Another song in ballad meter (see also Yankee Privateering), this tale of unlicensed privateers preying on licensed privateers is very detailed and very political, and refers to two items from other broadsides in Coverly’s shop: “Kid the pirate” (see The Dying Words of Captain Robert Kidd) and “A Riot” and “mobs in Baltimore” (see Riot in Baltimore). It seems in the mood of the Democratic-Republicans and is very cleverly written. It takes considerable skill to get such a complicated tale into the space of one broadside. William Bentley sums up the action.
On August 3, 1813, a small privateer from Salem had taken another & a party from Boston went out & rescued her. All were detained under the guns of Ft. Independence below Boston & the outrage is submitted to the laws. A Dr. Hemmenway & a H. White are the owners of the Privateer & a Coolidge the man with whom they have had to contend. Some of our citizens have been roughly handled in Boston for calling it piracy. (4:185)
According to reports in the Boston Gazette on August 5, 1813, the British brig Despatch was approaching Boston from Cadiz with a cargo of wine and merchandise. She was captured by the private armed schooner Castigator out of Salem, with Stephen G. Clark as commander. He had a letter of marque from the president of the United States designating him a privateer “against the vessels, goods, and effects of the government of the United Kingdom” and thus was entitled to operate against enemy shipping. The owners of Despatch, Cornelius Coolidge and Francis J. Oliver, took a group of men in two boats and approached their property to “ascertain whether she was in possession of friends, enemies, or pirates.” After an interchange of gunfire, they managed to get on board and bring Despatch into port. But they were arrested as pirates because they had no letter of marque authorizing them to take vessels. Clark entered his libel for possession of his prize and tempers flared. The court decided against Coolidge and the sale of the prize went forward. The entire affair came to be known as the “Battle of the Peace Party” (Boston Patriot, August 7, 11, 14, and 21, 1813; Boston Independent Chronicle, July 22 and 26, August 5 and 16, and October 21, 1813).
At the outset of the War of 1812 the majority of the people responded to the call of President Madison to support the decision to fight again with England. But the Peace Party was opposed. This group was composed of the more outspoken Federalist opponents of the administration and other Democrats. They took their fight to the newspapers, the pulpit, and in public speeches, trying to compel the government to negotiate rather than fight. Some leading Federalists agreed with this point of view, but withheld support for the Peace Party to be loyal to the president. Others apparently did not.
Evidently the aggressor Castigator was owned by Federalists members of the Peace Party as was their prey Despatch, at least partially, as noted in the Boston Independent Chronicle: “One of the accomplices of Coolidge has we understand been discovered to be an Enemy Alien. He has been very properly, arrested by the Marshal, and put a board the Guard Ship, there to remain during the War. Salem Paper” (August 16, 1813). The final moral of the text suggests that the Peace Party members should “not like foolish children, try each other’s heads to break.”
