USA > New York > New York City > The Memorial History of the City of New York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892, Volume III > Part 25
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1 This interesting Bible, upon which Washington took the oath of office as President of the United States, is the property of St. John's Lodge. No. 1, of New-York City. EDITOR.
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NEW-YORK IN THE SECOND WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN
with New England was later seen. But while Great Britain tardily and grudgingly acknowledged the political independence of her former colonies, her policy was set on maintaining her own commer- cial supremacy. The old restrictions on the trade of the American continental seaports with the British West India Islands were main- tained. Her statesmen little dreamed that there were no bounds to the horizon of American commerce, and that within a little more than a year from the day when the treaty was signed an American ship was to carry the flag of the Union to the China seas. The right of
search for British seamen on board of American vessels is not men- tioned in the articles of peace.
The instant need of Great Bri- tain was tranquillity at home and abroad, by which her finances might be reorganized and the future ex- pansion of her trade determined. This great undertaking had fallen to Pitt. A commercial treaty with France and a convention with Spain settled all standing disputes con- cerning settlements on the coasts of America with that power; this, followed by treaties of alliance with the United Provinces and with Prus- sia, secured the peace of Europe, and left the western powers free to oppose the ambitious schemes of MRS. ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.1 Russia with the aid or connivance of Austria, and establish firmly a balance of power for the mutual security of European states. There were elements in motion, however, the forces of which were but ill gauged by the most far-seeing statesmen and philosophers-an in- ternal convulsion which, in its upheaval, was to destroy the strata and change the face of modern society. The torch of liberty may be said to have been lighted in America. It was rekindled in France in 1789. It became a burning brand when the dissolution of the monarchy was decreed by the national convention after a scene of carnage in 1792. In the struggle of principles which fol- lowed, it was not possible for any of the great powers of the Old World either to maintain neutrality or to hold itself aloof. One after the other they were actively involved. The breaking out of the
1 Mrs. Livingston was Margaret, daughter of Colonel Henry Beekman of Duchess County, and resided on Broadway near the Bowling Green.
She was the mother of Chancellor Livingston. The vignette is copied from a well-preserved por- trait by Gilbert Stuart. EDITOR.
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
French Revolution instantly divided England. Fox warmly espoused the cause of liberty; Burke denounced the summary reversal of the established orders of government and society. With these great leaders at variance, there was an irreconcilable schism in the Whig ranks. Pitt profited by their dissensions, but kept a discreet silence on the merits of the Revolution-a cautious reserve in which he was imitated by his ministers. But when a powerful society sprang up, under the name of the "Friends of the People" (a significant adapta- tion of the name of the famous French organ "L'Ami du Peuple"), which included men high in political and literary ranks as well as members of Parliament, and which organized a movement for reform in representation; and when still another, the London Corresponding Society, composed chiefly of tradesmen, demanded universal suffrage and annual parliaments, Pitt showed his hand by a royal proclama- tion against the distribution of seditious writings and illegal corre- spondence. In his defense of the proclamation he took occasion to denounce the "daring and seditious principles which had been so in- sidiously propagated amongst the people under the plausible and delusive appellation of the Rights of Man."
The decree of the French government opening the navigation of the Scheldt, in contravention of former agreement, touched England at her most sensitive point; and although the French ambassadors sought to convince Pitt that while the decree was irrevocable, it was not intended to apply to England, the act itself was sufficient. War- like measures were adopted. The execution of Louis XVI. ended all hesitation, and the French ambassador was at once ordered to leave the British dominions. The French replied with a formal declaration of war. In the long contests of the eighteenth century, France had always the aid of Spain under the family compact of the house of Bourbon : an aid of incalculable value on the sea. Now she was to encounter single-handed the vastly superior naval force of Great Britain. Yet the great discrepancy of force by no means secured England and her possessions from the depredations of an innumer- able fleet of French privateers.
In this condition of affairs the United States saw her opportunity. The adoption of the constitution had consolidated the States into a nation, and there was a universal desire to profit by the advantages which the change promised. The chain of causes which was to divert the carrying-trade into the hands of her young marine was complete. The vast naval superiority of Great Britain compelled France to resort to privateers. The success of the privateers determined the change of traffic to a neutral flag. The United States was the only maritime nation to which neutrality was possible. The change was immediate. From a total of twenty million dollars value in 1789, the exports from
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NEW-YORK IN THE SECOND WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN
the United States to England and France had reached in 1800 the amount of seventy millions, of which nearly forty-seven millions were of articles of foreign product. American tonnage was already over nine hundred thousand tons, and second only to that of Great Britain; and of this nearly seven hundred thousand tons were engaged in the foreign or oceanic trade. In this department New-York had already far outstripped all her American rivals, having one sixth of the whole, and much more than Pennsylvania, which was second on the roll.
Neither of the belligerent powers looked with complacency on this rapid development of the maritime resources of the United States. France chafed because of what she held to be American ingratitude in standing aloof from her in her struggle for freedom from monarchi- cal rule; Great Britain, alarmed at the growth of a new naval power which threatened her suprem- acy, had the additional chagrin of seeing her late rebellious colonies taking profit from her own distresses, and as- WASHINGTON'S WRITING-TABLE. 1 suming the carrying-trade of the world. Lord Nelson, the sailor hero of Great Britain, foresaw the maritime struggle. It is related of him that, after seeing the evolutions of an American squadron in the Bay of Gibraltar during the Tripoli war, he said: "There was in those transatlantic ships a nucleus of trouble for the maritime power of Great Britain. We have nothing to fear from any thing on this side of the Atlantic; but the manner in which those ships are handled makes me think that there may be a time when we shall have trouble from the other."
While the United States was profiting by her mercantile advantages as a neutral in a material sense, she was forced to submit to many morti- fications to her national pride. Chief among these was that caused by the constant impressment of sailors from on board her ships by British commanders. When Great Britain entered upon the struggle with France in 1793, she had one hundred and twenty ships of the line and more than one hundred frigates. When Napoleon controlled the powers of the Continent the war assumed colossal dimensions, and the naval armaments of Great Britain increased until it is estimated that her navy reached one thousand vessels. To maintain the crews of her
1 Used by President Washington in Federal Hall, and now preserved in the Governors' Room, City Hall, New-York. EDITOR.
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
squadrons she had never hesitated to resort to the press-gang; and desertions were, of course, constant and inevitable. During the American war British admirals on the Atlantic stations found it diffi- cult to maintain force sufficient to handle their ships, and were com- pelled to personal sacrifice to obtain men. Then their only competition was from the American privateersmen with their hazardous and perilous service; but now the prosperous American merchant- men outbid them with higher pay and a more generous treat- ment. The British admiral has never owned to a higher law than that "might makes right." Necessity no less than conve- nience led him to execute the law as he chose to understand it, and the "right of search " was sedulously practised. This was, of course, in gross violation of American sovereignty. The of- fense was aggravated when, as often happened, an American- born seaman was taken from LIVINGSTON HOUSE. 1 under his own flag on the asser- tion of a British lieutenant that he had served under the king. Further, Great Britain claimed that no subject of hers could shift his allegiance, or take military or naval service with any other power. The British government, moreover, asserted as the rule of search that the burden of proof that he was not a British subject or a British deserter lay upon the sailor claimed by the boarding officer. Yet the government of the United States submitted to the practice, and confined its complaints to cases of gross injustice.
The United States asked only to be let alone. Jefferson, who had no desire for war, formulated this request, but neither of the belli- gerents was inclined to this rose colored view. France wanted our assistance, and, failing to coax, Napoleon sought to drive us to grant- ing it. England cared nothing for our alliance, but was jealous of our prosperity, and wanted our able seamen. France began her dep- redations on our commerce in 1799 and 1800. England continued her aggressions with occasional intermissions. Jefferson, in his mes-
1 This house was owned by Peter Van Brugh Livingston. It is situated near Dobbs Ferry, on the Hudson. Washington established his head- quarters there toward the close of the Revolu- tion, and in November, 1783, General Guy Carle-
ton came up from New-York to confer with him, and with George Clinton, then governor of the State, on the subject of prisoners of war, the dis- posal or treatment of loyalists, and the evacuation of the city. EDITOR.
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NEW-YORK IN THE SECOND WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN
sage of 1804, had hopes of more amicable relations; but his message of December, 1805, made sad mention of his disappointments : "Our coasts have been infested and our harbors watched by private armed vessels, some of them without commissions, others with those of legal form but committing piratical acts far beyond the authority of their commissions. They have captured in the very entrance of our har- bors, as well as on the high seas, not only the vessels of our friends coming to trade with us, but our own also. They have carried others off under pretence of legal adjudication ; but not daring to approach a court of justice they have plundered and sunk theirs by the way, or in obscure places where no evidence could arise against them; maltreated the crews and abandoned them in boats in the open sea, or on desert shores, without food or covering." In January, 1806, he sent in a further message, accompanied by "the memorials of GOLD RING.1 several bodies of merchants in the United States." In accordance with his desire, Congress passed a non-importation act, to apply to certain articles of British manufacture, whether imported directly from Great Britain or from other places.
On April 25, 1806, less than a month from the passage of the act, a bolder and more direct outrage was committed in New-York waters. The British frigate Leander, commanded by Captain Whitby, cruis- ing off the mouth of the harbor near Sandy Hook, fired into the American sloop Richard, a coasting-vessel, and killed one of her crew. The body was brought up to the city of New-York and buried at public expense. The citizens, excited by this uncalled-for insult, de- manded reparation. The Leander was ordered from our waters, and her captain threatened with arrest should he presume to land on our shores. So also was the British sloop of war Driver. But so little was Jefferson's proclamation regarded, that the latter vessel, which carried but eighteen guns, returned the next year to Charleston Har- bor," defied the civil authorities, and denounced the president in an insolent letter, in which. her captain demanded water, which was ignominiously supplied. Captain Whitby was called home to Eng- land, tried by court martial, and acquitted without even a reprimand.
The hollow peace of Amiens of 1802 was of short duration. Within a few months of its signature the British ambassador left Paris, and orders were at once issued by the English cabinet for the seizure of the ships of France and of her allies in British ports. The conti-
1 This ring, containing Washington's hair, was by him presented to Mrs. James Madison, and is now the property of Mrs. Edwards Pierrepont of New-York. EDITOR.
2 Charleston Harbor seems to have been denomi- nated "Rebellion Roads" by the English. In an- swer to the proclamation, when it was served upon VOL. III .- 15.
him, the captain wrote a letter, which he dated at "Rebellion Roads, Charleston." Among other things he said that " the proclamation of the Presi- dent would have disgraced even the sanguinary Robespierre, or the most miserable petty state in Barbary." EDITOR.
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
nental struggle assumed vast proportions, and in the duel between France and England the rights of neutrals were wholly disregarded. Great Britain again asserted the rule which she had attempted to establish in 1756, which forbade neutral nations to trade with the colonies of a belligerent power from which they were excluded in time of peace. In this Great Britain asserted herself to be the arbiter of international maritime law. On May 17, 1806, the ministry issued the first of the famous Orders in Council. This declared the French coast to be in a state of blockade. American vessels were admitted to carry cargoes to certain ports only, these cargoes to be only of the growth of the United States or of British manufacture. Napo- leon, whose career of conquest was at its height after the battle of Jena, on November 28, 1806, issued from Berlin, the conquered capital of Prussia, the no less famous "Berlin decree," which declared the British isles in a state of blockade, and forbade all trade with the con- tinental ports. Both of these documents were to all intents " paper blockades," and by all just conception of international law inoperative as far as neutrals were concerned. They interfered with but did not wholly check American vessels from sailing with cargoes both from French and English ports, though the ocean voyage through the British squadrons was hazardous. Gradually American trade was being narrowed to their own coasting business. Nor was this, as has been stated, unrestrained. British ships prowled on our coasts and overhauled the peaceful merchantmen of the United States in quest of seamen. The United States bill for damages increased rapidly, but the day of demand was as yet postponed to a more convenient season. The United States hesitating or failing to resist Napoleon's Berlin decree, a further and more restrictive order in council was issued by Great Britain, January 7, 1807, forbidding trade between any two French ports, or ports of allies to France, which struck directly at the American carrying-trade. On November 10, 1807, a further order in council was issued, the avowed purpose of which was to compel all nations to give up their maritime trade, or accept it through British, or through vessels under British, license.
In the interval between these orders British insolence went a step further. On June 22, 1807, the English man-of-war Leopard over- hauled the American frigate Chesapeake, Captain James Barron commanding, while cruising off Hampton Roads. An officer of the Leopard was received on board the Chesapeake, who delivered an order from Vice-Admiral Berkeley, on the Halifax station, to "search for deserters." Captain Barron declining to allow such a procedure, the Leopard opened upon the Chesapeake an entire broadside, killing three and wounding eighteen men. Captain Barron, totally unpre- pared, was only able to fire a single gun in reply. The captain of
NEW-YORK IN THE SECOND WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN 227
the Leopard refused to accept a surrender of the Chesapeake, but sent on board an officer, who had the crew mustered and took away four men whom he claimed as deserters. Three of these men were native- born American citizens. The fourth had run away from a sloop of war, and was forthwith hanged at Halifax. The people throughout the United States were greatly enraged by this high-handed act. Jefferson said he had not "seen the country in such a state of exasper- ation since the battle of Lexington." Captain Barron was tried by
PHILADELPHIA, March 21. 4 37.
SIR,
PAY to Jacob Brit-
ice City Caught
for his Wages for Ninety Oneday Service in the General Affembly, and wo Brind, un Millings-
for his travelling Charges for Listy Miles
169.5- 2.10 yours
BayardSPEAKER.
To DAVID RITTENHOUSE, Efq; TREASURER. 1
court martial, convicted of neglect of duty in not having his ship pre- pared for action, and deprived of rank and pay for five years.
The British followed up the January order in council by the bom- bardment and destruction of Copenhagen and the seizure of the Danish fleet on July 26, without even the formality of a declaration of war. This lawless act aroused the indignation of Russia, and perhaps more than any other event engaged the sympathy of the lesser powers for the United States as the only nation which promised relief in the future from the maritime despotism of the Mistress of the Seas.
Reparation for the Chesapeake outrage was at once demanded, and became the subject of dilatory negotiation. This question, and infor- mation from Mr. John Armstrong, the American minister at Paris, of the strict interpretation of the French and British decrees, caused President Jefferson to call Congress together on October 26. Al- though the order in council of January had proclaimed a general British blockade of continental ports and forbade trade in neutral
1 Reduced fac-simile of the original, in the possession of the Editor.
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
Albert Gallatin
vessels unless they first went into British ports and paid duty on their cargoes, Jefferson awaited the answer to the demand in the mat- ter of the Chesapeake outrage before asking any special legislation. In the second week of December, the answer of the British gov- ernment arriving, with informa- tion that a special envoy would be sent over, Jefferson sent in a message with documents, show- ing, as he stated, "the great and increasing dangers with which our vessels, our seamen, and merchandize are threatened on the high seas and elsewhere from the belligerent powers of Europe; and it being of great importance to keep in safety these essential resources, I deem it my duty to recommend the subject to the consideration of Congress, who will doubtless perceive all the ad- vantages which may be expected from an inhibition of the departure of our vessels from the ports of the United States."
In response to this direct advice an embargo act was immediately passed by the Senate and, with but little delay, by the House (Decem- ber 22, 1807),-in both by large majorities. This measure is now con- fessed by men of all parties to have been inoperative where it was intended to act upon foreign nations, and suicidal to American com- merce. Mr. Armstrong wrote from Paris that it was "not felt," and "in England it is forgotten." In the United States its ruinous effect was instant. Forbidding the export of American products not only in our own but also in foreign bottoms, it annihilated American commerce and set adrift the large number of able seamen who were needed for our own protection. Beyond this, it enhanced the cost of living by cutting off the supply of fish which entered largely into the food consumption of our seaboard population. It in- terfered directly with the business of five millions of people. Amer- ican ships abroad remained there to escape the embargo. Some entered into a contraband trade with France, carrying over British goods under false papers; but such subterfuge did not long escape the vigilance of Napoleon, who in the spring of 1808 issued the Bayonne decree authorizing the seizure and confiscation of all Amer- ican vessels. It mattered not, he said, whether the ships were English
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NEW-YORK IN THE SECOND WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN
or American. If English, they were those of an enemy; if American, they had no business, under the embargo act, out of American waters. This was a step in advance of the decree he issued from Milan on December 17, 1807, which had forbidden trading with Great Britain by any nation, and declared all vessels thus engaged and all submit- ting to search by a British man-of-war to be lawful prizes.
The effect of the legislative blunder of the embargo act was soon apparent. It divided the United States into two hostile camps, and commerce came to a standstill. From one hundred and eight million dollars value in 1807, the exports of the United States fell to twenty- two millions in 1808-a single year. Those of New-York fell to less than six millions. The suffering caused by such a shrinkage could not be other than intense. In the commercial cities the strain was terrible. Three months of the embargo had brought numbers of the merchants and domestic traders to bankruptcy, and more than five hundred vessels lay idle at the docks of New-York alone. Of the triumvirate who ruled the Republican party and controlled the legis- lation of the United States at that period, President Jefferson, James Madison, and Albert Gallatin, the latter, then secretary of the trea- sury, alone from the beginning opposed a permanent embargo. Jef- ferson, inclined to peaceful measures, justified the act as tending to save our ships and seamen from capture by keeping them at home. Madison, holding colonial traditions, had faith in the force of a non- importation act, prohibiting the introduction of the produce of any nation whose acts were unfriendly while yet at peace with ourselves. Gallatin held a permanent embargo to be a useless interference with the rights of individuals, and at best a poor response to that "war in disguise," as he termed it, which Great Britain was unremittingly waging. Gallatin was the first to decide for war as the only remedy for American grievances, the only restorative for American honor.
Madison's policy to exclude all British and French ships from American ports and to prohibit all importation except in American bottoms, was not acceptable to Congress, and in the spring of 1810 an act was passed excluding only the men-of-war of both nations, but suspending the non-importation act temporarily, or for three months. Power was given to the president to reestablish it against either nation which maintained while the other withdrew its obnox- ious decrees. The same month Napoleon ordered the confiscation of all American ships either detained in France or in the southern ports of the Atlantic and Mediterranean under his control, which entailed a loss to American merchants in ships and cargoes estimated at forty millions of dollars. In December, 1810, the American ship General Eaton, of Portsmouth, N. H., from London and the Downs for South Carolina, was taken by two French privateers and carried
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
into Calais. Diplomacy grew much confused in the passage and re- peal of the decrees and counter-decrees abroad, non-importation and non-intercourse acts at home, until war alone sufficed to cut the Gordian knot. The non-intercourse act with England, passed by Congress in the spring of 1811, was the last act of the diplomatic skirmish, and pointed directly to war.
Immediately after Congress rose in May, another unpremeditated collision between an American and an English man-of-war raised the public temper to "fighting pitch." Since the affair of the Chesapeake the officers of the young navy of the United States had kept ceaseless watch for an opportunity to wipe out the disgrace to the service and the flag. All of our vessels were held at home, even those in the Mediterranean being recalled. The country had now in active ser- vice twelve vessels, viz .: three forty- fours, the Constitution, the President, and the United States; the Essex, of thirty-two, and the John Adams, of twenty-eight guns; the Wasp and the Hornet, of eighteen; the Argus and Eben Harang amy the Siren, of sixteen; the Nautilus, the Enterprise, and the Vixen, of twelve guns. Since the reduction of the naval force in 1801, not a single frigate had been added to the navy; the ships of the line authorized in 1799 having been entirely aban- doned. Jefferson's flotilla of gunboats, never of any use, were not called into service, and may be disregarded. Their only possible use might have been to prevent blockades, but even this was not resorted to. The English increased their force of cruisers on the American coast, but kept at a respectful distance from the land, no longer impressing men or detaining ships. The British government did not desire open war, and collisions were avoided, their purpose of intercepting American commerce being served by a constant patrol of the seas from Halifax to the Bermudas, the line of travel of every trader which crossed the Atlantic.
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