The Henry Letters were created by a fraudster named John Henry. The letters reflected that the British government operating in Canada had employed him to try to persuade the New England states to leave the United States and join Canada. A bundle of letters was sold to President James Madison for $50,000. The letters were fraudulent, but both the President of the United States and the United States Congress were deceived, increasing tensions with the United Kingdom before the War of 1812.
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“The entire merit of a man can never be made known; nor the sum of his demerits, if he have them. We are only known by our names; as letters sealed up, we but read each other’s superscriptions.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)