New York Jany 3rd 1843
Commander Mackensie
Sir
Although a personal stranger to you, I cannot
restrain the expression of my feelings to you, in this moment of
universal excitement—I am a very old soldier of the Revolution,
and was present at Head quarters (Tappan) when Major André
was brought into camp a prisoner taken in the full and faithful
discharge of his duty, to his king and his General, and his
country, a victim to the treachery and treason of that Arch-traitor
Arnold a name synonimous [sic] with infamy. From that
moment to the present it has been with me a fixed and
unalterable principle, and I trust will ever remain so, that,
treason on shore and Mutiny at Sea should upon satisfactory
evidence of its exsistence [sic] be instantly put down at all
hazards, be the consequences what they may—There is however
a marked difference between Treason and Mutiny[.] If André
had been kept a prisoner in strict surveillance until the close of
war—(a circumstance which would have received universal
assent) no possible injury could have effected [sic] either the
General the Army or the Public—The General in the bosom of
his camp, every individual of which was ready to shed his blood
and hazard his life for his fame, or his person. No
apprehensions could have been feared entertained, that André
would have been liberated by the associates of Arnold’s
[guilt?]—No! Arnold had happily swept the camp, and I trust
the country of every spark of Treason to be found in them.—
But oh! how different how very different was your situation,
Cooped up in a small vessel in the
midst of a mutinous crew far very far more in numbers than the
little gallant band of brothers who fearlessly and heroisally [sic]
determined to stand by you to support you, to defend the ship
and the honour of her untarnished Flag, and save their country,
from consequences too shocking for reflection to share your
honor, or perish with you—
Who will venture to say, that the spirit of Mutiny which had
taken such full possessions of the chief or Elders of the crew,
would not at every hazard have stricken off the Irons from the
master spirit of the plot in the night? And then what pen can
describe—what tongue express—the appalling atrocities which
would have been the consequences of such a liberation! Headed
by a man who was as reckless of human life, as of the life of the
worm, which writhes beneath his his foot or of the animated
Insect that fluttered in the sunbeam—A leader in whose
character from his early youth to his death no redeeming virtue
to be found calculated to elicit a sigh of sympathy from the most
sympathizing bosom, if we except the universal sigh which must
burst from every pious christian heart on the reflection that a
youth just ripen’d into manhood of high promis [sic] improved
by education sprunging from an amiable respectable and
virtuous family, the son of a highly gifted cabinet maker
Minister in an honorable station with talents to fit him for the
most useful service of his country, with honor to himself and
credit to his family, should in despite of the counsels of his best
friends have plunged himself into such a Gulf of Guilt and crime
of the most
atrocious nature which man is capable of committing against his
fellow man[.] It is a crime engendered in the lowest pit of the
infernal regions—It is fostered and cherished by the Devil and
put into exercise by spirits as wicked as himself, which has
brought him to an untimela [sic] end, planted a dagger in the
bleeding bosom heart of the mother who bore him, which can
never be extracted until Time as to her shall be merged in
Eternity, and bring his Fathers grey hairs in [sorrow?] to the
grave—This it is which excites a sigh of sympathy and sorror
[sic] from every christian heart, who takes an impartial view of
this awful tragedy—
In support of this unhappy youth it has been
said and said with truth that this (your conduct) has been “a
highhanded act for which, there was no justifiable cause.” To
the first part of this observation I readily assent, nay, I say it was
an exceedingly high handed act, but was there not an
exceedingly high handed necessity for it? Shall the spirit of
Mutiny be suffered to hatch to cherish, to perfect its plans? Is
the officer to whom his country has confided her defence the
safety of her people, the honor of her Navy, the glory of her flag,
and the lives of the few gallant spirits devoted to him and them
to wait supinely for its manifest effects? wait until the tocsin is
sounded, and the more than savage warwhoop proclaimes that
the work of devastation and death has begun and all hope of
resistance is cast off! God forbid—for this I hail you Sir as an
high minded high spirited prudent and gallant officer worthy the
trust committed to your care—I hail you as having performed
more for the security of your country, the honor of
her Navy, and the glory of her untarnished Flag than any one of
your predecessors has happily had an opportunity to perform[.]
You have at the manifest hazard of your life and what is of
infinitely greater value your honor, your fame, and your
character—you have preserved the honor of the untarnished Flag
of your Navy from a stain, which all the waters in the universe
could not efface, if once affixed—
May you long
enjoy the smiles of your country and the Gratitude of all good
men. yours sincerely
W. Popham
Copied
The Somers Affair
