12 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
than seven hundred deserters from the army of the United States and 
nearly as many runaway slaves had found a secure refuge within the 
limits of that province.' 
President Jefferson went so far as to inform General Turreau, the 
French ambassador at Washington, in the course of a confidential 
conversation, sometime in July, 1807, that “If the English do not give 
us the satisfaction we demand (1.e., for the attack on the Chesapeake), 
we will take Canada, which wants to enter the Union; and when, together 
with Canada, we shall have the Floridas, we shall no longer have any diffi- 
culties with our neighbors; and it is the only way of preventing them.’ 
Animated by such sentiments it must have seemed to him a mere 
matter of ordinary prudence to take secret measures to ascertain the 
strength of the latent feeling in favor of annexation which he believed 
to exist in Canada, and even to foster it. How far he succeeded in this 
can scarcely be stated definitely. 
Early in the spring of 1812, while the question of declaring war 
against Great Britain was still being warmly debated in Congress, 
a large, fine looking man, who gave his name as Nathaniel Cogswell, 
of Newburyport in Massachusetts, introduced himself to the British 
Consul at Philadelphia, and offered to disclose a plot for the separation 
of Canada from the British Empire in promoting which, he stated, that 
he had been employed as chief agent ever since 1806. While so en- 
gaged, he had visited the British provinces on four different occasions, 
had resided there for twelve months, and had been once arrested on 
suspicion. He had been instrumental in the employment of about 
one hundred sub-agents in the promotion of this scheme, and his motive 
for now revealing it, he stated, was to obtain revenge, because his 
application for the rank of Brigadier General in the army had been 
refused. If his expenses were paid to Quebec he would make known 
the full particulars of the conspiracy to the Governor General, who 
could easily test the truth of his statements. The consul communicated 
with Mr. Foster, the British Minister at Washington, who considered 
his story of such importance that he readily advanced four hundred 
dollars for travelling expenses, and wrote a letter of introduction in 
cypher to Sir George Prevost.’ 
On June 22, 1812, Cogswell addressed a letter to Prevost from 
Odelltown in which he said :— 
“The subversion of the British in the two Canadas has been 
earnestly desired and waited for by the Govt. of the U.S. ever since 
Mr. Jefferson came into office. Not that there was any wish or desire 

! Louisville Gazette, 1807. 
2 Turreau to Talleyrand, quoted by H. Adams, Hist. of the United States. 
3 Foster to Prevost, undated, Canadian Archives, Sundries, L.C. 1812. 
