murdock, Madeira, Portugal., hand-carried by Captain Howland. Written months after revolutionary France declared war on England and Spain when President Washington formally proclaimed strict American neutrality. Neutrality in the European war was made difficult by privateers (privately owned warships holding commissions from the warring governments) seizing American commercial vessels on the high seas - with some French privateers commissioned to capture British ships by French diplomat Edmond-Charles Genet over the heated protests of Washington and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. At this tumultuous time, Vaughan could speak with some personal authority of Washington’s sentiments. His father and grandfather were on close terms with the President, having been guests at Mount Vernon after the Revolutionary War. The younger Vaughan was also knowledgeable about the threats to American shipping. The ship captain Howland who carried Vaughan's letter across the Atlantic had just arrived in New Bedford with a harrowing tale of his most recent voyage from chaotic Haiti, his ship being stopped seven times by French, Spanish and English privateers, all treating him with great civility except one British privateer who had seized his ship as a prize only to be thwarted by Howland’s loyal crew. Washington refused to accept all such prize claims, ordering that any American ship sailed to an American port by a privateer’s prize crew, should be returned to its original owners.