Clay, Henry, as Speaker of the House of Representatives

Document signed ("H.Clay"), 1 page (15 x 10 in.; 380 x 254 mm), Washington, D.C., 31 July 1813, being a Resolution of the House, countersigned by Patrick Magruder, Clerk; formerly folded, mounted on verso, a few stains and light browning. Cream cloth folding-case.

see J. H. Ellis, A Ruinous and Unhappy War (2009), p. 149

formerly folded, mounted on verso, a few stains and light browning.
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Engrossed copy of a House resolution on the conduct of "... war among civilized nations."

The treatment of American prisoners of war during the War of 1812 was the issue that provoked the present resolution, but this was only one category of controversial new tactics used in that conflict on both sides (see Ellis). The House committee reported in July 1813 on the capture and treatment of several American sea captains kept in containers on prison ships hardly fit for humans. Henry Clay Sr. (1777-1852), was the Speaker of the House of Representatives (the only Speaker in history chosen on the first day of his first session), who had appointed members of the "War Hawk" faction as chairmen of all important committees, and took charge of the agenda supporting the War.

The House Resolution asks: "that the President of the United States be requested to have collected and presented to this House during the continuance of the present war, evidence of every departure by the enemy from the ordinary modes of Conducting war among Civilized Nations."