Beschreibung:

Title: US Admiral's letter warns that US Navy landing in Turkish-ruled Greece might foment war Author: William LeRoy Place: Publisher: Date: 1878 Description: Admiral William Le Roy, Commanding U.S. Naval Force on the European Station. Manuscript Letter Signed on stationery of U.S. Flag-Ship Trenton. Villefrance-sur-mer (France), Oct. 21. 1878. 4pp. To F.J.Higginson, U.S. Navy, Commanding U.S.S. Despatch, [Volo, Ottoman Turkey],. Separating at folds, reinforced with archival tape A significant diplomatic document in which the 60 year-old Admiral, a Civil War hero, politely but firmly warns a 34 year-old Navy Captain not to intervene in a local cause célèbre at a Turkish-ruled Greek port during a time of general political turmoil: “It would…be an unauthorized act of war to land an armed force on the soil of a power at amity with us… Such armed interference…could only be resorted to in case of the most urgent and extraordinary necessity to protect life, and this right of self preservation should be exercised with such certain knowledge of its absolute necessity as to place the Naval Commander clearly in the right in the controversy which would grow out of his action…” The Admiral was “constrained to express the fear, I hope unjustly, that in your natural and chivalrous desire to defend from unmerited insult a lady and an American Citizen, you may be in some danger of misinterpreting the right of interference in such cases on the part of Naval Commanders.” The same year that Turkish wars with Russia, Montenegro and Serbia came to an end, the port city of Volo on the Greek mainland, 200 miles north of Athens remained under Turkish governance – over the violent objections of local Greeks whose anger exploded in a different direction when Protestant missionaries in the city and a local shopkeeper they had converted from his Greek Orthodox faith began proselytizing, thus angering “fanatics” who attacked the home of an American woman missionary with stones, tomatoes and rubbish after “ill-treating” her on her way home until Turkish troops arrived to quell the mob. Washington ordered Higginson’s ship to sail for Volo to “investigate” but the Captain, angered by the affront to the lady, exceeded his authority and was inclined to land Marines and sailors to support the missionaries. The Admiral wisely understood that this would risk an American war with Ottoman Turkey and held his subordinate in check. Lot Amendments Condition: Very good. Item number: 276234