USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume II > Part 10
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"So bitter," says the same writer, " was the feeling against England, so strong the sense of wounded national pride, that even the embargo was received in Boston at first with silent submission ; but its operation told so severely upon both town and State that hostility to the adminis- tration rapidly deepened and strengthened." The agricultural inter- est suffered hardly less than the commercial; shipbuilding was sus- pended, the ships lay idle at the wharves, and the fisheries were aban- doned. The gloomy days of the Boston Port Bill seemed to have come hack again. "The transfer of flour and grain from the Southern States to the northern and eastern ports was interdieted; and when this was found to be very injurious, the president proposed to grant license to
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such individuals to transport flour for the necessary consumption of the . people as Governor Sullivan should select or designate. Great com- plaints were made against this measure as partial and unjust. A petition was preferred to Congress at this time for liberty to send fish to foreign markets as had formerly been done, and when there were large quan- tities on hand exposed to decay in a short time ; but the request was not granted, nor was any sympathy expressed for the petitioners." Why the American people should have been thus punished, and, especially, why their domestic commerce should have been made to suffer. because foreigners had dishonored their flag on the ocean, it is very difficult at this day to conceive.
The Columbian Continel of March 30, 1808, gives a flagrant instance of the destruction of American property by French cruisers. The ship Pocahontas had arrived from Liverpool two days before, and reported as follows: On the 1st of March she "was brought to and boarded from the French frigates La Hermione and Hortense, of forty guns each, which, having been to the West Indies with troops, were on the return, and were then cruizing off the month of the channel. Immediately on the French officers boarding, Captain Harris was ordered on board the French commodore, and directions were given that the stores should be removed from the Pocahontas, and the ship burnt. These orders were afterwards countermanded, the stores returned, and Captain Harris was compelled to take on board forty-seven persons belonging to the following American ships which had been taken and burnt by these French national frigates, viz. : William, Rockwell, from Liverpool for Savannah, Elisa, Dunbar, from Liverpool for New York, Brutus, of Duxbury, Smith, from Liverpool. The Pocahontas thus escaped conflagration from the necessity the French were under of getting rid of their American prisoners, being in want of provisions; but before they left her, they flung into the sea all the crates of ware they could come at, seized the letters, papers, &c., and wantonly destroyed them, and Captain Harris was then compelled to steer to the westward." A statement of these facts was made in a protest before a notary public, and it was said further, "that the Frenchmen wished to fall in with some vessel with bale goods [something more valuable than carthen- ware and salt ], and intended to look out for the Sally, Captain Lewis, of this port, who was to sail soon after, the Ceres, Captain Webber, and other valuable American ships belonging to this port."
The Centinel made the following comment on these outrages: "If we complain of the decisions of the British Admiralty courts, when
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without any treaty to guide them : if we condemn the conduet of British officers on board our vessels; if we denounce the outrage of the de- graded East India Company's lieutenant at Canton ; what language may we not use in relating the above ontrages, committed by Bonaparte's imperial officers, acting under his orders, against the vessels and prop- erty of a nation between whom and France a most solemn treaty exists? and which has been inviolably kept on our part. Such perfidy would disgrace Algiers! While treaty stipulations are performed, even the tyrant of Algiers is a friend; and in war, his prizes are tried, before condemned. But Bonaparte's decrees are executed by fire, and not by admiralty decrees: His execution outstrips his threats! What he can- not keep, he will destroy; and yet at this moment, his conduct finds suppliant apologists; and those apologists have the impudence to call upon the American people for their suffrages and support!"
The cargo of the Brutus, which sailed for Boston from Liverpool in company with the Pocahontas, consisted of 155 tons of salt, 12 tons of coal, 100 crates of crockery ware, ? casks and 2 cases of merchandise. Her sails and stores, and about a thousand letters, were taken out of the ship; and she was then burned. The ships Sally, Packet, and Presi- dent Adams, with cargoes of dry goods for the spring trade, arrived in safety a few days later.
In 1809 there was a temporary relaxation of hostilities, the Embargo Act was modified in certain particulars, and a thousand vessels sailed from these shores for foreign ports. Even from 1807 to 1810, the reg- istered tonnage of the United States increased by more than fifteen per cent. The figures for the latter year were 984, 269, a total not reached again for a third of a century, not until 1843, when it was 1,003,932. The tonnage of all kinds in 1810 was 1, 424,448. This total was reached and exceeded in 1826, owing to the rapid growth of the coastwise trade at that period. The tonnage of all kinds owned in Massachusetts in Isto was 495, 203, more than the combined tonnage, according to Pitkin, of the States of New York and Pennsylvania. It should be added, how- ever, that the tonnage owned in the city of New York at that time was considerably in excess of that owned in Boston.
Writing of these times, Mr. Green, the impartial English historian, says: " By a violent stretch of her rights as a combatant, England de- clared the whole coast occupied by France and its allies, from Dantzig to Trieste, to be in a state of blockade. It was impossible to enforce stich a · paper blockade,' even by the immense force at her disposal ; and
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Napoleon seized on the opportunity to retaliate by the entire exclusion of British commerce from the Continent, an exclusion which he trusted would end the war by the ruin it would bring on the English manu- facturers. Decrees issued from Berlin and Milan ordered the seizure of all British exports and of vessels which had touched at any British port. The result of these decrees would, he hoped, prove the ruin of the carrying trade of Britain, which would pass into the hands of neutrals and especially of the Americans; and it was to prevent this result that the Grenville ministry issued orders in council in January, 1807, by which neutral vessels voyaging to coasts subject to the blockade already declared were compelled on pain of seizure to touch previously at some British port." It was this action, so far as concerned Great Britain, that led to the Non-intercourse Act. Napoleon failed in his effort to exclude British goods from the Continent; an enormous contraband trade sprang up, and it is said that the French army wore overcoats made in Leeds and shoes from Northampton ; but, indirectly, this policy added to the already serions complications in which the relations, com- mercial and political, between Great Britain and the United States were involved. The emperor adroitly met the Non-intercourse Act by an offer to withdraw the restrictions he had imposed on neutral trade, if America would compel England to show equal respect to her flag; but no concession could be obtained from the cabinet of Mr. Spencer Per- ceval, who had succeeded Lord Grenville, and whom Mr. Green de- seribes as " an industrious mediocrity of the narrowest type." England's insistence on the "right of search" embittered the controversy even more than her arbitrary seizure of American vessels; there was too much British blood in the veins of the people of the United States to allow them to submit tamely to such pretensions. In 1811 Napoleon removed the obstacles which he had placed in the way of American trade, and the Non-intercourse Act was repealed so far as related to France. But, as we have said, no corresponding concession could be obtained from the English Government, "though the closing of the American ports inflicted a heavier blow on English commerce than any which the orders could have aimed at preventing. During 1811, indeed, English exports were reduced by one-third of their whole amount. In America, the irritation at last brought about a ery for war which, in spite of the resolute opposition of the New England States, foreed Con- gress to raise an army of twenty-five thousand men, and to declare the impressment of seamen sailing under an American flag to be piracy.
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England at last consented to withdraw her orders in council, but the concession was made too late to avert a declaration of war on the part of the United States in June, 1812."
When Napoleon was on his way to Elba in the spring of 1814, in the charge of Admiral Sir Thomas Ussher, he talked freely of all these events. He spoke of what passed between himself and Lord Sidmouth, when, after the peace of Amiens (1802), an attempt was made to renew the former treaty of commerce between the two countries; this attempt failed because the English minister was unable to accept the emperor's explanation of "perfect reciprocity," namely, "that if France took so many millions of English goods, England should take as many millions of French produce in return." Napoleon claimed that, ultimately, the Americans admitted the justness of his principles of commerce. For- merly, he said, they brought over some millions of tobacco and cotton, took specie in return, and then went empty to England, where they furnished themselves with British manufactures. He refused to admit their tobacco and cotton, unless they took from France an equivalent in French produce; and, he added, they finally yielded to this system as being just. As compared with England, however, the trade of the United States with France was small. Mr. George Cabot said that, of all the surplus products of the United States, England bought annually one-half; and, of all our foreign purchases, she supplied two-thirds.
On the 4th of April, 1812, Congress passed an act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in ports and places within the limits or juris- diction of the United States, cleared or not cleared, bound to any foreign port or place; with a proviso permitting the departure of foreign vessels, either in ballast, or with the merchandise on board the same, when notified of the aet. As the summer approached it became more and more plain that war was imminent, and the general anxiety in- creased proportionately. Early in June the Massachusetts House of Rep- resentatives, by nearly a two-thirds vote, resolved, " that an offensive war against Great Britain, under the present circumstances of this country, would be in the highest degree impolitic, unnecessary, and ominous; and that the great body of the people of this Commonwealth are decidedly opposed to this measure, which they do not believe to be demanded by the honor or interest of the nation." The Senate con- curred, and the Legislature sent to Congress a memorial against the war. It was, however, without avail; and, on the 16th of June, the president of the United States signed the bill declaring war against
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Great Britain. The declaration was officially notified to the Legis- lature of Massachusetts on the 23d of the same month; and, a day or two later, a resolve was passed, asking the governor to appoint a fast, "on account of the great and distressing calamity which God in his holy Providence has permitted to be brought on the people of these United States."
" The general sentiment in Boston seems to have settled down into a determination to do nothing in active support of offensive war, but resolutely to defend themselves against any foreign aggression. This they were called upon to do before the war elosed." The suffering that followed was very great. A vast amount of capital, and a large number of vessels and seamen were thrown out of employ; the prices of imported articles rose enormously; the produce of the country was held at high rates; and it was difficult to supply family wants. Mr. Nathaniel Silsbee, an influential merchant, who had been a successful shipmaster, and was afterward a senator of the United States, says, in his autobiography: "On the 18th of June, 1812, after an embargo of sixty days, the government of the United States deelared war against England, which had a most depressing effeet upon the commercial interests of the country; the vessels that were at home were generally dismantled and hauled up, except such as were suitable for privateers; and although a much larger portion of vessels and property which happened to be abroad at the commencement of the war escaped capture than was expected, yet a number of these vessels and a consid- erable amount of property fell into the hands of the enemy, and eaused large losses to the commercial part of the community."
Colonel Perkins, reviewing this period, writes in his journals: " Embargoes and non-intercourse, with politieal and other causes of embarrassment, erossed our path; but we kept our trade with China, and during the war of the Peninsula embarked largely in the ship- ment of provisions to Spain and Portugal. Our general plan was to freight vessels, load them with flour at the South for Europe, and have the funds remitted to London. To make some necessary arrangements respecting them, I took passage in the brig Reaper, belonging to my friend Henry Lee, for London, in August, 1811. The intention of Mr. Lee was to proceed to India in the brig, taking funds from England, and returning to Boston with Calcutta eloths, which then paid a great advance. I sent funds in her, and she returned in the year 1812, dur- ing the war with Great Britain, and with great profit. Long-cloths of
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India then brought twenty-five cents a yard, though an inferior article to what is now made at six cents, being less than one-fourth of the price the India cloths then sold at. F remained in London during the year, or until the summer, and returned after war had been declared. While in London I bought, with the elder Mr. Higginson, goods brought into England for France, which resulted in great gain."
In December, 1813, Congress passed a further restrictive measure, which added to the suffering already existing, and increased the com- plaints of the people. It interdicted the coasting trade between ports of the same State, as well as the fishing business in small craft near the coast. The fishermen of Boston and the adjacent ports, thus de- prived of the means of obtaining their daily bread, were obliged to petition the General Court for relief.
Shut in from the ordinary opportunities for enterprise and gain upon the ocean, the shipowners on the northern seaboard resorted to the adventurous and uncertain, but exciting and tempting, pursuit of privateering. During the war Baltimore sent out fifty-eight privateers; New York, fifty-five; Salem, forty; and Boston, thirty-one. On the 13th of October, 1812, the schooner Fame, which had seen service as a privateer during the Revolutionary War, came into Boston after a cruise of fifteen days, having captured two schooners. Another Boston vessel, the Hyder Ali, Captain Thorndike, was captured in the East Indies by the British frigate Orven Glendower, after having taken nine prizes, all of which, however, were recaptured. The late Admiral Preble has left an account of the True Blooded Yankee, one of the most famous privateers of the war, which was commissioned from Boston under the American flag, though fitted out and sailing from French ports, her owner, Mr. Henry Preble, being temporarily a resident of France. This vessel cruised in the English and Irish channels, making many rich prizes, which were generally sent into French ports, though a few were sent to the United States. One ship, sent into Brest, was said to be worth half a million dollars; one laden with dry goods and Irish linens was ordered to the United States; and the ship Industry was sent to Bergen, in Norway, and there sold. In 1813 the True Blooded Yankee, during a cruise of thirty-seven days, captured twenty-seven vessels and made two hundred and seventy prisoners; she also took possession of an island on the coast of Ireland, and held it six days; and she burned seven vessels lying in the harbor of a Scotch town. In 1814 she cruised in the English channel, in company with
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the privateer Bunker Hill, carrying fourteen guns and one hundred and forty men, with orders to divest her prizes of their valuable articles and then to sink and destroy them, but not to send them into port. Such was the terror she inspired, that it is said a reward was offered for her capture and that of her captain, Thomas Oxnard, dead or alive.
The following extracts from the correspondence of the Messrs. Per- kins will give us a glimpse at these times from the commercial point of view :
January 1, 1814: " You say a cargo laid in at Canton would bring three for one in South America, and your copper would give two prices back. Thus, $30,000 laid out in China would give you $90,000 in South America, one-half of which laid out in copper would give one hundred per cent., or $90,000-making $135,000 for $30,000; 60,000 lbs. of indigo, even at 80 cents, $48,000; 120 tons sugar at $60, $7,200; and cotton, or some other light freight, say skiss tea, $20,000-in all $15,- 000-would be worth here $400,000, and not employ the profits of the voyage to South America. Manilla sugar is worth $400 to $500 per ton, clear of duty. The ship should be flying light, her bottom in good order, the greatest vigilance used on the passage, and make any port north of New York."
January 6, 1814: " Teas have risen to enormous prices, but are now declining. .
. Teas will rise with you immediately after a knowl- edge of peace takes place. Many voyages will be undertaken after the wår, and the country will be again flooded with teas."
July 15, 1814: "A messenger has recently arrived in this country, offering in the name of the Prince Regent propositions for concluding a peace between this country and Great Britain. A final settlement, such as will enable us to navigate in safety, may be pro- tracted by the diplomatic habits of our government, to the ensuing antumn. It may be coneluded sooner. All will depend upon the com- plete prostration of Buonaparte. God grant that this obstacle may not long intervene! How far we shall, in time of peace, be permitted to pursue our former commerce, is a question difficult to decide. Great Britain has neither affection nor respect for us. Her interest will guide in relation to her future stipulations. When she can, consistently with her own rights, restrict us, she will naturally do so."
November 17, 1814: "We hear that the Jacob Jones went safely into Canton, and presume she may be dispatched before the river is block- aded. In such case, she ought to be here at the time appointed, unless
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captured. Our coast is closely invested and the hazard of getting in very imminent. Some insurance has been done on her, owing to her being a war-built vessel and having the reputation of being a swift sailer, at fifty per cent., but very little can be had. We have only $8,000 written at present, and fear we shall not be able to effect more by safe men, even at that. Vessels built before the war cannot be in- sutred at seventy-five per eent., which premium has been given on prizes taken near this coast and ordered in. Owing to the decline of public credit, consequent on a continuance of the war, and the many failures that have taken place, it is extremely difficult to effect sales of any sort except for immediate consumption, and those are made only for cash, no one being inclined to sell on credit at this critical juncture. Public funds here (six per cent. ) are down to sixty-five, and growing worse. Nothing but peace ean prevent an utter downfall of govern- mental credit and means. We have no expectation that the duties will be reduced for several years, if at all. Keep the Levant safe in port till you hear of peace. Then she may do well with black teas for European markets."
The arrival of the schooner Russell at New Bedford, ninety-two days from Canton, is reported in the newspapers, April 5, 1815, and it is said: "Information has been received at Canton from Columbia River of the capture of ship Charon, Whittemore, of Boston, with her cargo of furs, and ship Isabella, Davis, of Boston, particulars not known. All the American vessels on the Northwest Coast were considered as lost or in danger of capture."
But in the mean time, this war, perhaps the most needless that was ever waged between two civilized, not to say Christian powers, had been brought to a close. There had been a wide divergence of opinion on the questions of declaring and continuing it, but there was no differ- ence in the spirit with which the news of peace was welcomed by the people of both parties and of all classes. Colonel Perkins was in Washington with two other commissioners from Massachusetts, and he wrote from that city, February 16, 1815, to his partner, Mr. Cushing: "The joyful event of peace has suspended the mission on which I came. You will hear with delight of this event. No sacrifice is made of ter- ritory or commercial rights. It is a treaty formed on the basis of that of 1183. I trust I shall never see another war."
A few extracts from the newspapers after the return of peace will compare pleasantly with what has gone before.
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February 18: " The lights in the light-houses off this harbor and Cape Ann have recommenced by order of Government. The moderate weather, which we hope is now commencing, will raise the ice blockade of this and other harbors, and permit the numerous vessels now pre- paring for sea to spread their white canvas to the gale."
" The first effects of peace have been seen in the rapid deelension in the price of foreign goods, West India produce, etc. In New York sugars have fallen 100% (sic), teas from 75 to 100%."
March 11: " Many gallant vessels have left port on voyages, and others are in stages of readiness. The beautiful ships Liverpool Packet and Milo will unloose their sails to-morrow, if the wind will permit. The elegant new ship Galen will sail for London in all the month. Ves- sels which now sail for any European ports cannot run into danger."
Among the passengers in the Milo was Abbott Lawrence, who had been admitted as a partner into the business of his brother, Amos, on the 1st of January preceding. A. & A. Lawrence were large importers for several years, and until they became identified with the rising manu- facturing interests of New England. On his first visit to Europe, Mr. Lawrence was able to send his purchases back by the packet which had carried him over, so that they were disposed of in Boston within ninety days from the time of his departure. This was regarded as a very creditable achievement at the time. Possibly it was of this voyage that it was stated subsequently: "In 1815 the Milo happened to be the only ship about sailing for this port. The usual freight at the time was seventy shillings sterling a ton. Taking advantage of the circumstance, the captain of that ship declined taking freight under, it is believed, ten pounds a ton." The object of the statement was to illustrate to the importers of Boston the desirability of their establishing a line of regular packets under their own ownership and control.
The business men of Boston had maintained their credit nobly during the war and the trying years which had preceded it, so that they were in a very favorable position for taking advantage of the improved con- dition of affairs which came with the restoration of peace. In the sum- mer of 1815 we find gold and silver and Boston bank-notes quoted in the prices current of other cities at the same rates, while their own notes were at a heavy discount.
The new and superior ship Canton, B. P. Tilden supercargo, was advertised for Canton by Benjamin Rich, 15 Long Wharf, to have im- mediate dispatch. The ship Hope, Captain Baehelder, sailed for Cal-
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cutta April 1. On the 4th of the same month the ship Flor de Brasil, Captain Silva, from Pernambuco, via Bermuda, arrived in the harbor of Boston with a cargo of molasses and sugar, consigned to Ropes, Pickman & Co., and a few days later the brig New Hazard, Captain Endicott, came in from Matanzas with thirty-eight thousand gallons of molasses to the same firm. The name of this brig is suggestive of the perils from which American comunerec had just escaped: so is that of the schooner Catch-me-if-you-can, which arrived at the same time from Baltimore, with a cargo of flour consigned to Ilall & Thacher. The first arrival from Liverpool after the peace was reported May 3, -the British ship Kingston, Captain Smith, with " dry-goods, crates, hard- ware, pig-iron and lead, to David Hinckley, Giles Lodge, Daniel Hastings, and others." "This day," Monday, May 3, "arrived and fired salutes the fine letter-of-marque brig Rambler, and ship Jacob Jones, Captain Robarts [on which it had been difficult to effect insur- ance, covering the war risk, at fifty per cent. premium], both in one hundred and eight days from Canton, with rich cargoes of silks, teas and other articles, to the Messrs. Perkins, Bryant & Sturgis, Mr. Ben- jamin Rich, etc. They escaped dashingly the British blockading squadron, consisting of the Grampus, 50, and Owen Glendower, who had long been watching for them." The cargo of the Rambler con- sisted of Canton crapes, sewing silk, black fringed handkerchiefs, dimities, sarcenets, ribbons, pongces, teas, cassia, and six thousand walking-sticks.
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