48

346 HISTORICAL ANNOTATION

to 1757. Though in ill health by the time of the American Revolution, Chatham
spoke out against Britain's harsh policies toward the American colonies and urged
an amicable settlement. The Columbian Orator printed parts of four such speeches
Chatham made before Parliament in January 1775, May 1877, and two in Novem-
ber 1777. The most strongly worded of the speeches warned against the dangers of
the British army engaging the services of North American Indians against the colo-
nists. Pitt changed his mind regarding the war, however, when it was proposed to
make peace on any terms, and on 2 April 1778 he addressed the House of Lords and
secured a majority against the resolution. While answering questions concerning
his position, Chatham collapsed and died in the house chamber. Jeremy Black, Pitt
the Elder (Cambridge, 1992), 288–99; Magnusson, Cambridge Biographical Dic-
tionary, 297; DNB, 15: 1240–53.
90.37/158.14–15 speeches . . . by Fox] Douglass refers to a speech concern-
ing American affairs delivered to the British Parliament in 1778. Charles James
Fox (1749–1806) was an English Whig statesman who became a member of Par-
liament at the age of nineteen, and during his career held the offices of lord of the
Admiralty and commissioner of the Treasury. He initially supported Lord North.
but during the American Revolution, Fox became an outspoken opponent of the
coercive measures of government North advocated. For his opposition to North's
administration, King George III removed Fox from his position in the Admiralty in
1774. In the speech to which Douglass refers, Fox warned the Parliament that
Britain could not sustain a war with both the American colonies and France. He
urged Britain to withdraw from the conflict with America and to concentrate on
France. Later Fox was a strong opponent of William Pitt (the younger), arguing
vigorously against a renewed war with France. After Pitt's death in January 1806,
Fox set out to negotiate a peace with France, but died before his bill to abolish the
slave trade came up for approval. Bingham, The Columbian Orator, 1827 ed., 172–
75; Magnusson, Cambridge Biographical Dictionary, 535–36; DNB, 7: 535–52.
92.22–23/161.9–11 like the blows . . . in the way] Douglass alludes to the
biblical story of Balaam's ass. Num. 22:21–30.
94.7/164.25 "Baltimore American,"] The Baltimore American and Commer-
cial Advertiser was the oldest newspaper in Maryland. It was first published by
Alexander Martin, a native of Boston, on 14 May 1799. The American was a firm
ally of the Whig party and became prominently identified with the Union cause and
the Republican party. Scharf, History of Baltimore, 609.
94.9/164.28 petitions] The sending of petitions to Congress, calling for an
end to the slave trade and to slavery in the District of Columbia, dated back to the
early years of the federal government. In 1828 a national petition drive had helped
force the House of Representatives to vote on abolishing slavery in the District of
Columbia. The newly organized movement for immediate emancipation adopted
the petition strategy in the 1830s and deluged Congress with antislavery memori-
als bearing thousands of signatures. Louis Filler, The Crusade against Slavery,