WAR OF 1812: INDEPENDENCE DAY ORATION.


Manuscript in ink, an "Copy of an Oration delivered on board of the Nassau Prison Ship July the 1814 by an American Prisoner," nearly the complete speech, lacking the final two sentences from the final leaf, 7 pp, 223 x 184 mm, final leaf trimmed to 55 x 184 mm, [Chatham, England, c.1814], some staining, folds, minor chipping to edges, fore-edge of final (trimmed) leaf singed.Provenance: Mary (ink note to verso of final leaf).CONTEMPORARY COPY OF A FAMOUS INDEPENDENCE DAY ORATION DELIVERED BY AN AMERICAN PRISONER ABOARD THE NASSAU DURING THE WAR OF 1812. After two Americans were wounded in a July 4, 1813, attempt at a 4th of July celebration at Dartmoor Prison, the British allowed considerably more leeway to the 1814 celebrations. "The national festival on July 4 was duly celebrated on board the two prison ships Crown Prince and Nassau. An additional allowance of drink was sanctioned, but the American flag was only allowed to be flown as high as the ' railings .' There were drums and pipes which played Yankee Doodle on the fo'c'sle: cheers were exchanged between the ships, and the toast of the day was drunk in English porter. There was, of course, much speechifying, especially on the Nassau, where one orator declaimed for half an hour, and another recited a poem, 'The Impressment of an American Sailor Boy,' which is too long to be quoted, but which, says our author, brought tears into many eyes" (Abell, Prisoners of war in Britain 1756 to 1815, p 89). A young man, believed to be Amos Babcock, records the delivery of this oration aboard the Nassau in his Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts (Boston, 1816), printing the oration in full, as well as describing a similar oration he witnessed aboard Crown Prince: "At twelve o'clock, an Oration, hastily prepared, and rather too inflammatory for about a tenth part of our audience, was delivered, by a prisoner of respectable talents ... This man, very deliberately, mounted an elevation, and with great force, and with a characteristical freedom, pronounced an Address, which the prisoners listened to with profound silence, excepting the clapping of hands, and sometimes cheers, at the end of such sentences as warmed and overpowered their silence. At the close of the whole, the orator was greeted with three times, three cheers, throughout the ship, which reached even to the shores. The oratory of the boatswain seemed to electrify the officers and men set over us. The master and the surgeon appeared _really_ pleased; even Osmer, our jailor, grinn'd horribly a ghastly smile." This oration was printed separately at Boston in 1815 as An Oration, delivered ... on Board the Nassau Prison Ship, at Chatham, England, on the Fourth of July, 1814. A comparison of the two texts makes it clear that the present manuscript was not taken from the printed text. There are enough additions and substantive changes to indicate that, while clearly the same speech, it was copied from a separate source, possibly aboard the Nassau at the time. Aside from the two contemporary printings, and a reprinting of the intire Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts in the Magazine of History, 1816, no other recording of the oration has been located.