USA > North Dakota > Early history of North Dakota: essential outlines of American history > Part 15
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From 1803, to 1811, British cruisers captured nine hundred American vessels, many of them laden with valuable cargoes.
Vol. 1-8
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THE EMBARGO
In June, 1807, occurred the attack on the U. S. frigate "Chesapeake," sailing out of Hampton Roads, by the British man-of-war "Leopard," in order to secure men which were claimed as British, but whom the commander of the "Chesapeake" refused to deliver, as he knew of none such being on board.
The "Leopard" replied by firing on the "Chesapeake," which was unprepared for action, boarded her, impressed four sailors, and then abandoned her. Securing the sailors was evidently all the British commander desired, as the "Chesapeake" under her own commander put back, much damaged, into Hampton Roads, and the incident was closed. It was this outrage, however, that roused the war power of the nation to retaliation, and amidst the wildest excitement President Jefferson issued a proclamation interdicting the harbors and waters of the United States to armed British vessels, and ordered the ports protected by a sufficient force. In consequence of the continued hostility of France and Great Britain, the law passed by Congress in December, 1807, laying an indefinite embargo on the ports of the United States, and forbidding American vessels to leave those ports, although violently opposed by the federalist party, was an act of prudence in order to preserve the seamen, ships and merchandise of the United States from danger. Taking into account the alternate decrees from the British government and from Bonaparte, there were sufficient orders in existence to render liable to capture all American vessels afloat, so that in searching the pages of history the reason for the embargo is plain, and President Jefferson's order, far from being an offense, was a wise measure for defense.
One of the first acts of Congress under President Madison, in February. 1809, was the repeal of the embargo, to take effect on the fourth of the ensuing March, at the same time prohibiting all intercourse with France and England until either nation should revoke her hostile edicts.
At this period Jefferson retired from office, following the example of President Washington, and declining the nomination for a third term.
Across the Atlantic, Robert Bank Jenkinson, second Earl of Liverpool, was, in 1809, secretary for war and the colonies, and held the British premiership from 1812 to 1827.
Robert Stewart Castlereagh, a native of Ireland, was prominent in British politics in the years when Henry was writing. It was through his instrumentality that the act of union was passed, for which he was execrated by a large number of his countrymen. In 1805 he was secretary for war and for the colonies. Subsequently in the ministry of foreign affairs, he supported Lord Liverpool, who was always opposed to liberal ideas. In 1812 he was a leading member of the British House of Commons. Sir James Craig was governor-general of Canada, and through him and his secretary, H. W. Ryland, the secret correspond- ence came about. On the 19th of June, 1811, in the midst of the discontent among the Indians, he left Canada, and died in January, 1812.
PRELIMINARY LETTERS
Between March and April, 1808, Captain Henry wrote six letters, the two latest from Montreal to H. W. Ryland, secretary of Sir James Craig, with whom he
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had become intimate, and on the 10th of April Craig forwarded the first four to Castlereagh, and it has been claimed that he intimated that Henry was ignorant of the use to which his letters were put at this time. On May 5th the last two letters followed the first four to Castlereagh.
These letters are calendared in Canadian archives, Their contents are made up of remarks on the state of public opinion, clippings from the newspapers sustaining his opinions, with allusions to the diplomatic mission of George Henry Rose, afterwards promoted and knighted, who was sent by the Britishı government to Washington on a special commission respecting the affair of the "Chesapeake" and "Leopard" impressment case, and the close of the negotiations. Canadian historians believe it "impossible to draw even a shadow of wrong- doing from the proceedings."
THE SECRET CORRESPONDENCE
Apparently the object of the secret correspondence which followed was to obtain the most trustworthy information for the use of Sir James Craig and other representatives of Great Britain in this country concerning the internal affairs of the Union, the extent of the disaffection in New England toward the National Government caused by the embargo, which they had magnified to pro- portions agreeable to their own projects, but of the actual depth to which it had penetrated the body politic they were still in doubt. They desired to know what the policy of the United States would be on the inauguration of James Madison of Virginia, who was President from 1809 to 1817, the effect of the attitude taken by him on the public at large, and especially to gain a knowledge of the certain prospect of war between the United States and Great Britain, if such was imminent.
This mission, at the suggestion of Ryland, Captain Henry accepted and fulfilled, playing with distinction his mischievous part in precipitating the resort to arms by the United States. He was given credentials which authorized him to receive any communications which it was desirable should reach the British government, the correspondence to be carried on in cipher. Ryland's letter in which the proposition was made gave, the correspondent reason to expect as compensation an advantageous position under the British government.
Sir James Craig's instructions, "secret and confidential," the authenticity of which was afterwards vouched for by Ryland in a letter to the Earl of Liver- pool, were dated February 6, 1809.
Captain Henry wrote fifteen letters between the 13th of February and the 22d of May, 1809, when he was recalled to Canada. He passed three months in New England in that employment, reporting continually to Craig by letter, stating that according to his judgment the federalists, rather than submit to the continuance of the difficulties and duties to which they were subjected, would exert their influence to bring about a separation from the general Union, and in the event of war would establish a northern confederacy, in which Massachusetts would take the lead, and ally itself with Great Britain. War was not probable. Unfortunately names which might have added weight to the expression of his views were left out.
Although this correspondence came to an end on the 22d day of May, 1809.
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and Craig did not resign as governor-general of Canada until June, 18II, no evidence can be found that he filed any claim for services, but according to a letter of Ryland from London to Craig, Captain Henry had applied for the vacant office of sheriff of Montreal, but no reference to it was made by Craig in his letter of June 4th, written a week before he left Quebec. Captain Henry was in London in 1810 and 1811, and it is said applied to Lord Liverpool for a position, without result, and after waiting in vain until November, 1811, he offered the entire correspondence to the President of the United States, James Madison, for a sum variously estimated at $10,000 and upwards, which was paid. President Madison sent the papers in a special message to Congress in March, 1812, and they were referred to the committee on foreign affairs, and became the subject of a brief debate in Congress. Henry Clay of Kentucky declared in a speech before that body that there was "no doubt that the Indian tribes on the Wabash had been incited by the British, and what could be thought of an emissary having been sent to stir up civil war?" Publicity was thus given to an alleged attack upon the credit of the federal party which was accused of a designi to destroy the Union, of which these papers were supposed to contain the proof, and the sensation produced was made use of to intensify the feeling of enmity towards Great Britain, until the true contents were made known, then the inci- dent was soon closed, as according to the terms of agreement Captain Henry was not to appear before the committee and had sailed in the same month for a permanent residence in France.
On the British side the subject was brought up in the House of Lords, and Lord Liverpool's defense of Sir James Craig was the sum and substance of parliamentary proceedings.
In this atmosphere, thick with internal conflict clouding the dawn of the republic, wherein immoderate expressions of sectional, individual, state and national rights were tempered by the noble ardor of patriotism, and a ray or two of the liberty that has since "enlightened the world," Henry sold his papers, and Madison made the most of them.
The battle of Tippecanoe, which Canadian historians deny was fomented by British influence on the Northwestern Indians, was claimed in the debates of Congress to be the commencement of the War of 1812.
CHAPTER IX
THE WAR OF 1812
THE STATE OF THE NAVY-THE SEA-FIGHT OF TRIPOLI-BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE- BUILDING THE FLEET- THE VESSELS ENGAGED-THE ACTION-THE SURRENDER- - THE OPERATIONS OF THE ARMY-AFTER THE WAR-THE ERIE SQUADRON'S SLOW DECLINE- THE TREATY OF GHENT.
The Twelfth Congress of the United States, which met the year eighteen hun- dred and eleven, in November, declared war against Great Britain on the 18th of the following June, three months after the secret correspondence had been di- vulged, and the next day a proclamation was issued against a solemn protest by the federalist party, appeals being made to the patriotism of the people. Among the members who were determined upon war were Henry Clay of Kentucky and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina.
The committee on foreign relations at once proposed an arraignment of Great Britain for persevering in the enforcement of the "orders in council," refusing to neutralize the right of trading from one hostile port to another such port until France should abandon her restrictions on the introduction of British goods. France had suspended her decrees, but the grievance of impressment was constantly renewed by Great Britain. The committee recommended the enrollment of the militia, an increase in the number of regiments, and a call for volunteers, and reported resolutions for repairing the navy and for authorizing the arming of merchantmen in self-defense. New frigates were voted, and a loan of $11,000,000. Over one thousand men went out from one small fishing port, that of Marblehead, Mass., to help man the frigates in defense of the seas. Re- solves were passed in several of the legislatures, pledging the states to stand by the national government.
THE STATE OF THE NAVY
In the course of the year 1791, was completed the first census, or enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States. They amounted to 3,921,326, of which number 695,655 were slaves.
The revenue, according to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, amounted to $4,771,000, the exports to about nineteen, and the imports to about twenty millions.
A movement for building a navy having been inaugurated by Congress in 1794, against great opposition, by the passage of an act for building "four forty-fours and two thirty-six's;" in 1798, and the following year, during the administra-
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tion of President John Adams, it assumed proportions of considerable import- ance and consisted of "six forty-fours, three thirty-six's, seven thirty-two's, and four fifteen to twenty smaller vessels of war." Its rapid construction compelled the admiration of the great powers, who, unaware of our resources and natural energy, wondered at so sudden a development of naval force. In the words of Samuel L. Knapp, the American editor of an English history of the United States by John Howard Hinton, published in 1846:
"It seemed a dream to all the world, that a navy could rise upon the bosom of the ocean by the power of an infant nation, in so sudden a manner. The fabled pines of Mount Ida, were not formed into ships for the fugitive Trojans more rapidly than the oaks of our pasture-grounds and forests were thrown into naval batteries for the protection of commerce and our national dignity."
Under the act of March 3, 1801, all the ships and other vessels belonging to the navy of the United States were sold, with the exception of thirteen, and ' those were most of them frigates, yet from this remnant was taken, in the sum- mer of that year a squadron of three frigates and a schooner, to which another was added early in the year following, to subdue the corsairs in the harbor of Tripoli, whose reigning bashaw had declared war against the United States, and blockaded American commerce in the Mediterranean, because of the refusal of the United States to purchase immunity from capture and slavery by the cor- sairs, from the sovereignties of Morocco and Algiers. The first battle settled the supremacy of the United States over their foreign foes, "showing," it is recorded, "our superiority in naval tactics and gunnery over anything those pirates could produce."
Peace was made on the 3d of June, 1805, on favorable terms. "And then ended," says the historian Knapp, "a war which surprised the nations of Europe. They had often smiled to think the United States, a new-born nation, should be so presumptuous as to suppose that she could put down these predatory hordes, which had exacted tribute from all the commercial world from time immemorial, but it was done, and the lookers-on were astonished at the events as they trans- pired. The Pope, who had ever been deeply interested in all these pagan wars, or rather, all these wars against pagan powers, declared that the infant nation had done more in five years in checking the insolence of these infidels than all the nations of Europe for ages. The thunders of the Vatican had passed harmlessly over these pirates' heads through more than ten successors of St. Peter, until the United States had brought these infidels to terms by the absolute force of naval power. The head of the church saw that the people of a free nation had felt the degradation of paying tribute, and were determined to do so no longer than they could concentrate their energies, and direct them to bear upon the general foe of Christendom. The whole was indeed a wonder, that a nation that scarcely had risen into the great family of independent powers, should be able to grapple with. and in a measure subdue, these barbarians who had been for so long a time the scourge of mankind. We had not taken one power alone but all, from the Atlan- tic to the Red Sea. The Doge (of Venice) who had been wedded to the Adriatic, and promised for the dower of his bride the dominion of the seas from the Delta of Egypt to the Straits of Gibraltar, had never in the pride of aristocratic strength claimed the honor of humbling the 'insolent Turk' to the extent that the United States had done in a few years. The aim of liberty, when properly directed, was
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always deadly to despotism. These exertions gave our flag a rank among the nations of Europe in these classical seas in which so great a proportion of all the sea-fights in the annals of man had taken place, from the early ages of fable and romance to modern times. The corsair, who had been the terror of the world, was now found a furious, but not unconquerable foe, and the barbarians, whose tremendous fierceness had been the tale of wonder in every age, seemed in our mode of warfare less dangerous than the aboriginals we had been contending with from the cradle of our nation."
A SINGULAR PARALLEL
In April, 1917, more than one hundred years after this mission was accom- plished, a reluctant nation was persuaded to train its guns once more on the east- ern hemisphere in order to hold fast the authority won in that "elder day" to guarantee to every citizen of the United States his rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" according to the Constitution of the United States on land and sea-close in shore, far out where the ocean liners plow their way through deep water, and where inland seas conceal the mine and submarine of the twentieth century pirate.
This inherent force in a navy, so long inactive but now endowed with a cen- tury's ripeness, was fully roused to action by the atrocities of an irresponsible engine of destruction sent out in large numbers by the German government to prey upon commerce, and send to the bottom every vessel which dared to venture into its forbidden zones. They were called submarines and "U-boats" (undersea) with a number attached, and types were common to all countries, but in their use by the German navy were far outdoing in rapacity the corsairs of Morocco and Algiers. They, also, had become the "terror of the world," and their barbarity reflected in the halls of Congress, in time, "sparred" the ship of state off on obstructive policy and developed a determined belligerence in an habitually easy- going and peace-loving people. One of these freebooters, more malevolent than others, was an armed sailing ship, which, keeping pace with modern invention, decoyed many passing steamships by means of the distress signal, "S. O. S." (a signal of distress with no words attached) sent to every wireless station, the run- ning up of false colors, and a stream of black smoke pouring out of her side as if on fire. The steamers left their course and hastened to her relief, only to be fired upon by hidden guns and sunk as fast as they appeared. Such dastardly deeds called for the punitive expedition of May, 1917, concerning which the ambassa- dor of the United States in London, Dr. Walter Hines Page, is reported as hav- ing observed that "the only previous occasion on which the United States has intervened in war in the Old World, was at the time when they suppressed the Barbary pirates. It is singular that our present errand is so similar to that."
THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE
"Oh, for a son of bright-eyed glory, That sweeping o'er the chorded shell, Should in sublimest numbers tell The patriot hero's deathless story." -Ode by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. OXFORD, June 15, 1814.
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EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA
Interminable discussions have arisen respecting every particular of this en- gagement, but only well-established facts are included in this sketch.
When the United States Congress, in the autumn of 1811, authorized the building of new frigates, it became the initial movement in the action which for the first time placed an American squadron in opposition to the British in line of battle. Likewise, it was the first defeat Great Britain had suffered when all her force was either captured or destroyed. British domination was supreme on the Great Lakes, and it appeared to be the purpose of that government to assume control of the vast territory of the west, and divide its dominion from Canada to Mexico with the United States; the Ohio and Mississippi rivers forming a natural boundary. The capture of the far-reaching Territory of Michigan had given them the advantage of the command of Lake Erie, and a strategic position of which it was the United States' design to relieve them. Losses had been sustained on land, but at sea the men whose rights had been violated had gained victories which soothed the wounded pride of the republic, whose navy Great Britain arrogantly boasted would soon be "swept from the ocean," for the War of 1812 was fought wherever the frontiers of the two countries met. It was carried down to the Gulf of Mexico, so as to cut off the United States from the west, on the sea coast all along the Atlantic shore from Maine to Mexico, and on the coast of the gulf, ending at New Orleans. To lay waste the whole American coast, on which they were then waging predatory warfare, from Maine to Georgia, was the avowed intention of the British.
July, 1813, the navy consisted of the war vessels contained in the following list :
Names
Guns
Names
Guns
Constitution
44
Isaac Hull
IO
United States
44
Conquest
8
President
44
Hamilton
8
Macedonian
38
Raven
8
Constellation
36
Scourge
6
Congress
36
Governor Tompkins
6
New York
36
Scorpion
6
Essex
32
Growler
5
Adams
32
Fair American
4
Boston
32
Viper
12
General Pike
32
Lady of the Lake.
3
Madison
28
Pert
3
John Adams
20
Julia
2
Louisiana
20
Elizabeth
2
Alert
18
Ontario
I
Argus
18
Adeline
Hornet
18
Asp
Oneida
18
Analostan
Trouna
Despatch
Revenge*
16
Ferret
Syren
14
Neptune
Nonsuch
14
Perseverance
Enterprise
14
Aetna
.bomb
Carolina
14
Mary
bomb
Comet*
14
Spitfire bomb
Duke of Gloucester
12
Vengeance bomb
President
12
Vesuvius
bomb
Patapsco*
12
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EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA
In addition there were a number of revenue cutters and about one hundred and seventy-eight gunboats. The vessels in italics had been captured from the British since the war began, and those with the asterisk were hired by the United States. Of this list the Constitution ("Old Ironsides"), launched at Boston, October 21, 1797, is now out of commission and preserved for exhibition as a relic in the Boston Navy Yard, and the Constellation, launched at Baltimore, Md., September 7, 1797, having been used for years as a training ship at Narra- gansett Bay naval station, in the State of Rhode Island, was in June, 1913, ordered to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, another of the country's proud possessions, to be equipped for service as an object lesson of illustrious record.
BUILDING THE FLEET
Lieut. Oliver Hazard Perry, then twenty-seven years of age, and living in Washington Square, Newport, R. I., was promoted to the rank of master- commandant, and sent by the navy department in the spring of 1813 to Lake Erie to command the fleet which had been ordered built there. He arrived at the Port of Erie, then known as Presque Isle, on March 27th. This was a trading post established by the French in 1749, as one of the chain of forts which was to unite the Canadas with Louisiana. It was a small village of a few log-houses besides the post, and a tavern, and contained about four hundred and fifty inhabitants.
Perry found at Erie, Capt. David Dobbins, a sailing master in charge of naval affairs on Lake Erie, also a shipwright from New York of the name of Noah Brown, who was building the fleet. Captain Dobbins had suffered the loss of a privately-owned vessel captured by the British. He superintended the building of six vessels for Perry. When the master-commandant arrived two brigs, the "Niagara" and the "Lawrence," were in process of construction at the mouth of Cascade Creek. Their frames were of oak, the decks of pine, the outside planking of oak. They were 110 feet in length, and had a breadth of beam of 29 feet. In the building of these crafts permanency was not consid- ered, for they were built of green timber cut in the forest there for the purpose of gaining that one battle, and if they lost it the vessels would be good enough to surrender.
On the 9th of August, 1813, Lieut. Jesse D. Elliott arrived at Erie with 100 men and was assigned to the "Niagara," and on the 12th the squadron ran the blockade by the British of the Port of Erie, with the object of joining forces with Gen. William Henry Harrison. On the 19th General Harrison and staff, with a number of Indian chiefs, arrived for the purpose of arranging a plan of action between the land and water forces, and it was decided to move upon the enemy as soon as the army was ready.
THE VESSELS AND THEIR EQUIPMENT
J. Fenimore Cooper, the novelist, who had exceptional and superior sources of information, and a personal acquaintance with the principal officers engaged in the battle, in his book, entitled "The Battle of Lake Erie," published in 1843, gives the English official account of the metal of both parties as follows:
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EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA
ENGLISH SQUADRON
Ship "Detroit"-19 guns, 2 long 24's ; I long 18 on pivot ; 6 long 12's ; 8 long 9's ; I 24-pound carronade ; I 18-pound carronade.
Ship "Queen Charlotte" -- 17 guns, I long 12, on pivot ; 2 long 9's ; 14 24-pound carronades.
Schooner "Lady Prevost"-13 guns, I long 9, on pivot ; 2 long 6's ; 10 12-pound carronades.
Brig "Hunter"-10 guns, 4 long 6's; 2 long 4's ; 2 long 2's ; 2 12-pound car- ronades.
Sloop "Little Belt"-3 guns, I long 12, on pivot ; 2 long 6's.
Schooner "Chippeway" -- I gun, I long 9.
Guns 63, metal ; total, 851. Average as to guns, 137/2 pounds each gun.
AMERICAN SQUADRON
Brig "Lawrence"-20 guns, 2 long 12's ; 18 32-pound carronades.
Brig "Niagara"-20 guns, 2 long 12's ; 18 32-pound carronades.
Brig "Caledonia"-3 guns, 2 long 24's ; I 32-pound carronade.
Schooner "Ariel" -- 4 guns, 4 long 12's on pivots.
Schooner "Somers"-2 guns, I long 24; I 32-pound carronade.
Schooner "Porcupine" -- I gun, I long 32, pivot.
Schooner "Tigress"-I gun, I long 32, pivot.
Schooner "Scorpion" -- 2 guns, I long 32, I 24-pound carronade on pivots.
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