Note 966 — Chapter IV · (continued 2)

Plenty of bad political blood was back of the whole episode. Bishop’s father, who was charged with holding no less than five political offices simultaneously under Jefferson, had recently had his responsibilities extended by being appointed Collector of Customs for the Port of New Haven. The indignation of the Federalists was unutterable. A wrathy protest was sent to Jefferson, among whose specifications was the claim that on account of Bishop Senior’s advanced age (he was in his seventy-eighth year), the work would fall to his son who was a foe to commerce and an enemy to order. Cf. McMaster, History of the United States, vol. ii, pp. 585 et seq. In these circumstances Abraham Bishop seems to have found an adequate casus belli.