THE JOURNAL OF GIDEON OLMSTED. ADVENTURES OF A SEA CAPTAIN DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTI0N.

Washington: Library of Congress Book. Very Good. Hardcover. 1st Edition. 1978, 4to, xvi, 129pp, glossary, frontispiece, map endpapers. Facsimile of the original handwritten journal with printed text on facing page. VG in VG slipcase. Olmsted's journal, published here for the first time, offers not only a provocative account of the adventures of a swashbuckling privateersman but also insight into the history of the usage of the English language in America. Gideon Olmsted, (1749-1845), born in Hartford, Connecticut, was the great uncle of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. In 1778 he and his companions were captured at sea by the British. They successfully mutinied and took control of the ship, Active, and were sailing it to the United States, when it was, in turn, captured by a Pennsylvania brig, Convention, whose captain claimed it for Pennsylvania since it still carried British papers. What ensued was a thirty year legal battle over Olmsted's rights to the ship, and ultimately a landmark ruling by United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall establishing the authority of the federal judiciary, in the case known as United States v. Peters. Olmsted's journal ends at the point where the legal maneuvers were just beginning..