USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I > Part 78
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way up the Straits, and to the head of Lake Superior. Perry's career was short and troubled; he lives in the memory of his countrymen, clothed in perpetual youth, just as he stood when he saw that his efforts were crowned with success, and could say in his heart, "We have met the enemy and they are ours."
"Perry drove England back behind the barricades of her new France," wrote Henry Watterson. "The fight off Put-in Bay rescued the territory conquered by George Rogers Clark and wiped out the disgrace of Hull's surrender. . .. Perry cleared the way for Har- rison's advance and shortened the distance between Bladensburg and the Treaty of Ghent. But, above all, it was Perry . . . who gave the world assurance of a man, of an American and of America, the resistless, the unconquerable; of the glad, the glorious, the wonder- breeding; of the union, the imperishable." "The last roar of the cannon that died along her shores was the expiring note of British dominion," wrote Washington Irving. "In future times, when the shores of Erie shall hum with busy population; when towns and cities shall brighten where now extend the dark and entangled forests; when ports shall spread their arms, and lofty barks shall ride where now the canoe is fastened to the stake; when the pres- ent age shall have grown into venerable antiquity, and the mists of fable begin to gather around its history, then will the inhabitants look back to this battle we record, as one of the romantic achievements of the days of yore. It will stand first on the page of their local legends, and in the marvelous tales of the borders." "No process of argument or ingenuity of seaman- ship could deprive Perry of the fame justly given him by the public, or detract from the splendor of his reputation as the hero of the war," wrote Henry Adams. "More than any other battle of the time, the victory on Lake Erie was won by the courage and obstinacy of a single man." "The victory which Perry won over the British on September 10, 1813, was fraught with immense political and military consequences," wrote K. C. Babcock. "Its effect, too, on the American people was decidedly important ; for the first time an American fleet had met a British fleet and defeated it. Nor was it fair to discount the significance of the victory by saying that the vessels were small and of hasty construction. The charm of British invin- cibility had been broken in the great ship duels which made the names of Decatur, Bainbridge, and Hull household words. To this list was now added the name of Perry who was looked upon by the Americans as a hero of the same class as Nelson ; and he in turn received their adulation, evidenced by receptions, illuminations, and presented swords."
"Rhode Island glories in having been one of the old thirteen-the first, whether by dec- laration or by overt act, to renounce allegiance to George III," wrote E. Benjamin Andrews. "She founded the American navy, and its most splendid achievement to date stands eternally associated with a Rhode Island name. All the world knows how, in the person of Oliver Hazard Perry at the immortal battle of Lake Erie, we of Rhode Island 'met the enemy and they are ours.'" "The thunder of Perry's cannon proclaimed upon your inland seas the Rhode Island watchword, 'Hope,'" wrote Roswell B. Burchard. "In the hour of dire despondency, when Winchester had surrendered and the army of the northwest had been rent asunder, when the savage and merciless foe were at your doors, and when the gloom of defeat hung like a pall over the land, it was the flame flashing from these bulwarks that rekindled the fires of national glory, revived the languishing spirit of 1776 in the breasts of men, and turned the shame of Detroit and Mackinac into the triumphs of the Thames, Niagara, and Lundy's Lane. The invading army was annihilated, the infamous Proctor put to flight, the warrior Tecumtha slain, and British control over the Indian allies forever broken."
"The Western frontier was rescued from the horrors of the scalping knife and the toma- hawk during the last war," said Congressman Baylies of Massachusetts in 1822, "by the con- summate skill and matchless bravery of Oliver Hazard Perry, a favorite son of Rhode Island." "The victory of Perry on Lake Erie will go down in history as one of the most
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remarkable battles ever fought," said the "Newport Mercury," "and the consequences of that victory are as great as the contest was heroic. It redeemed a continent and brought back to the United States a territory today teeming with 30,000,000 of loyal citizens."
There were other Rhode Island heroes in the battle; Champlin, Turner, Brownell and Almy commanded four of the smaller American vessels. The story of Wilson Mays, a man from Newport, epitomizes the spirit of the day: Usher Parsons of Rhode Island, the sur- geon's mate, and the only man in the fleet who was then able to render surgical aid, heard a call for him at the small skylight that let in the day upon his apartment ; and as he stepped up he recognized the voice of his commander, who said, with a placid countenance and a quiet tone: "Doctor, send me one of your men," meaning one of the six men allowed for assist- ance to the wounded. The call was obeyed; in a few minutes it was successively renewed and obeyed, till at the seventh call, Parsons could only answer that there were no more. "Are there any that can pull a rope?" asked Perry; and two or three of the wounded crawled on deck, to lend a hand at pulling at the last guns. Wilson Mays, who was so sick as to be unfit for the deck, begged to be of use. "But what can you do?" was the question. And he replied, "I can sound the pump, and let a strong man go to the guns." He accordingly sat down by the pump, and at the end of the fight was found at his post with a ball through his heart! Stephen Champlin of Rhode Island, commanding the "Scorpion," fired the first and last shots in the battle.
Almost five years after the battle of Lake Erie the Rhode Island General Assembly recorded its earliest public and official recognition of Perry's achievement. A committee of the Assembly was appointed in June, 1818, to collect documents and memorials necessary to preserve the history of Oliver Hazard Perry's victory; and the Assembly voted that Perry be requested to "sit for his portrait to be taken by Gilbert Stuart, Esquire, a distinguished artist and also a native of Rhode Island." Within another year Perry had died; on receiv- ing news of the death, the General Assembly, at the October session, 1819, voted that each of its members wear crepe on the left arm for thirty days. Rarely in its career of almost 200 years had the Assembly paused in its business to record an expression of sorrow at the death of a member or public officer ; the vote to wear insignia of mourning for Oliver Hazard Perry was without precedent. Benjamin Hazard was directed to "compose and publish" a biography of Perry. At the same session the state's Senators and Representatives in Congress were directed to request that suitable provision be made for Perry's widow and for the education of his children. The body of the hero was removed to Newport for burial in the Island Cemetery in 1826; in 1832 the State of Rhode Island erected a cemetery monument over his grave. The one hundredth anniversary of the battle of Lake Erie was celebrated in Rhode Island as a public holiday, in accord with two resolutions of the General Assembly, in part as follows :
Whereas, on September 10, 1813, one of the greatest naval victories of history was won in the Battle of Lake Erie, a victory of which President Madison says in his message to Congress on December 7, 1813: "On Lake Erie the squadron under command of Captain Perry, having met the British squadron of superior force, a sanguinary contest resulted in the capture of the whole. The conduct of that officer, adroit as it was daring, and which was so well seconded by his comrades, justly entitles them to the admiration and gratitude of their country and will fill an early page in its naval annals with a victory never surpassed in lustre." And whereas, Oliver Hazard Perry, a native and citizen of Rhode Island built, equipped, manned and commanded the vic- torious American fleet on that occasion; and whereas, fifty-one of the fifty-four guns in that victorious American squadron were commanded by Rhode Islanders ; Perry, Turner, Champlin, Brownell and Almy, all Rhode Islanders, commanded vessels; Breeze, Dunham, Taylor and young Alexander Perry were officers of the fleet; and Doctor Usher Parsons, long a leading surgeon of the city of Providence, was the fleet surgeon; and whereas, 150 men of the 400 comprising the American forces on that occasion were citizens of Rhode
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Island; and whereas, the one hundredth anniversary of this great victory, which occurs on September 10, next, will be commemorated by a celebration in which the President of the United States, the governors and authorities of many of the states of the Union, and the representatives of other governments will participate ; at which time will be dedicated the monument erected in commemoration of this great victory, by the United States and by nine of the states of the Union, on Put-in-Bay Island, in Lake Erie ; and whereas, Rhode Island having contributed so largely to this great victory it is fitting that the state shall take a prominent part in this commemoration; now, therefore, be it resolved that $1500 be appropriated to pay the expense of suitable representation, etc., and whereas, Wednesday, September the tenth, A. D. 1913, marks the one hundredth anni- versary of the battle of Lake Erie, fought and won off Put-in-Bay Island, Lake Erie, State of Ohio, in which Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry won his naval victory ; and Whereas, on said tenth day of September, A. D. 1913, there is to be erected on said island a permanent memorial to said Commodore Perry; and whereas, it is fitting that the citizens of this state should further recognize the observance of said anniversary, there- fore be it resolved, that Wednesday, September the tenth, A. D. 1913 (as Perry Day) be and the same is hereby appointed a holiday. .
Of privateers sent out from Rhode Island during the War of 1812 the most famous was the "Yankee," of Bristol, James DeWolf, owner. The "Yankee" made six cruises in three years. On the second cruise the "Yankee" fought four battles, crossed the Equator six times and returned safely to port without losing a man after being absent 146 days. In her career as a privateer the "Yankee" captured British property valued at $5,000,000, and sent into Bristol a profit of $1,000,000. Captain James DeWolf, of Bristol, owner, was the antithesis of the Rhode Islanders of his day in attitude toward the war. As a shipowner he had felt the burden of British interference with American commerce. Within two weeks after the dec- laration of war he had fitted out the "Yankee" and asked for a commission. Other Rhode Island privateers, none so successful as the "Yankee," inflicted heavy losses upon British commerce.
THE MEXICAN WAR-The Rhode Island General Assembly had been guardedly apathetic with reference to President Madison's war policy in 1812-1815; it was unreservedly hostile to the Mexican War. As early as January, 1845, the proposed annexation of Texas was con- demned in resolutions which opened with a declaration that the "government of the United States is a government of limited powers," and continued :
That the limited government of the United States possesses no power to extend its jurisdiction over any foreign nation, and no foreign nation, country or people can be admitted into this union but by the sovereign will and act of the free people of all and each of these United States; and, therefore, in the opinion of this General Assembly, the annexation of Texas to this union, either by treaty negotiated by the President of the United States or by joint resolution of the Congress of the United States, would be a violation of the Consti- tution, manifestly tending to destroy the peace and prosperity of the country and defeat the objects of the union : that the state of Rhode Island, faithful to the Constitution, cannot consent to, but does most solemnly protest against the annexation of Texas or any other foreign state or territory to this union, unless the same shall be accomplished by an independent expression of the sovereign will of the free people of all and each of these United States.
The resolutions instructed the Senators and Representatives of Rhode Island in Congress to exert themselves to defeat annexation, and ordered copies of the resolutions sent to them and to the Governors of the several states. A year later, in resolution that quoted Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, then as now revered by Democrats as founders of their party, as favoring the American protective tariff policy, the Assembly urged Congress not to revise the tariff of 1842. In resolutions adopted in January, 1847, the Assembly combined the tariff, slavery, the annexation of Texas, and the Mexican War as subjects ; the resolutions succinctly stated the extreme New England view of the period. Opening with praise of the tariff of 1842, the resolutions continued: "That the repeal of the said tariff at the late session of
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Congress, after the fullest experience of its beneficial operation, when the government had involved itself in an unnecessary and most expensive contest with Mexico, was highly inex- pedient and unjust, and manifested a disregard for the pressing necessities of the govern- ment and the credit of the country, no less criminal and unwise than the blow intended to be inflicted by it on our most essential interests." The resolutions urged reconsideration and reenactment of the tariff of 1842; condemned the substitution of sub-treasury collection agencies for the banks as receivers of the impost revenues, and continued :
That while we yield to no state in the union in our condemnation of the system of slavery, which the errors of past ages have transmitted to us, and will cheerfully cooperate in any just and constitutional meas- ures to terminate it, we are not insensible to the difficulties of the position of our southern brethren, nor dis- inclined to fulfill in its true spirit every obligation and duty imposed upon us by the terms of our compact as embodied in the Constitution of the United States. But, submitting ourselves implicitly to the requirements of that instrument, we insist upon a like compliance by other parties to said compact with all its material stipulations, express or implied. We protest, therefore, against the acquisition of territory, by conquest or otherwise, beyond the present limits of the United States for the purpose of establishing therein slave-holding states, as deranging the balance of political power once so happily established between our confederated com- munities, and as manifestly in violation of the spirit and intent of our Constitution. We protest against the introduction of slaves, upon any terms, into any territory of the United States, whether of old or of recent acquisition, where slavery does not exist, or has not immemorially existed, and we hold that, so far from aiming to extend an institution like slavery over a wider territory than is now pervaded by it, it is clearly the interest, no less than the duty of slaveholding states, to circumscribe its spread within their own limits and to provide if possible the means of the gradual extinguishment wherever public sentiment will permit it. That while we acknowledge with just pride the gallant conduct of Generals Taylor and Worth and the forces under their command in storming the formidable redoubts and fortified streets of Monterey, and hail in the operations of our navy at Tabasco the new glory that illuminates a cherished Rhode Island name, we cannot but lament the waste of treasure and life which has hitherto attended a contest waged to no valuable end, which, with ordinary discretion on the part of our executive, might have been avoided with honor and con- sistently with a firm determination to vindicate by all constitutional means our national claims and rights.
The resolutions instructed Rhode Island's Senators and Representatives in Congress to press for "frank and equitable overtures of peace."
At the same session the Assembly appropriated $2500 for expenditure by the Governor in promoting the enlistment of "such volunteers as may offer" for the United States army in the Mexican War, and for boarding them for not exceeding three months until mustered intu the service of the United States. In May the Assembly adopted resolutions of regret on the death of Major John R. Vinton, Third United States Artillery, who was killed at Vera Cruz, and appointed a committee to arrange for his burial in Rhode Island. The Assembly was not dazzled by the brilliant military conquest of Mexico, nor swerved from the opposition to the war which it had manifested as early as 1845, by the temptation to enrich the United States by acquisition of further territory ; in January, 1848, almost on the eve of the negotiation of the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, it adopted resolutions reaffirming its faith that the war was unnecessary. Asserting that its opinion that the war could be avoided had been strengthened by the course of events; and that the President's order to advance to the eastern bank of the Rio Grande had been "useless and unconstitutional" and so manifestly an usurpation of author- ity to declare war resting in Congress as to warrant impeachment; and that the claims of the United States not only did not justify war but could have been adjusted by diplomacy ; the resolutions declared that the conquest and occupation of Mexico were "dangerous and unprece- dented measures subversive of our government and free institutions," and that the increase of the size of the army warranted the belief that Congress had taken sides with the Presi- dent. The treaty with Mexico was ratified by the Senate on March IO.
(Commodore Mathem Galbraith Deren
RE THE NAME OF THE PEOPLE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND
GENERAL ASSENELY
PLATE PRESENTED TO M. G. PERRY
COMMODORE MATTHEW G. PERRY. WHO "OPENED" JAPAN
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CAREER OF MATTHEW C. PERRY-There were not in Rhode Island many enlistments of "such volunteers as may offer" for the Mexican War, but many Rhode Islanders participated in the war as members of the regular establishments of army and navy, including him who at Tabasco achieved "the new glory that illuminates a cherished Rhode Island name"-Matthew Calbraith Perry, brother of the hero of Lake Erie. Born at Newport, April 10, 1794, Matthew Calbraith Perry, when less than fifteen years of age, was appointed as midshipman in the United States Navy. At that time, and until the establishment of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, appointment as midshipman was equivalent to enrollment as a cadet, youthful midshipmen, usually mere boys, as was Matthew Perry, being treated on shipboard as junior officers. Matthew Perry's father, Christopher Raymond Perry, and his two elder brothers were already naval officers in 1809. Midshipman Perry was assigned the schooner "Revenge," then commanded by his eldest brother, Oliver Hazard Perry, and part of the squadron of Commodore John Rodgers. To Commodore Rodgers, Matthew Perry owed much of the naval training that won for him honor and reputation later in life; Matthew Perry was transferred in 1810 to the "President," frigate, the flagship of the Commodore. Midshipman Perry participated in the naval skirmish between the "President" and the "Little Belt," British ship-of-war, an incident that precipitated the declaration of war in 1812. In an engagement between the "President" and the "Belvidera," June 21, 1812, the first sea fight of the War of 1812, Midshipman Perry was wounded when a cannon exploded on the "Presi- dent." On recommendation of Commodore Rodgers, Perry was promoted to be Lieutenant, on February 27, 1813, being then only eighteen years of age. He served on the "United States," frigate, Captain Decatur, but saw no further active fighting during the war.
In the interval between the war of 1812 and the Mexican War Lieutenant Perry was engaged in various and significant services as a naval officer. Assigned to the "Cyane," the convoy for the first ship carrying American negroes as colonists of a new republic in Africa, he made a special study of the causes of diseases common amongst sailors. He recommended rations including fresh vegetables as a preventive of scurvy. On a subsequent voyage to Africa he selected the site for the first American settlement in Liberia. He pursued a vig- orous and effective policy in suppressing the African slave trade, and in driving pirates from the seas. He was executive officer on the "North Carolina" under Commodore Rodgers, when the latter in 1825 led an American squadron through the Mediterranean Sea on a voyage intended to protect American commerce by displaying the strength of the navy.
Promoted to be Commander, he sailed the ship "Concord" to Russia, carrying John Ran- dolph, American envoy, on a special mission to the court of the Czar. So much impressed was Czar Nicholas with the American naval officer that he invited Commander Perry to join the Russian navy. Commander Perry set up on board the Concord a school for officers. His interest in education was continued throughout his life. It had a strong influence ultimately upon the American navy. He was instrumental in organizing the naval apprentice system and training schools for sailors, and he was one of the prominent naval officers on whose recom- mendation the Naval Academy at Annapolis was established. He was keenly interested in the welfare of American sailors, as well as officers. While maintaining splendid discipline on his ship, he was able to reduce appreciably the number of floggings. Convinced that strong drink was the primary cause for many offences that must, under the naval code, be punished by flogging, he advocated abolition of the grog ration, at least for sailors under twenty-one years of age. He was also sternly opposed to dueling, and succeeded in banishing it from the navy.
Commander Perry was assigned in 1833 to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. There he was instrumental in establishing a library and a lyceum. Promoted to be Captain in 1837, he was later assigned to command the "Fulton," the first American steam warship. His careful study of steam navigation, resulting in recommendations that led to significant changes in the
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construction of ships and in the development of effective types of marine engines, won him the title of "Father of the American steam navy." Incidentally he revived use of the ram, a weapon of naval offence familiar to the ancient world, but abandoned when man-oar power gave place to wind-sail power. The ram was an important weapon in the recent World War in repelling submarine attacks. In 1839 he was assigned to the duty of conducting experi- ments with shells and hollow shot. The artillery testing station at Sandy Hook, developed into an artillery training station as well, was established by Captain Perry.
In the Mexican War, as Commodore, Matthew Perry commanded in the Gulf of Mex- ico the largest and most powerful fleet of war vessels ever assembled up to that time under the American flag. While second in command to Commodore Conner, Commodore Perry was sent up the Tabasco River in pursuit of a Mexican flotilla. He defeated the Mexicans and captured all their boats, though his own vessels of heavy draught were endangered by mud and shoals in the shallow water. The fleet was next assigned to cover the landing of General Scott's army for the attack on Vera Cruz, and to participate in besieging the city. While the fleet lay in front of Vera Cruz Commodore Conner returned to the United States because of ill-health, and Commodore Perry assumed command. The fleet assisted in the bombard- ment of Vera Cruz, and when General Scott realized that his own army artillery was not strong enough to destroy the walls of the city he asked Commodore Perry to loan him heavy guns from the fleet. Perry's answer was "Certainly, General, you may have the guns; but I must fight them." Perry landed three sixty-eight pound shell guns and three thirty-two pound solid shot guns, with officers and sailors from the fleet to man them. The naval con- tingent was assigned in relays, and to allay jealousy, lots were drawn to establish the order of assignment. The naval batteries were protected by piles of sand bags; in two days the heavy and accurate bombardment silenced the Mexican batteries in Vera Cruz. A parley ended in unconditional surrender. The naval gunners at Vera Cruz had achieved a reputation for accuracy and effectiveness at artillery fire at Vera Cruz that became worldwide; they had been trained previous to the war by Perry while he was in charge of gun testing and artillery practice near Sandy Hook, New York.
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