Louis Onis (1 results)

Removed Document. Condition: Very Good. First Edition. House, 15th Congress, 1st session, No. 67; 35, (1) pages; Removed document, disbound from larger volume. Scattered foxxing and faint tidemark at right side. OCLC 886823786 ; Shaw & Shoemaker 46440 ; Sabin 47235 Transmittal letters signed (in print) by James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, George W. Erving; Louis De Onis. Testimony and entreaties collected to solicit support from Congress and the President to encourage the government of Spain to release Richard W. Meade from prison. Richard Worsam Meade (1778 1828) was an American merchant and art collector who achieved wealth and success in the AmericanSpanish trade. Meade lived in Cadiz, Spain, from 1803 to 1820, and was the U.S. naval agent there. He became quite wealthy and was one of the first American collectors of European art. During the siege of Cadiz in the Peninsular War, Meade provided the Spanish monarchy with "supplies of all kinds" against the French invasion. While Meade spent much of his money, the Spanish government ran up a large debt. On a pretext to avoid paying the government's huge debt, Meade was imprisoned in the Castle of Santa Catalina on May 2, 1816. He called on Philadelphia connections like Congressman John Sergeant, and addressed a memorial to President James Monroe and Congress. The anti-Spanish faction seized the political opportunity: Speaker Henry Clay led the House of Representatives in resolving that "the imprisonment of Richard W. Meade is an act of cruel and unjustifiable oppression", and was joined by the Senate. With SpanishU.S. tensions running high, the king ordered him released on June 26, 1818. The Meade family had already returned to Philadelphia, while Richard moved to Madrid to collect his money. To thank the government for negotiating his release, Meade gifted the U.S. legation in Madrid a copy of the Lansdowne portrait of George Washington. it hung at the embassy until 1951, when Congressman James G. Fulton of Pennsylvania saw the painting and had it transported to America to be placed in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall.