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 en an!tr 
 
 ANNA ELLA CARROLL, 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE " GREAT AMERICAN BATTLK," KTO. 
 
 " Our country's glory is our chief concern : 
 For this we struggle, and for this we burn ; 
 For this we smile, for this alone we sigh ; 
 For this we live, for this would freely die." 
 
 THIBD EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 MILLER, ORTON <fe CO. 
 1857. 
 
 [ --
 
 431 
 
 TO 
 
 COMMODORE CHARLES STEWART, 
 
 OF THE AMERICAN NAVT. 
 
 WHEN the honor, the rank, the commission, or the subsistence, 
 of any class of Americans is at stake, the Constitution does not 
 allow secret proceedings to be instituted against them ; because an 
 act so perpetrated directly interferes with their inalienable and fun 
 damental rights. It forbids all conclaves, or cabals, which are 
 invested with power, to make deductions upon the accusations they 
 themselves have made when, unseen by the public eye, the parties 
 so arraigned have been denied the means of personal explanation 
 or defense! 
 
 As Americans, we claim to belong to a nation distinguished for 
 its freedom, its justice, and its intelligence ; and to deprive a citi 
 zen of all that is dear in life, while absent and unconscious; to 
 malign his reputation, without opportunity of defense, and thus 
 bring upon him shame or destitution, is a crime by the laws of God 
 and the country, and cannot but endanger the safety of the people ! 
 Whatever proceeding, under our institutions, tends to elicit truth 
 and justice, requires the sanction of religious obligation, the exami 
 nation of witnesses, and a faithful record ! 
 
 The board of officers that have recently sat in judgment upon the 
 reputation, fortune, and happiness, of the entire naval corps, have 
 exercised just such discretionary power as we know to be at war 
 with tke Federal Constitution, and at variance with the spirit and 
 intent of the law of Congress. 
 
 No class of citizens in our land are more tenacious of their rank 
 than officers of the navy ; and the desire for honorable promotion 
 is cherished with an interest that no suffering nor sacrifice can 
 
 8
 
 IV DEDICATION. 
 
 remove. Is it for the mere consideration it confers, or the addi 
 tional pecuniary advantage it involves? No; but because of the 
 voluntary surrender of a life-service to the honor, usefulness, defense 
 and glory of their country. And hence, no apparent rank, however 
 high, no compensation, however adequate to his personal ease and 
 comfort, ever atones, in the estimation of a right-minded and gal 
 lant officer, for the sullied honor which has destroyed equality with 
 his associates in the service. 
 
 To the integrity, the talents, the distinguished services, and the 
 lofty patriotism of the senior post-Captain, the highest and the 
 oldest officer of the navy, of whose record the whole country is 
 proud, the author now respectfully dedicates these pages. 
 
 The noblest motives that could actuate an American belong 
 to him. The great exploits of the navy belong to him. The 
 most enduring and substantial benefits of this great arm of the 
 public service have been conferred by him! No greater glory, 
 therefore, has been shed upon our country's history than that 
 reflected by its distinguished citizen, Commodore Charles Stewart. 
 He surrendered a lucrative and honorable position in the commer 
 cial marine, and, under the commission of lieutenant, entered the 
 service of the navy the 9th of March, 1798. In 1800, during our 
 hostilities with France, he commanded the small schooner Experi 
 ment, of twelve guns, with which he captured several armed vessels 
 of the enemy ! He subsequently secured the La Diane from his 
 adversaries, a three-masted ship, and, with his small force, put to 
 flight a brig of eighteen guns, which ordinary sagacity would have 
 assumed to be an impossibility. 
 
 In 1801, when the reduction of the navy was made, under Mr. 
 Jefferson, this brave officer was retained to reflect Ms own heroism 
 upon the service, and, like the stars he displayed in so much tri 
 umph, to add new lustre to the American name ! Wlfen the war 
 was waged against Tripoli, the gallant Stewart was in the squadron 
 of Commodore Preble, and was ready to enter the second conflict 
 with a hostile power. We find him commanding the Siren, and 
 actively engaged in burning the Philadelphia in the very harbor of 
 the enemy, and afterwards received upon his deck the illustrious 
 officer to whom that achievement was especially committed ! The 
 naval encounters of the subsequent four years won for the young 
 lieutenant a reputation which has grown brighter ever since; while 
 the navy acquired for the fame of our country, under her flag, so
 
 DEDICATION. V 
 
 gallantly borne by him, a halo of light which has never been over 
 shadowed ! 
 
 Very early after the cessation of these hostilities, Commodore Stew 
 art was tendered the commission of Captain, bearing date the 22d 
 April, 1806, a position under which he has sacrificed every personal 
 consideration to the honor of the American flag and the fair fame 
 of his own pure and beautiful name. In order to become familiar 
 ized with the ocean and the practical arts and habits of navigation, 
 Captain Stewart, with the permission of the Government, entered 
 several private expeditions for exploration and trade ; thus enlarging 
 his experience for the service during the seven years interval which 
 preceded our war with Great Britain in 1812; so that imbued with 
 every quality to defend the honor and glory of his country, he was 
 prepared to rush into action on the first summons to the battle ! 
 President Madison, supposing there was no other way to save our 
 armed vessels but by drawing them into the docks for protection, 
 would have adopted that policy to shield them from the foe, but for 
 the timely counsel of Commodore Stewart! To him, therefore, are 
 we indebted for the fresh pride and exultation that was awakened 
 for our country on the ocean in the last war with England, as 
 every note of victory from that scene of action sent a new throb of 
 joy, which was consecrated to the just and glorious interests of our 
 nation ! 
 
 Commodore Stewart commanded the frigate Constitution, and 
 while cruising on the Portuguese coast, he engaged in a conflict 
 with the Cyane and Levant, two English vessels, and conquered 
 both ! At the close of this war, it was at once seen that our ocean 
 victories, so important in their national bearing, had resulted from 
 the wisdom of Commodore Stewart, to whom the administration of 
 Mr. Mailison had deferred ! And the Congress of the United States in 
 1816 February 22d, passed a resolution requiring the President to 
 present this illustrious officer with a gold medal, expressive of the 
 high sense the country entertained for his character, conduct, and 
 services ; and the Legislatures of New York and Philadelphia like 
 wise tendered similar exhibitions of praise. He then followed our 
 pennant upon the shores of South America, in behalf of liberty, 
 and watched the condition of these new born republics ; where 
 ' from 1821 to 1824 he commanded the squadron of the Pacific. 
 When science and humanity demanded, we found him penetrating
 
 VI DEDICATION. 
 
 the ices of the poles ; when despotic vengeance demanded, we found 
 him there too, nobly executing the mission of this great nation ! 
 
 And now, with what indignation and shame do we recall the fact, 
 that Commodore Stewart was made the distinguished victim of that 
 irresponsible cabal, whose judgment the President of the country, 
 without a sipgle disinterested channel of explanation or enquiry, 
 adopted ! But the verdict of the people rejects the decision of that 
 President and Board ! And grateful for the eminent public services, 
 which have given prestige to the Navy, and elevated and adorned 
 the history of the country in the sight of all mankind, the Author, 
 as an humble representative of millions of her countrymen, re-affirms 
 the truth of history, and inscribes this evidence of her admiration 
 and confidence to Commodore Charles Stewart.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 THE FIRST AMERICAN EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Americana pensioners upon foreign governments, fifty years after the Declaration of 
 Independence, in respect to nautical knowledge Spain's advancement at that time 
 The Italians and Portuguese The Danes and Norwegians Knowledge of the Torrid 
 Zone Of the Frigid Zone Russia's discoveries and their extent England's explora 
 tions Transfer of the Whale Fisheries Owen King England's tenacity in pursuit 
 of a northwest passage The first American who proposed a scientific exploration 
 Hon. J. N. Reynolds His enviable distinction, 18 
 
 SECTION I. Act of Congress authorizing Expedition The universal concession as to its 
 authorship Its effects upon men of science Its benefit to France and England The 
 Geographical Society of England, France, and the United States make the Southern, 
 Continent on the same day President Jackson Mr. Reynolds' attainments as a 
 scholar His enthusiasm in the cause of Science His address in the hall of the House 
 of Representatives His resolution to accomplish this undertaking Mr. Jefferson, 16 
 
 SECTION II. The tonnage of the United States The early settlers John Smith's survey 
 The Pilgrims The jealousy of England New England enterprise New York The 
 Indians The envy of France and England Cause of the French Wars Ammunition" 
 obtained from the enemy, which saved the American cause The institution of the 
 American navy, 19 
 
 SECTION III. The American spirit The carrying trade Berlin and Milan decrees The 
 extension of our commerce Introduction of cotton Internal Improvements Their 
 effects upon national interests The demand for the merchants Discovery of the 
 Pacific Ocean Balboa, . . . . ..- 22 
 
 SECTION IV. Charles V. Magellan Columbus Court of Seville What led to the dis 
 covery of the North American Continent Hudson Bay Company Reynolds' belief in 
 a northwest passage Memorials for a survey of a Northwest Expedition presented 
 to Congress The Press in its favor The commercial community The inhabitants of 
 Nantucket Resolution of Congress, in its favor, passed, 26 
 
 SECTION V. The Navy Department Samuel L. Southard The next Session of Con 
 gress Governor Branch Administration of General Jackson Mr. Reynolds goes 
 abroad, 80 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Discoveries by whale ships European constructors of maps American fishermen The 
 mariners of New Bedford and Nantucket consulted The Seal Trade Emperor Alex 
 ander of Rus-la Captain Palmer, 89 
 
 SECTION I. East India Marine Society The want of nautical knowledge in the Ameri 
 can Navy Island of Sumatra Sunday Isles Feejee Isles English bounties Friends 
 of the country Ship Mentor, .. 85 
 
 SECTION II. French Expedition Kings of Denmark England Want of American 
 charts Our consul at Oahce The national dignity of the Expedition Its purpose 
 Its accordance with Mr. Jefferson's views, ST 
 
 SECTION III. The religious view Outlets of the Northern Polar Seas The North Polar 
 Seas inhabited Cause of the Ice in those regions A million and a half of square 
 miles unexplored by man Captain Cook in search of a Southern Continent His 
 want of proper information, . . . . . . . . , . . .40 
 
 SUCTION IV. Weddell Briscol P.eynolds in the Antarctic Ocean Isabella Catherine 
 
 of Russia Caiue of the Introduction of Philology, 48 
 
 Til
 
 Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 SKTION V. Advantages of the Exploration In the eyes of statesmen Congratulatory 
 letters Hon. J. K. Paulding James E. De Kay Prof. Silliman Hon. Benj. Rodman 
 Hon. Joseph Del a field, 4*J 
 
 SECTION VI. Payment of the debt for practical science and intelligence Winslow 
 Lewis, Jr. Hon. H. D. Gilpin Henry Junius Nott Caleb Gushing, . . .49 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Origin of the Aborigines Mr. Duponceau Woman's influence President Washington 
 Sir Humphry Davy Cuvier Origin of the Gipsies Sandwich Islanders Hon. John 
 Pickering, 68 
 
 SECTION I Prof. Charles Anthon Prof. Josiah F. Gibbs Prof. Charles Grey Botany 
 Zoology Dr. Charles Pickering The patriotism of Reynolds Tht final passage of 
 the Bill Hamer's speech The eight States which recommended it The distinguished 
 commanders, . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65 
 
 SECTION II. Eight years before Congress Twice adopted by the House The first impe 
 diment to its being carried into effect Its correspondence with the views of Jefferstm 
 and Monroe Channel of New York Our commercial marine, . . . .59 
 
 SECTION III Hon. Michael Hoffman Mr. Ripley Reynold's Report of 1828 Hii 
 knowledge extraordinary His Declarations The want of proper maps and charts 
 for the country Tyre, Greece, etc. Foreign nations keeping our commerce in lead 
 ing strings Reynold's remarks, ...... . .62 
 
 SKCTION IV. Capture of America by the Barbary Powers Burke Coast of California 
 Four hundred islands made known by Reynolds The tonnage, men, and capital 
 engaged in the whaling business The wealth of the fisheries, . . . .66 
 
 SUCTION V. Did the execution of the Expedition meet the design of its projector, and 
 the intention of Congress? Incompetent officials Hon. Mahlon Dickenson The 
 French Government Energy of Americans President Jackson The attempt to 
 strangle the Expedition The action of Congress judged by a committee Instructions 
 of the Secretary, . *.,., -69 
 
 SECTION VI. Forbearance towards the dead Willful perversion of the object General 
 Ripley's report Dutee J. Pierce Commodore Downes' letter Attempt lo curtail the 
 Expedition Lord Byron Commodore Hull Samuel L. Southard, . . .73 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The effect of the delay on Congress Vacillation of the Department General Jackson's 
 order Jealousy fomented between officer and citizen Treatment of the Scientific 
 Corps The American Revolution Reasons assigned for the delay of the Expedi 
 tion, 78 
 
 SECTION I. Commodore Jones Refusal of money by the Department Extra pay pro 
 vided by Congress Prevarication of the cabal Incongruous report of the Head of 
 the Department Anecdote, ...........82 
 
 Buenos II. The draw on the Treasury A national Expedition American Artists 
 Lieutenant Wilkes His ridiculous purchase in Europe The Naval Board ap 
 pointed, ...'... 85 
 
 SECTION III. The Instruments detained Degradation put upon Science American 
 seamen shipwrecked The effect of a frigate, 89 
 
 SECTION IV. Hull, Biddte, ad Aulick The Peacock Commodore Jones resigns Cap 
 tain Kearney Poinsett appointed to direct the Expedition Captain Gregory Lieut. 
 Gedney Wilkes declares liis superior's want of talents, 92 
 
 SECTION V. Captain James Armstrong Commodores Chauncy, Bainbridge, and Hull 
 The Instrument of the cabal Appointment of Wilkes, ...... 96 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Celebrated Report of 1837 The Macedonia Expedition delayed three years after being 
 ordered by Congress Governor Wise's speech Ingham's defense The force given 
 to Wilkes, 105 
 
 SUCTION I. The Macedonia withdrawn Wilkes' Squadron The squadron under Jones 
 Dodging Congress Van Buren and Poinsett Wilkea' falsehood, . . . 109 
 
 BKCTION II. Entomology CnuUceology Paleontology Cuvier Deshaye Agassis- 
 Hostility to Reynolds, 113
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 SECTION in. Deception practised on 'General Jackson Prof. William R. Johnson 
 Kearney's squadron Dr. Reynell Coates Wilkes' subterfuge to thwart Reynolds 
 Reynolds' letter to Poinsett 115 
 
 SBCTION IV. Collision between Poinsett and Van Buren Attempt to implicate Paulding 
 Various letters from Members of Congress favoring Reynolds' appointment to con 
 trol the civil department of the Expedition Cincinnati Republican The results 
 accruing to Science from Reynold's efforts, . 120 
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Invention and effects of printing The commerce of the world controlled by a railroad 
 through this continent Anglo-American enterprise Joel Barlow Erie Canal Rail 
 road from Portland, Maine, to Nova Scotia, 137 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Four and a half days' travel from New York to California by railroad Columbus 
 Twenty-four days between New York and China The opium trade Tobacco versut 
 opium English jealousy Tea trade The road in a moral and educational view 
 The three routes, 143 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Value of the whaling trade Grants of Texas lands to aid the road The central route 
 Canals,. . * *',' ;,. 160 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Romanism opposed to the road Gold of California and Australia Silver mines of 
 Sooora Laborers and manufacturers benefited by the road, 171 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Effects of the gold of California upon real estate, commerce, currency, labor, and manu 
 factures Telegraph Method of laying the submarine telegraph Congress and the 
 Pacific Railroad The democratic administration against the road The American 
 party and Millard Fillmore committed to the road, 180 
 
 LOSS OF THE SLOOP OF WAR ALBANY, COMMANDER 
 GERRY, OFFICERS, AND CREW. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Author's apology Commander Gerry Captains Eagle and Mitchell sent in search 
 of the Albany Ports visited by the Albany Elbridge Gerry His participation in the 
 Declaration and Constitution Governor of Massachusetts One of the original seven 
 signers of the Declaration of Independence Presided over the United States Senate, 
 In 1818 Captain Gerry His official acts Names of the officers of the Albany, . 1ST 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Last seen of the Albany Anecdote Long Cruise Captain Gerry's religious character 
 He was a Communicant Elbridge Gerry, Jr. Lieutenant Bleecker Nicholas Fish 
 Morris, . 199 
 
 CULPABILITY INVOLVED IN THE LOSS OF THE 
 
 ALBANY. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Who caused the loss The Albany's Defects Secretary's letter to Newton Newton's 
 letter at the Gulf of Samana Dobbin's approval The order for the fatal cruise 
 Newton's excuse Officer-lite conduct of Gerry, . . . ' . . . . 209 
 
 1*
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Elbridge Gerry first proposed an American Navy Jefferson's opposition Newton's 
 life saved by Gerry Yellow fever Newton's antecedents Loss of the Fulton Acci 
 dents to the Missouri Dobbin's call on Newton for Commander Gerry's letter New 
 ton's Staten Island letter, 2J9 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Gerry deceived Dobbin's expressed ignorance of the Albany's defective condition, 
 after her loss Newton rewarded, 229 
 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Foreign navies Navy Retiring Board Noble daring of Lieut. Rolando Pierce and 
 Dobbin Affray between Captain Perry and Heath Shubrick, .... 282 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Stribling and Diaboleto Commodore Hull Pendegrast's inefficiency, . . . 247 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Commodore Perry Japan expedition Captains Graham, Inman, and Levy Abolish 
 ment of flogging in the navy Conduct of Pierce, 267 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Cost of a naval education Corruption Mallory, a foreigner, alms to destroy the navy 
 Insufficiency of the bureaus, 269 
 
 AN AMERICAN HERO THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 
 
 CAPTAIN BARTLETT'S VINDICATION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Chief Justice Gilchrist Lieutenant Bartlett on duty when broken In the service No 
 official notice The devotion of his wife, 278 
 
 SECTION I. Testimonials of his Commodore, commanders, associates, and subalterns 
 Extraordinary strength of this evidence Letters of Commodores Lavallette and 
 Montgomery, 288 
 
 SECTION II. Captain Bartlett in command of the Kwing Prof. Bache's testimony 
 Bartlett at the mouth of the Columbia River Wilkes' ignorance as to the mode of 
 entering the channel of the Columbia ISenton's prophecy Bartlett's Report, . 289 
 
 SECTION III. Contrast between the sea service of Wilkes and Bartlett Lieutenant 
 Moffat, a naval Commodore The military and civil services of Bartlett in California 
 Montgomery's letter Several high offices filled by Bartlett in California His legal 
 attainments Elected by the people to the chief magistracy His extraordinary tact 
 In administering the government Conduct as Judge, ...... 295 
 
 SECTION IV. Bartlett the first to suggest lighting the approaches to San Francisco 
 His improvements upon the old system Why he was sent to Paris How he was 
 instructed, 802 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The appropriation of his labors by the Lighthouse Board Plenary power with which 
 BartKtt was invested Misroon's falsehood Testimony of Professors Bache and 
 Henry, . 807 
 
 SECTION I. Bartlett goes to Paris before the creation of the Lighthouse Board His 
 discretionary power continues The Board's Report The number of lights purchased 
 by Bartlett The interest exhibited among the Savans of Europe Letter of the Audi 
 tor of the Treasury, 811
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 SSCTTOB II. Bartlett's Integrity unimpeachable His services His lawful claim The 
 unjust deductions of the Secretary of the Treasury, SIS 
 
 SECTION III. The Secretary's knowledge of Bartlett's services Bartlett's philanthropy 
 Incident His appeal in behalf of the Cape de Verde Island sufferers Hisroon bis 
 enemy Bartlett's associations, 823 
 
 SECTION IV. The American Consul, Heart Bartlett's generosity His family Com 
 mencement of his naval career His gallant action as a midshipman, . . . 881 
 
 SKCTION V. Bartlett's messmates on the Fail-field His advantages as a linguist Com 
 modore Wadsworth His friendship with Captain Montgomery Commodore Perry's 
 letter Bartlett's first naval services, 837 
 
 SECTION VI. Bartlett as a Hydrographer Joins the Portsmouth His conduct there 
 The Author's defense founded upon data and vouchers, 840 
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Our commercial relations The Federal Republic of Central America General Francisco 
 Morazan Destruction of the republic General William Walker His first expedition 
 President of Lower California Invasion of Sonora Commercial company formed 
 In California Grant of land Castellan, the republican democrat Chamorra. the 
 aristocrat Cabanos The priesthood unite with the autocrat Chamorra, . . 845 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The battle of Rivas Its effect upon the Nicaraguans Battle of Virgin Bay Granada 
 Romish church used as a fort Battle of Granada Walker is offered the presidency 
 of Nicaragua He declines in favor of General Corral St. George cannonaded 
 Walker reinforced Arrival of Colonel Fry and Parker H. French Expedition against 
 San Carlos 'Padre Vijil Walker's forces augmented Display of firmness Treason of 
 General Corral His execution Rivas president The " Nicaraguense " newspaper 
 started Col. French sent as minister jilenipotentlary to Washington Is not received 
 Shamefully treated by the Pierce administration Natural scenery of Nicaragua 
 Schlessinger, 855 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Battle at Santa Rosa Schlessinger's treachery Battle of Rivas German deserters 
 Individual prowess The testimonial at Nashville, 870 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 English interference American enterprise Popularity of Gen. Walker His election to 
 the Presidency Inauguration March of Christianity in Nicaragua, . . . 889 
 
 THE ROMISH SYSTEM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Rome opposed to {be circulation of the Bible Contrast between enlightened freedom 
 and Romish ignorance and servitude Power of the Confessional Secrete extorted by 
 confessors Ballot-box, . . . .. , . .... . . .892 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Rome opposed to printing and freedom of the Press The Council of Lateran Pro 
 hibited books Booksellers subjected to penalties and restrictions Penalty of " ex 
 communication " for reading " heretical " books, ....... 401 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Encyclical letter of Pope Gregory XVI. Arrogated power of the priesthood Rome 
 persecutes beyond the grave Political agents of the Papacy in America Blighting 
 effect* of Popery History of the interdict of Venice fulminated by Pope Paul V., 410
 
 Xil CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Pope and the sword The claim of the Romish church to Infallibility Preposterous 
 claims of the Pope Bull against Queen Elizabeth Leo III. " Ceremonies of the Holy 
 Roman Church "Romanism the same now as ever, 480 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Bishop England's authority The "Host" Catholic Telegraph of Cincinnati denounces 
 republicanism Bishop Flaget, of Kentucky, against our republican government 
 The canon laws, 441 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Eternal City The effects of Romanism and Protestantism contrasted Luther 
 America is Bible ground The Jesuits and state politics Spies The silent Press 
 America the last battle-field of Popery, 449 
 
 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 First prayer in Congress Washington the Protestant Franklin Pownal's prophecy 
 Brownson and McMasters betray the objects of the Papacy in America Romanism 
 opposed to progress Marriage Absolution Power of the Pope f .... 456 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The sacrament of marriage Dispensation Romanists disqualified from holding trusts 
 under Protestant governments Creed of Pope Pius IV. Sacrifice of the mass The 
 wafer-God Purgatory Saints Images and relics Indulgences Bills of exchange 
 on Purgatory Council of Trent, 46T 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The bishop's oath The Jesuits The Bible Forgery The commentary of Menochius 
 Bellarmine Curse of Pope Benedict VIII. The Council of Constance Maynooth 
 College Dens' theology Pope Urban II. Pope Sixtus V. The Inquisition Roman 
 ism unchangeable Illustrations of the spirit of Popery The nature of Romanism, 477 
 
 A PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICAN 
 
 CITIZENS. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Papists opposed to public schools Education " Christian Brothers " Rules of the 
 Order Archbishop Hughes Romish convention Proscription of Americans by 
 Franklin Pierce Bible banished from our schools, . 498 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Superficial education at Romish seminaries Sisters of Charity Jesuistesses Their 
 plan of operations Hypocrisy White and black veil, 510 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Pupils in Romish Seminaries deprived of the Bible Rome afraid of the Bible Interest 
 ing narrative, 518 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The fruits of Romanism Dr. Giustiniani Dangerous tendencies of Romish instructions 
 Dogmas of the Jesuits, ..'.... 526 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Cardinal Wiseman Ribbon societies Pope Barberini St. Peter and Jupiter Rome 
 persecutes genius The power of Popery in America, . . . . .584 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF EDWIN 0. PERRIN 541 
 
 " " SIDNEY KOPMAN, 661 
 
 M * NATHAN RAMSEY, 655
 
 
 /C <
 
 THE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 WHATEVER tends to increase the stimulus 
 to commercial or maritime research, adds to 
 our national resources, and becomes an impor 
 tant element to the foundation of our national 
 power. 
 
 For fifty years after our independence as a 
 nation had been acknowledged by the civilized 
 powers of the earth, and more than forty after 
 our present matchless form of government had 
 been adopted, we remained, for maritime and 
 scientific knowledge, wholly pensioners upon 
 foreign governments. 
 
 We had not given a single impetus to a 
 national enterprise ; we had not contributed a 
 single dollar for the promotion of scientific 
 
 N
 
 14 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 intelligence ; we had not taken a step to ad 
 vance navigation as a science ; our ships sailed 
 by charts which we had no part in making ; and 
 not a mathematical instrument had we then con 
 structed. Even Spain, with her exclusive sys 
 tem of monopoly, had shamed us by contribu 
 tions to geographical knowledge, in the form 
 of numerous charts. The Italians and Portu 
 guese had ventured into unknown seas and 
 made important discoveries. The Danes and 
 Norwegians had pushed into the Arctic regions 
 and planted colonies on the ice-bound shores 
 of Greenland. The torrid zone, supposed to 
 have nothing but sandy deserts and a vertical 
 sun, had been found to teem with organic life, 
 and with a denser population than the tempe 
 rate zone. The frigid, too, no longer lay under 
 perpetual snows, and navigators had seen plants 
 grow, and flowers bloom, in its partial summer. 
 Russia had made discoveries in every part of 
 the globe. Her expeditions had penetrated into 
 Tartary, north of Thibet, and under the snow 
 capped ranges of the Himalaya and Imans, and 
 the northwest portion of our own continent. 
 While in the Southern Ocean, she had gone as 
 far as the 70th parallel of latitude, and boasted
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 15 
 
 of having discovered islands that Cook never 
 saw. 
 
 England, however, had been preeminent in 
 her scientific explorations. Under her auspices 
 the whale-fishery was transferred from East 
 to West Greenland. She had sent Owen to 
 the southeastern coast of Africa, King to the 
 Straits of Magellan, and constructed charts for 
 that almost unknown passage to the Pacific ; 
 while, for three centuries, she had persevered 
 in her attempt to find a northwest passage, no 
 generation having yielded to its supposed im 
 practicability. 
 
 Thus were we occupying a national position 
 which humiliated the American character in the 
 sight of the whole scientific world, when the first 
 man, who was a citizen of our country, a son of 
 our soil, appeared, to elevate by his efforts, the 
 scientific intelligence of the people, and to equal 
 ize our condition, in this repect, with every for 
 eign government of the Old World. Hon. J. N. 
 Reynolds, of New York, was the projector of the 
 first exploring expedition in the United States. 
 An expedition which, though shorn of much of 
 the magnitude of its original design by the scan 
 dalous action of weak, incompetent, and unfaith-
 
 * FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 ful officials of the government, has, nevertheless, 
 been pregnant with beneficial results to this na 
 tion the greatness or limit of which no human 
 eye can foresee ? This American, then, con 
 ceived and accomplished for his country, what 
 the most undaunted navigator had not before 
 imagined, or had the moral courage to propose. 
 And he stands alone, at an unapproachable dis 
 tance, possessing a claim to this distinction, not 
 merely for having attempted, but having actu 
 ally accomplished his purpose ! 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 The act of Congress which passed the 14th of 
 May, 1836, authorizing the First Exploring Ex 
 pedition, was the result of the arduous labors of 
 that single individual. No one within the pre 
 cincts of Congress ignored that fact ; while he 
 received from the scientific professions and the 
 country, the highest evidences of honor it was 
 in their power to bestow. And when we con 
 sider the immense public benefit which has re 
 sulted to the country hi its commerce, science, 
 literature, and arts, by the services of Mr. Rey-
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 17 
 
 nolds, we cannot but invoke the judgment of the 
 American people to these results. 
 
 His labors have become to all the subsequent 
 expeditions which we have accomplished, what 
 the " tamping bar " of England is to miners. 
 
 They have guided our men of science in their 
 explorations, as that bar guides the miner 
 through inflammable gases, without the fear of 
 being fired by the rocks. Nor was the effect 
 of that first efficient action of our American Con 
 gress confined to our exclusive national benefit. 
 The governments of France and England very 
 soon appropriated the valuable information eli 
 cited by Mr. Reynolds in maturing out that ex 
 pedition. The Geographical Society of England 
 was in session when the news of our contem 
 plated exploration reached Europe, and the 
 deepest interest was so instantly awakened, that 
 similar expeditions were at once fitted out by 
 both England and France. And soon the Lion, 
 the Lily, and the American Eagle appeared in 
 the same constellation ; and, what is more sin 
 gular, the ensigns of France and the United 
 States made the Southern Continent the same 
 day! 
 
 Americans will remember that it was under
 
 18 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 the administration of President Jackson that 
 this exploring expedition obtained the sanction 
 of Congress, and in the success of which Jack 
 son felt the deepest solicitude. 
 
 Mr. Reynolds having been early distinguished 
 for excellence and eminence in classical attain 
 ments among his contemporaries, soon became 
 noted not only for science, but for literary dis 
 tinction ; and, with all his acknowledged ability, 
 he seems to have singularly striven for that 
 modest incognito which, fortunately for his coun 
 try, he has not been able to maintain. His love 
 of wild adventure, and his travel around the cir 
 cumference of the earth, had given him extraor 
 dinary experience as a navigator, and his enthusi 
 asm in the cause of science had brought him into 
 notice through his works at an early age. While 
 his address in the Hall of the House of Repre 
 sentatives, on the 3d of April, 1836, on the sub 
 ject of the surveying and exploring expedition 
 to the Pacific Ocean, and South Seas, with his 
 inimitable discussions upon the manner, that 
 expedition was finally dispatched, will ever re 
 main among the classical productions of the 
 English language in this country, and wherever 
 that tongue is spoken or read.
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 19 
 
 It is not wonderful that when this American 
 surveyed the earth in its magnitude, and beheld 
 the natural greatness of his native land, her une 
 qualled institutions, the genius, enterprise, and 
 energy, of his countrymen, that he should have 
 mourned to see American libraries filled with 
 the maps, charts, and histories, of what science 
 had done in other nations, and that he made the 
 resolution of the boy, voluntarily acted out in 
 the man, his purpose to stimulate and develop 
 these national resources. The only wonder 
 is, that this had not been done before ! For, 
 although the survey of the coast had been re 
 commended by Mr. Jefferson, the work had but 
 then been commenced. And much of its merit 
 was, therefore, neutralized by such national ne 
 glect. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 In the meantime, we had more tonnage than 
 all the nations of Europe together when Colum 
 bus discovered America, and owned a navy 
 larger than was all the effective force of the 
 Old World at that day. 
 
 Americans, do you wish to know what made
 
 20 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 you so early able to compete with England in 
 familiarity with the ocean ? It was the severe 
 hardships to which the early settlers of our 
 country were inured. Six years before the 
 Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Hock, John Smith 
 had coasted from the James River to Ports 
 mouth, and surveyed all the islands and harbors 
 of New England. This was in 1614. When the 
 Pilgrims came, in 1620, they went to work and 
 built ships at once, in order to survey the south 
 ern coast, and traffic with the natives. In less 
 than fifty years after that, the American tonnage 
 was great enough to excite the jealousy of Eng 
 land ! Even when, in 1665, Massachusetts had 
 a militia of but four thousand, she owned one 
 hundred and forty vessels of between twenty 
 and one hundred tons burden. So of New 
 York, at that time in British power. The very 
 first thing her colonists did was to hollow out a 
 tree, to cross the adjacent waters, and commune 
 with the settlers. Indeed, maritime enterprise 
 has been the earliest characteristic of the Ameri 
 can people. And this drew the seafarer and 
 emigrant to the Atlantic shores. The Indians, 
 at the dawn of the seventeenth century, prowled 
 around the dwellings of the emigrants, and the
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 21 
 
 necessaries of life were raised in scanty supplies, 
 because these sagacious adventurers were busied 
 in fitting out expeditions to ascertain the inden 
 tures on our coast, its rivers and harbors. The 
 fisheries, then, were more ardently pursued than 
 any other enterprise, and from them, in connec 
 tion with lumber, and the fur trade, the nation 
 received its first impulse, and its first resources. 
 
 Very soon this maritime enterprise of America 
 excited the envy of France against England, and 
 this was the primary and efficient cause of the 
 first and second French wars, in which America 
 became the common battle-ground. The Ameri 
 can privateers displayed, at that crisis, naval 
 skill which rendered them the pride of the mo 
 ther country, while they added wealth to their 
 own enterprise. These French wars then made 
 the trying ordeal by which the American people 
 were trained for the battle of Independence. 
 "We took, by these means, a step from base sub 
 serviency to England to the rank of a maritime 
 nation, of no small account! Nearly two thou 
 sand vessels were captured by American enter 
 prise, from the enemy, in the War of the Revo 
 lution. It was by this success solely, that ammu 
 nition and clothing were obtained for our cause, 

 
 22 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 in the darkest and most critical periods of that 
 contest. General Washington declared that this 
 saved him from a retreat, and from the possible 
 necessity of being obliged to disband the Ameri 
 can forces. At one time, when besieging Bos 
 ton, there were but two barrels of gunpowder 
 for twenty thousand men ; two English ships, 
 laden with military stores, came in sight just 
 at that crisis, which were captured by Captain 
 Manly, and appropriated to American use. 
 
 The maritime affairs of the country, after the 
 War of Independence, were managed by a Com 
 mittee, and. we had no navy until 1794, several 
 years after the present Constitution was adopted. 
 In 1*798, four years after its organization, our 
 little navy humbled the fierce corsair in the 
 Mediterranean, and gave promise of the future 
 glory which it achieved for the country in 1812. 
 
 SECTION m. 
 
 It is remarkable that, as Colonists, more genu 
 ine American spirit was discoverable in behalf of 
 commerce, than after we attained our nationality. 
 Then it penetrated into dangerous shoals and 
 eand-banks. It sent -men of science twice into
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 23 
 
 distant parts to observe the transit of Yenus 
 over the sun, and which duty, in consideration 
 of the imperfect construction of instruments at 
 that period, was performed with astonishing 
 accuracy. But, from the Declaration of Inde 
 pendence to the Second War with England, in 
 1812, not a dollar was expended by government 
 to aid a scientific exploration, with the exception 
 of the small amount appropriated for an expe 
 dition to the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 The Americans enjoyed the entire carrying 
 trade during the French Revolution, when all 
 Europe was in arms, and this gave our country 
 an impetus to greatness, and an increase in 
 wealth, without a modern parallel. 
 
 This, as might have been anticipated, awakened 
 jealousy on the part of France and England, 
 and, in 1806, led to exactions on our commerce. 
 The Berlin and Milan decrees followed in 1807, 
 and caused non-intercourse, which resulted in the 
 war of 1812. Our navy had not been then pro 
 perly increased, and though it won imperishable 
 glory on the seas, we merged from the conflict 
 with a weak commercial marine. But, after the 
 war, commerce again took its onward march, our 
 fisheries extended themselves from our own coasts
 
 24 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 to the shores of Brazil, around all the capes of 
 the Pacific and Indian oceans to the Maldives 
 and Islands of Japan. 
 
 Cotton, which had been several years before 
 introduced into the country merely as a botani 
 cal experiment, now became an article of pri 
 mary importance, and took rank over all else, 
 while the machinery of the North was at once 
 ready to fabricate it, and millions of the race 
 were soon clothed in this material. 
 
 From that period manufacturers began to in 
 fluence national economy. The sugar of the 
 South, and flax of the West, were then brought 
 into general use. Internal improvements soon 
 developed new markets for both agricultural and 
 manufacturing articles ; the necessaries of life 
 were at the command of all ; the inhabitants of 
 the interior sought the commerce of the sea 
 board, while the traveller from the seaboard 
 penetrated into the interior. Thus was the great 
 impulse given to individual labor, which indi 
 rectly opened the resources of the nation. 
 In laboring for themselves they benefited their 
 neighbors, and soon, almost by intuition, con 
 cluded that this labor, divided among the three 
 great interests of the nation, would best sub-
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 25 
 
 serve the happiness of the whole. This called 
 for the merchants. They sent their keels into 
 unknown seas, and, in a sober business spirit, 
 they sacrificed to utility. They caused the na 
 tional industry to combine all the elements of 
 productiveness, so that every atom should bear 
 its fair proportion in the great result. 
 
 Our fathers, in the midst of gloom and adver 
 sity, saw with prescience the rising glory of the 
 western orb. They beheld afar the gardens they 
 planted and the treasures which would be un 
 folded to their children through the shedding of 
 their blood ! 
 
 The knowledge of the most enlightened nations 
 was confined to a circuit of but a few thousand 
 miles, several years after G-alileo had taught the 
 sublime doctrine, that the eighty millions of fixed 
 stars seen through a telescope were centres of 
 other systems. The mere existence of the Pacific 
 ocean was unknown until 1513. Then Balboa, a 
 Spanish commander, crossed the ridge, which 
 divides the Andes Mountains at the Isthmus of 
 Darien. Immediately it became a desideratum 
 to open a passage, by sea, to this unexplored 
 ocean, and thus to reach the Moluccas and 
 India possessions of the Spanish crown. 
 
 m
 
 26 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Charles the Fifth sent Magellan, in 1520, for 
 that purpose, and the straits of his name bear 
 witness how he fulfilled the trust ! 
 
 He ascertained the southern limit of this west 
 ern continent ; and is said to have wept in tri 
 umph, as this mighty ocean appeared before him. 
 And while the Pacific was traversed and the 
 Spice Islands reached, Magellan fell ingloriously 
 by the spear of a native. His labors and suc 
 cesses were second to no voyager, save Columbus. 
 And he must ever bear the palm of immortality, 
 because he opened the pathway to a new hemis 
 phere ! which was soon penetrated by others, 
 who found New Holland, New Zealand, and 
 numerous other islands in the Indian, Pacific and 
 Southern oceans. When the fact became known, 
 as to what Magellan and his successors had done, 
 the greatest excitement prevailed among com 
 mercial nations. The Court of Seville tried to 
 keep secret this new route to the Moluccas. But 
 this only roused other nations ; the Hollanders 
 soon doubled Cape Horn, and with incredible 
 energy the extent of the southern hemisphere,
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 27 
 
 in this western world, was made known. The 
 history of the enterprise of our own land teaches 
 the impossibility of computing the results of sci 
 entific research in advance. 
 
 We know that England's efforts for a northwest 
 passage to India led to the discovery of the North 
 American continent. We know that the Hud 
 son Bay Company was opened by the same 
 means. And neither Cabot, Hudson, Davis, or 
 Baffin dreamed of the Newfoundland cod fish 
 eries and the whale fisheries of Davis' Straits, 
 which were opened in the same unexpected 
 manner. Mr. Reynolds declared that no insuper 
 able obstacle remained to prevent the final and 
 complete success of English enterprise for this 
 northwest passage. He showed that nearly the 
 whole extent had been traced on a map, and that 
 the effort was commended by all men of sense. 
 "Let her have it," said the true American, "a 
 nobler field and a wider range has opened the 
 South to us," as he pressed upon the attention 
 of Congress the necessity of a voyage of disco 
 very, with scientific appliances, to increase our 
 national knowledge of the Southern and Pacific 
 oceans. 
 
 In 1826-7, Mr. Reynolds first brought the
 
 28 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 importance of this subject before Congress, ac 
 companied by petitions from inhabitants of the 
 several States, praying the aid of the govern 
 ment to carry the same into effect. Among 
 these were a memorial from the State of New 
 York, dated October 19th, 1827, signed by the 
 Lieutenant-Governor, Speaker of the House of 
 Representatives, and almost the entire Legisla 
 ture. One from North Carolina, with the high 
 officials of that State, and its House of Commons. 
 A third from Virginia, dated Richmond, Jan 
 uary 1, 1828, sustained by the Speaker of the 
 House of Delegates, and most of the members 
 of her Legislature. And a very earnest appeal 
 from the Maryland Legislature, accompanied by 
 a cogent preamble and resolutions. 
 
 The House appointed a Committee to consider 
 the application, who entertained a favorable 
 opinion of Mr. Reynolds' novel project ; and 
 who, desirous to promote inquiry, moved its 
 special reference to the Navy Department. Dur 
 ing the interval between the first and second 
 sessions of that Congress, the proposed expedi 
 tion was much discussed in the public journals, 
 and it is a significant fact that not a solitary 
 press in the country opposed the measure. While
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 29 
 
 the commercial community, and particularly such 
 as were interested in the fishery, whale, or fur 
 interest, came to the support of Mr. Reynolds' 
 measure, as one man. This class of memorialists 
 had, more than others, felt the want of this 
 expedition ; and their ardor in its behalf was 
 marked with energy. The memorial from the 
 inhabitants of Nantucket was commended to Con 
 gress in the report of the Secretary of the Navy, 
 who evidenced much laborious and extended re 
 search, and set forth the necessity of protection 
 to our commerce in the Southern Ocean, with a 
 zeal becoming its magnitude. 
 
 The session, however, was too near its close 
 to pass a law on the subject, and, in lieu of a 
 bill, the House voted a resolution, affirming the 
 expediency of sending one of our small public 
 vessels into the Pacific and South Seas, and 
 requesting the President of the United States 
 to allow such facilities to the Navy Department 
 as would enable this exploration to be under 
 taken. 
 
 These resolutions reflected, at that moment, 
 the sentiments of all our great commercial cities, 
 the Legislatures of the States, comprising more 
 than half the population of the Union, and re-
 
 30 
 
 presented on the floor of Congress, by one hun 
 dred and twenty-nine of its members. 
 
 SECTION y. 
 
 The Navy Department went about the work 
 it was thus empowered to do, for there was 
 neither time nor pretext for delay. The Pea 
 cock was repaired for the expedition officers 
 of approved skill were ordered to be in readi 
 ness seamen were enlisted books and mathe 
 matical instruments ordered and the aid of 
 scientific counsel sought by correspondence with 
 men of science throughout the country. 
 
 Samuel L. Southard was then Secretary of the 
 Navy, and, giving to the expedition the sanction 
 of his highly cultivated mind, did all that prudent 
 foresight could suggest to render it alike useful 
 and honorable to the nation. The succeeding 
 session of Congress, the reported bill of the pre 
 ceding one passed the House of Representatives 
 by a large majority. In the Senate, too, there 
 was known to have been a decided majority in 
 its favor. But the detail of the plan elicited a 
 difference in opinion, and in the confusion inci 
 dent to the close of the session, Congress iinally
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 
 
 adjourned before the bill, as modified, was reached 
 by the Senate. This was the termination of 
 President Adams' administration. 
 
 Under General Jackson, Governor Branch of 
 North Carolina was placed over the Navy De 
 partment. He was opposed to the expedition, 
 and the tone and feeling of the new administration 
 corresponded with his view. "Retrenchment and 
 economy" had been the party watchword, and, 
 under its specious pretence, the expedition, so 
 well-matured and auspicious of such salutary re 
 sults to the country, was suspended ! 
 
 It was then that Mr. Reynolds went abroad 
 and gave five years of his life to the circumnavi 
 gation of the globe. He penetrated the South 
 Seas, and sailed along the confines of the Antarc 
 tic circle. He confirmed, by personal investiga 
 tion, all the information previously derived, from 
 others, and, with an abiding conviction that honor, 
 interest, duty, and humanity, called for this na 
 tional expedition, more than ever before, he 
 returned to the United States, to that end, in 
 1834, and renewed his labors before Congress, 
 which were most happily triumphant.
 
 32 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OUR whale ships, in their untried paths, had, 
 for years, been discovering new reefs, new is 
 lands, and new dangers ; and these facts were 
 always communicated to whatever vessels they 
 might chance to meet. Instead of the beaten 
 track, these American whalers, after doubling 
 Cape Horn, made their voyages along the Span 
 ish main. And, for more than thirty years, the 
 European constructors of maps and charts ap 
 propriated this very information, obtained through 
 Americans, to their own benefit, and without ever 
 alluding to the name of the individuals from whom 
 the information was derived. 
 
 The annals of no other nation furnish the same 
 record of daring and successful enterprise that is 
 presented by the silent and unobtrusive action of 
 the American fishermen ! 
 
 Mr. Reynolds ascertained, from this pure and 
 original source, the topography of the whole
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 33 
 
 range of seas from the Pacific to the Chinese 
 and Indian oceans, and visited Newport, New 
 Bedford, and Nantucket, in 1828, to consult the 
 log of each of the sturdy mariners he might find 
 in port, and to commune with them on the great 
 commercial importance of the national enterprise. 
 So, of those engaged in the seal .trade. The 
 occupation of. these men is still more adventurous 
 and daring. In the smallest vessels they sweep 
 the rocky shores of Patagonia, and the islands 
 around Cape Horn, and the whole coast of South 
 America. They skirt the eastern and western 
 shores of Africa ; they circle the islands of the 
 Pacific ; plunge into the Southern Ocean, and are 
 often close to the limits of the Antarctic circle ! 
 When the Emperor Alexander of Russia sent out 
 two ships for discovery, they became, on one oc 
 casion, involved in a thick fog between the South 
 Shetland Islands and Palmer's Land ; to their 
 great astonishment, as it dissipated, they descried 
 a small vessel, of fifty tons' burden, between their 
 ships, with the American flag at the masthead ! 
 The Russian commander hoisted his colors, and 
 sent an invitation to the American captain to 
 visit his ship. After the customary interchanges, 
 
 the commodore inquired of the captain as to 
 
 2*
 
 34 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 their present locality, and was informed that 
 they were in sight of the South Shetland Isles ; 
 " and if you wish to visit any of them in particu 
 lar," added the American, "it will afford me 
 pleasure to he your pilot." " We were felicita 
 ting ourselves," said the Russian, " that we had 
 made a discovery, until the light showed us an 
 American vessel alongside, which .now offers to 
 pilot me into port, where several of his own na 
 tion are at anchor ! We must surrender the 
 enterprise to you Americans, and be content to 
 follow in your train. I behold, before me, a 
 pattern for the oldest nation of Europe, since, 
 instead of making discoveries, I find here the 
 American flag, a small fleet, and a pilot." 
 
 Captain Palmer was the American, and the 
 Russian commander, Stanjykowitsch, was so 
 highly impressed, that he named the coast Palm 
 er's Land, which name is still inscribe don Rus 
 sian charts. 
 
 Mr. Reynolds afterwards visited the whole of 
 the extensive group of islands north of Palmer's 
 Land. In 1831, a British vessel touched at a 
 single spot, and substituted an English for the 
 American name !
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 35 
 
 ' 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 The memorial of the East India Marine Soci 
 ety, fully setting forth the enterprise of Ameri 
 cans in behalf of commerce, and urging the expe 
 dition, projected by Mr. Reynolds, slept in man 
 uscript until 1835, when it was communicated to 
 Congress by a call of the House. 
 
 The exposure of so many of our citizens to 
 shipwreck on seas, on coasts, and among islands, 
 without a chart to guide them, and often their 
 massacre by savages, for lack of maritime power 
 to enforce respect, had become alarming to that 
 class of our countrymen engaged in maritime en 
 terprise ; for it was a well-known fact, that only 
 a few years before, when the government sent 
 the Potomac to avenge the savage slaughter of 
 our citizens on the coast of Sumatra; on the 
 news reaching here that the ' ' Friendship " had 
 been captured, the Department had not a single 
 chart of that coast, against which it ordered a 
 heavy armament ! And the captain, having to 
 rely on his wits, with such information as he 
 could gather, ran the frigate on the shore of 
 Sumatra before he knew he was in anchoring
 
 36 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 distance ! At the beginning of the present cen 
 tury we had, at least, thirty vessels, in a single 
 season, at the Island of Sumatra, on account of 
 its trade in pepper. And the English and Dutch 
 had almost allowed our sagacious merchants, by 
 direct and indirect traffic, a monopoly of the com 
 merce of the Sunda Isles. And yet, there we 
 were, with no chart by which to sail a United 
 States vessel ! What a shame ! There, too, were 
 the Fejee, or Betee Islands. Captain Cook named, 
 but did not visit them. They consisted of fifty 
 or sixty, without any data by which their harbors 
 or dangers could be made known. 
 
 "We have seen how differently other- nations 
 have acted under like ^rcumstances. England, 
 ambitious to rule the waves, paid, before 1770, 
 three millions in bounties, to compete with the 
 Dutch whale fisheries, and, before 1786, had 
 drawn six millions, and upwards, for the same 
 end ! The American whale fishermen never had 
 a cent of bounty in all their lives ! 
 
 These sailors, too, have been the best friends 
 of the country ; and the fisheries reach the inter 
 ests of every class of our people. Oh, how many 
 brave spirits have been the victims of mutiny 
 and massacre, because the government remained
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 37 
 
 I _t -r ._ .. . .1 
 
 so long indifferent to the fate of seamen, or the 
 means to advance their welfare ! 
 
 The capture of the ship Mentor, of New Bed 
 ford, December 6, 1831, illustrates our position. 
 That vessel struck the rocks near the Pelew Is 
 lands, not then mentioned on any chart, and, after 
 losing an officer and part of her crew among the 
 breakers, the captain and remainder of the crew 
 were made prisoners by the natives. The recital 
 of the death of some of these, the barbarous 
 treatment of others, and their escape, as well as 
 the condition of those left as hostages in the 
 hands of the Pelew chiefs, is enough to sicken 
 the heart of the most obdurate. 
 
 SECTION n. 
 
 The question may now be asked, "Are the lives 
 of our mariners less precious than those of for 
 eigners ?" We know that many ships, freighted 
 with human souls, have sailed from our coasts, 
 never to return. Other nations hav not paused 
 under like circumstances, to consider the expense. 
 The French expedition to ascertain the fate of La 
 Perouse, who commanded the Boussole, and As-
 
 38 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 trolabe, in 1791, was more creditable to that go 
 vernment than all its discoveries. The kings of 
 Denmark bound themselves, by their coronation 
 oaths, to protect their inhabitants when exposed 
 to the Arctic regions. So, England no sooner 
 knew that several of her whale ships were locked 
 into the Arctic seas, than the Admiralty antici 
 pated the government. The expedition was fit 
 ted out, and the distinguished Captain Ross ten 
 dered the command. And the French govern 
 ment, subsequently, on learning the loss of the 
 Silloise, in the polar seas, offered one hundred 
 thousand francs to any nation that might extri 
 cate the suffering crew. 
 
 Mr. Reynolds found the charts given of the 
 Pacific defective, and islands, like the Gallapago 
 group, without any chart indications whatever. 
 The American whalers, therefore, were the con 
 stant prey of the natives. Our consul, at Oahu, 
 wrote, at that time, to Commodore Downs, that 
 often fifty or sixty Americans were confined in 
 the fort, and not a single whaler entered without 
 mutiny ensuing, and constant desertion thereby 
 occurring. Similar reports were made from other 
 consulates ; all going to prove that no commercial 
 and free people should withhold their contribu
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 39 
 
 tions, while a spot of ground remains on the 
 whole earth unexplored ! 
 
 Mr. Reynolds showed, by the most incontesta 
 ble evidence, that the national dignity and honor 
 called for the expedition he had matured for the 
 United States ; that our commanding position, as 
 a commercial nation, required it, that nature and 
 her laws must be better understood, in a country 
 like ours, where so much mind is ready to act 
 upon matter, in subserving the great purposes of 
 life ; and that the astonishing progress we had 
 made, imposed the duty upon our statesmen of 
 making surveys of new islands, remote seas, and 
 unknown territory. He, therefore, conceived a 
 plan for our first national exploration, which 
 should be worthy of the magnitude of its impor 
 tance ; and proposed that an enlightened body 
 of naval officers should be joined harmoniously 
 with a corps of the most scientific men of the 
 country. 
 
 Not only to attain to high southern latitudes, 
 but to explore from the west coast of South 
 America, running down the longitude among the 
 islands, on both sides of the equator, especially 
 south to the very shores of Asia, was the field to 
 which Mr. Reynolds invited the attention of
 
 40 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 Congress and the country. His views of the 
 detail were in exact accordance with those ex 
 pressed by Mr. Jefferson, in 1803, in instructions 
 he gave to Merriwether Lewis, for the expedition 
 across the continent. This letter settled the con 
 stitutional scruples of the strictest construction- 
 ists, and stands side by side with the Delaration 
 of Independence by the same author ! 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 A religious not less than a commercial view 
 called now for this enterprise. There is no other 
 way to make known the "salvation of our God 
 unto the ends of the earth " but in pursuing geo 
 graphy as a science. God, in His wise provi 
 dence, left the figure and magnitude of the earth 
 for man's investigation, and has stimulated this 
 exertion by the "unsearchable riches of Christ!" 
 The Bible and missions follow the moral and 
 political movements of this nation, and are close 
 to the American navigator who ploughs the ocean 
 for new islands or continents ! 
 
 And while patriotism, science, and commerce 
 have interests, that of the Protestant faith has 
 still more staked upon these results ! In this
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 41 
 
 connection with the utility of American researches, 
 let us remember that those nations most prover 
 bial for wealth have scarcely a name in history, 
 while the hardship and adventure of others, even 
 though they failed to be successful, have been 
 entitled to admiration and respect. 
 
 It is well known that but two outlets exist to 
 the Northern Polar Seas ; these are Bhering's 
 Straits and the Spitzbergen Seas. Mr. Reynolds 
 clearly demonstrated why the British navigators 
 had failed in finding a northwest passage, which 
 resulted entirely from adhering pertinaciously to 
 the injudicious instructions of the British Ad 
 miralty. He maintained that the existence of 
 this passage was no longer a question of doubt, 
 and could be attained by keeping mid-channel 
 through Bhering's Straits and rounding the head 
 land of our continent, thence into the Seas of 
 Spitzbergen. He insisted, from the results of 
 personal experience, that ice is never found in 
 the main ocean, remote from the land not even 
 at the Pole itself ! And all subsequent investiga 
 tion has confirmed that assertion. 
 
 The entire surrounding coast of the North 
 Polar Seas is inhabited. The Laplanders and 
 Fins occupy the European part ; the Samayedes
 
 42 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 and other rude tribes the Asiatic part, and they 
 subsist on reindeer and fish the Esquimaux race 
 occupy the American part. Many large rivers of 
 Asia send their sluggish currents of fresh water 
 into the Polar Seas. This cause, on such an ex 
 tent of coast, produces ice, which is drifted by 
 northern currents, in the spring, between Green 
 land and Spitzbergen. It there collects, and is 
 finally forced by pressure into the adjacent bays 
 and islands. This was the route on which the 
 British expedition was bound, and necessarily 
 impeded it. 
 
 It was indeed remarkable that at the time Mr. 
 Reynolds projected the first scientific expedition, 
 there was more than one million and a half of 
 square miles in the southern hemisphere that had 
 never felt the footprint of man ! Nor had the 
 keel of a single navigator ever divided its 
 waters ! Who can tolerate such culpable na 
 tional neglect? Some may inquire, were no 
 efforts made before those of this American to 
 explore the high southern latitudes ? We answer 
 that, in 1772, Captain Cook, accompanied by 
 Lieutenant Freneau, made the first voyage in 
 search of a southern continent. They got as far 
 as sixty-eight degrees of south latitude, and there
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 43 
 
 encountered ice of six or eight inches in thick 
 ness. It concentrated around the vessels, and, 
 sooner than attempt to go around the ice sum 
 mer having almost closed Captain Cook retro 
 graded, and went in pursuit of other discoveries 
 northward. 
 
 Had Cook possessed then the information Rey 
 nolds did, in 1834, he would have selected 
 another meridian and pursued his journey south ! 
 For Reynolds proved that same ice to have come 
 from large islands east from Palmer's Land. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 not V* ! o 
 
 In 1773, Captain Cook left New Zealand on 
 his second search for southern lands. But again 
 the ice arrested his progress ; and he declared it 
 his opinion that the mass of crystallization ex 
 tended to the Pole, or joined to some land south 
 ward, which must be as frigid and sterile as the 
 ice itself. 
 
 Weddell, who attained in his day to a higher 
 parallel than had been reached by any other 
 man, did not agree with Cook at all, as to the 
 ice extending to the Pole. His views encouraged 
 Mr. Reynolds, and confirmed hie own experience,
 
 44 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 although he denied Weddell's assertion that cold 
 was more intense in the distant Antarctic regions 
 than in the Arctic. Briscol subsequently went 
 out in the employ of Messrs. Enderby, of London, 
 in a whale ship, in 1832, and the existence of 
 southern land seemed to have had confirmation 
 by him. But the mainland taken by him, in the 
 name of his sovereign, had been visited by our 
 own sealers fifteen years before, and furs were 
 taken then, by our people, in the American 
 name ! 
 
 Mr. Reynolds had beheld, on board two vessels 
 one of one hundred and sixty, the other of 
 eighty tons burden the castellated region of 
 the Antarctic, with its floating pyramids of ice ; 
 and he declared it as his opinion, that the nine 
 tieth degree, or South Pole, could be reached by 
 the navigator, and that the effort ought to be 
 made by the country, in connection with other 
 objects of the enterprise. 
 
 Without government patronage he had sought 
 adventure, and satisfied himself; and he plead, 
 earnestly, before the Congress of his country, 
 that it might sanction his project, only to add 
 new lustre to the annals of American philosophy, 
 and add nautical glories to the imperishable
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 45 
 
 honor which connects itself with that name. He 
 appealed to his countrywomen, at the same time, 
 and contended that ' ' their views of public meas 
 ures were the silken and golden threads in public 
 opinion." And, when we consider that the jew 
 els which Isabella suspended from her person, 
 enriched the world with a continent, when mon- 
 archs hesitated, and ministers disputed, with ve 
 hemence and weak superlativeness, we shall not 
 disclaim the fact, that it was woman, truly, who 
 gave new hopes to liberty, when the race from 
 whence it sprung was almost lost ! 
 
 When our republic was in its infancy, the 
 great Catharine, of Russia, sent to General 
 Washington a request for the vocabularies of all 
 the Indian tribes in our country. The result of 
 this gave rise to a new science, which she insti 
 tuted, and has modified the grammars and lexi 
 cons of every language in Europe, which this 
 science of philology now pervades. 
 
 After Mr. Reynolds' admirable expose* of the 
 nature and utility of the expedition to the South 
 Seas, on the 3d of April, 1836, members of both 
 Houses of Congress no longer doubted it was 
 fully worthy of the patronage of the government. 
 And, on the 14th of the succeeding month, they
 
 46 . PIKST AMERICAN 
 
 demonstrated that wise concurrence, by giving 
 to it the sanction of law. It was clearly manifest 
 that, by it, the capital of human knowledge would 
 be extended, the boundaries of science enlarged, 
 and a substantial fame would, thereby, be added 
 to our great republic. 
 
 SECTION v. 
 
 Our statesmen were, then, convinced that it 
 was the policy of the government to point out 
 harbors for our seamen, and save them from 
 captivity, shipwreck, and famine, on unknown 
 coasts, rather than to keep a useless fleet up the 
 Mediterranean, to contract the follies and vices of 
 European aristocracies ; they, therefore, rightly 
 estimated the value of this American deed, by 
 the moral sublimity of the motives which had 
 incited it. Congratulatory letters from men, 
 eminent for learning and science, came to Mr. 
 Reynolds from all sections of the country ; and 
 a full interchange of their views as to the per 
 sonnel of the expedition was thus elicited. 
 
 Hon. J. K. Paulding suggested the frigate 
 "Macedonia" should be attached for the benefit 
 of scientific pursuits and occupations ; and that
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 47 
 
 Captain Catesby Jones should be appointed to the 
 command. James E. De Kay thought the em 
 ployment of scientific citizens of the country a 
 sine qua non, with such an harmonious arrange 
 ment as should impartially reward whoever might 
 merit distinction. Professor Silliman, of Yale 
 College, regarded the expedition so vital to na 
 tional honor, whether as connected with science, 
 navigation, commerce, or the humanity of the 
 country, that he urged, with great pertinacity, 
 the acquisition of the highest scientific talent it 
 possessed, without regard to the expense ; that 
 meteorology, zoology, volcanoes, earthquakes, 
 geology, mineralogy, magnetism, and electricity,, 
 osteology, entomology, ornithology, and natural 
 history, generally, might each command its ap 
 propriate investigation. 
 
 Hon. Benjamin Rodman, of New Bedford, the 
 home of the mariner, gave vent to his national 
 and natural fervor at the same period, when ad 
 dressing his American brother : 
 
 "I congratulate you on the success of your darling plan, and 
 now there is a hope of a national duty being performed. I see no 
 way that we can look for improvement, but by the means which, 
 through your exertions, more than those of any other man living, 
 are now appropriated for it ; and may Heaven bless you and the 
 enterprise."
 
 48 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 Thus did Mr. Reynolds soon concentrate the 
 wisdom and virtue of the people. The seamen 
 felt a thrill of inward joy to find preparations for 
 a more stable protection, and the merchant 
 breathed more freely when he saw that the moral 
 influence of the nation was about to be cast upon 
 the side of commercial intelligence and enter 
 prise. But such had been the advancement of 
 the age, that geographical discoveries and an 
 amended chart, would not alone satisfy the men 
 or the wants of our country. Animate as well 
 as inanimate creation needed, therefore, a critical 
 examination. And commanders of liberal minds 
 and expanded views became essentially necessary 
 to the expedition. In this spirit, Hon. Jos. Dela- 
 field, President of the Lyceum of Natural His 
 tory of New York, after thanking Mr. Reynolds 
 for the fund of information he had been, through 
 him, enabled to communicate to that Institution, 
 said : 
 
 'Your [Reynolds'] efforts have been so far crowned with suc 
 cess. Your former services, present exertions, and the better part 
 of a life devoted to the South Sea discoveries, have identified you 
 with the expedition. We have long watched your untiring exer 
 tions in this matter, and trust the time has arrived when the wishes 
 of your friends are to be gratified in learning that the superintend 
 ence or direction of the civil department is to be chiefly committed 
 to jotu"
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 The time seemed now to have arrived when 
 the gratification of discharging the debt for prac 
 tical science and intelligence, too long due foreign 
 nations, could be experienced. How ? By taking 
 our national stand on the same platform of prac 
 tical intelligence. This was thejlrst opportunity, 
 and is it wonderful with what eagerness our wise 
 and prudent men embraced it ? 
 
 Winslow Lewis, Jr., of the Society of Natural 
 History of Boston, in common with other friends, 
 addressed the Author of the expedition : 
 
 "I congratulate you on the successful termination of your appli 
 cation to Congress, in behalf of a South Sea Expedition. It was to 
 your unmeasured zeal and untiring exertions that this great under 
 taking owes its existence ; and I learn, with much satisfaction, that 
 it still continues to have the advantage of your personal presence 
 and experience." 
 
 And as science as well as commerce relied on 
 this exploration to enlarge their boundaries, Mr. 
 Lewis urged the propriety of a practical anato 
 mist to accompany the expedition, with a special 
 view to the advancement of natural history. 
 
 So desirable did it seem in all eyes that this, 
 the first American voyage of discovery, should ,*
 
 50 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 worthy of the genius and enterprise of the na 
 tion, that the whole mercantile influence of the 
 country looked upon it as eminently conducive to 
 the commerce and navigation of the country, as 
 well as to human prosperity and happiness. 
 
 Hon. H. D. Gilpin, of Philadelphia, in address 
 ing Mr. Reynolds, dwelt upon the necessity of 
 calling men of real science to its aid men of the 
 same courage, disinterestedness, and persever 
 ance, as those who had distinguished expeditions 
 of the kind in the Old World. 
 
 "But," said he, "to you who have studied the subject so fully, 
 and devoted to it so much thought and experience, it is scarcely 
 necessary to say anything as to the contemplated arrangement." 
 
 It was so manifest that Mr. Reynolds, in ma 
 turing his plan, had consulted all the great Euro 
 pean voyagers of discovery, that there appeared 
 an entire unanimity in the conclusion of the 
 scientific corps of the country, as to the solid 
 additions which would be added thereby to the 
 treasures of knowledge. So we find Hon. Henry 
 Junius Nott, suggesting the expediency of con 
 fining men to a single branch of science, if possi 
 ble, and insisting on the importance of having 
 an individual familiar with the languages and 
 with philology.
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 51 
 
 
 
 " The commercial investigations," said Mr. Nott, to the author, 
 " I presume you will take under your own charge. I am happy to 
 learn the voyage to the South Pacific is resolved on, and one of 
 your activity, perseverance, and practical good sense, is to be con 
 nected with it." 
 
 "I have often had this question put to me," writes Captain 
 Thomas AP 0. Jones, "as to 'what situation, if any, will Mr. 
 Reynolds occupy in the expedition f 
 
 " The answer, I presume, is with yourself; for it cannot be de 
 nied that to you, and your unwearied exertions, is due the credit 
 of so interesting the public on the subject, as to induce Congress to 
 pass the law. Who, then, has a better claim to participate in its 
 toils, and to share its honors, than he who may justly be called the 
 originator of the voyage ? Who can bring so much valuable know 
 ledge, derived from various sources, some of which you alone have 
 been permitted to draw from, as you could f I mean not to flatter, 
 when I say, not another citizen of the United States. 
 
 "Then it cannot be doubted but that any commander, qualified 
 to conduct the enterprise as the law contemplates, as well as the 
 executive head under whose auspices it will be sent out, will gladly 
 avail themselves of your services, to aid them in organizing the 
 scientific department, and further identify you with the expedition, 
 by assigning you some honorable station in it." 
 
 Captain Jones, in this same letter, showed, by 
 luminous argument, why a frigate should be at 
 tached to the expedition why able officers should 
 be engaged for that particular service ; why it 
 should be both of a military and scientific char 
 acter ; and why Mr. J. N. Reynolds, the great 
 projector, was entitled to paramount considera 
 tion in its connection. 
 
 The fact that the United States had, up to 
 that moment, done nothing but abandon its own
 
 52 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 
 
 survey of the coast ; that its books, maps, and 
 charts, were but the imperfect productions of 
 private individuals ; that England, France, Russia, 
 and even Spain, had acquired a more accurate 
 knowledge of the Atlantic and Pacific seas, was 
 continually humiliating Americans, and subject 
 ing them to national and individual mortification 
 abroad. In this view of the case, Hon. Caleb 
 Gushing, present Attorney-General of the United 
 States, then a member of Congress, thus ad 
 dressed Mr. Reynolds : 
 
 " I think great credit is due to you for the successful exertions 
 you have made to awaken the attention of the public, and of Con 
 gress, to this subject; and I hope that justice will be done to you 
 iu the arrangements to be made for the expedition." 
 
 When at Madrid, Don Martin Fernandez de 
 Navarette, a distinguished author and, then, su- 
 perviser of the government bureau of maps and 
 charts, in showing Mr. Cushing the advances of 
 science, in all other enlightened nations, referred 
 to the total absence of any from the opulent na 
 tion of the United States. For, even at that 
 time, Topino had reaped precious results in the 
 Mediterranean for Spain, and she had not been 
 idle in collecting charts of the East and West 
 India seas. 

 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 63 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 THERE was another problem which this expe 
 dition was well calculated to solve, and in which 
 every American has the deepest interest ; and 
 this was the source of the aboriginal population 
 of America. And strong hopes were now enter 
 tained that some American might by these means 
 explain it. We had already taken the prize medal 
 at the Royal Institute of Paris, for the best essay 
 on the original languages of our country ; Mr. 
 Duponceau, our countryman, was the author. 
 But the fault of our people has been to study 
 man too little, and hence the neglect of his dis 
 tinguishing characteristic, speech. 
 
 In order to disseminate the benefits of our well 
 organized society, and to extend the blessings of 
 our heaven ordained government, we are called, 
 as a people, to place high before mankind our 
 elevated system of morals, and our pure Protes 
 tant religion.
 
 54 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 Who doubts that the science of philology, now 
 eliciting the attention of the most remarkable 
 talent of Europe, got its first impulse from a 
 woman ? We all know that, when Catharine the 
 Great, of Russia, made her vocabulary of two 
 hundred names, and sent it to President Wash 
 ington, for specimens of the Indian languages of 
 North America, which he furnished, that she no 
 more penetrated the vastness of that effort to 
 the world, than did Sir Humphrey Davy com 
 prehend the brilliant results to chemical science, 
 when he deduced observations from a frog, sus 
 pended on an iron hook ! No more than New 
 ton, as he watched the apple which fell from his 
 tree, foresaw its effect on the laws of gravitation ! 
 
 The facts, then, alone are needed, to bring to 
 philology the prestige Cuvier has given to 
 geology ! These must be had by studying the 
 unwritten languages of the earth. In no other 
 way, can we reach the affinity one nation bears to 
 another. This science already has dispelled much 
 that was fabulous and superstitious. The gypsies, 
 a remarkable race, dispersed over Europe, and 
 occasionally migrating to our own country, are 
 shown by their language to belong to Hindoslan, 
 and not Egypt, as was supposed. The Hunga-
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 56 
 
 rian and Laplander, though geographically apart, 
 are found to have a common origin. The Sand 
 wich-Islander and the inhabitant of Otaheite, 
 though twenty-five thousand miles distant, 
 sprang from one family ! Seeing, therefore, how 
 great an addition might be made to this science, 
 by the American exploration to the South Seas, 
 Hon. John Pickering, of Massachusetts, offered 
 Mr. Reynolds his suggestions on the great impor 
 tance of employing a competent individual for this 
 branch of knowledge, in which, so much of 
 moment to the country might be attained. 
 
 l 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Nor were his thoughts on this matter peculiar, 
 for we find similar suggestions, supported by 
 argument and learning,- from the pen of the dis 
 tinguished Charles Anthon of New York. It has 
 been a favorite theory with the learned professor, 
 that the early races of the American continent 
 were identical with those from whence the inhabi 
 tants of the South Sea Islands have descended. 
 The mummies found in the caves of the West, 
 with the accompanying fabrics, strongly resemble 
 those of the Sandwich, and other islands of the
 
 66 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 Pacific. The language, which would decide the 
 question, he thought, the expedition would then 
 test. All the knowledge of the Indo-Germanic 
 languages was acquired by this science, and this 
 might be the time to fill the gap in the early his 
 tory of the American nation ! 
 
 Mr. Reynolds, like his friend, had given much 
 research to this subject, and they alike concluded, 
 as we believe justly, that the North American 
 Indians never were the original settlers of American 
 soil ! 
 
 As might have been expected, the joy of Pro 
 fessor Anthon was soon indicated to Mr. Reynolds, 
 and supposing he had accepted the appointment 
 of corresponding secretary, in the intended South 
 Sea expedition, he referred to it as a just mark 
 of executive favor ; and adds : 
 
 u If I know yon well (and onr long acquaintance leads me to think 
 I have some claim to that privilege), no one could have been selected 
 at the head of the scientific corps, better calculated to bring all 
 things into full operation, and to direct them in such a way, as 
 must lead to ultimate success. A mere naval officer would not have 
 answered for such a post. A mere civilian would have been 
 equally unfit. An individual was required, who should be conver 
 sant with both elements, and in whom enlarged and liberal views 
 should be found. Not tho result of information obtained from 
 others, ~bv,t the offspring of his own matured and manly intellect. 
 I am glad to find that our executive has had the good sense and 
 discrimination to select such an individual. It would have been
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 57 
 
 too bad for another to have reaped the harvest of praise, after 
 your untiring exertions had fostered so goodly a crop. Let me con 
 gratulate you, and express the earnest hope of the final success, 
 which awaits yourself, your companions, and our common country." 
 
 Professor Josiah F. Gribbs, of Yale College, 
 soon seconded the motion of Professor Anthon, 
 for an anthropologist and philologist. To the 
 former, the physical conformations, features, 
 complexions, habits, customs, political institu 
 tions, languages, traditions, literature, and, above 
 all, the moral and religious impressions of the 
 people, belonged for investigation. To the lat 
 ter, the phonology, or sound of language, its rad 
 ical words, its syntax, etc. Thus, the connection 
 of the different tribes of men can be learned, and 
 their common origin defined ; their progress and 
 present location. This discovery in language is 
 a new development of the human mind, and will 
 become the best means of learning its operations. 
 
 Except the mountains of the Moon, in Central 
 Africa, the South Sea explorations promised 
 more new facts from an investigation of the 
 animal and vegetable kingdoms, than any part 
 of the known world. Professor Charles Gray, 
 of the Lyceum of Natural History, New York, 
 zealous in support of the expedition, communi- 
 
 3*
 
 58 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 cated with Mr. Reynolds upon the necessity of a 
 practical botanist to be connected with the expe 
 dition. We remember that the East India Com 
 pany set an example, worthy of imitation, in the 
 splendid botanical collections of her Wallich ; 
 and, in a commercial, as well as purely scientific 
 view, it seemed impossible to compute the value 
 of vegetable discoveries to the enterprise of the 
 nation. 
 
 Zoology, too, came in for its proper and im 
 portant share in Mr. Reynolds' programme of 
 the South Sea expedition. He perceived that 
 the original character of the inhabitants of the 
 islands of the Pacific was rapidly changing ; that 
 the globe itself was occupied by a race of people, 
 totally unlike their early progenitors, so that it 
 was impossible for us to say from whence our 
 own species sprang ; and that very much may be 
 gathered from the animals, which are found, in a 
 newly discovered country, to give an idea of the 
 character of its inhabitants. The tortoise, huge 
 and helpless, for example, would not have been 
 found at the Galapagos had it not been evidently 
 useful to that people. With these ideas, Dr. 
 Charles Pickering, of Philadelphia, pressed upon 
 Mr. Reynolds the great propriety of giving to
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 69 
 
 this branch of science the amplest scope for in 
 vestigation. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 The patriotism which dictated Mr. Reynolds 
 to collect all possible light, in aid of the expedi 
 tion, was fully impressed, at this period, upon 
 the intelligence of the country. The safety of 
 our commerce, and our seamen, and the national 
 honor, were all involved. The three great pow 
 ers of Europe had concentrated all the knowledge 
 of a maritime nature on the globe, and now, 
 the first step to place us in their rank in mari 
 time discoveries, was presented ! Hon. A. Beau 
 mont, of the House of Representatives, and Pe 
 ter S. Duponceau, of Philadelphia, expressed 
 similar views in their letters to the author of the 
 expedition, at the same period. 
 
 When the bill, authorizing the exploration, was 
 on its final passage in the House, a very large 
 majority of the members voted for it, headed by 
 the Hon. John Quincy Adams. It was then that 
 the Hon. Mr. Hamer, of Ohio, the friend and 
 neighbor of Mr. Reynolds, addressed that honor 
 able body. Mr. H. said : 
 
 "He had known Reynolds from hia boyhood, and knew him
 
 60 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 well. He came from his neighborhood, in Ohio, where he was 
 educated, and studied law. He was a man of as pure principles 
 and fair character, as any man on that floor. His efforts in this 
 cause had been wholly free from any selfish considerations, and, in 
 all he had done, in the last seven or eight years, to promote it, he 
 had been actuated by those feelings of patriotism which should ani 
 mate every American heart. He had no doubt, if the expedition 
 was authorized, Mr. Reynolds would be employed to accompany 
 it ; for he possessed more information in regard to those seas, and 
 was, every way, better calculated to make the expedition what it 
 ought to be, than any man within the circle of his acquaintance. 
 He was in possession of all the facts in reference to that portion of 
 the globe which was to be examined and explored, and he possessed 
 the entire confidence of all who knew him. His writings had at 
 tracted the atti ntion of men of letters ; and literary societies and 
 institutions had conferred upon him some of the highest honors 
 they had to bestow. Still, this gentleman, who was an honor to 
 Ohio, and the whole country, might not accompany the expedition. 
 But that fact would have no influence upon his course. Mr. H. was 
 authorized to say that Mr. Reynolds' zeal for the success of the 
 measure, and for the interest of the expedition, would continue un 
 abated ; and whatever he could do to ensure its prosperous termi 
 nation, would be cheerfully performed." 
 
 Public opinion, the great moral element of 
 triumph, was now strongly on the side of this 
 national enterprise. Members of eight different 
 State Legislatures, viz. : New York, New Jersey, 
 Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, 
 North Carolina and Ohio, had recommended it 
 to Congress. 
 
 The East India Marine Society of Massachu 
 setts, whose members had doubled either Cape 
 Horn or the Cape of Good Hope, pressed it with
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 61 
 
 zeal and fervor. Two distinguished commanders 
 in the American Navy, Commodore Downs and 
 Captain Jones, denned its utility, and urged it as 
 a practical business affair, and adopted every 
 view expressed by Mr. Reynolds, in his able 
 address before the Committee of Naval Affairs. 
 
 The subject of the expedition, be it remem 
 bered, had been for eight years before Congress, 
 when it was finally authorized. It had been 
 twice adopted- by the House, and once by the 
 Senate of the United States. The first of these 
 resolutions passed in 1827, '28, the bill in 1828, 
 '29, which was not acted upon by the Senate for 
 want of time. The want of funds prevented the 
 first action of Congress being made effective. 
 No thoughts of disunion then entered into their 
 calculations of this expedition. On the contrary, 
 nothing seemed so well designed to render a 
 people, one and indivisible. 
 
 It was in all respects such a one as Thomas 
 Jefferson endorsed, when he sent Lewis and Clark 
 to the Rocky Mountains, to open the resources 
 of the country, commune with the nations, and 
 add to the treasures of science and general 
 national intelligence. It was but a counterpart 
 of those instructions, given by Mr. Monroe in
 
 62 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 1822, to Major Long, and those afterwards sub 
 mitted to Mr. Featherstonhaugh, the geologist, 
 when the government sent him to Arkansas. 
 
 Mr. Hassler made charts of materials he got 
 within the very sight of our coast. G-edney had 
 discovered a channel at the City of New York, 
 two feet deeper than any known to the oldest 
 inhabitant, or the most sagacious pilot. If such 
 exhibitions of nautical science were to be made 
 upon our constantly travelled waters, how much 
 more did the people of the United States engaged 
 in the commercial marine, need this survey in the 
 South Seas ? For as far North or South as our 
 naval fleet had penetrated, it never lost view of 
 our commercial marine. Commerce is to our 
 country the very pulsation of life ! Its myste 
 rious channels make the revenues, and supply 
 the means by which we exist as a nation ! It is 
 the duty of the supreme legislature, and the 
 interest of the sovereign people, therefore, to 
 give every facility to its advancement ! 
 
 SECTION iri. 
 
 Hon. Michael Hoffman, Chairman of the Com 
 mittee of Naval Affairs in 1828, requested Mr.
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 63 
 
 Reynolds to furnish in writing, or otherwise, the 
 advantages to commerce, by the exploring expe 
 dition to the South. So entirely satisfactory was 
 Mr. Reynolds' response, so full of interesting 
 detail, so familiar with the rank of every article 
 of commercial benefit, that on the 14th of March, 
 Mr. Ripley reported, that the infornmtion the 
 committee had thus derived, was so entirely cor 
 roborated by that furnished through experienced 
 naval officers, who had made reports by order of 
 the Secretary of the Navy, on the subject, that 
 they recommended the appropriation asked by 
 Mr. Reynolds, and reported a bill for that pur 
 pose. Hon. Samuel L. Southard, then Secretary 
 of the Navy, gave briefly, but cogently, his rea 
 sons for favoring the expedition Mr. Reynolds 
 had projected. 
 
 In 1835, Mr. Reynolds' report of September 
 24th, 1828, was ordered by the House, and it 
 was requested -by Mr. Dickinson, then Secretary 
 of the Navy, that it should be returned to the 
 naval archives. This report was addressed to 
 Hon. Samuel L. Southard, and furnishes a well 
 digested mass of facts, in regard to the islands, 
 reefs, commerce and hydrography of the Pacific 
 and Indian Oceans ; and which it is incredible
 
 64 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 almost to believe, could have been acquired by 
 the researches of a single man, in the longest 
 lifetime ! 
 
 Mr. Reynolds in this document declared, 
 "Power, judiciously exhibited, to be the great 
 peace-maker of the world !" He maintained that 
 it was fo our interest and honor, to be acquainted 
 with the capacities of the globe, and to know 
 what resources can be drawn from the great com 
 mon of nations, the ocean. That in South 
 America, where new states and empires had 
 arisen, our navy had enforced our greatness and 
 our prosperity upon them. That we owed it to 
 the merchant, who had put millions into the chan 
 nel of trade, before one cent was ever given by 
 the government for his protection, to send out 
 this United States naval expedition, on his ac 
 count. That whale ships could not become dis 
 coverers without detriment to their especial 
 interest and business ; that the Northwest coast 
 trader had a more definite object and direct path 
 than the whaler. That we could no more support 
 our national importance without a navy, than 
 our navy could be supported without commerce ! 
 That we had not sent forth a particle of our 
 strength, or expended a dollar of our money, to
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 65 
 
 add to the commercial and geographical informa 
 tion, except in partially exploring our own ter 
 ritory ! That we actually conducted our prizes 
 into port, by the maps and charts of the people 
 we had vanquished ! He appealed to the people 
 of the United States, if it was honorable to 
 repose on the knowledge furnished by other 
 nations, and remain all the time idle ? 
 
 Tyre, Greece, Carthage, Venice, and Florence, 
 even after their opulence was gone, left the means 
 of acquiring wealth and honor to succeeding ages. 
 Their commercial and naval monuments were 
 left standing ! As the Argonautic expedition 
 opened a new path to commerce, and aggrandized 
 its own country, so have the adventures of every 
 people on the face of the globe gratified the 
 avarice or pride of their country, and been the 
 theme of commemoration for future ages ! Our 
 commerce has been extending everywhere since 
 we became a nation, and yet it had been protected 
 nowhere ! 
 
 The English, French, Spanish, Danish, Nea 
 politan, Norwegian, and Barbary powers, had 
 cheated and insulted us. They laid out their 
 milestones and guide-boards, and kept us in lead 
 ing strings !
 
 66 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 " The spirit ot the nation," said Mr. Reynolds, " is aroused, and 
 will never sleep again ; honor, justice, feeling, conscious physical 
 strength, all forbid it. We fear no storms, no icebergs, no monsters 
 of the deep in any sea. We will conduct ourselves with prudence, 
 discretion and judgment; and if we succeed, the glory and profit 
 will be yours, citizens of the United States. If we perish in our 
 attempts, we alone shall suffer, for the very inquiry after us will 
 redound to your honor !" 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 The memorial of the people of Nantucket, 
 stated that there were more than one hundred 
 and fifty islands, reefs and shoals, known to our 
 whalemen, not laid d6wn on any chart ; and 
 around these, floated nearly forty thousand tons 
 of our shipping ! Think, oh think, of the 
 amount of life and property of this nation, then 
 at the mercy of concealed dangers ! 
 
 Had not our country once been agitated from 
 centre to extreme by the capture of a few Ameri 
 can citizens by the powers of Barbary ? Did not 
 the people then spontaneously proffer to bear the 
 expense of their liberation ? And when the fate 
 of enterprising navigators depended, probably, 
 on some hidden reef or island, was it less a 
 duty to respond to the wants of our suffering 
 countrymen ? The touching solicitude Mr. Rey-
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 67 
 
 nolds felt on this point, is best expressed in his 
 own terse and beautiful language : 
 
 "Everything conspires to urge us forward at this time. The 
 advantage of commerce to science and national glory, seems now 
 to be sealed and sanctified by the calls of humanity and an impe 
 rious duty. I wish not to be importunate, nor do I fear that 1 am, 
 for the accumulated weight of circumstances is above all argu 
 ment and entreaty, as it strikes the heart and the understanding 
 at the same time. 
 
 u The future safety of our mariners demands this expedition ; tho 
 advancement of commerce, and our navigating interests demand it ; 
 the people demand it ; and our national honor cannot suffer this 
 fact to go abroad, and not carry with it the probability of some effort 
 for future information and security." 
 
 This appeal, so characteristic of the intellect 
 and energy of the author, recalls the remarks of 
 the gifted Irish orator, Burke, in his celebrated 
 speech in the English Parliament, on American 
 conciliation : 
 
 " As to the wealth which the Colonies have drawn from the sea 
 by their fisheries, you had all that matter fully opened at your bar. 
 You surely thought those acquisitions of value, for they seemed 
 even to excite your envy ; and yet the spirit by which that enter 
 prising employment has been exercised, ought rather, in my opin 
 ion, to have raised your esteem and admiration. And pray, sir, 
 what in the world is equal to it? Pass by the other parts, and 
 look at the manner in which the people of New England have of 
 late carried on the whale fisheries, whilst we follow them among 
 the tumbling mountains of ice, and behold them penetrating into 
 the deepest frozen recesses of Hudson's Bay, and Davis's Straits ; 
 whilst we are looking for them beneath the Arctic circle, we hear 
 that they have pierced into the opposite region of polar cold ; that 
 they are at tho antipodes, and engaged under the frozen Serpent of
 
 68 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 the South. Falkland Island, which seemed too remote and roman 
 tic an object for the grasp of national ambition, is but a stage and 
 resting-place in the progress of their victorious industry. 
 
 " Nor is the equinoctial heat more discouraging to them than the 
 accumulated winter of both the Poles. We know that whilst some 
 of them draw the line, and strike the harpoon, on the coast of 
 Africa, others run the longitude, and pursue their gigantic game 
 along the coast of Brazil. No sea but what is vexed by their fish 
 eries. No climate that is not witness to their toils. Neither the 
 perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dexter 
 ous and firm sagacity of English enterprise, ever carried this most 
 perilous mode of hard industry to the extent to which it has been 
 pushed by this recent people; a people who are still, as it were, but 
 in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood." 
 
 Mr. Reynolds presented to Congress a list 
 of four hundred newly discovered islands, run 
 ning through a series of consecutive years, and 
 showed, thereby, that a thorough examination 
 of these seas was needed, to encourage that class 
 of our citizens who were absolutely engaged in 
 the most dangerous service known to the coun 
 try, as well as for the preservation of our com 
 merce. The coast of California had been only 
 imperfectly surveyed, Mr. Reynolds stated, at 
 that period ; Vancouver had only partially ex 
 amined it, from Ceros Island, north ; and many 
 islands, bays, harbors, and reefs, on that portion 
 of the Pacific coast, had not been mapped. That 
 our cruisers had extended from the coasts of 
 Peru and Chili to the northwest coast of New
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 69 
 
 Zealand, and the Isles of Japan ; and several 
 vessels had been wrecked on islands, and reefs, 
 not laid down ! He sustained himself by records 
 which proved that there were, then, at least, one 
 hundred and seventy thousand tons of shipping, 
 twelve thousand men, and twelve millions of 
 capital invested in the whaling and fur business, 
 on our coasts, which derived from the govern 
 ment no more aid, as American interests, than 
 those of Patagonia or New Zealand would have 
 received ! 
 
 This immense fleet of four hundred and sixty 
 sail, from forty distinct ports', scattered along the 
 seaboard of seven different States, made one 
 tenth of all the tonnage of the United States ! 
 And the fisheries, alone, even at that time, con 
 tributed over six millions, annually, to the wealth 
 of the country. 
 
 SECTION v. 
 
 And now, having given the origin of the First 
 American Exploring Expedition, we shall pro 
 ceed to show how far that expedition executed 
 the intention of Congress, and the design of its 
 distinguished projector, Hon. J. N. Reynolds.
 
 70 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 In examining into the detail of the present ex 
 ecutive action, and of the cabal who have sought 
 to shear from the navy of our country so much 
 of its glory, the author found, in the public ar 
 chives, a case so remarkably illustrative of the 
 same mysterious influence, so eminent for deep 
 and base envy, and malignity towards elevated 
 merit, which characterized this present action, 
 that she at once seized upon the facts, in con 
 nection with the origin and history of the First 
 American Exploring Expedition ; and will show 
 that, as incompetent officials who occupied^ but 
 did not Jill, positions of authority, under the 
 government, defeated the magnitude of the en 
 terprise, as designed by its author, so has justice 
 to the wronged covered with denunciation the 
 men, upon whom rests, the responsibility of hav 
 ing defeated the spirit and intent, nay, the very 
 letter of the law, which authorized the late 
 " Navy Retiring Board !" 
 
 A year after the law of Congress ordering the 
 expedition, its departure seemed more and more 
 doubtful in the public view. The people could 
 not account for the delay, as the commissioners 
 had reported to the President, in January, 1836, 
 that the Macedonia could be ready for sea in
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 71 
 
 ninety days. It was now 1837! Hon. Mahlon 
 Dickerson was known to have opposed the en 
 terprise in the preceding Congress, and urged 
 members " to strike it out." But, as Secretary 
 of the Navy, his obligations ought to have im 
 posed obedience to the law's behests. While this 
 delay continued, the French government, seeing 
 the future glories arising from this expedition to 
 our young nation, aroused her maritime powers, 
 and actually sent, well-equipped, three expedi 
 tions to the South Seas, each with a frigate, and 
 was preparing a fourth expedition, before the 
 Secretary of the Navy had done any thing that 
 looked like sincerity in the matter ! 
 
 No one would have believed that we were the 
 descendants of that energetic people who, in 
 1797, when the French Directory insulted them, 
 felled the oak. from the forest, and built and 
 manned their sloops of war, and were pouring 
 their hot shot into the French cruisers in the 
 West India Islands, within one hundred days 
 from the time the order was given to build the 
 vessels ! President Jackson, it was well-known, 
 was fully resolved that the expedition should go 
 out, wanting in nothing that could tend to pro 
 mote its ultimate object, or complete its triumph.
 
 72 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 He was of too lofty a spirit to comprehend the 
 design of the petty action of this contemptible 
 cabal, and, even in sickness, his heart was full 
 of the greatness of the enterprise ! In the mean 
 while, there was a secret action designed, at last, 
 to strangle it, of which the General's philosophy 
 had not dreamed. In order to derange the whole 
 plan, and render it inadequate to meet the ex 
 pectations of the country, of the President, and 
 of Congress, Mr. Dickerson, after devising other 
 means for delay, called a committee, some thir 
 teen months after the law passed, to assist him 
 in adopting means requisite for the exploration. 
 
 Commodores Chauncey, Morris, Warrington, 
 Patterson and Wadsworth, tried and trusty men, 
 were assigned that unpleasant duty. For what 
 could have been more so, than to be summoned 
 to sit in judgment, upon the deliberate opinions 
 of the people of the United States, in Congress 
 assembled ? What more so, than to review the 
 action of the President of the country, who had 
 most thoroughly examined, not after President 
 Pierce's fashion, but in sincerity and honesty, the 
 character, scope and design of the expedition- 
 But President Jackson had now been succeeded 
 by Martin Van Buren, or this board would never
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 73 
 
 have been instituted. The high hopes and expec 
 tations of the nation, would not have been so 
 slighted, and its aspirations for an enviable fame, 
 as well as for permanent benefit and distinction, 
 spurned ! 
 
 The instructions given to this body, were, so 
 far as a perversion of the law was concerned, sim 
 ilar to those given by Mr. Dobbin to his Council 
 of " Fifteen!" The major object of the expedi 
 tion was singularly omitted ! The great commer 
 cial interests among the islands of the Pacific, and 
 the many ways by which science might be ele 
 vated, and the interest of the country extended, 
 were all passed over, without scarcely an allu 
 sion. The whole purpose and plan was misrepre 
 sented, when this board were told that "The 
 expedition was to explore the Seas of the 
 Northern Hemisphere, more particularly in high 
 latitudes, and in regions near the South Pole as 
 could be approached without danger" etc. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 Mr. Dickerson, then Secretary of the Navy, is 
 now no more. And we shall therefore forbear to 
 make any other comment on his action than
 
 74 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 the truth of history imperiously demands, when 
 justice is vindicated. In all the private relations 
 of life, that gentleman was amiable and courteous, 
 and he lived and died above reproach. But he, 
 most unfortunately, was surrounded by a clique 
 of small officers and vicious men, who possessed 
 neither heads nor hearts of sufficient capacity to 
 grasp the objects contemplated by this expedition. 
 Men, who could no more comprehend the value 
 of national renown, than they could build a world ! 
 Men, who had no higher ideas of the navy, than 
 to subserve their own interests, and overlooked 
 the fact that it was made to give glory to the 
 republic, and not to aggrandize themselves ! 
 
 In a word, Mr. Dickerson was very much in 
 the same category after the law of 1836, that 
 Mr. Dobbin was after that of 1855 ! Both sur 
 rendered to weak and bad influences, and both 
 proved, that any other place, than that of Secre 
 tary of the Navy, would have been better for 
 themselves, better for their country ! When men 
 commit felony on their own reputations, public 
 opinion rises above party, and fixes its imperisha 
 ble seal of condemnation where it belongs ! 
 With this remark, we proceed to treat the con 
 spirators to destroy the enterprise as the real
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 75 
 
 perpetrators of the act designed to throw back, 
 with contempt, a solemn law of Congress upon 
 its members, and upon the country ! 
 
 We say the instructions given the board, were 
 a willful perversion of the object of the expedi 
 tion. They knew very well that the memorials 
 which came to Congress from that portion of our 
 fellow citizens who had most interest in our com 
 merce, elicited from the members the greatest 
 consideration. 
 
 General Ripley's report in 1828, and Hon. 
 Dutee J. Pearce's in 1835, were luminous and 
 unanswerable arguments, in favor of protection 
 to our fisheries in the North and South Pacific 
 and Indian Oceans. These men had seen Com 
 modore Downs' letter, too, after he had circumna 
 vigated the globe in the Potomac, as well as the 
 original report of Hon. J. N". Reynolds on "the 
 islands, reefs, and shoals of the Pacific,' 7 in which 
 there was irresistible evidence of the labor to be 
 performed by the expedition, among the thousand 
 islands laid down, through error, on the charts, as 
 well as among those that had no place assigned 
 them on these maps. In the very face of this 
 knowledge, upon which such earnest comment had 
 been made on the floor of Congress, this board
 
 76 FIRST AMERICAN""' 
 
 were directed to look mainly to the means of 
 getting to the South Pole, or near it, and to see 
 if the present force be not too large, for that sin 
 gle object ! We, see then, the mournful spectacle 
 before us, of a high, but weak official, attempt 
 ing to cut down the first national expedition 
 undertaken by this great republic, and that, too, 
 in the very face of a solemn law of the land ! If 
 this cabal had taken the trouble to have searched 
 among the archives of the Navy Department, they 
 would have seen enough to convince them of the 
 effect of a large force, in accomplishing the pur 
 poses of the expedition as designed. In 1824, 
 the British Government sent Lord Byron in the 
 Frigate Blonde, to the Sandwich, and other 
 islands. What was the effect ? Why, these sav 
 ages at once were impressed with the belief that 
 no nation on earth could equal the greatness of 
 the English ! And the result upon the American 
 residents and traders in that quarter was so un 
 fortunate, in consequence, that they wrote to 
 Commodore Hull, then in command of the Pacific 
 Squadron, to send a frigate immediately to 
 remove or modify the effect the Blonde had pro 
 duced. Mr. Southard, then Secretary, sent the 
 Frigate Potomac to Quallah-Battoo, to chastise
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 
 
 the Malays, whose hands had been stained with 
 the blood of our countrymen. And more real 
 and lasting benefit ensued, than a dozen sloops of 
 war could have accomplished.
 
 78 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WHEN the French had not one-tenth of our 
 interest afloat in the North and South Pacific 
 oceans, they sent three frigates to these seas, to 
 extend and protect their trade, and subserve the 
 cause of science. Mr. Reynolds had taught the 
 tricksters, but they forgot the lesson, that where 
 our commerce was, there must be our navy to 
 guard its interests ! And every speech made up 
 on the subject of the enterprise, which had been 
 scattered over the nation, was a withering rebuke 
 to the maladministration of the Navy Depart 
 ment, in convoking a naval board, to draw from 
 it a report, to justify the reduction of the force 
 the law authorized for the expedition. To show 
 the miserable subterfuges of this cabal, it is only 
 necessary to state, that, at one time they declared 
 the idea of going to regions near the South Pole, 
 was sheer nonsense ! While at another, they 
 made it the primary object of the enterprise, in 
 their instructions to the board !
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 
 
 The truth about the matter was, that Mr. 
 Dickerson was opposed so thoroughly to the ex 
 pedition, that although Congress had passed a law 
 authorizing, and made ample provision to carry 
 it into effect, he could not, as the servant of the 
 government, so far sink his own individual en 
 mity, as to implicitly execute the act, as he was 
 bound to have done, and therefore allowed 
 these men to rule. President Jackson overruled 
 them, as soon as he saw the delay, and the Globe, 
 on the 13th July, 1836, announced his order to 
 have the Macedonia, two brigs of two hundred 
 tons each, one or more tenders, and a storeship, 
 immediately fitted out ; and, that Captain Thomas 
 Ap C. Jones, had been appointed to the com 
 mand, and officers for the other vessels were about 
 being selected. As soon as this official notice 
 appeared, the clique sent Mr. Dickerson to the 
 President, to correct a misunderstanding in his 
 mind, by arguing, that ' ' protection of our com 
 merce," " the impression of our force," " our 
 character, policy, and power," could not belong 
 to an expedition intended only for high latitudes ! 
 The next excuse made for the delay, was the im 
 possibility of procuring men. 
 
 No conspirators ever labored so zealously to
 
 80 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 defeat an enterprise as they did the First Ameri 
 can Exploring Expedition ! They held up the 
 scientific corps as an encroachment on the rights 
 of naval officers, and went so far as to say, that 
 these officers should fix their salaries, or, at least, 
 protest against this compensation exceeding a cer 
 tain annual sum! Thus was jealousy fomented 
 between officer and citizen ! There is no title of 
 which a son of our soil may feel more proud than 
 that of citizen. And who but they make our 
 navy, and support and judge its officers ? 
 
 It was no reproach to the navy that the varied 
 scientific knowledge a national expedition re 
 quired, called for men in an entirely different line 
 of action from that for which their duties unquali 
 fied them. It was a world wide fact that, while 
 our national vessels had sailed round the globe, 
 no record of a laborious scientific research existed ! 
 Instead of checking a disorganizing spirit, then, 
 at its first inception, the Secretary actually en 
 couraged it, as a means most fatal to the enter 
 prise ! He designated the scientific corps as mere 
 oyster or clam catchers ! And so determined was 
 he to dispirit and annoy these men, that, although 
 Congress made a specific appropriation for their 
 compensation, from the 1st of January, 1837,
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 81 
 
 their pay was withheld, and they were kept from 
 active duty, until the 4th of July, of that year ! 
 
 It was, really, a most humiliating position, un 
 der which we were thus placed hefore the en 
 lightened nations of the world. That our coun 
 try which, in the American Revolution, captured 
 by her private armed ships, fifteen hundred sail 
 from the enemy, broke the charm of British in 
 vincibility by sea, and humbled the spirited cor 
 sairs of the Mediterranean, should now, after 
 marching into the front rank of nations, be 
 thrown into derangement and excitement about 
 manning a small squadron with a few hundred 
 seamen ! But such was actually the case ! And, 
 although the memorialists, committees, members 
 of Congress, and the press, urged that a frigate 
 and other vessels be at once fitted out for the 
 expedition, it was, positively, fourteen months 
 after the passage of the law, when the public 
 were informed that " the only insurmountable 
 difficulty" was finding the requisite men, "in 
 three or four months, without interfering with 
 arrangements already made !" Thus, did the 
 cabal expedite that voyage of discovery ! Con 
 gress went so far as to make a special grant for 
 the increase of the seamen's wages, at the pre-
 
 82 FIEST AMERICAN 
 
 V 
 
 vious session, but every dollar of it was withheld 
 from the poor sailors who were shipped for the 
 expedition. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Commodore Jones, too, was offered the " ex 
 traordinary facility" of detailing officers to visit 
 New Bedford, New London, etc., for the purpose 
 of procuring crews, but that inducement which is 
 well known to be essential to cause men to ship, 
 either in the merchant or naval service, was 
 withheld, as no money for advances was allowed 
 to these officers ! And it was an undeniable fact 
 that, after prime hands had consented, in New 
 Bedford and other districts, and the commander 
 of the squadron approved the requisition of an 
 officer for one thousand dollars to pay the passage 
 of these men to the naval rendezvous, the Secre 
 tary refused to cash the draft ! On another occa 
 sion, fourteen sailors reported themselves ready 
 for enlistment, at the office of an agent, in Alex 
 andria, D. C. The agreement was about being 
 consummated, when the officer repaired to Wash 
 ington, to ascertain whether the thirty dollars, 
 the usual advance, should be charged to the men,
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 83 
 
 or whether, in compliance with the special provi 
 sion of Congress, that sum should be allowed as 
 bounty. Before he had time even to make the 
 inquiry, he was ordered to return the money 
 placed in his hands forthwith to the treasury, and 
 tell the seamen to "go to Norfolk upon their 
 own hook ! and ship there." Of course, not one 
 was so insane as to obey ! 
 
 Such were the " extraordinary efforts," and 
 such the "extraordinary success," in procuring 
 men for the First Exploring Expedition of our 
 country ! The belief that the feeling of the De 
 partment was enlisted against the measure, now 
 became general throughout the nation. The fact 
 that the uncertainty about the sailing of the ex 
 pedition had so long prevailed, and the non-al 
 lowance of the extra pay Congress had provided 
 for the crew, soon had a chilling effect upon its 
 ardent advocates. It was, evidently, the design 
 of the Department to create the idea that great 
 privation would follow this service, and all the 
 wages of the crew would be expended in provi 
 ding clothing for the icy latitudes near the South 
 Pole ! And the public mind was not long in 
 comprehending the " facilities " which this great 
 national enterprise received from the Navy De-
 
 84. FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 partment. With ordinary effort, the whole com 
 plement of every vessel might have been shipped 
 in sixty or ninety days after the passage of the 
 law, and that, too, without interfering with the 
 protection of our commerce, or with the regular 
 action of the naval service. The men, as we 
 have shown, stood ready to enlist for the cruise ; 
 men, who would have honored the expedition ! 
 The public records, also, show that when the 
 Department reported to the President, and, 
 through him, to Congress, that " the frigate and 
 storeship, which were on the stocks when this meas 
 ure was authorized, have been finished and equipped, 
 and are now receiving their crews ;" that the ships 
 were not finished, were not equipped, were not re 
 ceiving their crews! So far from it, it was not 
 until the next June, six months after this official 
 statement, that the frigate was completed, and in a 
 condition to receive her complement of men ! When 
 that report was made of the frigate's readiness 
 for the expedition, she had not a single bulkhead 
 up, or a yarn over the masthead ! 
 
 We find, in this most incongruous report, that, 
 after the foregoing statement, the President was 
 informed that the Department had not "yet at 
 tempted to organize the scientific corps," but
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 85 
 
 would as soon as " the accommodations were ready 
 for them in the vessels." The reader can make 
 his own comments upon this singular consistency ! 
 Now, every man and woman of common sense 
 would know that the organization of a corps of 
 men for scientific purposes had nothing to do with 
 their apartments on shipboard ! No, no ; that was 
 all the merest skulking of the cabal. But, one 
 day, in December, a distinguished member of 
 Congress remarked to the President, that "no 
 appointments for the expedition had been yet 
 made for the civil department." General Jack 
 son, surprised, rang his bell, and summoned the 
 Secretary to attend at 12 o'clock ! In three days 
 from that time, the scientific corps were commis 
 sioned ! And, to him, the sole credit is due for 
 the able, efficient, and scientific board, which 
 were attached to that exploration. 
 
 SECTION n. 
 
 Some may inquire, what reason was assigned 
 to the President for not having made these ap 
 pointments before? Why, that Mr. Secretary 
 was waiting for a new appropriation by Congress ! 
 But the General very soon dismissed that excuse,
 
 86 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 by showing, from incontestable documentary evi 
 dence, that more than one hundred thousand dollars 
 of the last year's appropriation, were at that very 
 time unexpended. 
 
 When the bill was pending before Congress for 
 this national expedition, these mutineers sought 
 constantly to create opposition, by representing 
 the immense draw it would make on the treasury. 
 Mr. Dickersoii then declared to members, that it 
 was an extravagant enterprise, which had noth 
 ing to do with the protection of our commerce, and 
 was only to explore high latitudes South ! ! ! The 
 object of this was apparent ! It is known, that a 
 portion of our public men entertain the opinion 
 that the government of the United States has no 
 authority under the constitution, to send out an 
 expedition solely to promote science. Therefore, 
 to have divested it of its relations to commercial 
 protection and general utility to the country, 
 would have been to destroy it ! But, the clear 
 sighted Reynolds had made the measure impreg 
 nable, by the very defenses from which its enemies 
 would gladly have separated it. Science was not 
 the primary object of the expedition ! 
 
 It was the cherished idea of Mr. Reynolds, in 
 maturing this great American expedition, to have
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 
 
 it, in all respects, a national, American matter. 
 It was due to the country, and the just pride of her 
 free-born sons ! And American artists deserved 
 to have their skill at least fairly tried, before any 
 step was taken to provide the instruments abroad. 
 But the conspirators did not think so. And in 
 stead of first appointing the corps for whose use 
 they were intended, and obtaining the views of 
 these scientific men as to the instruments needed, 
 as well as the mode of providing them, he sends 
 an agent, Lieutenant Wilkes, off to Europe, to 
 procure books and instruments for many branches 
 of science, of which he knew no more than the 
 Secretary himself! And reader, what instru 
 ments do you suppose were thus obtained, that 
 could not be had in these United States ? The 
 records tell us they consisted of two astronomical 
 clocks, one journeyman's clock, two astronomical 
 telescopes, and forty-one chronometers ! Now, 
 we find upon examination, that for several years 
 previous to that period, astronomical clocks had 
 been made by American workmen, not surpassed 
 in accuracy and finish by those of any foreign 
 workshop in the world ! And Halcomb, the 
 American constructor of telescopes, had won 
 paeans of praise for the accuracy and portability
 
 88 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 of his instruments ; while our American box- 
 chronometers had received premium after pre 
 mium from men who kept up with the time of day! 
 Thus, among the heterogeneous melange of scien 
 tific works provided by this agent of the Secre 
 tary, not over ten, with the exception of the 
 voyages, were worth any more to the object than 
 the Arabian Nights ! There had evidently been 
 no naturalist consulted ; for not a manual, model, 
 or workbook was in the lot ! And such instru 
 ments as were really necessary to have been pro 
 cured in Europe, were never mentioned ! So it 
 was, that after fifteen months had passed away, 
 proper books were to be provided, and instruments 
 were still to be constructed. All for the good faith 
 of the government's official ! 
 
 One thing ought not to be forgotten, that, after 
 the studied attempt to excite enmity between the 
 civilians and naval officers of the expedition, the 
 Secretary was for taking the hydrographical 
 and astronomical labors from them, to whose pro 
 fession they belonged, and making these improper 
 assignments to unprofessional men. But as yet, 
 the integuments of these men's consciences had 
 not been penetrated ! The voice of public cen 
 sure had reached them in vain !
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 89 
 
 The object of appointing the naval board, at 
 this crisis, was clearly to defeat the law of Con 
 gress, by reducing the force of the expedition. 
 For this reason, Commodore Jones had no place 
 in it! He was known to have been too fully 
 committed to its interests to see the nation sent 
 back fifty years in intelligence by any act on his 
 part ! But, fortunately, the board bore no sem 
 blance to that subsequently selected by Mr. Dob 
 bin ! They were men who would not so far 
 compromise themselves as to overlook the claims 
 of patriotism and duty ! And, looking to the law 
 of Congress and the memorialists, they decided 
 to advise no other course than that pointed out 
 by the proper authority ! 
 
 SECTION in. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the Department, expecting 
 to be sustained by the board it created for the 
 purpose, allowed Wilkes to take the instruments 
 intended for the expedition, on board the Por 
 poise, in order to cause a new difficulty to its 
 sailing! No men ever labored more zealously 
 to defeat an object, than did that clique to de 
 stroy the expedition! They represented the
 
 90 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 duties of the civil corps as being degrading and 
 irksome ! although, at the same period, the 
 French expeditions, incited by our own, had 
 volunteers from the best citizens of the country, 
 even to stand before the masts ! 
 
 In the expeditions of Napoleon into Egypt, he 
 wisely foresaw the advantage of a corps of sa- 
 vans, to the ising greatness of his country ; and 
 he knows little of history who has not seen that, 
 while they took nothing from the glory of the 
 military commanders, they made imperishable 
 the benefits of their own scientific discoveries. 
 This was the enterprise in which we were to 
 make our debut in the field of maritime enter 
 prise and discovery, and the projector had labored 
 long and earnestly to make it national in all re 
 spects. By it, the commercial interests of our 
 country were to be protected new regions ex 
 plored unfortunate seamen succored charts of 
 harbors made dangerous passages surveyed 
 important islands penetrated their population 
 to be sought for conference the lives of our 
 mariners made more secure, and our trade in 
 creased ! 
 
 More than one hundred mariners, American 
 seamen, had been shipwrecked at the Feejee Is-
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 91 
 
 lands, alone, and most of them cruelly murdered 
 by the natives, while not a single effort had been 
 made to awe those savages by our power, or 
 conciliate them by our kindness. The effect of a 
 national frigate at such a spot was apparent to 
 the common sense of all. The mere exhibition of 
 such a force as Congress designed, and Commo 
 dore Jones recommended, might have tended to 
 the immediate rescue of our captive mariners. 
 
 Often a dozen vessels, from a single port in the 
 United States, were engaged in traffic with these 
 Feejee Islanders for the Chinese market. What 
 was the result? These vessels returned to the 
 United States, freighted with the rich goods of 
 that country, the duties upon which had yearly 
 added largely to the national treasure. It was a 
 matter of ridicule to all geographers, when they 
 found the instructions for the guidance of the 
 expedition from the Navy Department named 
 but three places on the whole globe, and they as 
 well-known as the ports of New York or Ports 
 mouth ! The points for general rendezvous were 
 luminously pointed out by the only individual 
 competent to the undertaking, Mr. Reynolds, the 
 originator and founder of the enterprise. 
 
 This energetic American showed that one of
 
 92 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 the most populous group of islands in the Pacific, 
 in the neighborhood of the Feejee and Society Is 
 lands, rich in all the productions of the tropics, 
 and lying in the very track of our great whaling 
 operations, was, at that time, for all minute and 
 practical knowledge, an unknown land ! When the 
 intelligence of the country was awakened to the 
 extent and variety of trade, and the consequent 
 amount of revenue collected from these regions, 
 it soon saw that it owed fifty times the amount 
 that the expedition would cost, for the revenue 
 that had already accrued, without any expense 
 for protection. And, even if that had not been 
 so, it was due to the unaided enterprise of her 
 citizens, and the future interests which it would 
 so well subserve. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 The condition of the finances of our country in 
 1837, encouraged this cabal in the hope that it 
 might now break up the entire expedition ; and 
 a new commission was instituted, to renew the 
 effort to cut down its force. 
 
 Commodores Hull, Biddle, and Aulick com 
 posed its members, and without visiting the
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 93 
 
 squadron, or informing themselves of the real 
 objects of the enterprise, they reported favorably 
 for the conspirators, and recommended the sloop- 
 of-war Peacock, instead of the Macedonia, and a 
 reduction of the minor vessels. The purpose to 
 reduce the naval force of the expedition, soon 
 excited the surprise of scientific observers in 
 Europe, as well as this country. For even when 
 France and England were taxed to their utmost 
 capacity, by a long and expensive war, they both 
 sent out splendid expeditions of discovery. But, 
 we Americans were not born to be servile imita 
 tors of foreign powers ! We, as a people, were 
 the last to enter the Pacific Ocean, but we had 
 moved with matchless celerity, and pushed ahead 
 of every other nation in maritime and commer 
 cial enterprise on the globe ! At home, we had 
 turned the forest into the abode of civilization, 
 and framed our institutions to meet the wants of 
 our own people. And in steam navigation, ship 
 building, and the use of mechanical agents, we 
 then challenged the whole world to equal us ! 
 
 By the most irrefragable arguments, Mr. Rey 
 nolds showed that there was no expedition of a 
 like character ever sent from Europe, whose ex 
 ample should warrant the reduction of the Ameri-
 
 94 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 can flotilla. Commodore Jones, enfeebled in 
 health, and discouraged by the endless impedi 
 ments and malignant action which thwarted his 
 noble exertions, resigned his command on No 
 vember 30th, 1838. It was then tendered to 
 Shubrick, President of the late Council of " Fif 
 teen." The vessels did not please him, and he 
 declined. It was next offered to Captain Kear 
 ney. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the misapplication of the 
 funds, the changing of vessels, the effort to create 
 discord, the delay of the reports, the withholding the 
 specific information which was asked by Coiigress, 
 the indecision and inconsistency, avoiding the friends, 
 especially, the PROJECTOR of the expedition, and 
 rewarding those who created difficulties in the 
 way of its progress, compelled the Executive to 
 interfere, and take its final arrangement from the 
 hands of the Secretary of the Navy ! It was 
 then transferred to Hon. Joel R. Poinsett, Secre 
 tary of War. The friends of the measure were 
 now jubilant with joy, as the era of a new policy 
 in the matter was believed to have been thus inau 
 gurated ! But alas, what a fatal mistake ! 
 
 For soon it appeared that Poinsett had all along 
 been the secret coadjutor of the Navy Junta, and
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 95 
 
 whatever had been done by them, was with the 
 full approval of that wonderful man, Poinsett ! 
 It then appeared, that he devised or abetted the 
 scheme of appointing captains, all known enemies 
 to the expedition, to withdraw the Macedonia 
 from the squadron, that she might be sent imme 
 diately as the flag-ship to the West Indies, under 
 command of his particular friend ! We have said 
 that Captain Kearney was invited to the com 
 mand, but Poinsett interposed, and had that 
 order withdrawn. Not only so, but similar con 
 duct towards that officer in regard to other ves 
 sels, both by Poinsett and Dickerson, obliged 
 Kearney reluctantly to retire from the expedition, 
 in which he entered with so much zeal and pro 
 fessional ability. 
 
 Captain Gregory was then tendered the com 
 mand : he stood at the head of master-command 
 ers and, independent of the expedition, was enti 
 tled to the promotion to a post-captaincy. Now, 
 instead of extending to this officer the deference 
 due to his position, they refused to send his name 
 to the Senate for his just promotion until after 
 he should accept the command of the expedition. 
 This the Captain refused, very properly, to do, 
 although he was both promoted, and appointed
 
 96 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 to the command ! But this manoeuvre was for 
 the settled purpose of defeating him, and so it 
 proved. Poinsett and his coadjutors had, long 
 before, made him a marked man ! Why ? be 
 cause Gregory had not consented to take the 
 responsibility of objecting to Mr. J. N. Reynolds 
 and others, whom this lilliputian coterie, Poin 
 sett & Co., had determined to sever from the 
 expedition, but lacked the courage to avow their 
 base design ! Hence it was, that the rules of 
 the service, and the rights of high-toned officers, 
 were trampled down. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 '\ ''' -'l : ' " :i<"" r 7 -''<S "if :",''''-: 0< r -,">-..- rn ' 
 
 Captain Kearney had agreed to take the squad 
 ron substantially as Commodore Jones left it. 
 He refused to object to the scientific corps, and 
 asked no change but the appointment of Lieuten 
 ant Gedney, as second in command ; and, to it, 
 Mr. Dickerson had consented, and ratified it. 
 While Kearney, with his known promptness, had 
 directed Lieutenant Gedney to prepare letters for 
 Lieutenants Dorwin and Glynn, requesting them, 
 in five days after their receipt, to proceed to Rio, 
 and wait the arrival of Captain Kearney himself.
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 97 
 
 in the flag-ship ! Next morning, Captain Kear 
 ney and Lieut Q-edney called at the Navy Depart 
 ment, to dispatch orders, and put the squadron 
 in motion. When lo ! the Macedonia was with 
 drawn, and the whole arrangement made by the 
 Department the previous day, declared a nullity ! 
 They, then, proposed to substitute a large 
 merchant vessel for the scientific corps, as the 
 flag ship, and offered that command to the Cap 
 tain, who, being determined not to be driven 
 from the expedition, accepted ; but, finally, dis 
 gusted and disheartened, as we have stated, he 
 withdrew. It was ascertained, beyond all ques 
 tion, that Joel R. Poinsett perpetrated all that 
 mischief in twenty-four hours ! After Gregory, 
 Captain Joseph Smith, a gallant and distinguished 
 officer, received as insincere a proffer of the com 
 mand as that made to his brother officers, by 
 whom he had been preceded in that honor! 
 Captain Smith asked for Lieutenant Wilkes 
 among the junior officers, to command one of 
 the small vessels! a station, altogether, as high 
 as his rank, standing, and qualifications, fitted 
 him. And, for this situation (the command of a 
 small vessel in the squadron), he had been named 
 by the Secretary of the K"avy to Commodore
 
 98 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 I" . ' '.?J". J T) <TTJFO<Jr 
 
 Jones. So, to reconcile matters, Captain Smith 
 thought fit to name Wilkes, once more, for as 
 high a position as his ardent admirers had then 
 presumed to claim for him ! Imagine, there 
 fore, with what startling effect came the abso 
 lute refusal of Wilkes to take a subordinate 
 position in that expedition ! He declared he 
 would resign his commission in the navy sooner 
 than do so ; and that he would take nothing short 
 of the entire command ! 
 
 And, would you believe it, Americans, that 
 but two days elapsed after this most insubordi 
 nate and disobedient action, on the part of 
 Wilkes, before he was appointed to the entire 
 command ! 
 
 Nobody expects one of that cabal to turn 
 state's evidence, and convict the culprits ; but 
 no one doubts the less, that Lieutenant Wilkes 
 declined the station offered him by Captain 
 Smith under the express authority of Joel R. 
 Poinsett ! Who believes, in or out of the ser 
 vice, that Wilkes would have dared to have com 
 mitted an act that would have jeopardized his 
 commission under different circumstances. Not 
 one ! not one ! Hear these men ! They told 
 the public that Captain Smith would not go with-
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 99 
 
 * 
 
 out Wilkes ! and that Commodore Jones would 
 
 _ 
 
 not go with him ? There stood Captains Kear 
 ney, Smith, Gregory, Kennon, Aulick, and Arm 
 strong, with a Lieutenant Commodore made 
 over their heads ! A Lieutenant, whom Gedney 
 had taught the first rudiments of hydrography ! 
 Lieutenant Magruder had, also, been attached 
 as first lieutenant of the Macedonia ; and he, 
 very properly, sent a remonstrance to the De 
 partment, against the injustice of superseding 
 him ; and it lies there yet among its archives. 
 What did he say ? Why, that he was of the 
 same date as Wilkes, was examined by the same 
 board, that he passed higher than Wilkes in 
 mathematics and seamanship, ranked, conse 
 quently, above him, and had seen much more 
 sea service since they had been commissioned 
 lieutenants ! Yet, there he was, supplanted by 
 his inferior ! 
 
 Reader, mark the parallel between the action 
 of that cabal to break down the Navy in 1838, 
 and that in 1855. In many cases, they, the par 
 ties, are identical, and in all cases, influenced by 
 the same animus furandi ! Look at Shubrick's 
 action at that day, the same spirit of insubordi 
 nation, which since has distinguisjied^hinv Yet
 
 100 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 he found favor with, that same cabal, and recently 
 sat in judgment upon his brothers in the service ! 
 Look at Wilkes, elevated there by the same influ 
 ence that retains him now, while Lieutenant, 
 now Captain Gedney, the accomplished hydro- 
 grapher, is laid on the shelf. But as though it 
 was not enough to elevate Wilkes over his supe 
 riors, it was alleged that none of them had the re 
 quisite talents! What rendered this the more 
 insulting, was the fact, that Lieutenant Wilkes 
 had never been recognized by the corps of scien 
 tific officers, as even being one of their number ! 
 He had aided Gedney and Blake in a survey of 
 Narragansett Bay, some years before, and we 
 believe had surveyed, subsequently, George's 
 Bank ! But he never had been ranked as a hy- 
 drographer with Lieutenants Gedney and Blake. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 Captain James Armstrong, whose services were 
 passed over, to give the command to a junior 
 lieutenant, was another case, which called for pub 
 lic reprehension, similar to the instances in which 
 distinguished seniors were set aside by the late 
 Navy Retiring Board, to make places for aspiring
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 101 
 
 juniors. Captain Armstrong was ordered to the 
 command of the Macedonia in 1836 ; from then 
 to 1839, he had been constantly with his vessel, 
 amid delays and discouragements no language 
 can describe. The records of the Department 
 showed, that for thirty years he had borne him 
 self with honor in the service. He was at New 
 Orleans, on board the bomb-ketch Etna, and 
 afterwards commanded a gun-boat, though a 
 young midshipman ; and engaged in the fight 
 which subdued the Barrataria pirates. He was 
 in the brig Siren, in the sloop-of-war Fralies, in 
 the frigate Congress, in the Washington, the In 
 dependence, the Columbus, the United States, 
 commanded the Porpoise, and then was appointed 
 to the command of the Macedonia, when she was 
 designated for the expedition. 
 
 This captain, who had served his country with 
 so much honor under Commodores Chauncey, 
 Bainbridge, and Hull, and who had been for two 
 years attached to the expedition, was, without even 
 the courtesy of explanation, ruthlessly thrust 
 aside by these naval bandits, to make room for 
 an instrument who would enact their behests ! 
 
 An officer like Captain Armstrong would have 
 given prestige to the enterprise at home and
 
 102 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 abroad. He was able, skillful, prudent, with the 
 capacity to manage the fleet, and take care of the 
 crew committed to his charge, and was, in all 
 respects, fitted to conduct the South Sea explora 
 tion. He was without the weakness or folly of 
 Wilkes, and sought no acknowledgment for sci 
 entific attainments which he did not possess. 
 But, like Commodores Jones, Kearney, Smith, 
 and Gregory, he scorned the servility essential to 
 propitiate the favor of these designing men ! 
 
 It now became necessary to put forth some 
 plea of justification for the outrage upon the usage 
 of the service, and the injustice perpetrated on 
 the public good, in the appointment of Lieuten 
 ant Wilkes to the command of the expedition ! 
 
 "How can it be done?" became then a para 
 mount question with the cabal ! But, having 
 ! accomplished their ends so far as to secure their 
 instrument, there was not much apprehension but 
 that, amidst so much versatility of talent and in 
 ventive genius, some plea might be made, which 
 would justify the outrage ! So the " Naval Gen 
 eral Orders," of the 22d of June, 1838, ap 
 peared in the form of a proclamation, declaring 
 the expedition purely scientific, thereby leaving 
 the President power to depart from the usual cus-
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 
 
 103 
 
 torn of appointing from the senior ranks of the 
 navy, and according to their respective grades! 
 
 Lieutenant Charles Wilkes was then announced 
 as having received the appointment as first officer 
 of the expedition, and Lieutenant William L. 
 Hudson, as second officer, to command the sloop- 
 of-war Peacock ! Hudson, at that moment, stood 
 above Wilkes on the Navy Register, yet the 
 junior was put in the whole command ! Now, be 
 it remembered, that Mr. Poinsett had, just before, 
 deemed it essential to have Captain Gregory pro 
 moted to the rank of post-captain, before he con 
 sidered him elegible to the command ! And yet, 
 Gregory was at that time at the very head of the 
 list of master-commanders in the service ! It 
 was also equally well known, that Captain Au- 
 lick had been invited to take the second position 
 in the squadron ; and that Lieutenant Tatnall had 
 been offered, unofficially, the grade of comman 
 der, which he had in the same way accepted, only 
 a few days before Wilkes' appointment ; and 
 when, as we have reason to believe, they were 
 actually in treaty with Wilkes, as the only proper 
 man for their purposes ! We leave to some 
 future Plutarch, the task of unveiling all the in 
 consistency the case could unfold ! But the for-
 
 104 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 bearance of Congress and the people seemed 
 the more surprising, since this clique dared to 
 assume, that in appointing a lieutenant to com 
 mand the expedition, they had actually changed 
 the character of the enterprise I 
 
 -
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 105 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 IN the celebrated report, in answer to a call 
 of Congress, of March 19th, 1837, in reference 
 to the two sloops of war, Pioneer and Consort, 
 intended for the exploration, the same disregard 
 to that supreme legislature was manifested ; when 
 the important official documents were withheld 
 from Congress, and trivial unimportant papers 
 were sent in their places. Why ? Because the 
 documents proved the fitness of the vessels for 
 the service which Poinsett & Co. had concealed. 
 The Macedonian had been withdrawn, covertly, 
 under the pretence that she was needed to pro 
 tect our commerce in the Gulf of Mexico, while 
 the Mexican ports were blocked by a French fleet, 
 and the Macedonian left at her dock at Norfolk ! 
 Thus they delayed the enterprise ordered by Con 
 gress for more than three years ! They abstracted 
 two sloops of war, and a gun brig from the pro 
 tection of commerce, in order to send them on the 
 
 5*
 
 106 'FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 expedition, which they pretended was not naval ! 
 And when, for less than half the money it cost 
 to fit these vessels for the survey, others, already, 
 and far more appropriate for the service, were at 
 hand! 
 
 In making the naval appropriation for the ser 
 vice, a discussion arose in the House of Repre 
 sentatives, the llth of April, 1838, when the 
 outrage committed upon professional feeling and 
 pride, in the appointment of Wilkes, received its 
 just comment. Hon. Mr. Wise, of the naval 
 committee, now Governor of Virginia, expressed 
 himself in his usual independent and significant 
 manner. He said : 
 
 "That he had not accused Lieutenant Wilkes of purchasing his 
 command at all ; but be had been informed that intimations had 
 been given to the officers of a higher grade, that it was expected, 
 if appointed to the command, they would discharge certain indi 
 viduals; and one of these men, like a true officer, had replied, that 
 if such dismissals were to be made, the Department must take the 
 responsibility of making them. Mr. W. did not believe that it was 
 the painter that was to be discharged, but there was an individual 
 who had done more, in the first instance, to get up the expedition 
 than any other man in the country, and who had expressed himself 
 rery freely in the public journals in regard to the Secretary, and 
 whom it was the object of the Department to get clear of."* Mr. 
 Wise said, farther, " that, if his information was correct, Lieutenant 
 Wilkes had been selected, not on the ground of his peculiar scien- 
 
 * Governor Wise had reference, as the reader must know, to the Hon. 
 JT. V. Beynolds, of Xew York.
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 107 
 
 tific attainments, nor on that of the special character of the service, 
 but for a reason entirely different." Mr. Wise said " he had his 
 information from a respectable source, and such was the belief of 
 some gentlemen in the navy." 
 
 Mr. Ingham, chairman of the naval committee, 
 attempted the defense of the government officials, 
 and contended under a misrepresentation made 
 to him, and for which he was not responsible, 
 that the force having been curtailed nearly 
 one half, it was necessary that Wilkes should 
 reduce the scientific corps in a corresponding 
 proportion ! Mr. Ingham, therefore, said, it was 
 very singular, indeed, that when the expedition 
 was to contain but one half the vessels, and the 
 whole outfit cut down in the same proportion, 
 that there should be no reduction of expense ! 
 Mr. Wise said that Commodore Jones had told 
 him, only the previous day, that there would 
 not be a dollar's reduction by the present plan ! 
 Here, we discover that, the public as well as 
 members of Congress, were deceived, cheated, 
 by the representations made from the Depart 
 ment, that the squadron prepared under the 
 guidance of the Lieutenant Commodore, consisted 
 of but half the force organized under Commodore 
 Jones, and, under this deception, these official
 
 108 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 managers had, in a great degree, defended and 
 justified their procedure before Congress and the 
 country ! So far did this clique go to fix this 
 impression upon the public sentiment, that Gover 
 nor Dickerson embraced an opportunity, after he 
 closed his four years' service in the Navy Depart 
 ment, to congratulate the country that the expe 
 dition had been reduced one half! 
 
 Now, Americans, the truth about the matter 
 was, that the naval force, then under the com 
 mand of Lieutenant Wilkes, was larger than the 
 squadron which lay in the port of New York under 
 Commodore Jones ! 
 
 Mark it, reader, that, after a three years' war 
 against the magnitude of the expedition, by Joel 
 R. Poinsett & Co., and a long and intensely ac 
 tive effort to strangle the enterprise, on that very 
 account, they actually gate to their Lieutenant 
 Commodore a larger naval force than that com 
 manded by Commodore Jones ! Will any dare 
 to deny this? We invite them to the proof! 
 The squadron under Lieutenant Wilkes consisted 
 of 
 
 1. The sloop-of-war, Vincennes, Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, Esq., 
 Commander-in-chief, with twenty-two subordinate officers. This 
 is a twenty gnn ship; which cannot, according to law, oe com 
 manded by an officer under the grade of master-commander.
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 109 
 
 2. Sloop-of-war, Peacock, Lieutenant William L. Hudson, com 
 mander, with nineteen subordinate officers. This vessel, now 
 second in the squadron, had recently been the flag-ship of a com 
 modore in the East Indies. 
 
 3. Ship Relief, Lieutenant A. K. Long, commander, with nine 
 subordinate officers. 
 
 4. Brig-of-war Porpoise, Lieutenant Oadwallader Einggold, com 
 mander, with twelve subordinate officers. 
 
 5. Schooner Flying Fish, Passed Midshipman Samuel B. Knox, 
 commander. 
 
 6. Schooner Sea Gull, Passed Midshipman James W. Keid, com 
 mander. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 We perceive, here, that the Macedonian, of 
 thirty-six guns, and three hundred men, was 
 withdrawn, and the Yincennes, Peacock, and 
 Porpoise substituted therefor, consisting of fifty- 
 six guns, and four hundred and sixty men ! And 
 we further discover not only that the aggregate 
 tonnage and number of vessels in Wilkes 7 squad 
 ron were greater than that under Commodore 
 Jones, but that the aggregate draught of water 
 was greater ; and that an addition of one schooner 
 was made to the flotilla, which addition had been 
 most pertinaciously refused to Commodore Jones ! 
 This is the manner the first American enterprise 
 of discovery was made " altogether scientific," 
 and its force reduced to " one half" of its origi-
 
 110 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 nal proportions ! Another attempt of their mis 
 erable trickery was, the final sailing of the squad 
 ron without the full complement of men ! mere 
 illusion to deceive the people ; because, as they 
 knew, their number could be increased in a for 
 eign port, as they pleased ! 
 
 Having disposed of the silly plea, that the force 
 of the squadron was reduced under Wilkes' com 
 mand, and its naval character taken away, we will 
 next see how they entrenched themselves behind 
 reduced expenses. 
 
 Under Commodore Jones, the -squadron con 
 sisted of the Macedonian, Pioneer, Consort, Relief, 
 and Active, and the expenses did not exceed 
 one farthing that of the new organization under 
 Lieutenant Wilkes ! While, for efficiency in 
 navigating high latitudes, protecting commerce, 
 surveying or scientific research among the islands 
 of the Pacific, the comparison between the good 
 and bad plan disgusted and disheartened every 
 practical seaman in the nation ! Was there ever 
 a more flagrant violation of law, a more flagrant 
 violation of the published regulations of the Navy 
 Department, a more flagrant outrage upon the 
 professional service, than was committed by men 
 then invested with temporary authority? But
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 
 
 Ill 
 
 the science and intelligence of the country had 
 now passed judgment on them ! and the secret 
 springs of the contemptible action of Poinsett & 
 Co. were manifested by the public records before 
 the country, with which only we have now to do. 
 
 It was remarkable foreknowledge on the part 
 of a low lieutenant that he should have six months 
 before predicted the possibility of being called to 
 command the expedition ! But such was the fact, 
 that he did. Congress was then in session, and 
 every effort was made to hide their plans and 
 intentions. The friends of the expedition were 
 feared 'in and out of that body ! Officers of the 
 navy were now obliged to cease their complaining 
 of the wrong done them, for the paramount rights 
 of the commander were then settled, although the 
 details of the arrangement were not to be fixed 
 until after the Senate adjourned ! Thus it was that 
 these heads of Department dared to do what 
 they could not find Congress so corrupt as to 
 sanction. 
 
 Then it was that the new commander spoke 
 freely of his plans as being endorsed by President 
 Yan Buren and Mr. Joel R. Poinsett ! He de 
 clared his intention " to make the expedition naval 
 in point of fact, but as he could not draught a
 
 112 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 scientific corps from the navy, a portion of the 
 present members would be retained, the rest dis 
 missed." Why? Because the squadron was 
 reduced ! Look at this inconsistency, reader, and 
 repress your deepest indignation, if you can ! 
 That, while in the face of the truth, as furnished 
 from prepared documents, these men had added 
 to the naval force under Wilkes, he had the impu 
 dence to assert before the country that a reduction 
 of one half had taken place ! And this was all 
 done to make it scientific, says Poinsett & Co. ; 
 but their prote'ge' blundered so badly as to make 
 discrepancy in their respective tales, for Wilkes 
 said he meant to make it entirely naval ! What 
 a remarkable instance this of high moral and offi 
 cial integrity ! And it did not await its reward 
 for post mortem honors ! 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 The ground upon which the learned Mr. Wilkes 
 was thrust into command, was that the enterprise 
 was not to be naval but scientific ! What did the 
 commander then do for science ? He summarily 
 erased from the list the departments of anatomy 
 and comparative philology ; while entomology and
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 113 
 
 crustaceology were pronounced useless, or only 
 deserving the attention they might receive from 
 the zoologists, who already had more than their 
 proper duties assigned them ! Well might it cause 
 grief to every friend of science, to every one 
 interested in the true glory of his country, when 
 an incompetent lieutenant was allowed to lop off 
 from the expedition these members, after they had 
 made every preparation to join the expedition, 
 and under the plighted faith of the government, by 
 whom they were commissioned, and were ready 
 to sail with it i Nor was this all ; for the de 
 partments of natural philosophy and physical 
 science, which a Humboldt or an Arago would 
 have assumed with modest distrust, this little 
 lieutenant-commodore took into his own keeping, 
 in addition to all the other duties which devolved 
 on him ! ! The assistant zoological draughtsmen 
 and landscape and portrait painters, trifles in 
 Wilkes' estimation and those who governed his 
 acts, were also set aside ! As to Palceontology, 
 which educated people know to be a science that 
 treats of fossil organic remains, vegetable and 
 animal, and that it has done more to unfold and 
 analyze the globe we inhabit than any other 
 science, these men spurned with contempt ! They
 
 114 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 declared it all "humbug," and the department as 
 worthless, in connection with the expedition ! 
 How mortifying! how humiliating to national 
 pride ! 
 
 " The secrets of Nature," says the learned Buckland, "that are 
 revealed to us from the history of fossil organic remains, form per 
 haps the most striking results at which we arrive from the study 
 of geology. It must appear almost incredible to those who have 
 not attended to natural phenomena, that the microscopic examina 
 tion of a mass of rude and lifeless limestone should often disclos< 
 the curious fact that large portions of its substance have once 
 formed parts of living bodies. It is surprising to consider that tin 
 walls of our houses are sometimes composed of little else than com 
 minuted shells, that were once the doinicils of other animals at the 
 bottom of ancient seas and lakes. 
 
 " It is marvellous that mankind should have gone on for so many 
 centuries in ignorance of the fact which is now so fully demonstra 
 ted, that no small part of the present surface of the earth is derived 
 from the remains of animals that constituted the population of 
 ancient seas. Many extensive plains and massive mountains form, 
 as it were, the great charnel-house of preceding generations, in 
 which the petrified exuviaa of extinct races of animals and vegeta 
 bles are piled into stupendous monuments of the operations of life 
 and death, during almost immeasurable periods of past time." 
 
 Cuvier said ' ' that the wreck of animal life 
 
 *s *J 
 
 formed almost the entire soil on which we tread." 
 And from a sight so imposing, and so terrible, 
 was our young and intelligent nation to be kept, 
 because a naval cabal did not understand its 
 meaning or its benefit ? Cuvier's great works as 
 a naturalist, arose from his examination of the 
 fossil bones of the environs of Paris. Deshaye's
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 115 
 
 ----- . v, < 
 
 fame, came from studying the fossil shells of the 
 
 same region. Brogniart's celebrity rests on the 
 same science. Desmarest got his honors in the 
 same way. And Agassiz, in whom Americans 
 have pride, owes his reputation for science, to his 
 work on fossil fishes. Buckland wrote a work 
 on the fossil bones in the caves of England and 
 "Wales. But, the Bridge water Treatise, LyelFs, 
 and other like works, were as impenetrable to 
 the intellects of these managers of the expedition, 
 as the component parts of an Egyptian mummy ! 
 
 Before the vandal act of excluding palaeonto 
 logy had been committed, it would have been well 
 to have consulted the archives of several of the 
 states where, in connection with geological sur 
 veys, that department of science had been then 
 created ! 
 
 It is well to remember, that Wilkes only enact 
 ed the will of Poinsett & Co. They delayed the 
 expedition, sowed discord among the officers, 
 made jealousy between them and the scientific 
 corps, by throwing out the idea that the latter 
 would cheat them of their glory ; refused to order 
 any one to join the expedition ; released those 
 who did not wish to go ; rewarded those who 
 abused Commodore Jones, and J. N. Reynolds,
 
 116 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 its author ; allowed Wilkes to keep the instru 
 ments in his possession, which he brought from 
 Europe, when it was his duty to have handed 
 them to Johnson, for whose department they were 
 provided ; corresponded secretly with officers 
 under Commodore Jones, and ordered Jones to 
 sail, while they kept out of his power the instru 
 ments he needed to do so ; refused to allow the 
 scientific corps to draw their pay, after President 
 Jackson forced their appointment ; and finally, 
 did all they possibly could to disgust these gen 
 tlemen, and drive them to the necessity of resign 
 ing their commissions in the expedition. 
 
 SECTION in. 
 
 All this while, these men made General Jack 
 son believe they favored the measure, because 
 they were afraid of their places. But after 
 getting their favorite in the command, these men 
 saw they had done all necessary to monopolize 
 the glory, and having raised the cry of economy, 
 they pretended to reduce the naval force, and cut 
 down the scientific to correspond ! Was ever a 
 greater amount of villainy practised than that in 
 connection with this first American enterprise of
 
 -T7 
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 117 
 
 ' jl i , . - ' Cl r. ^ * ! _K'I 
 
 exploration? We believe no records on earth, 
 could show a more diabolical conspiracy ! 
 
 In retrenching the scientific part of the expe 
 dition, the deepest malignancy and envy pre 
 vailed. Hale was retained from sheer timidity : 
 they feared the savans who pressed his claims. 
 Dr. Reynell Coates was dismissed, because Wilkes 
 thought the purser's steward could answer for the 
 anatomist ! Professor W. R. Johnson was also 
 stricken from the list, because Wilkes professed to 
 understand " Natural Philosophy," as well as he 
 did, and there was no necessity for his services ! 
 It seemed that once this Mr. Johnson served on 
 a committee with Professors Bache and Henry, 
 to test some magnetical experiment of Wilkes, 
 on "Smith's Compass Needle." These gentle 
 men pronounced Wilkes' deductions utterly ab 
 surd, and the very reverse of his demonstration ! 
 This was enough to settle the question with John 
 son, although he had been endorsed for scientific 
 capacity, by such eminent savans of the coun 
 try, as Professors Farrar, Silliman, Henry, and 
 Mitchell. It was absolutely necessary that the 
 man who obtained the bond, fide command of this 
 national enterprise, should bind himself, soul and 
 body, to do anything and everything the couspi-
 
 118 FIRST AMERICAN. 
 
 i I 
 
 rators required should be done. They therefore 
 gave to Wilkes more enlarged powers than were 
 ever conceded to Commodore Jones ! For Wilkes 
 had the privilege of choosing his own officers, which 
 was refused Jones. He had increased pay allowed 
 both himself and officers ; this also was refused 
 Jones I Wilkes was given an additional schooner, 
 which they had denied, likewise, to his superior. 
 In short, these officials, whose whole influence 
 rested upon the appendage of office, made their 
 dictum overrule the authority of Congress, and 
 the will of the American people ! They reduced 
 the scientific corps, and made it more military and 
 naval ; while throwing all possible mystery around 
 their doings, they attempted to cheat the people, 
 with the facts before their eyes ! 
 
 Honorable Joel R. Poinsett, was the man who 
 laid the last hostile hand upon the enterprise, 
 which was designed to enrich and enlarge the 
 boundaries of human knowledge, and bring upon 
 the country high national renown ! It was Poin 
 sett, we remember, who took the squadron from 
 the command of Captain Kearney, which would 
 have placed it above the reach of the enemies of 
 the enterprise, as he foresaw, and therefore pre 
 vented it in a night ! Through him and his con- 

 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 119 
 
 federates, Smith, Gregory, Kennon, Aulick, and 
 Tatnall, were all badly treated ! 
 
 These conspirators degraded American genius 
 by their stupidity, and caused the blush of shame 
 to our learned societies, by their course towards 
 the various departments of science. Entomology, 
 for example, they utterly rejected, although it 
 equals in extent, all the other sciences of the ani 
 mal kingdom put together ! The societies of 
 London and Paris devoted to this subject, com 
 prised hundreds of members, and their transac 
 tions at that day, were published throughout the 
 civilized world ! Moreover, they had agents and 
 correspondents in our own country, as everywhere 
 else. How must we have appeared to them, 
 when, in the first great scientific voyage of dis 
 covery, a department of natural history, so essen 
 tial to the study of geology, was declared nuga 
 tory ! 
 
 The French government, at the same time, had 
 engaged twenty naturalists to complete a work of 
 sixty volumes, on that single subject ! Cuvier's 
 work, so classical and philosophical, as to rank 
 him ever as the prince among naturalists, was on 
 the shelves of every well selected library of our 
 
 country, and had better have been examined by 
 
 J ' { * J
 
 120 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 these wiseacres before they pronounced the sci 
 ence of entomology useless, and dismissed Mr. 
 Randall thereby, with so much good will ! Just 
 as they did Dr. Reynell Coates, from the depart 
 ment of comparative anatomy, and Professor 
 Johnson, from that of natural philosophy ! 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 t t r 
 
 But there was one other gentleman, against 
 whom a greater degree of malevolence was con 
 centrated, than was exhibited towards all besides. 
 This was Hon. J. N. Reynolds, originator of the 
 expedition ! The fiat had long gone forth, that 
 he must not accompany the enterprise, to share 
 in its future glory. How to get rid of him was 
 the trouble, but it had to be done, at any cost. 
 The distinguished officers appointed to the com 
 mand, would not, therefore, do ! They knew 
 and acknowledged the services of Mr. Reynolds, 
 and all desired he should accompany the expedi 
 tion. 
 
 But Wilkes said he would absolutely refuse to 
 take him, and pretend that he did so for the sake 
 of harmony ; and that he would say further that 
 he knew nothing of the powerful recommenda^
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 121 
 
 tions of all the West to the President for Mr. 
 Reynolds' appointment to a position in the expe 
 dition. That moment the bargain was struck. 
 He sold himself to his confederates, and he fully 
 answered their purpose ! 
 
 On the 30th of July, 1838, Mr. Reynolds, now 
 a citizen of New York, addressed a letter to 
 Poinsett, demanding to know why neither he nor 
 his friends had received a reply to the communi 
 cation of the Western delegation in Congress, 
 addressed to the President two months previous, 
 in reference to his appointment in the South Sea 
 Expedition. He then stated that, 
 
 "If it was determined he should hold no station, with or without 
 defined duties and a salary attached, he wished to know if he could, 
 as a volunteer, without compensation and without duties defined, 
 accompany said expedition, asking no other protection from the 
 Department or commander than was guaranteed by the rules of the 
 service to a sailor before the mast.' 1 '' 
 
 The immediate reply of Mr. Poinsett, on the 
 1st of August, 1838, shows the evident collusion 
 between himself and President Yan Buren and 
 Commander Wilkes. He affirms that he never 
 knew that such a letter existed ! that he had a 
 private one from a gentleman in Ohio, asking 
 that Mr. Reynolds should go out as a commercial 
 agent, and added, 
 

 
 122 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 "But I knew the President had decided that no such officer 
 should be appointed, nor could I, with my views of the subject, 
 recommend such a measure to his favorable consideration. 
 
 "Being about to take my departure from Washington, and expect 
 ing to be absent some weeks, I addressed a letter to the Secretary 
 of the Navy, in which I expressed my opinion of the composition of 
 the scientific corps, their number and description, but without 
 designating the persons. I think he ought, and presume he will, 
 be governed in his choice by the wishes of the commander of the 
 squadron, for it is essential to the success of the expedition thai 
 the utmost harmony should exist between the naval officers and the 
 members of that corps. 
 
 " Your desire to accompany the expedition is natural, and, under 
 ordinary circumstances, your having, in some measure, originated the 
 design, would give you a strong claim to be indulged in your wishes ; 
 but all subordinate considerations must yield to the paramount one 
 of conducting the expedition to a successful issue. 
 
 " Your letter has been sent to the Navy Department." 
 
 Attend particularly to this letter, reader ! He 
 admits ignorance of what he ought to have known, 
 and then confesses he had conferred with the 
 President on the subject! Who can explain 
 away the belief, that with a knowledge of Mr. 
 Reynolds' efforts to procure the law authorizing 
 the expedition, and the independent manner in 
 which he had denounced the official action of the 
 government, that Poinsett and Van Buren had 
 not, when on the subject, made allusion to such 
 a letter from a delegation in Congress? Who 
 believes it ? Who ? With another remark on this 
 singular Jesuitical letter, we leave you, reader, to
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 123 
 
 approve it, if you cart! This innocent secretary 
 thought the wishes of the commander should govern 
 in the selection of individuals for the sake of har 
 mony, &c. This exactly corresponds with what 
 Wilkes had already agreed to say of Mr. Reynolds, 
 viz., that harmony required he should not be in 
 the expedition ! What martyrs to truth, ye mag 
 nanimous men! The pretended reference, too, 
 to the Navy Department was to implicate Hon. 
 J. K. Paulding, then Secretary of that Depart 
 ment. But it was notorious that the whole 
 matter was hurried through ; proclamation of 
 change in the organization made ; Wilkes ap 
 pointed, and all regulations perfected to prevent 
 Mr. Paulding from having the power to interfere 
 in their action ! They knew he would not stoop 
 to such a course, but would arrest it, and that he 
 had already, in his letter to Mr. Reynolds, shown 
 his views of what was proper to be done for 
 advancing the expedition as originally designed.
 
 124 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 We cannot forbear now from giving the official 
 confirmation of our own premises, which so com 
 pletely identifies Mr. Reynolds with the first work 
 of American exploration. 
 
 To his Excellency the President of the United States. 
 
 The undersigned, members of Congress from the State of Ohio, 
 avail themselves of this occasion to express their gratification upon 
 learning that the Exploring Expedition, authorized by a recent act 
 of Congress, is about to be fitted out in a manner worthy of our 
 great republic. 
 
 They feel it to be a duty which they owe, as well to their con 
 stituents the people of Ohio as to their common country, to re 
 mind the administration of the claims of J. N. Reynolds, Esq., to 
 a prominent place in the proposed expedition. His long and ar 
 dent services in calling public attention to this question, and urging 
 its adoption by Congress ; his zeal and untiring industry in collect 
 ing information in reference to it; his intimate acquaintance with 
 all the interests of the commercial community (between whom and 
 himself there exists a long and intimate intercourse), whose inter 
 ests are afloat in those seas ; the kind relations subsisting between 
 him and most of the scientific men and societies of our large cities, 
 as well as his personal acquaintance with the South Seas, and big 
 unusual mass of information in regard to their localities, eminently 
 qualify him to be placed at the head of the civil corps which is to 
 accompany the squadrorf^ 
 
 The services and qualifications of Mr. Reynolds have been ac 
 knowledged by every committee who have reported upon the sub 
 ject, and are appreciated by Congress and the whole country. 
 
 The undersigned believe that they express as well their own 
 sentiments and those of their constituents, as of the friends of the 
 expedition generally, in asking that Mr. Reynolds be placed at the 
 head of the civil and scientific corps, having a general superin 
 tendence over, and that he be authorized to write the history of
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 125 
 
 the expedition, having such rank, powers, and compensation, as the 
 
 administration may think proper to bestow. 
 
 Respectfully, your obedient servants, 
 BENJAMIN JONES, WILLIAM PATTERSON, 
 
 WILLIAM K. BOND, DAVID SPANGLER, 
 
 THOMAS CORWIN, ELISHA WHITTLESEY, 
 
 B. STOKER, I. SLOANE, 
 
 JOSH. H. CRANE, WILLIAM HERMON, 
 
 SAMUEL F. VINTON, J. M'LENE, 
 
 S. MASON, JOHN THOMSON, 
 
 T. L. HAMER, TAYLOR WEBSTER, 
 
 ELIAS Ho WELL, DANIEL KILGORE. 
 
 JOHN OHANEY, 
 July Zd, 1886. 
 
 To Ms Excellency Andrew Jackson. 
 
 SIR : In the Exploring Expedition which has been ordered out 
 under the direction of the general government, we would respect 
 fully recommend J. N. Reynolds, Esq., as the chief of the civil ap 
 pointments. 
 
 The unremitting zeal of this gentleman in the cause of his coun 
 try and of science, his former experience as a navigator, his scien 
 tific acquirements and capacity, would seem to us to point him out 
 as the person most deserving the appointment. 
 
 J. FRY, JUN., Jos. HENDERSON, 
 
 J. B. ANTHONY, J. MILLER, 
 
 EDWARD B. HULL, HENRY A. MUHLENBUBO, 
 
 J. R. INGERSOLL, H. L. PINCKNEY, 
 
 A. BEAUMONT, JOHN REYNOLDS, 
 
 GEORGE CHAMBERS, R. JOHNSON, 
 
 E. DARLINGTON, A. HUNTSMAN, 
 
 DAVID POTTS, JUN., FRANCIS THOMAS, 
 
 J. B. SUTHERLAND, DUTEE J. PEAROE, 
 
 ISAAC M'KiM, WILLIAM SPRAGUB, 
 
 JOHN M'lvEON, A. VANDERPOOL, 
 
 G. W. OWENS, WILLIAM L. MAT, 
 
 ELY MOORE, Z. CAREY, 
 
 SAMUEL BARTON, GEORGE L. KINNAKD, 
 
 R. H. GILLET, A. LANE, 
 
 J. Y. MASON, JOHN CRAMER, 
 
 JAMES HARPER, 0. 0. CAMBRELEN&, 
 
 JOHN REED, J. TOUCHY, 
 
 BENJAMIM C. HOWARD, R. BOON. 
 
 A. WARD,
 
 126 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 To the President of the United States. 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 2d July, 1S86. 
 
 SEE: I have learned with pleasure that the Expedition to the 
 South Seas will be dispatched in due time, and that you have 
 directed it to be fitted out as becomes the interest and character of 
 the country over which yon preside. Yes, I rejoice that you have 
 done so, for I sincerely believe that no act of Congress for years has 
 been so honorable to our national character, none that will reflect 
 more credit on your administration ; as the undertaking will attract 
 the eyes of the whole civilized world, and its results become matters 
 of interest and of record in every part of Christendom. 
 
 To be appointed at once, with a liberal allowance, to the first place 
 in the civil department of this expedition, I beg leave strongly to 
 recommend my friend J. N. Reynolds, Esq. 
 
 In reference to this gentleman I must be permitted to speak with 
 freedom, for I have known him long and intimately. His labors in 
 this cause, so perseveringly continued, are well known to the whole 
 country; in an especial manner are they known and appreciated 
 by the whole of that portion of our fellow-citizens interested in the 
 commerce of the Pacific, and who have expressed so much interest 
 in having this expedition fitted out. 
 
 I was in Providence in October, 1834, when Mr. Reynolds made 
 an address before that body, for the purpose of getting an expression 
 of the Legislature of my State in its favor; which was readily 
 given, as the people of Rhode Island take a lively interest in the 
 undertaking. 
 
 From that period to the present session and final action of Con 
 gress on this subject, I have held with Mr. Reynolds a constant 
 correspondence, and Mr. R. has at all times consulted with me as 
 to the steps necessary to be taken to effect the object for which he 
 has labored so long. 
 
 At -the last session I made a report in favor of the expedition 
 from the committee on commerce, which was not acted on by tho 
 House for want of time. 
 
 At the present session Mr. Reynolds again conferred with me, 
 procured a recommendation from the Legislature of New Jersey, 
 and, when be arrived in this city, I agreed with him that it was the 
 best plan to commence in the Senate, which was accordingly done. 
 The result, since that time-, is known to you. The measure passed
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 127 
 
 ~by an overwhelming vote ofboih houses, and has been much approved 
 in all sections of the country. These are some of the circumstances 
 which enable me to speak so strongly in favor of Mr. Reynolds,whos6 
 labors and sacrifices in this cause have made him well known to the 
 members of this House. I do not hesitate to say that to his efforts^ 
 more than any man living, is the country indebted for the successful 
 prosecution of the measure before Congress. 
 
 These facts made known to you, it will, I am sure, no longer be 
 a question as to the part which shall be assigned to him. The organ 
 ization of the scientific corps could not be committed to better 
 hands ; and especially do I wish that to him may be assigned the 
 duty of writing the official account of the cruise. 
 
 With great consideration and respect, 
 I am your friend, 
 
 DUTEE J. PEABOE. 
 
 To the President of the United States. 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, %d July, 1886. 
 
 SIR: I beg leave respectfully to recommend J. N. Reynolds, 
 Esq., for the chief of the civil appointments connected with the Ex 
 ploring Expedition to be sent out to the South Seas. In this I am 
 governed by a desire to see merit adequately rewarded in the 
 appointment of a gentleman whose past services and scientific nauti 
 cal researches appear to point him out as one who has earned the 
 place and is eminently qualified to fill it. 
 
 The friends of Mr. Reynolds, particularly in the western country 
 where he was raised, have long admired the ability and utility which 
 have attended his devotion ; and, I may add, they would be much 
 gratified if this meritorious son of the West could be placed in a 
 situation where he might earn still higher distinction for himself, 
 and, at the same time, confer greater advantages upon his country. 
 With sentiments of the highest esteem, 
 
 Your friend and most obedient servant, 
 
 GEORGE L. K INNAUD.
 
 128 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 To the President. 
 
 SENATE CHAMBBR, WASHISGTON, Zd July, 1836. 
 
 SEE : I would inform the President that many of my constitu 
 ents feel a deep interest in the Exploring Expedition authorized 
 during the present session, and which I understood the executive 
 has decided to fit out the present season; and that, having a high 
 opinion of the character and qualifications of J. N. Keynolds, Esq., 
 and of his capabilities to be useful in said expedition, I respectfully 
 recommend him to the President for the highest civil appointment 
 connected with the expedition; and will add, that his appoint 
 ment will afford me personally much gratification. 
 I have the honor to be, 
 
 Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 JOHN M. NILES. 
 
 WASHINGTON, 51A July, 1886. 
 
 DEAB Snj : I enclose you several papers in relation to the ap 
 pointment of J. N. Eeynolds, Esq., as chief of the civil and scientific 
 corps which goes out with the exploring squadron to the South 
 Seas. 
 
 No. 1 is the unanimous recommendation of the representatives 
 from Ohio (without distinction of party) that he be thus appointed. 
 
 No. 2 is the recommendation of some forty or fifty Members of 
 Congress from other States, asking for him the same station. This 
 paper was got up without the knowledge of Mr. Keynolds or any 
 of the Ohio delegation, and I have no doubt a hundred additional 
 names could have been obtained, if any one had taken the trouble to 
 circulate it through the House. It was not deemed necessary, and 
 was not therefore done. 
 
 It contains the names of a majority of representatives from In 
 diana, of Illinois, and Rhode Island; of a great portion of Pennsyl 
 vania ; and of gentlemen of distinction from a majority of the other 
 States of the Union. 
 
 No. 8 consists of letters from gentlemen of respectability and 
 science, from various quarters of the country, to the same effect. 
 They all speak the same language and breathe the same spirit. 
 
 These documents, taken together, leave no doubt of the state of
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 129 
 
 public opinion upon this question. All who have reflected much 
 upon the subject feel the necessity of an efficient organization, with 
 a responsible chief, to produce unity and harmony of action. All 
 who are aware of the large space which Mr. Reynolds fills in the 
 public eye, in connection with the great enterprise, at once point to 
 him as the most suitable person to fill this station ; that he ought to 
 obtain it (in the character of commercial agent, or such other as 
 may be thought advisable), and be allowed to write the history of 
 the expediton, I have never doubted for a moment. 
 
 Few persons seem to be aware of the immense importance of 
 this expedition to our national character. It will rivet the attention 
 of every intelligent man in Christendom for years to come, and it 
 will be looked upon hereafter as an epoch in our history. It will 
 surprise the elder nations of Europe to see that a new people like 
 Uji have undertaken this voyage. But how much will their wonder 
 be increased to perceive that we have organized it upon a plan 
 which, for enlargement of conception, liberality of sentiment, and 
 efficiency of action, renders it decidedly superior to anything of the 
 kind which they have attempted. 
 
 That this great undertaking may redound to the honor of your 
 administration, and to the glory, happiness, and prosperity of our 
 beloved country, is the ardent prayer of 
 
 Your excellency's obliged friend 
 
 And obedient servant, 
 
 T. L. HAMEE. 
 
 To his Excellency Andrew Jackson. 
 
 To his Excellency, Martin Van Buren, President of the United 
 
 States. 
 
 The undersigned, members of Congress from the West, beg leave, 
 once more, very respectfully, though earnestly, to call the attention 
 of the administration to the claims of J. N. Reynolds, Esq., to a 
 prominent place in the Exploring Expedition. This measure was 
 early and warmly supported by the West. It was originated and 
 
 6*
 
 130 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 first called to the attention of Congress by one of her sons. She 
 still continues to feel an interest, and still indulges the hope that it 
 may be so equipped as not to disappoint the just expectations of 
 the country ; she still hopes to see it depart in skillful and experi 
 enced hands, unshorn of its naval or scientific strength. Congress 
 has made repeated appropriations, which leave no doubt of the hold 
 of the expedition upon science, the intelligence, and pride of the 
 nation. 
 
 The whole Ohio delegation, as well as many other members of 
 the House, immediately after the passage of the law authorizing the 
 measure, addressed communications to the late executive. After 
 congratulating him on account of the interest he took in directing 
 the expedition to be fitted out in a manner worthy "our great 
 republic," they proceeded to call his attention to the claims of one 
 who had done so much in calling public attention to the importance 
 of the enterprise, and in urging its adoption by Congress. The 
 friends of the measure knew the important part Mr. Reynolds had 
 acted, and they were influenced not more by a sense of justice than 
 a desire for the success of the enterprise, in asking for Mr. Reynolds 
 a prominent portion in it. The commercial interests of the United 
 States in the seas to be visited are well-known to the executive; 
 they are immense, and still susceptible of great extension. In ask 
 ing that Mr. Reynolds be placed at the head of the civil department 
 attached to the expedition, was only asking, in other words, that 
 he should receive the appointment of commercial agent. Until 
 recently, many of us supposed that station bad been assigned to 
 him ; that he ought to have it, and be authorized to write the offi 
 cial account of the expedition, we have never doubted. That he is 
 eminently qualified to perform these duties, under the sanction and 
 regulations of the department, cannot be doubted; that Tie ha* 
 abundantly earned the distinction which they would confer upon 
 him will admit of as little question. 
 
 Mr. Reynolds has uttered no complaints to his friends, and it has not 
 been until since the passage of the last bill of appropriation that they 
 became aware of the actual position the Secretary of the Navy had 
 assigned him ; and not even then, till the discussions in the House 
 seemed to leave some doubt whether he was to accompany the ex 
 pedition, in any capacity, had led to direct inquiries upon the sub 
 ject. Any officer, conversant with the history of this expedition,
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION 131 
 
 and knowing the relation Mr. Reynolds has maintained to it, both 
 in and out of Congress, and should object to his participating largely 
 in its labors, would, from that fact, in the opinion of the under 
 signed, ~be himself unfit to command; and the interests of the expe 
 dition, and the honor of the country would, in all probability, be 
 best consulted by his dismissal, and the supplying of his place by 
 one of more just, liberal, and enlarged views. 
 
 The undersigned have learned, with deep regret, that to Mr. Rey 
 nolds, the originator, the indomitable advocate, who has, for so long 
 a time, persevered against every discouragement, whose knowledge 
 upon the subject has been so fully appreciated by committees and 
 members of Congress, and has enlisted so large a share of public 
 feeling throughout the country, has received from the Department 
 the meagre, unmeaning appointment of " corresponding secretary to 
 the commander," to perform such duty on the expedition as the jus 
 tice or caprice of a commander might direct; while the names and 
 duties of all others composing the scientific corps, as well as juniors 
 in command, were conspicuously named in the general instructions 
 for the guidance of the expedition, were thus recognized by the 
 Department in a document to be preserved in all coming time ; but 
 in that list, and in that document, tlie name of J. N. Reynolds, we 
 learn, is nowhere to be found ; that no duties were assigned him by 
 the Secretary; in a word, that the action of the Department, 
 whether intended or not, would go to show that Mr. Reynolds was 
 not recognized by government, or known in the enterprise, except 
 only so far as he had an order in the form of an appointment from 
 the Secretary, directing him to report to the commander for 
 duty. 
 
 The undersigned forbear further comment on this subject, and 
 content themselves with protesting, in the name of their constitu 
 ents, the people of the West, as well as in their own names, against the 
 continuance of such obvious injustice to their fellow-citizen, who has, 
 in their opinion, earned far different treatment at the hands of gov 
 ernment. They are aware that many difficulties have thus far at 
 tended the fitting out of the expedition: upon these difficulties they 
 feel no disposition to dwell. It is enough for them to call tin 
 attention of the President to the subject, in a spirit of frank 
 ness and kindness, feeling assured that their communication will 
 be received in the same spirit, and that the President will, at
 
 132 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 once, give such directions as will be satisfactory to all the parties 
 concerned. Very respectfully, &c., 
 
 THOMAS CORWIN, Ohio. THOMAS L. HAMEK, Ohio. 
 
 JAMES ALEXANER, Jr., Ohio. J. RIDGEWAT, Ohio. 
 
 ALEXANDER HARPER, Ohio. WM. KEY BOND, Ohio. 
 
 DANIEL KILGOEE, Ohio. OALVAET MORRIS, Ohio. 
 
 J. W. ALLEN, Ohio. D. P. LEADBETTER, Ohio. 
 
 WM. H. HTTXTKR, Ohio. P. G. GOODE, Ohio. 
 
 CHS. D. COFFIN, Ohio. 8. MASON, Ohio. 
 
 A. W. SNYDER, Illinois. THOMAS MORRIS, Ohio. 
 
 WILLIAM ALLEN, Ohio. O. H. SMITH, Indiana. 
 
 JOHN TIPTON, Indiana. Lucius LYON, Michigan. 
 
 JAMES RARIDEN, Indiana. WILLIAM HEROD, Indiana. 
 
 WILLIAM GRAHAM, Indiana. E. BOON, Indiana. 
 
 GEORGE H. DUNN, Indiana. ALBERT S. WHITE, Indiana. 
 
 WILLIAM L. MAY, Illinois. ZADOK CASEY, Illinois. 
 
 JOHN CHANBY, Ohio. J. WEBSTER, Ohio. 
 
 E. WHITTLESEY, Ohio. 
 
 WASHISGTOS, May 1st, 1888. 
 
 To J. N. Reynolds, Esq. 
 
 Nmr YORK, Nov. 12i, 183T. 
 
 DEAR SIR: The members of the scientific corps, attached to the 
 Southern Exploring Expedition, have, with deep regret, understood 
 that you entertain some idea of resigning the commission by which 
 you are, at present, associated with us. 
 
 Without pausing to inquire whether the position in which you 
 are placed by that document, is snch a one as, in justice to your 
 unwearied exertions for the success of this great national enterprise, 
 should have been assigned to you, we would earnestly request you 
 to reflect farther upon the subject before making a final decision. 
 
 That you would, of necessity, occupy a prominent station in the 
 expedition, has so long been considered by us, in common with the 
 whole country, as a point beyond all question, the present contin 
 gency takes us wholly by surprise ; and we have heard, with not 
 less astonishment than grief, that, in the official list of the civilians 
 connected with this undertaking, the name of J. N. Reynolds is no 
 where to be found. Upon the manifest injustice of this omission no 
 comments are requisite. We believe that, through the length and 
 breadth of our land, wherever the name of the Exploring Expedition 
 has been mentioned, every wice will be lifted up against it. Neither 
 is it required that we should enter into a detail of the many reasons
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 133 
 
 for which we consider your accompanying it to be of the utmost 
 importance to the harmony and eventual success of the expedition. 
 Permit us, however, to assure you that such is our conviction, and 
 to express our sincere hope that the knowledge of this fact may 
 induce you to sacrifice your present views and feelings in this mat 
 ter to the wishes of the corps, and to consent to retain a position 
 which, however it may fall short of what in justice should be yours, 
 will secure to us your co-operation in carrying out, successfully, the 
 great objects of the voyage. Our country, never forgetful of the 
 claims of her children, will, we cannot doubt, in the end, award you 
 all that is so justly your due, however it may ~be attempted to deprive 
 you of it at present. Trusting that our appeal, therefore, may pro 
 duce the desired effect, we remain, dear sir, with the highest respect 
 and esteem, Your sincere friends, 
 
 ALFRED T. AGATE, JAMES EIGHTS, 
 
 JOSEPH P. COUTHOUY, HOEATIO HALE, 
 
 REYNELL COATES, RAPHAEL HOYLE, 
 
 JAMES D. DANA, W. R. JOHNSON, 
 
 ASA GRAY, CHAKLES PICKERING, 
 
 J. W. RANDALL, J. DRAYTON. 
 
 The Cincinnati Republican at that day, made 
 these just reflections on the outrage : 
 
 This appeal or remonstrance, for it is a little of both, was sent 
 to the President early in May last ; but its publication has been 
 withheld until the present moment, in the hope that justice would 
 have been done Mr. Reynolds. But we learn that it is determined 
 that Mr. Reynolds shall not accompany the expedition, and the 
 communication, though signed by a majority of the delegates in 
 Congress from the West, who are friendly to the administration, 
 has not received the courtesy of a notice from the President. 
 
 "When we take into consideration the uniform support the expe 
 dition has always received from the West, and especially from the 
 Ohio delegation, who took an interest in the enterprise from the 
 fact that it had been originated and successfully prosecuted by a 
 native of Ohio, the conduct of the executive seems almost unac 
 countable. Here are the wishes of the almost entire delegation of 
 the northwestern states strongly and manfully expressed. On what 
 ground of petty jealousy are the demands of this letter denied ?
 
 134 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 Was it to gratify a secretary notoriously opposed to the expedition 
 from the moment it was projected, and whose ground of hostility to 
 Mr. Reynolds was mainly owing to the fact that he had again and 
 again defeated him before Congress? We assign no other reason 
 for the conduct of the President in this case. 
 
 Of the arrangements which have given dissatisfaction, the ap 
 pointment of Lieutenant Wilkes to the command, over the heads of 
 his seniors and superiors in every respect, is not the least reprehen 
 sible. Why was he selected ? Was it because he was ready to do 
 the bidding of an incompetent secretary ? This is no party meas 
 ure. Strong men on both sides have been and are its supporters. 
 The country at large bears the expense, and has a right to ask why 
 matters have been thus managed. The people of Ohio have a 
 voice in the matter, and a right to inquire if injustice has been 
 done to one of her citizens the, author of the measure who has, 
 by his researches and publications, fixed milestones and guide- 
 boards for those to carry on the expedition who have now got pos 
 session of it, without the magnanimity to do justice to its projector. 
 The conduct of the managers of this affair towards Mr. Reynolds 
 will find no response from honorable men. They may do him 
 wrong, but cannot put him down ; for, going or staying, HIS TRIUMPH 
 HAS BEEN COMPLETE. The spirit which his labors has awakened will 
 not sleep ; for, whatever is done in this expedition, or by others which 
 may and no doubt will follow, for the extension and security of 
 commerce and the acquisition of scientific knowledge, the country 
 will not forget to whom it has been mainly owing. 
 
 Was it wonderful that this bigoted ignorance 
 should manifest its persecuting spirit towards the 
 individual whom it could not equal in intellect, 
 in philanthropy, or moral courage ? Was it 
 singular that the true significance of liberty was 
 unknown to them ? Was it strange, that an in 
 telligence so far in advance of them should have 
 been misunderstood, and misrepresented ? He 
 who is the mouthpiece of the time, generally ob-
 
 EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 135 
 
 tains greater concessions from the obtuse and 
 narrow-minded ; because they honor that heroism 
 which compliments themselves ! 
 
 Mr. Reynolds was the great oracle of the 
 future ! And it needed moral heroism to place 
 himself in the advance guard of a great national 
 enterprise, in accordance with his convictions of 
 patriotism and duty ! Every great event is the 
 beginning of a new epoch in the history of hu 
 manity, and he, who by his devotion to justice 
 and truth, makes his country wiser, happier, or 
 better, places that country under a debt of grati 
 tude to him ! We say, therefore, that were the 
 magnitude of that effort on the part of this 
 American, fully weighed in all its intellectual, 
 moral, social, and political bearings, on the future 
 of this nation, the name and praise of its author 
 would echo not only from every city, but from 
 every hill and through every plain in our coun 
 try ! For what but this feeling warms our hearts 
 towards the heroes of our liberties, who sacrificed 
 their reputations, their treasure, and their blood, 
 to serve the cause which so preeminently blesses 
 us ? And what nobler deed can man perform for 
 his country and his race, than to inspire a more 
 exalted intelligence, and develop a nobler pro 
 gressive thought ?
 
 136 FIRST AMERICAN 
 
 The author, as we have seen, was not permitted 
 to accompany his own expedition, but his triumph 
 was not the less complete ! Because he shed an 
 unfailing lustre on his country, and became 
 thereby, the beacon light which has illumined the 
 dark and intricate pathways of science ever since, 
 and elevated our state of national progress and 
 intelligence ! 
 
 All subsequent expeditions and voyages of dis 
 covery in this country owe their origin to him 
 who made their "milestones and guide-boards!" 
 To the men of science who accompanied that 
 great enterprise, honor and praise are both due ; 
 and despite the difficulties and embarrassing sur 
 roundings, they made an imperishable record of 
 their fidelity to their high trusts ! 
 
 Lynch's exploration of the Dead Sea, testifies 
 the value of the First American Exploring Ex 
 pedition ! Fremont's courage and noble daring 
 in California, testify it ; the Arctic Expedition 
 of Doctor Kane, testifies it ; and the American 
 people, by one consent, ratify and endorse its 
 utility and greatness to our common country ; 
 while the limit of its results no human wisdom 
 or foresight can compute !
 
 ed by J C.Buttre
 
 THE PACIFIC BAILKOAD. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE invention of printing, in 1436, prepared the 
 way for the discovery of America in the same age, 
 and made it a necessity. Why ? Because it civ 
 ilized and enlightened men ; and when this was 
 done they wanted more room ; their commerce 
 wanted more field ; their kingdoms wanted more 
 latitude ; their navigation more scope ; in fine, 
 every faculty of man expanded, and with a double 
 energy the great work of revolution had begun. 
 
 To obtain control over the commerce of the East 
 has been the prize for which the ambition of na 
 tions had contended for ages ; and to find an easier 
 and more direct route to India was the cause which 
 moved Columbus to set out on the discovery of a 
 western continent. The commerce of the East 

 
 138 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 controlled the world. Its riches, transported o/er 
 deserts by the Arab, furnished London, Lisbon, 
 Amsterdam, &c., with their opulence and grandeur. 
 When the Turks held power on the Bosphorus, this 
 wealth went to Europe and Asia through the Black 
 Sea. When the Venetians wrested that power 
 from the Turks, the Mediterranean became the 
 channel of this Eastern commerce. The attractions 
 of the gold mines of Peru and Mexico, the wars of 
 the Dutch, French, and Danes, did not divert 
 public desire for a direct route from Europe to 
 Asia, until England conquered and established her 
 empire in India over one hundred and fifty millions 
 of people. The French explorers sought this line 
 in vain ; and Lewis and Clark, under President 
 Jefferson, of our own country, met with no better 
 success. At last, however, the difficulty is solved ! 
 A railroad through this continent is the power 
 which is to control the commerce of the world ; 
 and the United States alone affords such a route. 
 The Pacific Ocean is then to be the centre of com 
 merce for the world, and our country thus becomes 
 the centre of civilization. 
 
 The moment this road is built, Asia, with its 
 five hundred millions; Europe, with its two hun-
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 139 
 
 dred and fifty millions ; Africa, and all the islands 
 of the ocean on either side, will seek this transit 
 for their commerce. To go to India now, from the 
 United States, is an undertaking which involves 
 the risk of health and life, a voyage of five 
 months, and of twice crossing the equator. With 
 the railroad, twenty days would be the maximum 
 time for penetrating the heart of India from the 
 city of New York. There, we then shall ex 
 change our products and spend our surplus in the 
 riches of the East. 
 
 The trade of the East with Europe now is an 
 nually near four hundred millions, requiring three 
 thousand vessels. With our railroad, the cost and 
 time would be so reduced that it is fair to believe 
 this commerce would be increased to seven or 
 eight hundred millions. American vessels and 
 American seamen will then go into the ports of 
 Japan, now opened to us, and return freighted with 
 the products of China and India. 
 
 With Asia on one side and Europe on the othe 
 and our steam and sailing vessels at command, 
 there can never be any competition while the na 
 tion endures. 
 
 The energy of the Anglo-Saxon has already
 
 140 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 demonstrated a power which challenges the admi 
 ration of mankind. It has been by the Anglo- 
 American that the oceanic currents have been 
 defined, and the Gulf- Stream pointed out to navi 
 gators all over the world. It was by the Anglo- 
 American that the Dead Sea was explored. The 
 Anglo-American opened by treaty the ports of 
 Japan, after being so long closed to all but the 
 Dutch and Chinese. Americans have proved the 
 existence of an open Polar Sea, and braved the 
 perils of the Arctic Ocean for Sir John Franklin. 
 What have they done within their own borders ? 
 They have taken the Mississippi valley, a wilder 
 ness thirty-five years ago, and settled it with up 
 wards of twelve millions of souls. Twenty years 
 ago, where not seven thousand people dwelt, north 
 and north-west of Chicago, they have put upwards 
 of a million The queen city of the West, Cin 
 cinnati, which contains one hundred and sixty thou 
 sand people, only dug its cellars a few years ago. 
 In 1820, the first line of packet-ships sailed 
 from the United States to Liverpool, and prudent 
 men predicted them a failure. In 1835, the 
 learned Dr. Lardner declared the navigation of the 
 ocean by steam to to be impracticable. Three
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 141 
 
 years after which, the Great Western and Sirius 
 steamers came into the port of New York. 
 
 The first proposal for a railroad from Boston to 
 Hudson was made thirty years ago, and pronounced 
 an absurdity. Now we have, at least, twenty thou 
 sand miles of railway constructed in the United 
 States, involving a capital of more than jive hun 
 dred millions of dollars. In 1808, the general 
 government refused assistance to the Hudson and 
 Erie Canal, after New York had appropriated six 
 hundred dollars for a survey. Mr. Jefferson, then 
 president, said, it "might be feasible one hundred 
 years to come" ! 
 
 The first American who is known to have con 
 ceived the idea of railroads by steam was Oliver 
 Evans, of Pennsylvania, who made known his plan 
 in 1781 and 1789, after the adoption of the con 
 stitution. 
 
 Joel Barlow, in his "Visions of Columbus," in 
 1787, predicted the Erie Canal in New York, 
 thirty years before it was begun, under De Witt 
 Clinton, in 1817. At that time, political parties 
 took ground against it ; but the energies of Gov. 
 Clinton prosecuted it to success. In ten years it 
 had paid the cost of completion, while its present
 
 142 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 annual receipts are half its original cost. Towns 
 and villages immediately rose up by the Wabash 
 and Erie Canal in like manner, and as railroads got 
 on the line the banks of every navigable stream 
 were covered by a population devoted to commer 
 cial enterprise. 
 
 The inhabitants of Portland, Maine, have em 
 barked in the enterprise of building a railroad from 
 there to Nova Scotia, which is now completed, and 
 reduces the voyage of Europe to America two 
 thousand miles. It is three thousand from New 
 York to Liverpool. This effort found favor with 
 European as well as American capitalists, and will 
 tend rapidly to commercial prosperity 
 
 When we consider that England, to save a dis 
 tance of only twelve miles between London and 
 Dublin, built a bridge across the Straits of Menai 
 at a cost of twelve millions of money, we can 
 better understand the economy of expending money 
 to shorten our route eleven thousand miles to 
 Europe. 
 
 Everything, therefore, demands, on the same 
 principle, that the Pacific Railroad should be made 
 to shorten and cheapen the transit route for the 
 commerce of Europe and Asia, which we shall
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 143 
 
 certainly command. Consider, Americans, how in 
 a few years we have spread from a fragment to a 
 continent ! We have only one sixth less of terri 
 tory than the fifty-nine states of Europe put 
 together. We are ten times larger than Great 
 Britain and France. We are one and a half times 
 larger than Russia in Europe. And, when the 
 Atlantic and Pacific states shall be united by the 
 railroad, it is impossible to realize how vast and 
 how grand the results will be to us. 
 
 In a philanthropic view, it is incomparable with 
 any war, or revolution, or discovery, save that of 
 our beloved country, and the national freedom se 
 cured by our Republican institutions. The railroad 
 will at once become the strongest fortification for 
 the country, and moving batteries of men would be 
 its defence in time of war. The passive intellects 
 of the East will soon feel the attrition of Ameri 
 can energy and enterprise ; the population that 
 flows in from the Old World will thus be Ameri 
 canized ; and Protestant education, which is as the 
 brain to the body of our institutions, will build up 
 the American systems of free schools, which are the 
 essential element of our liberties. 
 
 Liberty has expanded our resources on the
 
 144 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 *- r -o 
 
 Atlantic, and will, in the same way, advance them 
 on the Pacific, until the islands of the ocean, and 
 the shores of Asia, shall feel the benign influence 
 of American commerce and American laws. The 
 West, then, demands the Pacific Railroad, to add to 
 the prosperity of the country, to open new outlets 
 for the distribution of commerce, and new sources 
 for our national wealth and enterprise. Americans, 
 it is the navigable rivers on the Atlantic which 
 have populated your states. This made it easy to 
 receive and send off the products of the land, and 
 sent settlers first upon the water-courses. As these 
 became populous, the settlers on them drove back 
 into the interior the succeeding emigrants. The 
 valley of the Mississippi was thus peopled. So the 
 borders of the Hudson, Connecticut, and Penobscot 
 Rivers, and Narragansett Bay. At the beginning 
 there were no interior communications to protect 
 the settlements on the rivers, and hence they were 
 not populated so rapidly as the Mississippi valley. 
 Steamers were coeval with that settlement, and this 
 has caused its rapid increase of population. 
 
 During the early peopling of the country, and 
 before the introduction of steam navigation, pack- 
 horses were used to carry goods ; but the danger and
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 145 
 
 expense rendered this mode of trade exceedingly 
 limited. The usual time, then, was six months to 
 make a journey from New Orleans to St. Louis by 
 water, which is now performed in eight or twelve 
 days. It was the steamboat, and that alone, which 
 opened the commerce of the Mississippi valley. 
 Corn, wheat, iron, hemp, coal, would all have been 
 comparatively useless without this mode of trans 
 portation. 
 
 You see now, Americans, how and why the 
 valleys and rivers of the Mississippi were penetrated. 
 On the coast of the Pacific the case is altogether 
 different. The states and territories we own there 
 never can be settled as the Atlantic states have been. 
 Why? Because neither steamers nor sail-boats 
 can penetrate them. A land route is the only way 
 this ever can be accomplished. But will an ordi 
 nary road do it ? No, it could never be made to 
 pay expenses of transportation. People would 
 therefore refuse to dwell there, while they could 
 seek the water-courses of the Atlantic and Pacific 
 for settlement. The cause why individual enter 
 prise entered into our favorite valleys, and occupied 
 them, and gijew wealthy,was owing to their access to 
 7
 
 146 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 the sea, and other navigable waters, which pene 
 trated the interior country. 
 
 Now, what has been done for the Atlantic states 
 by steamboats must be done for the Pacific states by 
 railroad. And let us be assured of one thing, that, 
 with a railroad across the continent, the Yalue of 
 the whole country would be increased incalculably 
 beyond what all our rivers have done, or possibly 
 can do. No other inducement ever will carry set 
 tlers to the interior countries of the Pacific states. 
 But, with a railroad, they would soon convert that 
 whole country to a flower-garden. The entire year, 
 at all seasons, would be open to the markets. The 
 energy and enterprise of the settlers would increase 
 with the means of transit at hand. The ice in the 
 Atlantic states, in the cold season, has always been 
 
 a bar to industry ; but this would no longer inter- 
 
 / ' 
 
 fere with progress. 
 
 The Pacific Railroad will, of necessity, do all the 
 business of the waters in those territories ; the 
 Hudson, the Ohio, and Mississippi, would pour their 
 commerce into that railroad passage. Thus this 
 thoroughfare will extend our commerce and spread 
 our popiilation on the Pacific, as the steamboat
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 147 
 
 navigation has spread the plains of the Mississippi 
 and Missouri Rivers. 
 
 Look at California and Oregon, how within three 
 years and a half they have gathered a population 
 of at least a half a million ! What has done this ? 
 The gold mines alone. If, then, with a land journey 
 of three or four months, and a costly sea voyage of 
 thirty or forty days, population has thus accumu 
 lated, what may be expected when the railroad shall 
 have reduced the distance from San Francisco to 
 Washington city to seven days, and the telegraph 
 has brought us into communication in one single 
 day ? For such will actually be the case.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 AMERICANS, what has been the consequence of 
 legislating for the states of the Pacific already, 
 which cannot be reached under a six weeks' travel ? 
 Let the Indian massacres, and those of Panama, 
 the dangers and sufferings of immigrants, the black 
 catalogue of crime which has made almost a Sodom 
 of California, the utter perversion of the rights of 
 suffrage by the ballot-box, answer. The disorders 
 which have been created there, the villanous prac 
 tices of stuffing the ballot-box, the elevation of the 
 scum of society and traitors to office, all these, 
 and other shocking spectacles, which, as a necessity, 
 caused the Vigilance Committee to be appointed by 
 the people for their own protection and safety 
 against these ruffians and murderers, are greatly 
 owing to their isolated condition. 
 
 For these causes, a separate republic on the 
 Pacific must ever suffer the most serious dangers, 
 and especially if there should be cause for for 
 eign invasion. Nsthing will remedy these evils in
 
 s . THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 149 
 
 due season but the establishment of a railroad to 
 the Pacific. This would at once rectify all the 
 present difficulties, and regenerate the condition of 
 the people. 
 
 The idea of a Southern republic may at first 
 seem absurd. But would the united interest of 
 Lower California, the western coast of Mexico, a 
 part of the British possessions opposite Vancouver's 
 and Charlotte's Island, and removed from the evils 
 of a French population, be of no account, joined 
 to California? Would not the commerce and the 
 gold, and its free soil, interfere with the harmony 
 of the Southern States of this Union ? Most un 
 doubtedly. Why not, then, settle the question, not 
 for a time, but forever, by putting a railway, that 
 shall bind with a cord of iron the states of the 
 Pacific and Atlantic ? 
 
 Independent of the trade of the United States 
 and Canada, this road would be the great forwarder 
 of the staples of China and the East Indies. The 
 reason is, that it would be the shortest, quickest, 
 and least expensive route. The passage by this 
 land route can be effected from three to five miles 
 per hour quicker than by any sea or water route 
 that could possibly be devised.
 
 150 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 No one can compute the extent of trade from a 
 railroad across the continent, connecting the Colum 
 bia and San Francisco Rivers with New York, 
 China, Japan, Oregon, Australia, the Sandwich 
 Islands, California, the seaports of Europe, United 
 States, and Canada. Americans, these would all 
 commercially centre on this road. The distance 
 from New York to California is thirty-two hundred 
 miles. Allowing the usual rates of railroad travel, 
 with time to eat and to rest on the journey, it will 
 require seven days. If itt an emergency, and the 
 usual delays were abandoned, the travel could be 
 made with ease in four and a half days, at thirty 
 miles an hour ! 
 
 Until gold settled California, the merchants of 
 our country had but a limited knowledge of the 
 trade on the western coast of the Pacific, to China, 
 Japan, and India. Consequently, it was the local 
 traffic of California, Oregon, and Australia, that 
 opened to view the fact that the commercial capa 
 bilities of the Pacific are really greater than the 
 Atlantic. The tea- trade and sperm whale are 
 confined to the Pacific ; white the great staples, 
 sugar, tobacco, wheat, and corn, grow as well on 
 the Pacific as on the Atlantic.
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 151 
 
 The Sandwich, Society, New Hebrides, Friendly, 
 New Britain, Philippine, and Ladrone Islands, are 
 all accessible, by steamboats, from California ; and 
 all their products, therefore, would be turned to 
 use, if the railroad were there. China will unlock 
 her doors as never before when this temptation to 
 extend her commerce is presented. Australia will 
 reap the benefit ; while California, the great out 
 post of the Pacific, will not pause in the opportu 
 nity to show the world, and especially this beloved 
 people, what industry will accomplish, in connection 
 with gold, in which resource she is now only second 
 to Great Britain. 
 
 How has England obtained ascendency over the 
 commerce of the world ? By making it free. 
 England, Holland, and the United States, which 
 compose three fourths of the foreign commerce, 
 acknowledge entire freedom in every commercial 
 pursuit ; and, now that we have entered the Pacific 
 by right and title, with our steamships and our 
 experience, what shall prevent us from acquiring a 
 commercial ascendency over England, Holland, and 
 the world ? We ask you, Americans, if anything 
 shall do it ? You say, No. Then get about your 
 railroad, and you may say this in earnest.
 
 152 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 By the improvement in steam and ship-building, 
 our mariners perform the same voyage to-day in 
 half the time they did fifty years ago. We have 
 already made railroads on the two continents, and 
 we are altogether a changed people since 1800. 
 For twenty-five years after that, our commerce had 
 no facility from steamboats or railways ; and it has 
 been but twenty years since we began to realize 
 their full value. All the sources of commerce then 
 were those tributary to the seaboard, while the 
 wealth of the country was kept, from want of com 
 munication, beyond their reach. We had not then, 
 either, the men of method and mind equal to the 
 emergencies of trade, as we have now. We had 
 not a monied capital then, as now, opened to all. 
 When we compare ourselves with the past, and see 
 what new facilities of greatness the nation has 
 found out, we should be grateful, elated with our 
 destiny, and ready for action. 
 
 And if, with our small means, we have attained 
 such development on our Atlantic borders, what, 
 with our ships, our steamboats, our capital, our 
 experience, and our railroad, are we not destined 
 to accomplish on the Pacific shores ? The railroad 
 will open new strength, and new channels of
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 153 
 
 thought, as well as action. It will make our coun 
 try the agent and carrier of the commerce of the 
 world ; and it becomes all classes of our country 
 all who regard its prosperity, all who regard the 
 benefit to their children and their children's chil 
 dren to rally to the railroad as the great highway 
 of our national prosperity and greatness. 
 
 While men are quibbling and blundering about 
 the best route, Nicaragua might make a canal or 
 railroad, and establish trading settlements, which 
 would materially interfere with our prospects. 
 Every day gives greater importance to the political, 
 commercial, geographical, moral, and social reasons 
 which show that we are risking much, losing much, 
 by the delay. 
 
 The Atlantic was always more formidable to ex 
 plorers than the Pacific ; consequently the East, in 
 the early ages, was more rapidly populated than the 
 West. The oceans, we must remember, were as 
 much ours by right, before we had a sail or harbor 
 on our coast, as now. The Pacific territory was 
 acquired by us through the Mexican war. It was 
 purchased then by the sweat and blood of American 
 men. It has been the means of increasing our com 
 mercial wealth and greatness. To occupy and enjoy
 
 154 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 this, the railroad has been projected by the wisdom 
 of men who, from the beginning, have seen that 
 this territory, obtained at so dear a cost to the 
 United States, must either be made subservient to 
 the interests of the whole country, or be wrested 
 from us for a new republic. 
 
 It cost just twenty thousand dollars to discover 
 America ; and for this small sum the Queen of Spain 
 had to pledge her jewels, so great were the financial 
 embarrassments of the government from the Moorish 
 wars. It is true, Columbus never saw the United 
 States in its present limits ; but he was at Cuba, 
 five degrees from Florida. Henry of England took 
 six years to determine the proposal which Columbus 
 made him for aid in this same discovery. 
 
 How incapable was the human mind at that period 
 to comprehend the advantage of spending twenty 
 thousand dollars, to see if there was any such place 
 at all as this New World of ours ! Just as incredu 
 lous are many to the prospective results of the 
 Pacific Railroad. Yes, with all the light and knowl 
 edge, and the mathematical demonstrations of its 
 effects upon our national destiny, the timid and 
 circumscribed intellect is as hard to convince as the 
 child is that there is not a man in the moon.
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 155 
 
 When America was discovered, England had not 
 a greater population than we had when we declared 
 independence. Printing had been but twenty-one 
 years in use ; the English language had not been 
 spoken a century ; there were but four merchant 
 ships belonging to London, and the people were op 
 posed to trade. Two centuries elapsed, after that, 
 before England had dug a canal. Manufactures 
 were almost unknown ; and it was upwards of a 
 century after the discovery of America before Eng 
 land built her first stage-coach. 
 
 And now, with a railroad access to the entire con 
 tinent, the blessing of our unequalled government 
 and wise and wholesome laws will make us felt and 
 propitiated by the entire world. What makes Eng 
 land the first commercial power in the world, but the 
 control she has over the markets of Asia and the 
 continent of Europe ? The possession of California 
 has now added to the national wealth of America, 
 by opening to us the same commerce of Asia. 
 
 Central as the United States are between the two 
 continents of Europe and Asia, and producing the 
 two great staples of tobacco and cotton, we need but 
 a highway of steam from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
 and mail steamers from California to China, to over-
 
 156 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 step England, and claim supremacy in commerce to 
 her. Why has England, thus far, made us depend 
 ent upon her for commercial news ? Because she 
 -has an overland route, which secures her mail facili 
 ties. The mails are taken from London to Canton, 
 and vice versa, in sixty-five days ; to us, in seventy- 
 seven days. If we construct a railroad, now, to 
 the Pacific, and connect California with China by 
 mail steamers, the whole distance from New York 
 to China will be accomplished in the incredibly short 
 time of twenty-four days. England then would be 
 come dependent upon the United States, not only 
 for mail facilities, but for the products of Asia, 
 which would be made available through us. 
 
 England, by her Cape of Good Hope and overland 
 routes, has obtained a monopoly over the East India 
 trade and that of China. The government of the 
 East Indies forces opium to be introduced, which is 
 the important drug for the Chinese markets. The 
 sale of opium amounts to thirty millions annually. 
 Besides, the cotton and other fabrics which England 
 sends to China bring back to Great Britain annu 
 ally twenty millions of dollars. Nothing but the 
 American trade has saved China from being ex 
 hausted in money. "We deal with China to about
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 157 
 
 half the amount of England ; for which we send 
 specie, or bills drawn to our account, payable in 
 London. Now, it needs but for us to establish more 
 rapid communications, to enjoy all the advantages 
 England now possesses. Our central position gives 
 this natural facility. We have but to use the appli 
 ances of science and art which God has given us the 
 intelligence to appreciate, to take the commercial 
 balance into our own hands. 
 
 It is now reduced to a moral certainty that cotton 
 cannot be grown to any extent in any soil yet found 
 out but that of the United States. It is, therefore, 
 the first staple of our trade. Tobacco is next in im 
 portance, as such. Its use is now becoming general 
 throughout Europe and in some parts of Asia. It 
 is only kept from China by England, who forces 
 opium upon her people, and makes the difficulty of 
 obtaining tobacco from us. We alone might substi 
 tute tobacco for opium, and thus rescue a people 
 perishing so rapidly from the use of that poisonous 
 drug ; the Chinese greatly preferring tobacco, but 
 the English, jealous of our staple, take care to 
 throw every obstacle in the way of its introduction, 
 well knowing that it would entirely supersede the 
 use of the deadly narcotic in which they are so
 
 158 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 deeply interested. We might receive, in return for 
 our tobacco and cotton, the amount in tea and silk, 
 for which we now pay twenty-five millions annually. 
 
 Look at the true state of the case. England has 
 to buy of us the raw material, out of which she 
 fabricates the basis of her foreign trade. She gets 
 our wool and cotton, and makes muslins, cottons, 
 calicoes, handkerchiefs, and cotton yarn, of our cot 
 ton, and broadcloth, cassimeres, blankets, camlets, 
 of our wool. We also make the same articles. 
 Both export to China ; yet we find, by a compari 
 son of one year, that ours reach scarcely one twen 
 tieth part of England's, for the reason given, that 
 she commands the market by her mail facilities of 
 communication. 
 
 Take the trade in tea, and compare our commerce 
 and England's with China, in the sixty years from 
 the time we began to trade with China in that arti 
 cle, and look at it. The first voyage of commerce 
 from the United States to China was in 1785 ; but 
 the trade was not really opened until 1792. It has 
 so increased that now our importation of tea amounts 
 to sixteen millions of dollars annually. From the 
 beginning of our trade with China, we have im 
 ported from that country to the value of upwards
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 159 
 
 of two hundred and fifty-eight millions of dollars,, 
 while our exports have amounted to only a little over 
 eighty-six millions. Thus we have paid China in 
 precious metals upwards of one hundred and 
 seventy-two millions of dollars ! 
 
 From 1792, when our trade began with China, 
 to 1827, silver to the amount of eighty- eight mil 
 lions and upwards had been shipped direct from 
 the United States to China. In 1827, China, 
 owing to the opium trade, had become indebted to 
 England very largely, and American bills, payable 
 in England, began to be used in lieu of coin ; and 
 from 1834, these American bills on Chinese accounts 
 amounted to about sixteen and a half millions, 
 while the specie in that time sent from England 
 was only between seven and eight millions ! 
 
 So, since 1834, England has been steadily drain 
 ing our coin to the amount of seventy-five millions 
 seven hundred and fifty-seven thousand seven hun 
 dred and ninety-seven dollars, and settling with 
 China by bills of credit, for which we have to pay 
 specie to her.
 
 CHAPTEK III. 
 
 Now, this drain of England upon us is prepos 
 terous. Our own products are sufficient to pay for 
 all we get from China ; and it is our products 
 which pay a premium to the labor of England, and 
 cause a loss to our manufacturers and mechanics. 
 It is the increase of our products by the art and value 
 of British labor which actually pays for nearly the 
 whole of the teas and raw silk England imports 
 from China. 
 
 There are other advantages connected with the 
 steamers to transpose the mart from China to the 
 Pacific, meeting the railroad at that terminus. 
 These steamers can be so constructed as to supersede 
 the government force needed there, and save the 
 treasury annually one million and a quarter of 
 dollars. The extensive and unprotected coasts of 
 California and Oregon render them liable to foreign 
 aggression, and demand, in this point of view, the 
 serious consideration of the people. Before the
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 161 
 
 acquisition of California we had two hundred ves 
 sels employed in trade in the Pacific. Since then, 
 there are, at least, six hundred and fifty American 
 trading vessels. The amount of our property ex 
 posed there on the coast is nearly seventy millions. 
 The whaling business alone is valued at thirty 
 millions, with an employed force of eighteen thou 
 sand men in the North Pacific ; and our annual 
 revenue is estimated at ten millions. 
 
 Our acquisition on the Pacific at once inaugu 
 rated a new era in the industry, energy, and enter 
 prise, of the American people. It was their volun 
 tary labor which levelled mountains, felled forests, 
 and swept the plains with a torrent of emigration, 
 in the valley of the St. Lawrence, and the basin of 
 our lakes. And when the facilities of moving 
 whole bodies of men are given to the people by 
 the railroad, and time and space at once annihilated, 
 the pulpit, the press, and institutions for education, 
 will multiply, and thus expand and strengthen the 
 bonds of our liberties. 
 
 The geographical, physical, and moral power of 
 the United States constitute the basis of their 
 greatness. Great Britain has thirty-four thousand 
 square miles ; Austria, Hungary, and Italy, three
 
 162 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 hundred thousand ; France, less than two hundred 
 thousand ; we, Americans, over three and a half 
 millions ! Geographically, Russia compares as 
 one to one hundred and twenty ; Austria, as one to 
 nine ; France, as one to five and a half ; United 
 States, as one to ninety-six ! While we have there 
 fore a field to display our enterprise, all we want 
 is avenues to exert it in its full vigor. 
 
 This railway will save ten or twelve days over 
 the Panama route. It will transfer the capital of 
 Europe to us, which is now used in monopolizing 
 the trade of Asia. It will give to Americans the 
 key of the West, and fix forever the channel of 
 Asiatic commerce (which for centuries has been 
 oscillating) upon the best, safest, and quickest 
 route of transit through the heart of this nation. 
 Safety, security, protection, advancement, all require 
 the construction of this Pacific Railroad. The gold 
 of California has now become the essential stimu 
 lant to all the industrial pursuits of the country. 
 The destruction of the monthly shipment to New 
 York would send a shiver through all the commerce, 
 finance, and industry, of this country, that would 
 be incredibly severe, in a single week. 
 
 Now, consider how easy foreign cruisers and
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 163 
 
 privateers could cut us off from this receipt of the 
 essential element of our national vitality ! The 
 gold now comes to us over foreign seas, through 
 foreign territory, and over a circuit of six thousand 
 miles. In the event of war, whole fleets would 
 interpose to take from us this arm of our strength. 
 Ships, and troops, and missions, are now necessary 
 to protect our national interest, and protect our 
 commerce on the Pacific ; the railway Would then 
 protect us, and save all our commerce and territory 
 from foreign aggression. 
 
 Throughout the world's history, nations have 
 been elevated or depressed as they advanced or 
 lost commerce ; and the changes for three thou 
 sand years in Asiatic commerce have settled the 
 question, that the ocean is the obstacle to foreign 
 trade. Land now has been found the facility, and 
 the steam- car the only sure means to keep up dis 
 tant communications. The United States have 
 consequently the advantage over Europe. We 
 have half the road to India on our own land, the 
 rest on a peaceable sea which washes our shores, 
 and with an impenetrable bar to Europe of the 
 whole diameter of the earth. 
 
 Tliis railroad, then, will exalt us to be mistress
 
 164 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 of the commerce of the wide world. It will be at 
 the same time the impregnable fortification to save 
 us from the assault of vast armies, or from fierce 
 and bloody battles within our own borders. Who 
 would stop to count the cost of the mere construc 
 tion, when every interest dear to the hope of citizen 
 and Christian is staked upon the result ? 
 
 Aside from the commercial and political necessity, 
 the economy and convenience of the nation, the 
 interests of all the people, demand this road now. 
 Americans, take the whole history of the roads in 
 this, country in the past twenty-five years, and you 
 will find every dollar invested in them has been 
 worth ten to you. 
 
 The vast increase of the "West in population and 
 lands is only to be ascribed to its roads. In five 
 years Illinois has doubled her population, and in 
 creased her lands five-fold. In these five years 
 ten or twelve hundred miles of railway have been 
 built. 
 
 In a moral and educational view, this road must 
 have an immense value. The tendency of popula 
 tion is all west ; the field for the growth and 
 prosperity of the people is there. In a few years 
 it will decide all our national measures in Congress; 

 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 165 
 
 it will control our national revenues ; and, as the 
 agent for transportation of newspapers, cheap books, 
 and all those methods which tend to enlighten and 
 strengthen the Protestant power of our country, 
 the value of the road cannot be computed. The 
 loss to the country by omitting to build this road 
 has been more already than would have supported 
 the entire annual expenses of the government. 
 
 The American people now almost unanimously 
 demand this railroad as the great necessity of our 
 times, and they require it to be built in whatever 
 latitude the great mass of the population mostly 
 move ; on whatever line is shortest, most expedi 
 tious in travel, and most convenient to the thirty 
 millions of people who inhabit our thirty-one states 
 and territories. 
 
 Three routes out of the eight surveyed at gov 
 ernment expense have been pronounced feasible by 
 the Secretary of War in his report to Congress. 
 These are the northern, the central, and the south 
 ern lines. By all of them the harbor of San Fran 
 cisco is acknowledged to be the essential terminus 
 of the road on the west, as it is now the centre of 
 all our commerce on the Pacific coast. The ques 
 tion, then, is, what point on the east as a terminus
 
 166 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 will correspond with San Francisco, as the centre 
 of the greatest amount of population and commer 
 cial enterprise on the west? 
 
 The distance on the southern line from San Fran 
 cisco to New York is three thousand six hundred 
 and forty-seven miles ; on the northern line, includ 
 ing distance yet unsurveyed, three thousand six 
 hundred and thirty-four ; on the central line, three 
 thousand two hundred and forty miles. This would 
 give a distance of four hundred miles shorter to the 
 central route. Texas has granted to any company 
 that constructs the railroad on the southern route 
 ten thousand two hundred and forty acres of land 
 for every mile of road built. Now, these lands 
 of Texas are the only unimproved lands on this 
 continent where cotton can be cultivated. Cotton 
 is the staple of our commerce ; the rest of the 
 world is depending on us for its growth, and we do 
 not own now a single acre of government land 
 favorable to its production. In this point of view, 
 the grants of land Texas offers become incalculably 
 valuable to our whole country. 
 
 The charge for transporting goods across the 
 Panama Railroad is a tenth less than before its con 
 struction. Four or five hours now serve to carry
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 167 
 
 passengers and freight across the isthmus, which 
 formerly occupied three days of dangerous travel. 
 Freight is now reduced to one hundred and twenty- 
 five dollars the ton. But a railroad from the coast 
 of Texas would not only save time, but reduce the 
 tonnage to one half the amount it now costs from 
 New York to California. The saving of freight, 
 the saving of time, would at once induce every pru 
 dent and sagacious merchant to adopt the railroad 
 across the continent, and thus gain thirty or forty 
 days. 
 
 The central route starts from New York to the 
 Pacific, and has already been completed to Iowa 
 City. From New York city it followes the Hudson 
 River, the Erie Canal, the great lakes, from Buffalo 
 to Chicago, to Rock Island. The easy passage for 
 a bridge which is placed across the Mississippi at 
 Rock Island seems to have been marked out by 
 Providence as the means to facilitate commerce across 
 the river, and renders the route to San Francisco 
 the most direct and advantageous in the judgment 
 of many eminent men. Next year the route will 
 have reached Council Bluff. All this by individual 
 enterprise, without government aid ; and which
 
 168 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 will make the next census count in Iowa over a 
 million of inhabitants. 
 
 All that this route needs from the government to 
 complete the road to San Francisco from Iowa City 
 or Council Bluff is a grant of land, taking nothing 
 from the treasury, but augmenting its revenues by 
 bringing the lands into the market. This route is 
 in the centre of about one half of the population 
 of the whole country ; and it is fair to presume, from 
 what has been achieved by the industry and enter 
 prise of the West, that the road will be built on 
 this route, whether favored by the general govern 
 ment or not. 
 
 It was the Erie Canal of New York that made 
 the first great revolution in the trade of the coun 
 try, and exalted that state in wealth and grandeur. 
 Ohio succeeded with her canals between the lakes 
 and the valley, and western trade at once went into 
 New York. 
 
 The canals of Maryland and Pennsylvania had 
 no water communications from the Atlantic to the 
 Ohio, and failed for that reason ; while New York 
 had a monopoly for thirty years, or until the rail 
 road penetrated the entire West to the banks of the 
 Mississippi. Steam conquers all other motors. The
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 169 
 
 incredible revenues from the central road of Pennsyl 
 vania, and the Baltimore and Ohio road, for the 
 present year, show this result. 
 
 It is steam which has given England her power 
 over the continent, by facilitating the transportation 
 of her coal, iron, salt, and other bulky articles. 
 Why do the inhabitants of cities and towns enjoy 
 greater advantages than those who are settled over a 
 sparse country ? Because there is an ampler field 
 for purchase, a greater variety of employments 
 for industry to suit the ability and capacity of the 
 laborer, and greater quickness in finishing work. 
 Where population is collected the competition is 
 greater. 
 
 Now, the Pacific Railroad will do for the people 
 of our vast country just what the city or town now 
 does. It will concentrate numbers from small and 
 distant places in an incredibly short time. This 
 will at once lead to prosperity. Greece arose to 
 commercial greatness in this way. Towns in Hol 
 land, Zealand, and Flanders, for centuries prospered 
 by these means. Switzerland thus holds intercourse 
 by the Rhine with Holland. While those countries 
 without roads, or canals, or other water facilities, 
 have never risen intellectually or commercially. 
 8
 
 170 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 We have already witnessed the effect of the rail 
 road upon our vast West, which has conduced to 
 individual comfort and prosperity wherever it has 
 penetrated. There is yet another advantage to be 
 attained by the road across the continent, not to be 
 overlooked by Americans, and that is, its effect upon 
 the diffusion of Protestant principles over our land.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE endless holidays of the Catholic church have 
 always checked industry ; and it is a fact to be 
 remembered, that, although the nominal Roman 
 Catholics (but greater proportion infidel?) are more 
 numerous than Protestants in Europe, a much 
 larger share of Europe's exports comes from the 
 skill and ingenuity of Protestants than Catholics. 
 In Ireland, linen-weaving, the only great branch 
 of manufacture, is almost wholly in the hands of 
 Protestants. In the vast margin of the West yet 
 to be filled, it becomes a question of the first 
 moment to the nation that it be occupied by Prot 
 estants, whose education tends to strengthen our 
 liberties, while that of Romanism is designed to 
 subvert them. The West will soon hold the bal 
 ance in our national exchequer, and elect our chief 
 ruler ; and it is impossible to be too vigilant in 
 promoting and spreading Protestant education over 
 all that portion of our people. The railroad, more
 
 172 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 than soil, more than mines, will tend to this result, 
 by bringing all sections of the Union together, and 
 advancing knowledge to the remotest limits. 
 
 The revenue of our country arises chiefly by 
 consumption ; and the wealth and power of our 
 whole country would be increased and secured by 
 the increase of a Protestant American population. 
 The individual income of such a people would 
 also be increased. Why ? Because the reward of 
 labor in all the manufacturing and mechanic arts 
 would induce the individual to adopt a uniform 
 pursuit ; while the father of a family would not be 
 compelled, as now, often to sacrifice education and 
 personal comfort for the mere sake of living. 
 
 Thus, Americans, as the commerce of the country 
 expanded, so would all the arts and pursuits of 
 industry expand, as it grew great and powerful. 
 The Pacific Railroad must increase the" medium 
 which circulates and regulates commerce ; it must 
 enlighten and expand the energies of men ; it 
 must spread the influence of American institu 
 tions over mankind, and dissipate that very dark 
 ness, under which men have been deluded, and 
 their means squandered, to grow rich without labor, 
 c,r wise without learning. Foreign force and do
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 173 
 
 mestic treachery have struck at the foundation of 
 our political edifice. We need at once to balance 
 the public mind by free Protestant culture, so that 
 our people shall reason before they act. 
 
 Before the discovery of the mines of California 
 and Australia, the coin came from Mexico and 
 South America. Since the discovery of these, a 
 new era has been inaugurated in our commerce 
 with the world. In 1849 and '50, the first flood 
 of gold came into the country ; and in the three 
 following years, '51, '52, and '53, the enormous 
 sum of one hundred and sixty-six millions had been 
 added to the circulation, including about thirty 
 millions in the hands of individuals. This caused 
 a change in the condition of the people, who, see 
 ing the steady increase in three years, predicted a 
 rise which would, at last, amount to one hundred 
 millions annually. Then everything in specula 
 tion, expense, and importation, increased. Banks 
 sprang up, and paper was used as gold ; wages 
 and work increased ; railroad bonds were issued 
 by the million ; life and fire insurance companies 
 multiplied. But on what was all this based? 
 Was it upon the gold and silver in the bank vaults 
 of the country ? Not at all ; but upon the fiction
 
 174 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 which men without reasoning adopted, and the 
 delusion under which they acted. 
 
 By the returns of the first six years subsequent 
 to the discovery of gold in California, two hundred 
 millions of that metal had been added to the cir 
 culation of the world. Australia, though not so 
 long known, brought fifty millions more ; making 
 two hundred and fifty millions more money in use 
 than before the discovery of these mines. 
 
 By the official banking returns of the United 
 States and Europe for that period, we find that 
 there was no more money on hand then than before 
 the discovery. Where, then, did this metallic cur 
 rency go ? Why, it went directly into the hands 
 of the people. It, therefore, was not the instru 
 ment of the credit structure, which is the proper 
 and only means for making paper the representa 
 tive of gold and silver ; so that, while this in 
 crease of gold gave fancied security to the credit 
 it induced, it had not really anything to do with it. 
 
 The mining districts, including .all the valuable 
 metals found on the Pacific, will, in themselves, 
 make the railroad eminently desirable for the trans 
 portation of these metals. Consider, Americans, 
 that, alter eight years of constant mining, and four
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 175 
 
 hundred millions of dollars obtained, they are still 
 as luxurious as ever. Gold is seen embedded in 
 every stream, mountain, and vale. The copper 
 mines of Lake Superior and Eastern Tennessee 
 have not made even the demand for this metal less 
 profitable. Now, that obtained from the new 
 copper mines of Ajo is wagoned all the way to 
 San Diego, and thence to San Francisco ; and 
 still, with all that cost, a large profit is left to the 
 transporter. The richest silver mines ever dis 
 covered are in Sonora, in Mexico, which now 
 belong to us. Silver, perfectly pure, has been 
 clipped by the sword of an officer, as a specimen. 
 The Indians have deterred explorers, hitherto, from 
 penetrating these mines ; but, now that they have 
 become American property, we shall find American 
 enterprise entering them. 
 
 Americans, you perceive these rich mines of 
 gold, iron, silver, and copper, will at once be 
 made accessible by the railroad. Thus it will add 
 to the capital of our country vastly more than it 
 can possibly cost. This Pacific railway will be 
 the harbinger of the future glory and aggrandize 
 ment of American institutions. In twenty days 
 we shall be in the most populous cities of Europe
 
 176 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 and Asia We have already consummated treaties 
 which secure commerce and trade to Americans, 
 and protect their lives, property, and religious 
 liberty, in Siam and Japan, so long closed against 
 the trade of the world ; and then we will com 
 mand the accumulated wealth of seven hundred 
 millions of people, and which has enriched every 
 nation that has had any kind of control over it. 
 
 England, to maintain her ascendency over this 
 trade, has already three over-land mail routes, and 
 is now engaged in devising three more, to carry 
 this Eastern commerce to the British empire. But 
 a railroad, to do this for England, would have to 
 extend six thousand five hundred miles, and would 
 take fourteen years to build it. Now, by the com 
 promise of 1850, which Millard Fillmore signed, 
 as President of the United States, we secured the 
 ten leagues of country on the Pacific coast, which 
 included California, and planted our flag there. 
 And, by this means, made our blessing, under 
 God, we can make our national road, which will 
 convey us across the continent to the Bay of San 
 Francisco in seven days ; and ten or twelve days 
 from there, by steam, will land Americans in the 
 populous countries of Eastern and Western Asia
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 177 
 
 and Western Europe. It will give them a hold on 
 the wealth of China, which has been increasing 
 for six thousand years, and bring them in contact 
 with her seven hundred millions of inhabitants in 
 twenty days from the day they leave New York. 
 
 This railroad, then, will put sectional agitation 
 among our people at rest, and set them about these 
 new channels of trade and commerce. We have 
 now control of the cotton market of the world, and 
 the certain prospect of having the same power over 
 wool. Iron, also, in every state but one, is abun 
 dant enough to supply the whole American conti 
 nent ; and, in a few years, we shall likewise con 
 trol the market of this great item in trade. Gold, 
 too, will then be more rapidly diffused over the 
 civilized world, and this will facilitate the activity 
 of our commerce. A greater amount of labor will 
 then be made available, to work the mines of Cali 
 fornia and Australia, than ever before. 
 
 The effect of the discovery of the precious 
 metals in California has been to stimulate the 
 latent energies of men to an extent never wit 
 nessed before, and has been the means of forcing 
 the necessity of a railway upon the common sense 
 
 of the American people. The poor man will be 
 
 8*
 
 178 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 more benefited than the rich by this road ; and the 
 labor employed in the development of our new 
 territory, and the exploration of its mines, will 
 prevent any superabundance of laborers in the 
 most thickly-settled parts of the country, and stop 
 the poor man from working for the pittance he now 
 does. 
 
 The manufacturer, also, by the increased free 
 dom to commerce which the constant and rapid 
 transportation of gold from California and Austra 
 lia will then command, will find himself better able 
 to cope with the manufacturers of Europe. 
 
 According to Professor Blake, the great gold 
 field in California, notwithstanding the large in 
 crease to the circulation of the precious metals, has 
 not yet been fully explored. There is a field seven 
 hundred miles in length, and about fifty in breadth, 
 containing thirty-five thousand square miles, eleven 
 thousand of which are rich in gold, sometimes 
 extending to the depth of six feet in the sands of 
 the coast. This is repeatedly washed out of the 
 black sand by the tides. The number of square 
 miles worked, but imperfectly, we are assured by 
 Dr. Trask, in his work on geology, never exceeds 
 four hundred at a time ; and fewer persons were
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 179 
 
 engaged in mining in 1854 than in 1852, although 
 the product of gold was in '52 forty-five millions 
 of dollars, and in '54 sixty-one millions. This 
 was owing to the increased advantages of working 
 the mines by proper machinery. 
 
 Now, by the highest authorities we find that the 
 amount of gold in the whole world, in 1848, was 
 two billions nine hundred millions of dollars, or six 
 hundred millions of pounds ; while, by the increase 
 from the mines of California and Australia since 
 that time, at least four billions of dollars have been 
 added to that amount, which would make now, in 
 the whole world, six billions nine hundred millions 
 of dollars of gold, beside what is worked into jewelry 
 and plate. And, Americans, does it not cause a 
 thrill of triumph in your hearts to know that, of 
 this increase to the precious metals, your own State 
 of California has contributed three hundred and 
 thirteen millions two hundred and eighty-five thou 
 sand five hundred and two dollars and seventy- 
 seven cents ; and other parts of America, seventeen 
 million seven hundred and sixty-six thousand seven 
 hundred and sixty-eight dollars and fifty-seven 
 cents ?
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 M. TEGOBORSKI, Counsel of the Empire of Russia, 
 in writing of the influence of the gold fields of 
 California and Australia, estimates that by them 
 the amount of gold and silver in use in Europe will 
 be doubled in thirteen years, and throughout the 
 whole world in twenty-four years. 
 
 Beside, what is the effect of the discovery of the 
 mines of California in Europe ? Why, it has 
 raised real estate four per cent, per annum, and 
 advanced all kinds of produce in like manner. It 
 has also advanced the wages of labor in like ratio. 
 How ? Because the poor working-man, before 
 dependent on the employer for the mere sustenance 
 of life, is now driven to another field of operation, 
 and incited by the desire to accumulate, and thus 
 changing often the state of things by making the 
 rich man dependent on the laborer. 
 
 So those who remained as well as those who 
 went to California were benefited. If that was so
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 181 
 
 in Europe, let us turn to our own country, we, 
 the possessors of California. We see how our 
 commerce is extended ; we see, day by day, how 
 eagerly the accumulations of gold and silver in our 
 bank- vaults are taken and transported into other 
 countries, to bring back their merchandise to us. 
 Why ? Because its shipment to England, France, 
 and Germany, equalizes the value of gold, and 
 prevents the dangers to trade which result from 
 keeping it under bars and bolts. The railroad to 
 the Pacific has now become a necessity to the 
 American people, that they may enjoy the free 
 heritage God has given them, opening all the ave 
 nues to wealth and industry, and making their 
 voice heard on the hills, in the valleys, the cities, 
 and the plains, of the whole earth. This, Ameri 
 cans, will be the great triumph of the American 
 States over commerce, mechanics, and manufac 
 tures, which nothing can impede beneath the stars. 
 The railway and the canal will be the true con 
 querors of the world. Around them will centre 
 the industry and energy of the Anglo-Saxon race 
 There the Protestant emigrant will seek his new 
 home. They will become the majority of the
 
 182 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 population, and the consequent possessors of most 
 of the property of the country. 
 
 The telegraph will then become the electric 
 medium of exchange, which, without a visible 
 chain, will link the American Union to the world. 
 " Lo, what hath God wrought ! " were the memo 
 rable words which passed over the wires of the 
 first telegraph ever made in the United States, 
 a few years since, between Baltimore and Washing 
 ton, a distance of but forty miles. Now, Ameri 
 cans, we not only find it in the full exercise of its 
 magic power in all the states of this mighty Union, 
 but actually preparing to bring us in speaking dis 
 tance of the other continent. 
 
 You all know that the Island of St. John's, 
 Newfoundland, is the most eastern point of North 
 America, and Valencia is the most western harbor 
 of the British Isles. The waters of the St. Law 
 rence have long since cut Newfoundland from the 
 continent. Now a submarine telegraph has been 
 laid, which brings Newfoundland and the main land 
 again in contact ; and the distance from St. John's 
 to New York, of one thousand seven hundred and 
 eighty miles, can be reached by direct communi 
 cation. But still the ocean was to be crossed to
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 183 
 
 reach Europe, and the question arose how this could 
 best be done. Some proposed extending the line 
 to Labrador, Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe 
 Islands ; but to- this there were insurmountable 
 objections, and, after the investigation of scien 
 tific men, it was decided that the line must also 
 start from Newfoundland to Europe, a distance of 
 nineteen hundred miles, on account of the depth of 
 the water, essential to the success of the enterprise. 
 
 The plan devised, and about to be executed, is 
 this : A line of wire three thousand miles long will 
 be placed on two war-ships in mid-ocean, one 
 belonging to the United States, the other to Eng 
 land. These will each take half the wire. The 
 wire will be covered with gutta percha coatings, 
 and will be made of the best conducting material, 
 accompanied by a machine, invented for the express 
 purpose, by Dr. Whitehouse, of England, in order 
 to ascertain when the wire is broken or damaged, 
 and the exact point of interruption. 
 
 Thus, Americans, by your inventive genius, you 
 are with one grapple about to join Europe to this 
 country by a telegraph, which will start at New 
 foundland, and end at Valencia, in Ireland, with 
 one thousand nine hundred miles of cable resting
 
 184 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 in the Atlantic Ocean ! This is not an ideal 
 sketch, but a living reality, that in 1857, next 
 year, the British Isles and the United States, 
 though divided by a stormy ocean of three thousand 
 miles, will by science and machinery hold conversa 
 tional intercourse with each other ; and, at the 
 same time, the distance by railway between Nova 
 Scotia and Portland, Maine, will have diminished 
 our travelling distance from Europe eleven hundred 
 miles ! 
 
 These mighty works show the mutual benefit 
 England and the United States are each to the 
 other, while they continue as they are. While the 
 energy of this great American people, too rapid for 
 carrier pigeons, and even steam, and eager to extend 
 and profit by every advantage in commerce, inven 
 tion, finance, science, and arts, and to move in the 
 rapid march of civilization over the whole globe, 
 has already forged the chain which is to bind us 
 to the three ancient continents of the Eastern 
 world. 
 
 Well might Mr. Dallas, the American minister, 
 declare that the great telegraph, now making, 
 would afford Americans the opportunity soon to 
 respond to the toast given to Americans in London
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 185 
 
 * 
 
 before the dinner ended. " When famine distressed 
 other lands, in the land of Egypt there was bread." 
 So with our beloved country : from the diversity of 
 its soil and climate, its power in raising subsistence 
 will so increase as the humbler condition of society 
 advances by intelligence, that it would be physi 
 cally impossible to arrest the march of the American 
 people in commerce, wealth, or mental activity. 
 
 Now we come to the great question, who is to 
 make the road to the Pacific, Congress, that is, 
 the general government, or the people ? 
 
 We say it cannot be built without the coopera 
 tion of the government, because there are fifteen 
 hundred miles between Missouri and California, 
 over which Congress alone has power to legislate. 
 The constitution, which gives Congress the right to 
 regulate commerce, allows the general government 
 to build the road to California from New York, for 
 a mail route, if it so decided. Congress can give 
 or sell the public lands, as it pleases. Congress can 
 appropriate money, if it pleases, to build a road or 
 roads through the landed estate of the government 
 for mail transportation, or military purposes. We 
 do not advocate the especial claims of either of the 
 three routes surveyed. Each has its advantages ;
 
 18G THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 and all may be laterally connected, or ultimately 
 and separately constructed. But, we say, had the 
 present administration done its duty, and favored 
 the building of the road to the Pacific three years 
 ago, instead of burning Grey town, making Ostend 
 conferences to seize Cuba by " divine " right, and 
 repealing the Missouri Compromise, which has 
 brought upon us intestine war, our country, 
 instead of being divided, distracted, and agitated, 
 would have been running a new race in dignity, 
 and political and commercial greatness. 
 
 The administration, on the contrary, early 
 receded from this national measure. The leading 
 presses, which sustained it, followed in elaborate 
 articles against the road. Senators of the same 
 political school declared the measure would be 
 worse than the alien and sedition laws of John 
 Adams. They saw no power in the constitution, 
 while grant after grant, in the last seven years, has 
 been made by Congress to the Southern and Western 
 States. The people saw nothing to prevent it, and 
 with more energy than ever before renewed that 
 demand.

 
 THE LOSS OF THE 
 
 SLOOP - OF - WAR " ALBANY," -^ - 
 
 COMMANDER GERRY, OFFICERS, AND CREW. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE Author in a previous work, " The Ameri 
 can Battle," was induced, by the misrepresentations 
 of officers, to make some statements which she 
 afterwards learned, from an examination of the 
 documents, to have been untrue, and which she 
 therefore corrected in the previous editions of 
 the present volume. The statements were then 
 made, as she was assured, upon the most reliable 
 authority, the verity of which she believed there 
 fore rested upon the most credible testimony, 
 rather than upon the zealous enthusiasm of the 
 informers. As she cannot, and will not, to support 
 any cause, or subserve any party or creed, allow 
 a statement to bear the sanction of her name that 
 
 t8T
 
 188 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 is not supported by evidence of its authenticity, 
 she has requested her publishers to withdraw that 
 chapter from the future editions of ' ' The Ameri 
 can Battle" solely because it contains certain 
 errors, caused by misrepresentations made to her. 
 It was from a knowledge of this fact, brought to 
 her notice by the examination of the official docu 
 ments, and the pain she experienced in having 
 innocently, but most unjustly, committed, through 
 others, a wrong upon the gallant dead, and by 
 her own high sense of right, that she was at 
 once prompted to make a public exposition of the 
 character and services of Commander Gerry, who 
 must be regarded, by all who are correctly in 
 formed of his private and public history, as one 
 of the brightest ornaments of the Navy, and 
 possessed of every virtue that gives claim to 
 the confidence and respect of his country and of 
 humanity 
 
 The misrepresentation in the case of the late 
 distinguished Commander Gerry, of the United 
 States Navy, is first in importance, as it reflected 
 upon one who is not here to vindicate his own 
 claim to justice. But data, which none can deny, 
 are at hand, as effectually to refute the charge 
 as though he were personally present. The offi-
 
 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 189 
 
 cial documents, which the author has read, make 
 no mention of any application from a subordinate 
 to place a Bible and religious library in the cabin 
 of the Albany, under command of Captain Gerry. 
 There is not one word to be read in connection 
 with this matter, from beginning to end, in these 
 documents. 
 
 The history of no misfortune that nas ever 
 befallen the Navy caused deeper affliction or 
 more lasting sorrow than that of the loss of the 
 sloop-of-war Albany. 
 
 Captain Gerry was her noble commander, 
 aided by many of the most gallant and valuable 
 officers in the naval service, when she met that 
 mysterious fate which none survived to reveal. 
 The last official intelligence of this ship was dated 
 on the 28th of September, 1854, announcing that 
 she would sail next day from Aspinwall for New 
 York, and subsequent information leads us to 
 believe Captain Gerry intended to return by way 
 of the Mona passage. A terrific hurricane oc 
 curred in that latitude on the 21st of October, 
 which it is supposed the Albany must have en 
 countered, and there met her lamentable fate. 
 After waiting long in expectation of her arrival, 
 the most painful anxiety was awakened on ac-
 
 190 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALRANY. 
 
 count of these brave men, and the Princeton, 
 under the command of Captain Eagle, an accom 
 plished and skillful officer in the service, was sent 
 to discover some tidings of their fate ; which, 
 after a thorough search, he was unable to do. 
 
 The United States steamer Fulton, Lieutenant 
 John K. Mitchell commanding, which sailed from 
 Aspinwall, New Granada, March 2, also made a 
 thorough search among the Bahama and Wind 
 ward Islands and the Spanish Main ; but without 
 any more successful result. 
 
 On the 18th of April, 1855, within seven 
 months from the sailing of the Albany from As 
 pinwall, the department announced the names of 
 the promoted officers by this melancholy event, 
 and thus settled the conviction upon the public 
 mind, that all hopes of the survival of Captain 
 Gerry and his associates had vanished forever f 
 
 The department, m making this annunciation, 
 made honorable mention of the distinguished ser 
 vices of Captain Gerry, "who, in pursuance of 
 the orders of the commodore, had been actively 
 cruising during the entire year, as commander of 
 the Albany, and had visited, among other ports, 
 those of Samana, Sisal, St. Thomas, Port Royal, 
 and St. Jago de Cuba." And the Secretary of the
 
 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 191 
 
 Navy further remarked, that " this ship had done 
 good service, and Commander Gerry and his offi 
 cers merit the approbation of the department, as 
 I have reason to know that the appearance of 
 our flag at these ports, and the bearing of the offi 
 cers, contributed much to the encouragement and 
 protection of our citizens engaged in commercial 
 transactions in these regions." 
 
 Commander Gerry, was the youngest son of the 
 late Elbridge Gerry, who died in the discharge of 
 his duties, as Vice-President of the United States, 
 to which office he was elected by the unanimous 
 vote of the " Republican" party, in 1812. 
 
 In separating the British Government from the 
 Colony of Massachusetts, and forming one to suit 
 the people's choice ; in the foreign and domestic 
 concerns of the country, while the war of the 
 revolution was in progress ; in arranging for the 
 cessation of hostilities, and the treaty of peace, 
 Mr. Gerry bore a prominent and distinguished 
 part. 
 
 He. was in the front ranks of the Convention 
 which formed the Constitution. He was a mem 
 ber of the House of Representatives in Congress, 
 at the organization of the Federal Government. 
 He was an ambassador to France, to negotiate
 
 192 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 our difficulties, and terminate our treaties with 
 that power. 
 
 He was Governor of Massachusetts at the be 
 ginning of our second war with England, which 
 he fearlessly advocated, and afterwards presided 
 over the councils of the nation, during the con 
 tinuance of that war, as Yice-President of the 
 United States. 
 
 There is too, one remarkable fact to be remem 
 bered, that but seven of those who signed the 
 Declaration of Independence, participated in the 
 formation of the Constitution. Of these, Mr. 
 Gerry was one. 
 
 And in the first and second Congress after the 
 organization of the government, while many were 
 found who had been distinguished, either in the 
 military or civil service of the country, during the 
 Revolutionary War, it was rare then, to find one 
 who had taken an active part, both in the Revo 
 lution and the adoption of the Constitution, as 
 Mr. Gerry had done. And when presiding over 
 the Senate of the United States, in 1813, he was 
 believed to be the only individual in either branch 
 of Congress, who had served in the " immortal 
 Congress" of 1776! 
 
 It may not be improper here to remind the
 
 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 193 
 
 reader, that of those who signed the great char 
 ter of our independence, all were never present 
 at any one time. Many who had iio voice in 
 making or originating it, who neither voted for 
 the resolutions, nor for their publication, after 
 wards became members of Congress, and signed 
 the Declaration of Independence. 
 
 This, they were instructed by their respective 
 State Legislatures to do, and which was done 
 from time to time, throughout the year 1776 ! 
 Mr. Gerry was not one of the latter class. 
 Though all who signed that sacred instrument, 
 deserve the imperishable glory which will ever 
 belong to their venerated names ! But two of 
 his colleagues of the Revolution ever attained an 
 elevation beyond that of Elbridge Gerry. These 
 were Adams and Jefferson, who, after assisting 
 in inaugurating the independence of the nation, 
 and sacrificing for its perpetuity, were summoned 
 on its fiftieth anniversary to the judgment of im 
 mortality on the same day. And in consideration 
 of the fact, that Mr. Gerry entered the service 
 of his country when subject to England ; that he 
 signed the Declaration, and aided in making the 
 Constitution ; that he was a party to the first or 
 ganization of the government, and presided over 
 
 9
 
 194 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 the destinies of his native State, when measures 
 were being taken for a second war with England, 
 which really gave us nationality, and when we 
 remember that he afterwards was transferred 
 as presiding officer over the councils of the na 
 tion, and with such entire acceptance to all sec 
 tions, when the War of 1812 was raging with 
 England, and the permanence and fidelity of our 
 people to free institutions was being tested, we 
 cannot but regard this series of patriotic services 
 furnished by Elbridge Gerry, as connecting them 
 selves with the history of no other man in the 
 nation, of whom we have knowledge. 
 
 We may add that, as an appreciation of all this, 
 Congress in 1823, passed a law, and made an ap 
 propriation to erect a monument over the tomb 
 of Elbridge Gerry, in the Congressional Cemetery, 
 at Washington City. 
 
 This is the first, and only instance, in which the 
 nation has ever erected a monument to a native 
 citizen at its own cost ! 
 
 Capt. James Thompson Gerry, in consequence 
 of his father's decease in 1814, withdrew from 
 Harvard College, which he entered the previous 
 year, and received a warrant as cadet at West 
 Point, and after remaining there one year, he
 
 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 195 
 
 entered the Navy, December 20, 1815. He was 
 made a Lieutenant, April 28th, 1826, and pro 
 moted to the rank of Commander, April 17th, 
 
 1842. He passed much of his naval life at sea, and 
 with such scrupulous fidelity to duty as to have 
 merited the highest encomiums in every grade of 
 the service, and from all with whom he was offici 
 ally associated. His mental strength, decision and 
 energy of purpose, bore a striking resemblance to 
 those traits in his father's character, whose vir 
 tues he emulated, and whom personally he 
 strongly resembled. Like his father, too, he met 
 death when in the actual service of his country. 
 
 Capt. Gerry, in early life, had performed much 
 creditable service in the squadron of the Mediter 
 ranean and China Seas, and elsewhere. And had 
 served also in the Home Squadron, with credit to 
 himself, in the years from 1839 to the summer of 
 
 1843, in the sloop-of-war Warren, as lieutenant ; 
 and when promoted in 1842, he had command of 
 the brig-of-war Somers, which vessel was upset 
 and lost in a squall off Vera Cruz, after he had 
 been relieved from the command. The squadron 
 was ordered north in the summer months, and 
 remained off the Navy Yard, Charlestown. 
 
 The Somers, in the subsequent summer, when
 
 196 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 under Capt. Gerry's command, was ordered to 
 the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and sailed again in 
 November for St. Domingo, the Secretary of 
 the Navy, then not deeming it advisable to detain 
 United States vessels of war in the Caribbean 
 Sea during the hurricane and sickly season. 
 Oapt. Gerry was an experienced officer in navi 
 gating these waters, and was on much important 
 duty in the Somers, which was a dispatch vessel. 
 He knew the necessity of our squadron on the 
 Home Station being ordered North at the season 
 of the year, in southern latitudes, so dangerous to 
 life 'and property, by yellow fever, in the one case, 
 and hurricanes, in the other. Capt. Gerry con 
 centrated in his character those rare and promi 
 nent elements which at once inspired confidence 
 in the stranger, and won for him the universal 
 esteem and respect of every community with 
 which he was associated. 
 
 The Albany sailed from Charlestown Navy Yard, 
 Massachusetts, Nov. 29th, 1852, under his com 
 mand, and with as efficient, gallant, and respect 
 able an association of officers and crew as ever 
 sailed in the service of the United States. We 
 place on honorable record their distinguished 
 names, while their memories are embalmed in the
 
 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 197 
 
 hearts of their many thousand friends and fellow- 
 countrymen : 
 
 COMMANDER JAMES T. GERRY. 
 
 NICHOLAS FISH MOBRIS, Private Secretary to Commander. 
 
 WILLIAM "W. BLEECKEE, First Lieutenant. 
 
 MONTGOMERY HUNT, Second Lieutenant. 
 
 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, Third Lieutenant* 
 
 HENRY ROGERS, Fourth Lieutenant. 
 
 ROBERT MARR, Acting Master. 
 
 STEPHEN M'CREARY, Surgeon. 
 
 RICHARD D. CONMAN, Assistant Surgeon, 
 
 NIXON WHITE, Purser. 
 
 BENNBT J, RILEY, Midshipman. 
 
 WILLIAM JONES, Boatswain. 
 
 WILLIAM CRAIG, Gunner. 
 
 JAMES FRAZER, Sail-Maker. 
 
 ROWLAND LEACH, Carpenter. 
 
 BELLIGEB SCOTT, Master's Mate. 
 
 WILLIAM J. BOND, do. do, 
 
 DEXTER BRIGHAM, do. do. 
 
 Being 18 Officers, 
 
 23 Marines, 
 
 156 Seamen.. 
 
 Total ... 197 as by the return to the Navy Department. 
 
 The officers were connected with the most 
 respectable and distinguished families in our coun 
 try. Bleecker, the first-lieutenant, was from the old 
 Bleecker family after whom a well known street in 
 New York is called. Adams was the nephew of 
 the last President of the United States of that 
 name. Rodgers, son of Commodore John Rod- 
 gers, of the War of 1812. Hunt, a highly respect-
 
 198 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 able family in the State of New York. Marr was 
 a son-in-law of Commodore Lavallette. Riley, 
 son of General Riley, also of the State of New 
 York. The other three wardroom officers were 
 equally respectable, and we believe from the 
 South. The rest of the officers above named 
 were considered equal to any of their grade in 
 the service. 
 
 Lieut. Reed Werden, now attached to the 
 National Observatory at Washington, D. 0., also 
 belonged to the Albany on her cruise to the 
 Fishing Banks and back to New York ; and in 
 the subsequent cruise, until about the 6th of 
 April, 1854, when, on account of ill health, he 
 was detached from the ship at Havana. The 
 elevated character he sustains, as an efficient 
 officer, in connection with his great moral worth, 
 is well known to the service and the country.
 
 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WHEN last seen at Aspinwall, September 28th, 
 1854, the Albany was bound for New York, after 
 being on active duty for twenty-two months, and 
 having sailed, during this period, nearly forty 
 thousand miles, believed to be the greatest amount 
 of service ever performed, in so short a time, by 
 any United States vessel, on record. The crew 
 were in fine health, the discipline of the ship was 
 perfect, and the yellow fever, then an epidemic 
 abroad, had not, because of this, invaded the 
 vessel in its whole term of service. Commodore 
 Gregory supervised the fitting of the Albany in 
 1852 in a proper and satisfactory manner, and 
 she needed but slight repairs until her return 
 from the Fishing Banks on November 7th, 1853, 
 where, in a cruise of thirty-four days from the 
 time of leaving New York, the Albany had 
 experienced a continued series of gales and hurri 
 canes, to which she proved equal. She had then 
 been at sea six months and a half of the eleven 
 
 199
 
 200 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 and a half months since leaving Chariest own. 
 She next left New York, December 12th, 1853, 
 for the Island of St. Thomas and the Caribbean 
 Sea, and sailed last from Pensacola June 29th, 
 1854, having gone there for repairs. When the 
 Albany left Pensacola, she had sailed thirty-four 
 thousand miles. Her officers were considered, in 
 all respects, among the highest in the service, and 
 her crew equally so, in their vocation, being 
 mostly young Americans. Such was the received 
 opinion, to the last tidings of that ill-fated vessel. 
 At Carthagena, this admiration of officers and 
 crew was reported by distinguished persons, who 
 saw them there in 1854. At Pensacola, on the 
 arrival of the Albany, seventy-five men were sent 
 on shore, at liberty, by Commander Gerry, for 
 forty-eight hours. The Mayor and President of 
 Board of Aldermen returned a complimentary 
 notice of their conduct to the captain, when the 
 other half were permitted, in like manner, to go 
 ashore, thus manifesting the admirable discipline 
 of the ship. 
 
 1 ' The New York Herald " published notices from 
 the merchants of San Juan and Greytown, com 
 mending the conduct of Captain Gerry, in busi 
 ness negotiations between them and our govern-
 
 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 201 
 
 raent. Similar ones were published at Aspin- 
 wall, and expressed at Turk's Island. And, at 
 Laguria, not only did the merchants signify their 
 approval of Captain Gerry's business arrange 
 ments, but the Secretary of the Navy addressed 
 him a letter, February 2d, 1854, especially ap 
 proving his action on that island. 
 
 At Havana, St. Thomas, and, indeed, all the 
 ports entered by the Albany, marked attention 
 was shown to Captain Gerry. The fact that he 
 was a son of the illustrious Elbridge Gerry, with 
 whose history the civilized world are familiar, at 
 once gave prestige to his position, added to his 
 own personal merit as an officer and a gentleman. 
 
 The following anecdote is related by an officer 
 who was present at an interview which occurred 
 between Sir Charles Edward Grey, late Gover 
 nor-General of Jamaica, and Commander Gerry, 
 on board the steamer Isabel, destined for Charles 
 ton. Having been informed, when on board the- 
 vessel, that Captain Gerry was a son of the im 
 mortal Elbridge Gerry, he immediately apolo 
 gized for having, in a letter to him, written his 
 name "Geary." "It was the fault," said the 
 Governor-General, " of the English consul ; for 
 the character and services of your father to the 
 
 9*
 
 202 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 whole human family are as well-known and ap 
 preciated in England as in the United States ; 
 and I am proud to find you, sir, his son, a credit 
 to his great name !" 
 
 The Albany was the dispatch-ship of the Home 
 Squadron, and was sent by Commander Newton 
 to perform nearly all the business between our 
 government and the ports she was ordered to 
 visit. This was creditable to Gerry as an officer 
 and negotiator. 
 
 The official documents at the Navy Depart 
 ment show an extraordinary amount of important 
 duty performed by Captain Gerry, as commander 
 of the Albany. And, in July, 1853, in a con 
 tinuous cruise of seventy-four days, exposed to 
 every peril, but seven had been spent in port ! 
 When in a sickly port, Captain Gerry usually 
 went ashore alone, sending the boats back to the 
 ship ; and, by this prudence, prevented disease 
 among officers and crew. During the whole 
 term that the Albany was under command of 
 Captain Gerry, there was no case of epidemic or 
 yellow fever on board, while abroad, though 
 much exposed to the latter disease in warm lati 
 tudes. Many of the officers and crew were often 
 much worn down from too constant sea service.
 
 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 203 
 
 The utmost deference was paid to religious duties 
 on board, and, in the absence of a chaplain, Cap 
 tain Gerry had service performed on the Sabbath, 
 in the usual form of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church, in which he was a consistent and most 
 exemplary communicant, when called to sunder 
 the ties of earth to join the upper service of his 
 Heavenly Master. It would be impracticable, in 
 a work like this, to give that elaborate history of 
 Captain James Thompson Gerry, that his charac 
 ter and services eminently deserve. But we are 
 free to say, in brief, that no officer in the service 
 ever bore a more irreproachable reputation for 
 efficiency and devotion to duty, and for that high 
 mental and moral culture which gives value to 
 the officer, and dignity and worth to the man. 
 
 But one son of Elbridge Gerry now survives, 
 and he his eldest, who bears his father's name. 
 
 Mr. Gerry is now a resident of New York city. 
 His numerous friends bear testimony to his in 
 tegrity and elevated moral worth, and to his hon 
 orable bearing as a gentleman ; and that he has, 
 also, emulated the virtues of his father through 
 life. And, if these give a claim to respect, he is 
 not less entitled to it than the distinguished rela 
 tives who have preceded him.
 
 204 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 The first-lieutenant of the Albany, William N. 
 Bleecker, son of the late Alexander Bleecker, of 
 New York city, was an officer eminently deserv 
 ing of praise. His life had been one of danger 
 and vicissitude. From his first cruise, in the 
 "Delaware," under Commodore Downs, in 1828, 
 to his last service in the Albany, under Com 
 mander Gerry, in 1854, he visited every part of 
 the known world. He was active on Mediterra 
 nean, Pacific, Brazilian, African, and East India 
 stations. He visited China, in the Brandywine, 
 and, during the Mexican war, he participated in 
 the capture of Alvarado, Tuspan, Tobasco, and 
 other Mexican ports, in the flotilla commanded 
 by Commodore Perry. He had been, also, the 
 first officer of the United States steamer " Michi 
 gan," under command of Captain Oscar Bullus, 
 whose daughter he left a widow in charge of his 
 orphan child. 
 
 It is a singular fact that this prompt and effi 
 cient officer, who had spent the greater part of 
 his naval service of twenty-seven years, upon 
 arduous duty afloat, had made two previous cruises 
 to the West Indies in the same ship in which he 
 met his untimely end.
 
 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 205 
 
 The last letters of Lieutenant Bleecker clearly 
 forebode his fears, that the Albany could never 
 survive the terrific gales, so frequent at that 
 season, in the Caribbean Sea. 
 
 The letter of Lieutenant Adams, published in 
 the newspapers, at the time her loss was sur 
 mised, expressed similar apprehensions, should 
 they encounter a hurricane. 
 
 The faithful duties of Bleecker, in his country's 
 service, will ever be cherished in the memory of 
 those who survive him. 
 
 In that priceless cargo consigned to the ill- 
 fated Albany, there was another brave though 
 youthful spirit, who deserves more than an ordi- 
 nary tribute from the author. 
 
 It was Nicholas Fish Morris, son of Richard 
 Lewis Morris, M.D., of New York. His mother, 
 a daughter of Colonel Nicholas Fish, an officer of 
 the Revolution and aid-de-camp to Washington. 
 Young Morris (whose portrait appears in this 
 volume) was also a grandson of James Morris, of 
 Morrisania, and great grandson of General Lewis 
 Morris, of Morrisania, likewise of revolutionary 
 celebrity, and one of the immortal signers of the 
 Declaration of Independence ; while, on his mo-
 
 206 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 ther's side, he was a lineal descendant of Governor 
 Petreus Stuyvesant, last of the illustrious line of 
 Dutch Governors of New York. 
 
 With an ancestry so intimately interwoveu 
 with the history of their country, and bearing the 
 name of a grandfather so distinguished in the 
 American Revolution, it was not at all surprising 
 that young Morris should evince an early aspira 
 tion for a military life. As his education pro 
 gressed, a preference, however, was given for the 
 Navy over the Army, and an application for ad 
 mission into the Naval School at Annapolis was 
 made in the summer of 1853. It resulted in 
 success, and the papers were being executed when 
 it was found he exceeded by a few months the 
 requisite age, and this ardent and impulsive 
 youth was obliged to relinquish the cherished 
 idea of his mind. 
 
 Just about this period, the Albany returned 
 from a cruise, under the command of Capt. 
 Gerry, who tendered to young Morris the posi 
 tion of "Private Secretary to the Commander," 
 which, in view of his recent disappointment as 
 well as the prospective advantages it presented, 
 was at once accepted. 
 
 In October 1853, the Albany sailed for the
 
 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 207 
 
 Fishing Banks, and returned in five weeks, by 
 which time the character and bearing of Morris 
 had won for him the confidence and admiration, 
 not only of Capt. Gerry, to whom he was a com 
 panion and friend, but of all the gallant officers 
 of the ship and the entire crew. 
 
 There was a candor and frankness, a freedom 
 from all compromise of principle, united with a 
 manliness of deportment and a noble daring in 
 action, which gave singular worth to this remark 
 able youth. Nicholas Fish Morris was indeed a 
 model, which may with great propriety be pre 
 sented, not only to the youth of America, but to 
 the fathers and mothers of the nation ! Does the 
 reader ask why ? We answer, because it was to 
 the united action of his parents, their precepts 
 and their example, that made deep, unchanging, 
 and imperishable, the love of right, which his 
 life so beautifully illustrated. How often does it 
 occur, and how sincerely is it to be deplored, that 
 the mother's influence is counteracted, negatived, 
 by the example of the father ! How many of 
 the most promising geniuses of the land have 
 thus dated their fatal mistakes ! It was other 
 wise with Morris. And thus was he early led to 
 bow before the altar of his God, and trust to
 
 208 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 the all -sufficiency of that Saviour his parents 
 loved. 
 
 His correspondence bears testimony to his 
 faithful and uninterrupted continuance in the 
 discharge of his private as well as official duties 
 abroad. And friends yet survive who saw him 
 in strange lands, engaged in that greatest and 
 most honorable of all services, doing reverence 
 to his Heavenly Master, upon his bended knees. 
 
 An inherited love of country made this gene 
 rous, disinterested, and ingenuous young Ameri 
 can anxious to defend and vindicate our nation 
 ality abroad ; and, in 1854, when the invasion 
 of Cuba upon the rights of American citizens, 
 imminently threatened war, as the only means 
 of redress, this true and youthful patriot thus 
 gave expression to his natural and national fer 
 vor : "I most heartily wish there may be war, 
 that I may have a chance of dying with honor, 
 perhaps, great honor, in my young days, for the 
 glory of my country and the rights of her citi 
 zens !" 
 
 In making these few remarks of young Morris, 
 we could wish that every youth in our country, 
 who aspires to an honorable and virtuous fame, 
 was familiar with his brief but beautiful career.


 
 THE CULPABILITY INVOLVED 
 
 IN THE 
 
 LOSS OF THE ALBANY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE next question 'which presents itself, is, by 
 whom or under what circumstances, did it become 
 necessary to expose the Albany, with her pre 
 cious cargo of upwards of two hundred souls, to 
 those perilous seas, in which she was engulfed ? 
 In this question, not only are the relatives and 
 friends of the worthy deceased interested, but the 
 whole country, nay, humanity itself ! The author 
 feels, therefore, called in this connection, to en 
 lighten the country upon the subject, and to 
 expose the shameful, reckless manner in which 
 these matters are managed by the department, 
 placing the lives of the best citizens at the mercy 
 and caprice of ignorant chief clerks, and weak 
 officials. 
 
 209
 
 210 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 And after a thorough and careful examination 
 of all the documents and evidence the case fur 
 nishes, the author unhesitatingly declares it to be 
 her conviction, that the blood of these unfortu 
 nate victims, the odium of their cruel fate, rests 
 upon the heads of John C. Dobbin, Secretary of 
 the Navy, and John Thomas Newton, who com 
 manded the Home Squadron, as she will show. 
 
 In the fall of 1853, while the Albany was in 
 the port of New York, public notice was given to 
 officers and crew, by the Secretary of the Navy, 
 through Commodore Newton, that the ship would 
 return to New York early in the summer of the 
 ensuing year. And it was under the supposed 
 good faith of this official assurance, that no fur 
 ther duty would be imposed, to exceed the time 
 specified by the Secretary of the Navy, through 
 Newton, that these gallant and true men bade 
 adieu to their cherished homes, their sorrowing 
 families and friends, to engage in the honorable 
 service to which they were called by their coun 
 try. 
 
 In May, 1854, the main-mast of the Albany 
 was condemned at the navy yard, Warrington, 
 Florida, and the Secretary of the Navy was im 
 mediately apprised of the fact, by Commander
 
 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 211 
 
 Gerry, pending a critical illness of Commodore 
 Tatnall of that station. The Secretary ordered 
 the repair to be made. But, after finding the 
 lower masts of a first-class sloop, as ordered, 
 altogether too small, it was done by taking the 
 foremast of a second-class frigate ! And hence, 
 after mending and patching, one was found to 
 answer the Albany's purpose, " at small expense !" 
 After this patch on the Albany had caused about 
 seven official letters, it was formally approved at 
 the Department! 
 
 It is perfectly well known, that there were not 
 mechanics enough in the navy yard at Warring- 
 ton, to put extensive repairs on any ship, during 
 the time the "Albany " was there. 
 
 On June 10th, 1854, the Secretary addressed 
 Commodore Newton, and required him " to direct 
 the movements of the Albany and Columbia" And 
 on the 17th of June, 1854, Mr. Dobbin tells New 
 ton, by official letter, that one of the vessels of 
 the Home Squadron, meaning his vessel, or that 
 in command of Captain Gerry, must go to Turk's 
 Island on public business. Then Newton, instead 
 of going himself, exercised the very discretionary 
 power vested in him by Secretary Dobbin, and
 
 212 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OP-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 immediately issued orders to Captain Gerry, to 
 proceed there with the Albany ! 
 
 Capt. Gerry then left Pensacola, fulfilled to the 
 letter the instructions of Newton, and after dis 
 patching the business for which he went to 
 Turk's Island, joined Newton, as directed, at St. 
 Domingo, under the confident expectation of pro 
 ceeding at once to New York ! But Newton had 
 other service than that for these gallant officers 
 and men, and to their great surprise, and in vio 
 lation of all faith between the government and 
 these two hundred American citizens, and in the 
 very teeth of the department's assurance to these 
 officers and crew before they sailed out of the 
 port of New York, that they should return early 
 in the summer of 1855, we find near its close, an 
 official letter from Newton to Captain Gerry, 
 dated at the Gulf of Samana, the llth of August, 
 1855, ordering the Albany " to proceed dire'ct to 
 Laguira, thence to the Island of Curacoa, to Car- 
 thagena, and to Aspinwall." And "to take care 
 of our flag upon the whole coast of Central 
 America !" In this letter to Commander Gerry, 
 Newton adds, and mark it, Americans, that " as 
 you have represented to me that the ' Albany * is
 
 LOSS OP THE SLOOP-OP-WAR ALBANY. 213 
 
 DEFECTIVE IN MANY PARTS, and that EXTENSIVE RE 
 PAIRS will be required upon her before she can with 
 safety take another cruise, you will return, after 
 having performed the duty assigned you in this com- 
 munication, to the harbor of New York, and on 
 your arrival there, report to the Department." 
 
 It was, at the time this order was given, 
 too late for the Albany to have been in those 
 seas. To this letter, we find a supplementary 
 one from Newton to Capt Gerry, bearing same 
 date (fearing he had not, we suppose, sufficiently 
 endangered this rotten, unseaworthy vessel), in 
 which the Albany is directed to touch at the 
 island of St. Thomas, and hunt up some sus 
 picious vessel, seen to be hovering near the 
 island of Porto Rico, merely on the supposition 
 that it was a piratical craft. 
 
 To these instructions of Newton to Captain 
 Q-erry, Secretary Dobbin responds, and declares 
 to Newton, they "are approved!" 
 
 Yes, Americans, without the slightest regard 
 to the integrity of their minds, these two men 
 trifled with the lives of upwards of two hundred 
 human souls, embracing much of the high-toned 
 chivalry of the country, and by the most arbitrary 
 and despotic action on their part, forced a vessel,
 
 214 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 they knew to be defective, in many parts, into tem 
 pestuous seas and hurricanes, by which she was 
 destroyed, or perchance to engage in battle with 
 a powerful adversary ! 
 
 The order from the Navy Department for that 
 cruise which has called the nation to mourn the 
 loss of the Albany, was a perfect outrage, a scan 
 dalous duty to have imposed upon the Home 
 Squadron, under any circumstances, at a season 
 of the year when sickness prevailed in those ports, 
 and where the gales and hurricanes endangered 
 the most substantial frigate, much more a rotten, 
 patched-up sloop-of-war, with twenty-two heavy 
 guns on her decks ! 
 
 So thought Newton, and therefore chose to sac 
 rifice the "Albany," all crippled, as he acknow 
 ledged her to be, rather than take the risk in the 
 Frigate Columbia, which was in fine order (need 
 ing no repairs), as it was his duty to have done, 
 and as the orders from the Department required 
 him to do. By the showing of the documents, 
 Newton was ordered on this cruise, but he did 
 not choose so to expose himself to danger ! And, 
 with the fact of the "Albany's" sad condition, 
 he sent her whence she could never return ! 
 
 What excuse does Newton offer, for his viola-
 
 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 215 
 
 tion of duty ? We answer, one as specious as it 
 is most untrue! "I had intended," says this 
 Commodore, "to go myself, but could not on 
 account of shortness of provisions." 
 
 Reader, note this, that Newton had in his ship, 
 the same relative quantity of provisions as was 
 at that time in the Albany ! And he ordered the 
 Albany to proceed to St. Thomas for bread and 
 provisions, which were obtained there without 
 difficulty. Now, why did Newton take advantage 
 of this miserable subterfuge in order to shirk 
 danger and return home ? Why not have gone 
 himself for this bread and provision, and thus 
 have removed the only excuse he pretended to 
 offer? 
 
 One of the very first duties of a commodore is 
 to know where provisions and supplies can be had, 
 at every point of his station, and their cost. And 
 as the town of Aspinwall was one to which a 
 mail was sent twice a month, he could not have 
 been ignorant of the fact, which Commander 
 Gerry reported when he reached there, that pro 
 visions of all kinds were in abundance, at ordi 
 nary prices. 
 
 No provisions ! mark this ! every pound of 
 food in the whole squadron was Newton's. And
 
 216 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 by sending his boats to the "Albany," he could 
 have taken all her provisions had he chosen, and 
 sent her to St. Thomas to be replenished, which 
 was within three day's sail, and then sent her 
 home to New York in good season. This it was 
 Newton's duty to have done, as the crippled con 
 dition of the Albany rendered every precaution 
 essential to save her from the hurricane season. 
 
 But some may ask, " Had not Dobbin and 
 Newton the right to exercise this imperious au 
 thority over the : Albany ?" They would have 
 had, under a different state of facts, if they had 
 not both known of the Albany's unfitness for sea 
 in hurricane season, as there is the most unques 
 tioned proof that they did ! Captain Gerry thought 
 the ship safe for the summer weather, and expect 
 ing to return to New York from Turk's Island, he 
 informed Newton, before sailing from Pensacola, 
 that the ship was ready for sea, in all respects. 
 But, when he got the order of August llth, to 
 extend his cruise from two and a half months to 
 three months longer, thus carrying him into the 
 hurricane season, and the tempestuous weather 
 on the Atlantic coast, he deemed it his duty to 
 represent to Newton that the ship was, in many 
 parts, defective, and not safe, therefore, to be sent
 
 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 217 
 
 on such a cruise as Newton communicates in his 
 dispatches. This warning Newton entirely disre 
 garded, and sent the ship, notwithstanding this 
 representation from Captain Gerry ! 
 
 Like a gallant and disciplined officer, Gerry 
 obeyed that fatal order ! At this time, the ship 
 had sailed about thirty-seven thousand miles, 
 without going into dry dock for repairs ! But, as 
 though the above order might not, even then, 
 detain the Albany long enough, we find another 
 and a subsequent one, dated September 2d, 1854, 
 from the Department to Newton, directing him, 
 if practicable, to instruct Commander Gerry, 
 after he completed the cruise along the coast of 
 Central America, as just indicated, to enter the 
 port of Portsmouth, N. H., unless the cruise was 
 protracted beyond the last of October ! All this, 
 bear in memory, was with Dobbin's full know 
 ledge, that the ship was not safe, on account of 
 being " defective in many parts." This order, 
 had it been carried into effect, might have sub 
 jected the ship to the boisterous weather of No 
 vember, that any well-informed landsman would 
 know, must endanger a vessel, however staunch, 
 to severe trial on our coast. All this should teach 
 the American people how important it is to se- 
 
 10
 
 218 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 lect men of fitness for the high and responsible 
 duties of administering our national government ; 
 not men devoid of all qualifications, save that of 
 being party politicians ; while the nation mourns 
 for the want of practical, efficient men ; men, 
 who are capable of investigating for themselves 
 the business of their respective departments, in 
 stead of confiding it to the chief clerks who are, 
 de facto, the administrators of our national affairs.
 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WHEN the Albany left Pensacola, Commodore 
 Tatnall, at that station, placed a valuable service 
 of silver on board of her, from the generally re 
 ceived understanding that the ship was bound to 
 New York, after having dispatched official busi 
 ness at Turk's Island ; and to arrive in the fol 
 lowing July or August, which he believed would 
 be earlier than he could carry it himself. 
 During the whole period the Albany was at 
 tached to the Home Squadron, she must have 
 sailed about forty thousand miles, while the 
 Columbia could not have exceeded ten or twelve 
 thousand miles! The rest of the time Newton 
 was in port ! 
 
 When it is remembered that Elbridge Gerry 
 was the first American who suggested a navy for 
 this country, and, in the Legislature of Massa 
 chusetts, proposed that letters of marque should 
 be issued by our government to the merchant 
 
 919
 
 220 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 vessels for their protection, it does seem deplor 
 able that his own son should have lost his life 
 while in the active discharge of his duties to that 
 service, by the mal-administration of an incom 
 petent Secretary and Commodore ! A Secretary 
 who left the valuable lives of officers and crew, 
 who looked to him for protection in the discretion 
 of his orders, to the dictation of an irresponsible 
 chief clerk in the department. This clerk calls 
 on the Secretary to sign his orders ! 
 
 While Mr. Jefferson was most zealously oppos 
 ing the institution of our navy, it is well known 
 that Mr. Gerry was strenuously engaged in ad 
 vocating its formation. 
 
 In 1854, Newton, when at Pensacola, was or 
 dered to sail to San Juan in the Columbia, when 
 he wrote to the Department that it was as much 
 as the lives of officers and crew were worth to 
 go there, as it was so sickly. He was, for this 
 evidence of timidity in the performance of the 
 duty assigned him, about to be detached from 
 command of the squadron, when he was, most 
 fortunately for himself, taken ill with some dan 
 gerous disease, at Pensacola, a casualty he so 
 much feared might befall him if he proceeded 
 to San Juan. Thus sick, he was brought home 
 
 7 o
 
 LOSS OP THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 221 
 
 to New York, in the Albany, under command of 
 Captain Gerry, and, thereby, his life was saved ! 
 Was it for this act of kindness towards Newton 
 that Gerry afterwards was made a victim to 
 his unscrupulous selfishness ? Was the obliga 
 tion, imposed by kindness, of such a nature as to 
 become an offense which Newton could not for 
 give ? 
 
 In 1854, Newton had over seventy cases of 
 yellow fever aboard the Columbia, and in the 
 succeeding year '55, when he returned from an 
 other visit to Saint Thomas, which port he was 
 obliged to leave in consequence of the yellow 
 fever being on board again, he had sixty cases of 
 this malignant disease on arriving at Norfolk, 
 where he was relieved from his command. And 
 in this the whole country may rejoice that the 
 further loss of human life under his instrumen 
 tality has, for a time, been arrested. 
 
 The antecedents of Newton may now, with 
 much propriety, be investigated, inasmuch as, 
 . with all his long and black catalogue of misde 
 meanors, he has been one of the favored of the 
 Secretary of the Navy and that official's ' ' navy 
 retiring board." About the year 1820, Newton 
 was sent to Norfolk in a chartered vessel, with a
 
 222 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 draft of men under his charge. The vessel got 
 aground at the mouth of the Potomac, in the 
 Chesapeake Bay, and a gale coming on, he or 
 dered a boat, under the plea of obtaining assist 
 ance, to set him on shore. He proceeded to New 
 York directly, and the vessel and all on board 
 were left to their fate and perished ! 
 
 Between the years 1825 and 1830 Newton 
 was in command of a small brig, and while cruis 
 ing off the Havana, with an open barge in 
 company, commanded by a son of the present 
 venerable Consul of the United States at Ja 
 maica, West Indies, a sudden norther arose about 
 nightfall. Instead of taking the officers and men 
 on board his own vessel, and abandoning this 
 miserable craft, he cut the ropes by which she 
 was in tow, and all hands in her that fearful 
 night went to the bottom ! Thus, either from 
 entire nautical ignorance, or from a reckless dis 
 regard for the fate of others, fifteen or twenty 
 lives were destroyed at a blow ! 
 
 We are not informed that any investigation of 
 the circumstances of this case ever took place. 
 
 Subsequently, about 1830, John Thomas New 
 ton became a commander or master commandant. 
 He was put in command of the United States
 
 LOSS OP THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 223 
 
 eteamer Fulton, being the first United States 
 steamer built by that name. 
 
 She was employed as a receiving vessel at the 
 United States Navy Yard, New York. Either by 
 accident, caused by drunkenness of the gunner, 
 or by some negligence, her magazine was fired, 
 and the ship blown up. Many officers and men 
 perished by the explosion ; at least seventy lives 
 were reported to have been lost ! 
 
 Among these there was a promising officer by 
 the name of Breckenridge. Lieut. Platt nearly 
 lost his sight. And a number of the survivors 
 were maimed for life. 
 
 But amidst this frightful havoc Newton sur 
 vived, and we next find him in command of 
 a sloop-of-war ! And in 1840 he was put upon 
 duty in the steamer Fulton, the second of that 
 name ! And soon she became notorious by the 
 bursting of a gun on board, which killed and 
 maimed several men ! He next commanded the 
 steam frigate Missouri, the finest ship, at that time, 
 in the Navy, being entirely new and well fitted 
 for sea. Before leaving the waters of the East 
 River, a man was lost from her deck by allowing 
 the cable to slip through the stoppers, as he was 
 in the act of hooking the " cat-block." The an-
 
 224 LOSS OP THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 chor went down, of course, and carried this victim 
 with it ! A few days after this the Missouri, in 
 ascending the Potomac, was run ashore ; and in 
 talcing out her anchor, for the purpose of hauling 
 her off, by some mismanagement, it slipped, and 
 carried both boats in which the anchor was 
 placed, with their crews, to the bottom. In 
 this disaster a lieutenant and seventeen men 
 perished ! 
 
 Following the brief career of this ill-fated 
 vessel, under Newton's command, we find her 
 again ashore on the south Nantucket shoal ! 
 Shortly after these three serious and fatal trou 
 bles of the Missouri, Newton left the United 
 States with her for Alexandria, in Egypt, for the 
 purpose of landing Mr. Gushing, who was on his 
 way, as commissioner, to China. And, to close 
 Newton's brilliant command in this ship, she took 
 fire while at Gibraltar, and so rapid was her 
 destruction, that she soon disappeared in a blaze ! 
 
 For this act of carelessness Newton was con 
 victed, and a nominal punishment passed upon 
 him ; but even a portion of that was said after 
 wards to have been remitted. 
 
 From the data we have given, it is not an 
 over-estimate to say that Newton, by his reck-
 
 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 225 
 
 lessness, has caused the loss of about three hun 
 dred and twenty lives in the navy equal to all 
 the "killed" in action on the American side, in 
 the naval war with Great Britain ! while, in a 
 pecuniary view, he has occasioned destruction of 
 property to the government of the United States 
 of between one and two millions of dollars ! 
 
 We wish particularly now to direct the read 
 er's attention to the conduct of Mr. Dobbin, the 
 present Secretary of the Navy, in connection 
 with Newton's conduct subsequent to the loss of 
 the Albany. 
 
 It did not seem to have occurred to the sym 
 pathising Secretary to institute a public scrutiny 
 into Newton's action in directing the fatal cruise 
 of that ship ; nor even a private one, that we 
 have heard, until, for some reason that does not 
 manifest itself, the Department drew forth the 
 following letter from Newton, dated June 20th, 
 1855, long after the publication of the docu 
 ments which were elicited by a call from the 
 U. S. Senate. 
 
 The Secretary, on the 4th of June, 1855, 
 made inquiry of Newton for "a copy of the 
 communication written to him, Newton, by Com 
 mander Gerry." That was eight mouths after 
 
 9*
 
 226 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 the ship was missing. Mr. Dobbin, it appears, 
 was under the impression that no written " com 
 munication " was made ; but it really had not 
 been of sufficient consequence in his mind to 
 make this investigation before. 
 
 To this letter Newton said in reply : " I have 
 to state, the communication referred to was made 
 to me during a conversation with that officer, on 
 board the Columbia, while at Samana Bay, in 
 August last. He observed to me that he thought 
 the " Albany " would require extensive repairs 
 before she returned from the North again to re 
 join her station in the West Indies for another 
 
 qruise." 
 
 Americans, which statement will you take from 
 Newton as correct that written at Samana, the 
 llth of August,, the day he gave the order, or 
 that written from Staten Island, New York, ten 
 months later, giving an entirely different version 
 of the matter ? At Samana he stated to the de 
 partment that the ut Albany' was defective in 
 many parts, and required extensive repairs, and 
 was not safe to take another cruise." In the 
 face of this report he orders her on a voyage that 
 might detain her from three to four months. 
 But when she was lost, that statement did not 
 
 T U - ?
 
 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 227 
 
 answer the desperate state of the Commodore's 
 position. Hence we see the Staten Island letter 
 to be a flat denial of the Samana letter. 
 
 We know that Captain Gerry did remonstrate 
 against taking that extended cruise around Cen 
 tral America. It was then that he urged the 
 necessity of proceeding direct to New York ; and 
 the very remark Newton ascribes to Gerry, in 
 his Staten Island letter, proves that he did. 
 
 The attempt to circulate the idea which is be 
 lieved to have been started from the Department, 
 that Gerry could wish under any such circum 
 stances to have extended his cruise, is now re 
 futed by Newton's own language. 
 
 But suppose, for the sake of argument, that 
 Captain Gerry did request the Secretary of the 
 Navy to keep the ship out through the whole 
 year, had the Secretary and Newton the right to 
 risk the lives of those on board, and jeopardize 
 the public property, merely to oblige Captain 
 Gerry ? It is too absurd a proposition to be en 
 tertained for a moment. 
 
 In concluding this very remarkable Staten 
 Island letter, Newton says : "I enclose herewith 
 a copy of a letter from Commander Gerry, dated 
 Pensacola, June 15th, 1854, which the Depart-
 
 228 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 ment may wish to have. It will be recollected 
 that the Albany underwent repairs at that sta 
 tion, and Commander Gerry reports her being in 
 all respects ready for sea, and provisioned for 
 three months and a half." 
 
 This was stated by Newton on this occasion, to 
 leave the impression upon the public mind that 
 she was safe for any voyage, however long. Now 
 it is well known that in the usual manner of issu 
 ing an order to proceed on any cruise, these words 
 are usually employed : " When you are in all re 
 spects ready for sea, etc., you will proceed to 
 execute, etc." It matters not what may be the 
 condition of the ship, the response is given as 
 we quote above, in all cases, and did not apply 
 to the condition of the Albany, as ready for a 
 cruise of any indefinite length. Beside, this was 
 written two months before the order was given 
 at Samana, and the Albany could not then have 
 had but six weeks' provisions the same relative 
 quantity Newton had, by his own showing !
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 NEWTON wrote to the department, that " the 
 Albany was, in many respects, defective," on the 
 same day and in the same letter that informed 
 the Department he had ordered her on this un 
 justifiable cruise ! 
 
 The letter of Gerry, in the official documents 
 from Pensacola, to which we have alluded, does 
 not express what Newton attempts to convey by 
 it ; for these same documents report that both 
 masts were then defective, but only one was 
 taken out and the other left in. Why ? Because 
 it was supposed that she would return in smooth 
 summer weather to New York, as formal notice 
 to that effect had been given by the department. 
 It was Newton's duty at Samana to have had the 
 ship at once surveyed after the information com 
 municated by Gerry, before sending Ijer on a 
 dangerous survey. 
 
 This is a significant fact, which shows again that 
 the nation needs men who practically do their 
 
 229
 
 230 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 
 
 duty in office. Mr. Dobbin, on being shown the 
 official document which stated the Albany was 
 defective, and not fit for the- cruise, acknowledged 
 to a Senator* that he had not noticed it before, 
 although, be it remembered, he had already officially 
 approved the very order ! When the senator 
 apprised him, he expressed great astonishment, 
 and declared he never knew the fact before, 
 alleging in extenuation that the papers were 
 rarely seen, as they were, when received, filed 
 away in the office. And the subsequent order, 
 dated in September, was given to keep the ship 
 out still longer, by ordering her to Portsmouth, 
 New Hampshire. The truth is, Mr. Dobbin had 
 his line of action in this matter overruled by the 
 same influence that selected and controlled the 
 " Navy Retiring Board." To these conspirators 
 Newton seemed in all respects a marvellously 
 proper man ; so the Secretary must, of course, 
 favor him in his unofficerlike and inhuman eon- 
 duct towards the Albany, and not only accepted 
 his flimsy and self-contradictory letter of expla 
 nation, but allowed his retention on the active 
 list of the Navy by that Board, who disrated or 
 
 * Hon. Hamilton Fish, of New York, is the senator to whom we 
 refer.
 
 LOSS OF THE SLOOP-OF-WAR ALBANY. 231 
 
 dropped from it men of the highest efficiency to 
 duty, and against whom no charges are to be 
 found in the Department. The conduct of Mr. 
 Dobbin is even more reprehensible in the case of 
 Newton than in that of Stribling, whose total 
 neglect of his duties on board the San Jacinto 
 was not only overlooked, but actually rewarded 
 by a seat in the " Navy Retiring Board." And 
 Newton was appointed to the command of a 
 naval station soon after he was relieved from the 
 Columbia thus rewarding him in a similar man 
 ner to Stribling. 
 

 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE honor of the country is borne by its good 
 men ; they who dishonor these dishonor their 
 country. 
 
 The Navy of the United States, as a question 
 of international policy, was never so important to 
 the American people as now ; and it is lamenta 
 ble to have seen the President of the United States 
 strike a blow at this great arm of the public ser 
 vice, and, so far as he could, destroy the interest, 
 the glory, and the moral strength, of the United 
 States, in every ocean and clime. 
 
 For years, foreign governments have been stead 
 ily increasing their navies, and menacing Ameri 
 cans who have sought to maintain the dignity of 
 their nation abroad. Nothing but this superior
 
 THE AMEKICAN NAVY. 233 
 
 naval strength induced England to defy the 
 proclamation of the Monroe doctrine by this gov 
 ernment, and establish the colony of the Bay Islands, 
 which has since involved the United States in 
 troublesome negotiations. But for this, Spain 
 would never have attempted her outrages upon 
 American steamers, nor France have treated our 
 protest against her occupancy of Sonora with 
 contempt. 
 
 Our territory on the Pacific has since made the 
 navy still more important to our commerce, in order 
 to protect the shipping of our enterprising men, and 
 give a new impulse to trade upon that coast. In 
 the event of war, it is upon the navy alone we 
 could rely to scour our seas, and prevent a foreign 
 fleet from penetrating the rivers and harbors on 
 our coast. 
 
 The law which passed at the end of the session 
 of Congress in 1855, in reference to the navy, was 
 not only ex post facto, but a fraud upon legislation 
 and the American policy. Senators have admitted 
 that they knew nothing about it. If a few days 
 had been given to its proper consideration, the 
 navy would not now be bereft of its chivalry and 
 honor, the families of gallant men would not
 
 234 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 now be reduced to, penury, while the government 
 would have been saved the thousands of dollars 
 expended in the discussion of the outrage, and 
 devising methods of reparation. More money will 
 be thus expended, before this evil is rectified, than 
 would have paid the pitiful stipend of these two 
 hundred and one officers the next twenty years. 
 
 The law which passed Congress, Americans, to 
 reorganize the navy, on the 28th of February, 1855, 
 had no more to do with our constitution than it 
 had with the articles of our old Confederation. 
 Does the sacred bond and covenant of our freedom 
 allow a man to be punished prospectively for his 
 inefficiency in times past ? Can it prevent a man 
 from pursuing any honest calling, by cutting down 
 his present means of support, and yet holding on 
 to the right of his personal services ? It cannot. 
 But, in the very face of this, this act, which the 
 imbecility of the President and Secretary of the 
 Navy has executed, does render an officer fur- 
 loughed liable, at any moment, to be summoned 
 on government duty, and oblige him to forfeit any 
 other interest or engagement, by which he may be 
 maintaining a helpless family. 
 
 The law is also unjust in not extending to the
 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 235 
 
 board of fifteen, the surgeons, pursers, and chaplains, 
 the same provisions it applies to other officers. 
 Why were these classes privileged, and exempted 
 from the same rigor as others ? these men, who 
 even at sea lead a life of ease and idleness, while 
 those who are subjected to all the peril of active 
 sea service are made to forfeit their places ? 
 
 Americans, if you wish to know the iniquity of 
 this law, turn to the Navy Kegister ! You will 
 there find pursers credited with but seven years 
 and nine months' sea service, who have been forty- 
 one years and nine months in the navy, and re 
 ceiving all the time their eighteen hundred dollars 
 from the government. Is this right, is it honest, 
 Americans ? 
 
 There are surgeons, too, who have been but 
 three years and six months in the service, out of a 
 period of forty-six years and eight months, re 
 ceiving their eighteen hundred dollars ! Chap 
 lains, waiting orders, who have performed religious 
 services at sea but two years and four months, and 
 been receiving from the government a thousand 
 dollars, annually, for twenty-six years and three 
 months ! 
 
 The law, too, set out to reform the navy ; now
 
 236 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 look at its execution in that view ! It has made 
 ninety-nine captains, one hundred and thirty com 
 manders, and three hundred and ninety lieuten 
 ants ! And, out of this number, the government 
 had sent to sea on the first of the present year 
 but fourteen captains (including commanders), 
 nineteen commanders, and one hundred and fifteen 
 lieutenants ! All this is the result of having an 
 incompetent Secretary of the Navy, who allowed 
 the board of " fifteen " all the latitude they 
 wanted. They dictated to him, and he, Mr. Dob 
 bin, dictated to the President, who issued his 
 rescript confirming their corrupt action towards 
 American men. Our foreign stations are now 
 all disgraced by the want of an efficient navy to 
 represent our nationality abroad, while the ex 
 penses of the nation are increased to support a 
 pack of idlers. 
 
 There was no need of any more legislation what 
 ever, for what this law of February 28th, 1855, 
 meant ostensibly to do. The Secretary of the Navy 
 had the power before to furlough; and there are, at 
 least, three instances on the register, to show that 
 right had been exercised, and these men thus put 
 out of the pale of promotion. The President, too,
 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 237 
 
 if he chose, could then have renominated those 
 officers for promotion, or continued to discredit 
 them, as he pleased. And the whole proceeding 
 in reference to the late Navy Ketiring Board has 
 been a sham affair, from beginning to end ; the 
 product of base personal malignity, on the part of 
 certain officers of the navy, aided by the efforts of 
 weak but high government officials. The facts, in 
 this connection, have the authenticity of the rec 
 ords from the navy department of the government, 
 and are submitted to the consideration of the 
 American people, who are eminently able to make 
 their own comments. 
 
 In the first place, the Secretary of the Navy knew 
 that the names of the victims were marked upon 
 the register, in his office, before those who con 
 stituted that board were known to the people ; 
 and he informed Capt. Smith, one of the "re 
 tired," that he knew the reason why every man 
 was dishonored. Weeks before the board assem 
 bled, Commodore Skinner found a register with 
 similar marks in his office ; they were seen in other 
 places where these clubs to dishonor American 
 officers congregated. 
 
 Dupont, Shubrick, Magrader, Pendergrast,
 
 238 IHE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 Jenkins, and others, were the leading actors in this 
 business. Mr. Mallory, the bill-framer, in consult 
 ation with Dupont, had designated one hundred 
 officers on the register for this fate, before the pas 
 sage of the law, ninety-nine of whom are now vic 
 tims. Fifty-seven of the officers thus dismissed 
 from the service of their country were afloat upon 
 duty at the time, by order of the Secretary of the 
 Navy ; some of whom were, at the very moment, 
 in the performance of deeds of bravery under the 
 American flag, which have added new lustre to our 
 national glory. Lieut Rolando here furnishes a 
 distinguished illustration. He volunteered to res 
 cue the perishing crew of a Chinese junk, when all 
 others feared to offer assistance ; and not only saved 
 five hundred and thirty out of six hundred from 
 instant death, but, in the two successive piratical 
 fights, won, for his courage and noble daring, such 
 admiration from European governments as should 
 send a thrill of pleasure through the heart of every 
 true American. 
 
 The prohibition of the increase in the navy, by 
 this law, shows clearly that neither the author 
 nor the executioners knew what they were about. 
 Congress never intended to interfere with the rights
 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 239 
 
 nor to injure the reputations of upwards of two 
 hundred American citizens, no more than it meant 
 to make three hundred promotions in tke service, 
 which has actually been done. Of the thirty-five 
 new captains made by this board, three only are at 
 sea, and but six on shore duty ; leaving the bal 
 ance to enjoy their new dignity in idleness. There 
 is, then, but one more captain at sea to-day than 
 there was a year ago ; while there are three com 
 manders less than there were at that time ; so that 
 thirty- six of this grade are also idle. 
 
 In the selection made by the Secretary of the 
 Navy, of captains for important posts, he has, in 
 every instance of which we have heard, passed over 
 the absolute claims of the efficient captains, and 
 named, for important sea and shore duties, the new 
 captains or commanders made by the board, whose 
 commissions as such were not then even confirmed. 
 
 The withdrawal of so many gallant officers from 
 the active service, to promote young and inexperi 
 enced me'n, has left the navy, at this moment, with 
 but sixteen midshipmen in all parts of the world. 
 There are, therefore, twenty-six American ships 
 now commissioned in the service, without a single 
 officer of this rank upon their decks ; and, while
 
 240 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 the law authorizes sixty masters in the navy, there 
 are but eighteen of these, because none can be 
 made so until after they have become passed mid 
 shipmen. 
 
 President Pierce and Mr. Secretary Dobbin 
 thought the appointment of upwards of two hun 
 dred new midshipmen was at stake when the inqui 
 sition was engaged in the decapitation of officers ; 
 but a clause, in defiance of the common treachery, 
 was discovered in the bill, which, to the eternal 
 honor and wise forethought of the author, pre 
 vented the fruit, which they all thought so ripe, 
 from being plucked, even to save the nomination, 
 or preserve the succession. 
 
 We see now that by the act of the administration 
 they have absolutely left the navy without a cap 
 tain whom they deem qualified for the head of a 
 bureau. In this dilemma, Ingraham, of Koszta 
 memory, was brought on to the seat of government 
 for that purpose, when the Senate refused to appoint 
 a man to a captain's place who had never been 
 commissioned. But, in spite of the Senate 
 " tabling" him, he was kept there by the Secretary, 
 while Capt. Smith, a "retired" officer, was of 
 necessity at the head of two bureaus at the time.
 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 241 
 
 *'^3^ 
 Thus we discover that the navy has been so bereft 
 
 of its original strength as to be without a qualified 
 captain to fill the post, not excepting the notable 
 Shubrick, respecting whom, as president of the 
 immortal ''Council of Fifteen," it is proper, 
 Americans, you should know more. 
 
 He, with McCauley, also a member of the board, 
 was declared guilty of insubordination by the offi 
 cers of the Mediterranean squadron, in 1817, who 
 memorialized Commodore Chauncey to cause their 
 removal from the service. Commanders Crane, 
 Creighton, Rogers, Gamble, and Nicholson, signed 
 this memorial ; and it stands without mutilation still 
 upon the records of the department. They state 
 that Shubrick and McCauley had incited contempt 
 for the service and discipline of the navy, its repu 
 tation, order, and good government ; that they held 
 secret meetings to create disaffection, and went so 
 far as to threaten Congress that if their imaginary 
 grievances were not redressed by that tribunal, they 
 would resort to arms for their own protection ! 
 that no reliance, for these reasons, could be placed 
 upon the fidelity of Shubrick and McCauley, in the 
 service of their country, while they had forfeited 
 
 all claim to their confidence, and endangered, by 
 11
 
 242 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 * 
 
 their example, the vessels intrusted to their 
 charge. 
 
 After the war closed with England, in 1814, it 
 was decided to place an American squadron in the 
 sight of Europe. This squadron was sent, properly 
 equipped, to the Mediterranean, under the command 
 of Commodore Chauncey, eminent as a disciplin 
 arian. Shubrick and McCauley were then attached 
 to the ship of Capt. Oliver Perry, of that squad 
 ron ; who, ambitious of having it perfect in all its 
 appointments, exercised also increased discipline 
 among the lieutenants and other subordinates. 
 Heath, a man belonging to the marine corps, was 
 among these ; and, in a braggadocio spirit, showed 
 resentment for himself and associates, by disrespect 
 ful and insubordinate language to Capt. Perry, 
 in his cabin, who, high-toned and high-spirited, 
 knocked the marine officer down, and afterwards 
 confined him. He soon saw, however, that he had 
 committed a military offence, and magnanimously 
 offered, through a friend, to make reparation by an 
 apology to Heath. 
 
 The terms proposed in this apology by Heath and 
 his comrades were not honorable ; and Capt. Perry, 
 waiving his rank, consented to receive his propo- 

 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 243 
 
 sition to fight him. Heath backed out. ShuJ)rick 
 and McCauley were the instigators of Heath. 
 
 When the squadron returned to the United States, 
 Capt. Perry stated all the circumstances to the Presi 
 dent, Secretary of the Navy, and Commodores Rog 
 ers, Decatur, and Porter, and offered to submit to 
 trial, or any other punishment they might see fit to 
 inflict. The President and Secretary submitted the 
 matter to Commodore Porter, who, in view of Capt. 
 Perry's honorable action in the premises, decided it 
 settled, and advised that Shubrick, McCauley, and 
 other officers of the squadron, who were guilty of 
 this insubordination, be reprimanded ; which was 
 done, by Commodore Chauncey. 
 
 Hence we see the provocation for the insubordi 
 nate conduct of Shubrick and McCauley, and which 
 was so outrageous as to oblige the distinguished 
 officers of the squadron to ask for their dismissal 
 from the -service. This board have dropped from 
 the navy Capt. John Chauncey, the son of the 
 commodore, and laid aside the sons of Commodores 
 Perry and Porter, a singular coincidence, and 
 worthy of comment. 
 
 But this is not the only instance in which Shu 
 brick has shown that no cheerful submission engaged
 
 244 THE AMERICAN NAYT- 
 
 his affections to the government. In 1847, he be 
 trayed the same spirit at the expense of his patriot 
 ism. He was ordered to the Pacific squadron by 
 the Secretary of the Navy, to be under the com 
 mand of Biddle, on joining him at that station. 
 Two months after reaching Mexico, he asked leave 
 to return to the United States, before Biddle had 
 even received the information from the department. 
 This was at an important crisis in the war, and we 
 needed more material and power to meet the enemy 
 than could then be concentrated ; yet he not only 
 insisted that the Columbus was not needed, but actu 
 ally directed all his influence to prevent the Sara 
 toga from uniting with the squadron ; and in sight 
 of the enemy, in time of war, commanding a gal 
 lant and well-manned squadron, was anxious to 
 desert the national flag and return home, at a mo 
 ment of doubt and peril in his country's history. 
 This was not enough. He demanded that a frigate 
 of the squadron should have the distinguished honor 
 of shipping him back to the United States. The 
 reason was, as he confessed, that the Secretary of 
 the Navy had damped his ardor by disappointment, 
 and had acted in an uncandid manner. Hence, to
 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 245 
 
 gratify his personal revenge, he was ready to sacri 
 fice his country's glory. 
 
 Was this the conduct for a military man ? "Was 
 this the conduct of a servant of that government 
 which had constituted the Secretary his superior in 
 authority? In the Brazilian squadron, 28th Oct., 
 1846, Shubrick also acted in violation of the 
 Secretary's orders, by writing a Jesuitical letter to 
 the commander of that station, which induced him 
 to send the Saratoga, bound to the Pacific under 
 government orders, back to Norfolk for repairs, 
 although officers stood ready to take her to that 
 destination. 
 
 He is afterwards found claiming fresh laurels on 
 the Pacific, in the taking of Mazatlan and Guaymas. 
 The latter was taken by Capt. Lavalette, and not 
 even by orders of Shubrick ; while he represented 
 Mazatlan as taken by superior force. Now, it is 
 well known, that Lieut. Halleck and two American 
 men took it without resistance, and raised our 
 stars and stripes ; and when ninety men did 
 attempt, under Lieut. Selden, to march into the 
 interior, the most of Shubrick' s men ran at the 
 first fire of the enemy, except one who was shot. 
 Selden was wounded, and seventeen men killed,
 
 246 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 before the forces from Shubrick's ship, the Inde 
 pendence, were rallied by their officers, and came 
 back. Selden is now a victim of the board. 
 Heywood distinguished himself, with his gallant 
 band of modern Sanduskys, at San Jose*, and 
 won a niche in the temple of fame equal to 
 Croghan and Stevens, who, when all others had 
 fallen by his side, stood firm to the guns. He is 
 broken by this hero of peace, Shubrick, and his 
 brothers, Stanley, Lewis, &c. &c., share no better 
 fate. Why ? Because they fought the enemy, in 
 spite of Shubrick's non-resistance !
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Now, remembering that Shubrick is the man who 
 has spent thirty-two years of his life in land activ 
 ity, "we proceed to his confederate in the board, 
 Stribling. He has written a letter recently in 
 laudation of himself, in which he has committed 
 robbery upon the dead. He stated that he com 
 manded the barges " Mosquito'* and " Gallinipper," 
 in the West Indies, in 1823 ; that he attacked and 
 captured the " Catalina," under command of the 
 famous Diaboleto, whom he killed with his own 
 hand, thereby ending the piratical war. 
 
 Now, Stribling had no more to do with that 
 engagement than he had with the discovery of 
 America. It was the brave achievement of Lieut. 
 Wm. H. Watson, who, with but twenty-six men, 
 effected almost the total destruction of a crew of 
 seventy or eighty, without the loss of a single 
 American. This gallant act is modestly set forth 
 in his despatches to Commodore Porter, who com-
 
 - 
 
 248 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 mends them to the department, and asks for Wat 
 son's promotion in the service. 
 
 Stribling, in the previous April, did take a small 
 schooner Pilot, in which his official report stated 
 that one man was found dead, and that several were 
 supposed to be wounded ; but he did not think it 
 prudent to pursue them. He had, too, double their 
 number of men ; but he spoke with some horror 
 of their amount of deadly weapons, especially- of a 
 " double fortified six-pounder," quite an anomaly 
 in modern warfare. 
 
 And now, when Watson's nephew writes to Capt. 
 Stribling, in defence of his uncle's reputation, 
 Stribling replies that he only wrote from memory. 
 A remarkably defective organ, surely, and should 
 not, therefore, have been relied upon for data ; 
 particularly when it could have been so easily re 
 freshed by the records at hand. It will take more 
 credulity than Americans possess to convince them 
 that memory had anything to do with the matter. 
 
 This is the same gentleman who, instead of hav 
 ing the San Jacinto in readiness to repel the enemy 
 in the West India seas, in 1855, when she was sent 
 to Cuba to protect the American flag, brought her
 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 249 
 
 back to New York in a worse condition than any 
 ship ever before in the service of the government. 
 
 Dupont, like Stribling and Shubrick, has also 
 elaborated his glory on paper. He states that he 
 killed many hardy Mexicans in California, in the 
 battle of San Jose, the only warlike engagement 
 in which he ever participated in his life ! But 
 Lieut. Heywood, who came to his assistance and 
 rescued him, says not one was killed. Lieut. 
 Heywood was left in Southern California by Shu- 
 brick, with but eighteen or twenty men, without 
 the means of subsistence, and surrounded by the 
 enemy, without the possibility of succor within a 
 hundred miles. But for a whaling-ship, he and 
 his brave comrade Stevens would have perished 
 from famine. Stevens, whose gallant conduct has 
 had so much eulogy, has been dropped from the 
 service. 
 
 Dupont, Godon, Pendegrast and Missroon, 
 were the four of the board who had been long 
 styled " mutineers " in the navy. When the Sec 
 retary of the Navy sent them back to the Mediter 
 ranean squadron, and Commodore Hull had, by 
 his orders, reprimanded them for their bad conduct, 
 he was afterwards obliged to write to Dupont and
 
 250 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 his confederates, Godon, Pendegrast, and Miss- 
 roon, that one of three things he should do : either 
 to dismantle the ship and shut her up in a Spanish 
 port until lieutenants could be procured from the 
 United States fit to restore her to her position ; to 
 take them to sea, with all their disrespect, discon 
 tent, and disaffection, and trust to better things ; 
 or, to make then such changes as his means would 
 allow. " Who can go into battle," said he, " with 
 confidence, surrounded by disaffected officers ? 
 Who, of those ordered to the ship as her sea-lieu 
 tenants, can I confide in ? " 
 
 On the 21st of March, 1841, Commodore Hu 
 wrote to the Secretary of the Navy that * ' Dupont 
 was the leader of the difficulty on the Ohio ; and 
 that the pernicious influence he exercised had 
 effected more serious injury to the service than 
 he could ever repair." Commodore Hull specified 
 acts, made definite charges of the official miscon 
 duct of these four men ; and, to the close of his 
 life, he expressed regret that they were ever re 
 turned to the Mediterranean, when they merited 
 the severest punishment known to the service. 
 
 Dupont was the author of that remarkable arti 
 cle which appeared in the National Intelligencer
 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 251 
 
 on the 21st of May, 1855, and foreshadowed the 
 action of himself and comrades, in the following 
 June. Mr. Seaton, the respected editor, is suffi 
 cient authority for this fact. Commodore Skinner, 
 on ascertaining from him that Dupont had asked its 
 publication, carried it to the office, and was respon 
 sible for its sentiments, informed the Secretary of 
 the Navy, without delay ; and told him that in 
 that article Dupont had insulted every captain in 
 the navy. The Secretary, instead of doing his 
 duty, as an upright officer would have done, and 
 keeping Dupont out of the board, to which place 
 he had already assigned him, kept him in it, with 
 this evidence, in all its baseness, right before him. 
 There is every reason to believe, as we do, that 
 the Secretary had seen the article before it was 
 printed. 
 
 Dupont acted, in defiance of authority, under 
 Captain, now Commodore Smith, of the navy ; and, 
 according to the Secretary, was one of the " cabal" 
 in this ship, to create disaffection and dissatisfac 
 tion at the accommodations assigned him by orders 
 of the department. And he indignantly rejected 
 other apartments when tendered to him through 
 Capt. Smith, who says, in his official letter to
 
 252 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 Hull, " the true military course for me would 
 have been to have compelled him," &c. 
 
 From the time of the difficulty in the Mediterra 
 nean squadron, under Hull, Dupont and his asso 
 ciates have zealously labored for the passage of 
 just such a law by Congress as was obtained at 
 the last session. 
 
 No one of the four mutineers, Godon, Dupont, 
 Missroon, or Pendegrast, of Hull's ship, could 
 have been induced to have entered that board 
 alone ; they had not the individual courage to 
 carry out the plan they had devised. It required 
 the collective courage of all four to support each 
 other in their dark actings. As Dupont said in 
 his article on the 21st of May, " the sharper appe 
 tites of juniors whose INTEREST would coincide with 
 their duty" 
 
 Not long since, a board composed of Commo 
 dores Morris, Shubrick, Skinner, and Dupont, 
 were constituted to prepare a code for the better 
 government of the navy. Dupont seems to have 
 appropriated the whole of that duty pretty much 
 to himself, according to the confessions of his asso 
 ciates. The work was referred to the Attorney 
 General, by the Secretary of the Navy, for his
 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 253 
 
 legal opinion ; and he decided it "null and void," 
 having transcended its rightful jurisdiction. This, 
 too, after a cost of many thousand dollars to the 
 government. 
 
 The thirty-fifth regulation of this code deserves 
 comment, from the fact that it had singular signifi 
 cance upon the council of "fifteen." It forbade 
 the court to receive evidence of the previous good 
 character and former services of the accused in 
 mitigation of the punishment to be awarded, while 
 it allowed evidence of previous bad character to be 
 adduced. The board acted on this principle : it 
 received and entertained every accusation, and ad 
 mitted no evidence, however abundant, in defence 
 of the accused. It ransacked the shelves of the 
 department for musty old documents, from which 
 they hoped to find charges against those they had 
 already condemned ; and, according to Shubrick's 
 statement, they made free use of these. They used 
 its archives to abuse the government. When the 
 country loses its. true men, what else is there to 
 save? 
 
 Hence, Dupont's system, after being pronounced 
 in derogation of the powers of Congress, still made 
 shining marks for its full efficacy in the operations
 
 254 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 of the council of fifteen. During the cruise of the 
 Delaware, commanded by Commodore Hull, Lieut. 
 Boyle was attached, with Dupont, Barron, and 
 Godon. At midnight, when Boyle retired from 
 the watch, Dupont took her deck. The foreyard 
 and all her sails were soon carried away. Boyle 
 was called, and found Dupont agitated and con 
 fused. He put the ship in trim, and she went on 
 her cruising-ground. Here were three members 
 of the board present ; but Boyle alone proved him 
 self an officer. This efficient man is now laid aside, 
 a victim of the very men who had proved them 
 selves incompetent in the service. 
 
 Some time after, Dupont was placed in command 
 of the " Perry," for the East India squadron. He 
 reported himself sick, on reaching Rio de Janeiro, 
 of a chronic disease, and came home. Lieut. 
 Ringold, also, once suffered from disease ; and, 
 although he had recovered, in the opinion of medi 
 cal men, it was, in Dupont's judgment, a valid 
 reason for putting him upon the shelf. 
 
 The gravest charges are on file in the depart 
 ment against Pendegrast, preferred by Lieut. May, 
 February 13th, 1854. He complains of the in 
 efficiency of Pendegrast in every particular. That
 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 255 
 
 at the very moment when the difficulties growing 
 out of our affairs with Cuba rendered the Saranac 
 liable to a naval engagement, she was wholly un 
 fitted for fighting. Her guns even had not been 
 exercised but once in six months ; and they never 
 mustered at fire stations, one single time, until the 
 officers of the ship had been alarmed by fire, seven 
 months after sailing. And, with this unprecedented 
 and culpable neglect, being indifferent to the con 
 dition and efficiency of the ship, he sailed from 
 Pensacola to San Juan de Nicaragua, to investigate 
 the difficulty with the Prometheus, which was for 
 tunately settled without an exposure of the ship's 
 inefficiency. 
 
 Pendegrast has never been tried upon the charges, 
 and they stand on the record disproved. Lieut. 
 May is an officer of character and reputation, and 
 is retained on the active list. 
 
 With these facts before him, the Secretary of the 
 Navy, instead of acting under a high sense of official 
 responsibility, and bringing Pendegrast to trial, 
 and punishing him, if the facts were sustained, saw 
 fit, with all the guilt upon him, to give him a seat 
 in the " Navy Retiring Board," while officers have 
 been dismissed or disrated in the navy, who have
 
 256 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 received swords and medals as the grateful appre 
 ciation of Congress for their fidelity and zeal in the 
 service of the country. 
 
 Misroon, also a member of the inquisitorial 
 council, has made misstatements under oath, before 
 the naval committee, in reference to Lieut. Bartlett ; 
 and, with the complicity of Dupont, this valuable 
 officer has been degraded in the service. Lieut. 
 Bartlett, who had been detailed for active duty at 
 the time of this infliction, was the first to introduce 
 the great temperance reform in the navy, and was 
 covered with eulogium for efficiency in duty by 
 every distinguished official of the government with 
 whom he has been connected.
 
 AND now with what different emotions can we, 
 Americans, recur to the name of Commodore Perry, 
 though he is found among the list of that board of 
 "fifteen"! There is a moral sublimity in the 
 defiant and manly manner with which he has, in the 
 frankness and candor becoming a gallant officer of 
 the navy, disclaimed to other officers, both in and 
 out of the navy, all participation or sympathy with 
 the proceedings. " I wash my hands forever of 
 the conduct, proceedings, and action, of the Navy 
 Retiring Board," was the language of Commodore 
 Perry to a prominent officer of the navy. Perry's 
 achievements in the Mexican war, which rivalled 
 those of his distinguished brother on Lake Erie, 
 command our praise ; his Japan Expedition, in 
 which he effected a treaty with that nation, whose 
 ports, for more than a century, had been sealed to 
 all but the Chinese and Dutch, commands our 
 praise ; but the moral and physical bravery which
 
 258 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 he has displayed on this occasion challenges the 
 gratitude, as well as admiration, of all honorable 
 men and women ; and the press everywhere com 
 mends the magnanimity, while the people, appre 
 ciating his merit, gladly take him out of this inqui 
 sitorial council, to reserve him for higher honors at 
 their own hands. 
 
 Commodore Perry's own son was put out of the 
 navy by that board. Since its action became his 
 tory, it is astonishing to learn how its members 
 threaten and defy officers to breathe suspicion 
 against its exactions, lest they who are laid aside 
 be dropped altogether. And Shubrick, we learn 
 from reliable authority, wrote to Commodore Perry 
 to know whether he had not severely censured the 
 board. Perry replied very briefly as to his ques 
 tion, but denied the right of the hero of Mazatlan, 
 Guaymas, and Craney Island, to inquire into his 
 private conversation with gentlemen. Biddle, too, 
 Perry's junior, the hater of science and learning, 
 as his letter to Lieut. Maury shows, writes to the 
 same import as Shubrick, when Commodore Perry 
 despatches that gentleman by saying he wished no 
 further correspondence with him. And the subse 
 quent silence of Mr. Slidell, the relative of Com-
 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 259 
 
 modore Perry, after he* came to New York and 
 conversed with Perry, furnishes the true version of 
 the case in the United States Senate. 
 
 We are told that dismissed and disrated officers 
 are not suitable to represent their own cases. That 
 men, whose reputation and honor have been deeply 
 wounded, deprived of their living, and prevented at 
 the same time from embarking in any other pur 
 suit, are not to be believed. Americans, we all 
 know very well that such doctrine as this is polit 
 ical heresy of the vilest character. It is anti- 
 American, anti-republican, and only fit to emanate 
 from an emperor or autocrat. 
 
 These men, free from the obligations of oaths or 
 conscience, have, under the direction and conniv 
 ance of the Secretary of the Navy, tried their supe 
 riors, and exercised upon them their hate or their 
 love, irresponsible to law, and in violation of the 
 constitution. The President acted as they willed 
 and directed. He endorsed the action of that 
 board with as much zest as he did the contemptible 
 action of Hollins upon the people of Grey town. 
 And the redress that can be had from him you can 
 very well decide. Never before have the rights of
 
 260 THE AMERICAN If ATT. 
 
 our citizens been so hazarded by public men, who 
 indubitably proved that they were not to be trusted. 
 
 The family relation that board sustained was 
 another odious influence in its clumsy manoeuvring. 
 The prominent actors were either connected by 
 blood or marriage, and took excellent care to dis 
 tribute the spoils through their own social circle. 
 
 Formerly three years were regarded as the 
 shortest cruise for an efficient officer in command. 
 Recently three officers have been appointed in six 
 months to a single ship a beautiful comment 
 upon the efficiency of the service. Capt. Latimer, 
 confessedly one of the most accomplished officers in 
 the service, has had applications for sea duty con 
 stantly before the department. The highest among 
 his peers declare him unrivalled in all the duties of 
 the profession to which he has been devoted from 
 early life, and say that his ship was ever equal to 
 any emergency that could arise. He has been 
 neglected and disrated, to give place to incompe 
 tent men, and the blow was struck by Stribling and 
 Pendegrast, who are eminently notorious for want 
 of discipline and efficiency. Capt. Latimer was 
 never known to ask to be relieved from duty, but 
 always for it ; and upwards of twenty-eight years of
 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY, 261 
 
 active employment are replete with the richest 
 memorials of his distinguished ability. 
 
 Capt. John H. Graham, now " furloughed," 
 served in the memorable battle of Black Rock, 
 opposite the enemy's frontier, in 1812. He was 
 wounded in the leg while entering the burning 
 barracks, and was saved by a sailor, who threw 
 young Graham upon his shoulder, and carried him 
 across the river, while his clothes actually froze to 
 the boat. Nine of the twelve naval officers were 
 killed and wounded. Gen. Porter, in his report 
 of that battle, says: " If bravery be a virtue, 
 if the gratitude of the country be due to those 
 who gallantly and desperately asserted its rights, 
 the government will make ample and honorable 
 provision for the heirs of those brave tars who fell 
 on this occasion, as well as for those who survived." 
 Graham afterwards fought gloriously, upon his cork 
 leg, at the battle of Lake Champlain. 
 
 Capt. Wm. Inman, retired, is also eminent for 
 efficiency in the navy, and rigid in his exactions 
 of duty. 
 
 Lieut. Gibson, the executive officer of the St. 
 Louis, was nearly paralyzed by this unexpected 
 blow of the board. He had seen about as much
 
 262 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 sea service as Shubrick, the president of the 
 board, though born after he entered the service ; 
 and more than twenty-six post-captains, and 
 seventy-nine of the commanders, had seen, who 
 are retained on the active list. 
 
 Lieut. Brownell, who fought through the war of 
 1812, and was seven times victorious in engage 
 ments with the enemy, has had a like fate. 
 
 There is one other case that of Capt. Uriah 
 P. Levy to which we must advert, as it is one 
 of the most scandalous outrages in connection with 
 the action of the Navy Retiring Board, and de 
 serves the severest reprehension from every Ameri 
 can citizen. As a reformer in the service, Capt. 
 Levy deserves the gratitude of his country, and of 
 humanity. He is the father of the system abolish 
 ing flogging in the navy ; and through him that 
 inhuman barbarity, which so long disgraced its 
 annals, has been made to yield to reason and moral 
 suasion. 
 
 This act was in consonance with American lib 
 erty, and with the progress and intelligence which 
 belong to a free people. Without resort to that 
 antediluvian means of enforcing discipline, Levy's 
 ship was eminent for its order, neatness, and effi-
 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 263 
 
 ciency to duty ; and when the Vandalia returned 
 to the United States, after a long and perilous 
 cruise in the Gulf of Mexico, in 1840, it was the 
 boast of its crew that there had been less personal 
 chastisement in the whole cruise than the records 
 of any other ship of war ever had in a single 
 month ; and, while seamen were deserting Shu- 
 brick's and other ships, Commander Levy found 
 no difficulty in retaining those under his control, 
 simply because he respected character, and did not 
 lose sight of the fact that he was dealing with 
 American men. The Secretary of the Navy, then, 
 was so gratified by this first essay of Commander 
 Levy towards reform, that he ordered quarterly 
 returns to be made to the department by all the 
 navy, upon the principle adopted by Levy for the 
 abolition of the "cat" and " colt." 
 
 Capt. Levy whose biography is given else 
 where in this volume is also distinguished as 
 being the first to enforce upon his ship religious 
 duty, without the aid of a chaplain, by instituting 
 the custom of reading the Old and New Testament 
 of our blessed Lord. Time would fail, to refer to 
 all the patriotic and gallant men who have thus 
 been outraged.
 
 26-i THE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 What relief can be procured for the suffering 
 families of those officers who have been reduced to 
 want by the action of the President of the United 
 States, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Navy 
 Board ? 
 
 Another serious question is presented in relation 
 to this matter : What is to be done for the inno 
 cent wives and children of some forty-eight dis 
 missed officers, who are reduced to penury ? What 
 for those fifty lieutenants and masters, who, with 
 six hundred dollars, and three hundred and seventy- 
 five dollars, per annum, are left with large and 
 helpless households depending on their mainte 
 nance, and without means of other employment? 
 What for those brave men who have served their 
 country thirty, forty, and fifty long years ? Is 
 there no arm of mercy to reach their impoverished 
 and stricken homes? Will not the people hear 
 their cry for justice ? Will they not flee to their 
 succor? Will the American nation suffer such 
 injustice ? Can Americans hear, without lively 
 indignation, that such oppression has been inflicted 
 upon the naval chivalry of the country ? 
 
 Will Americans believe that two hundred and 
 one " skulks " have been dropped or disrated from
 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 265 
 
 the navy, as the " wise reformer," Mr. Secretary 
 Dobbin, has been pleased to call these officers ? 
 
 The law was really a government bill, and the 
 board was designed by Congress to protect their 
 brother officers, to act as a conservative body 
 between them and tl\e President, who was to inflict 
 the degradation. The board, therefore, instead of 
 performing the trust assigned by Congress, and 
 shielding their brothers from unmerited disgrace, 
 became the subservient tools of the Secretary of 
 the Navy, who, like themselves, was a relentless 
 persecutor, and who, to carry out his own caprice, 
 adopted their views, and ordered the sittings to be 
 secret, in defiance of every principle of justice and 
 law. 
 
 Without complaint, it had long been known that 
 the "board" had, by intrigue, sought and ob 
 tained more favors, more full pay, more pay for 
 extra service, than all the victims they have made 
 ever did together. But they still wanted " more ; ' ' 
 and, to obtain their end, they took the places of 
 their modest, meritorious seniors. Intoxicated 
 with this power, they forgot their country, to make 
 a navy to suit themselves. 
 
 The authority to remove military men, even by 
 12
 
 266 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 the President, is a very delicate and dangerous 
 exercise. It is rarely necessary to do so, particu 
 larly in the navy, without impartial trial, and a 
 formal finding of a court-martial. Unlike the civil 
 service, there are always others ready to discharge 
 the duty temporarily. But, more than this, the pro 
 fession of a naval officer is the business of his entire 
 life, considered and adopted as an honorable tenure 
 in the service of his country, and secured by law. 
 
 Dismission always implies disgrace, which is, in 
 the judgment of all sensible men, greater by arbi 
 trary decision than when flagrant wrong, by a fair 
 trial, has proved the necessity for such sentence ; 
 and in this act not only have officers been subjected 
 to an arbitrary and tyrannical action, but have also 
 had it inflicted, in many instances, by juniors and 
 inferiors in the service. 
 
 The precipitate and feeble conduct of President 
 Pierce, devoid of dignity, discretion, or justice, m 
 confirming the sentence of unmerited disgrace upon 
 American officers, of whom he knew nothing, and 
 was without the means of being correctly informed, 
 ought to serve as a solemn warning to this people. 
 Neither Congress, who passed the law, nor the 
 President, nor the Secretary of the Navy, were
 
 THE AMERICAN KAttf< 267 
 
 imbued with that military and national pride which 
 belong to those educated in the navy of their coun 
 try, whom they have ingloriously set aside. And 
 thus have consequences arisen, from the conduct 
 of civilians, which must fire the spirit of every 
 patriot in the land, especially when the nation 
 takes into consideration the further proof of the 
 efficiency and worthiness of these officers, which 
 time will soon develop, and whom justice shall 
 have vindicated and restored to their rights, when 
 the people shall have made an American President. 
 A chief magistrate is needed who can comprehend 
 the wrong in a national as well as individual char 
 acter, and will consider it an imperious duty to afford 
 these two hundred and one officers all the protection 
 and redress which lie within the compass of the 
 constitution and laws. 
 
 It may be well to remark that all these officers, 
 endorsed and approved by Commodore Perry, be 
 came victims of the board. 
 
 Suppose, Americans, you should go to the 
 department at Washington, and look into the records 
 for charges against those officers now promoted in 
 the service, we tell you that you could find them.
 
 And, while we cast no reflections upon any of these 
 government officials, and wish to see them all ele 
 vated to distinction in the service of their country, 
 we say, fearlessly, that there are many officers re 
 tained and promoted, who, if the records be true, 
 are much more entitled, by every consideration of 
 justice, to the same sentence which has been passed 
 upon their more unfortunate brothers in the service. 
 
 ir*r*,7 ,)f?.-h :' ff-i oj 
 
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 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ^ j i ^ . .' . . : . ,.. r , ; . /T; 4 
 
 *J I - ** A--- ' jl-V'*-'*"' 1 
 
 THE question also arises, why it was that Such 
 officers as Capt. Wilkes, who had seen no duty 
 afloat for twenty-eight years, 'and had already had 
 fifty or sixty thousand dollars from the government 
 for his contributions to science, should be re 
 tained on the active list by the board, when Lieut. 
 Maury was retired because he had seen so little sea 
 service. It was possibly allowed by Biddle as a 
 monument of mercy to learning ; but more proba 
 bly for some personal predilection, which did not 
 operate in the cases of other scientific officers. 
 
 When it is remembered with how much difficulty, 
 and at what dear pecuniary cost, many of these offi 
 cers procured their original commissions in the navy 
 of their country, the present case will seem pecu 
 liarly appalling. The hard earnings of their parents, 
 the cost of years of sacrifice, deprivation, and toil, 
 have been given, and given freely, to members of 
 Congress, as a bonus for the' midshipmari's warrant.
 
 270 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 The pride of country, the desire of name in its 
 service, for that son on whom they had fixed their 
 hopes for distinction and exaltation, has, in many 
 instances, induced parents in our land, in humble 
 circumstances, to forego comfort, and, oftentimes, 
 the education of the other children, to minister to the 
 grasping desire and corrupt exactions of members of 
 Congress, in order to obtain this boon for a meritori 
 ous son ; and which would readily have been ten 
 dered, without solicitation, to the wealthy and influ 
 ential of their districts, whose favor their selfish thirst 
 for power and place would lead them to propitiate. 
 
 How much benefit, how much relief, would this 
 money noiy be to the suffering families of the coun 
 try reduced by the " Navy Retiring Board " ! Will 
 not members of Congress, who voted blindly for the 
 bill, feel it a moral duty, at least, to redress the 
 rights of these officers now, if they will not restore 
 to them this unlawful pecuniary gain ? Let such 
 remember that the condition upon which the pur 
 chase-money was paid has been abrogated. The 
 contract was for life t unless proved, by affair trial, 
 unworthy to serve under the national flag. 
 
 A member of Congress from New York State 
 was asked for his influence in behalf of a promising
 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 271 
 
 young man in adverse circumstances. He said that 
 he would interpose if he were paid five hundred 
 dollars. The case thus looked hopeless ; for the ap 
 plicant was poor, and such a demand was too much 
 to exact of his father. The matter was laid before 
 the family circle for discussion, and decided favor 
 ably for the son. The only five hundred dollars the 
 father had in the world was paid this member, who, 
 pulling out the blank warrant from his pocket, 
 where it was at the first interview, filled it with 
 the young man's name, and took his money. He 
 is now a victim of the executive vengeance. 
 
 Has the remedy been provided by Congress to 
 restore to health this paralyzed arm of the public 
 service ? It has not. The Senate passed a bill 
 which gives these injured officers the benefit of a 
 court of inquiry, which shall decide upon the action 
 of the Navy Retiring Board ; and this court is to 
 submit to the President of the United States its 
 findings for his approval. If the sentence of the 
 Navy Board is decided to be unjust, the President 
 can renominate those dropped officers to the Senate 
 for restoration, and place on the active list officers 
 retired by the unjust proceeding of the board. If 
 a dropped officer shall not be restored within one
 
 272 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 year from the passage of the law, he shall be 
 entitled to one year's pay of the grade to which he 
 belonged. The President, also, is empowered by 
 this act to transfer any furloughed officer to the re 
 served pay-list, and make him, as before, eligible 
 to promotion. To the President, therefore, the 
 power will be given, by and with the consent of the 
 Senate, to restore, within one year after the act 
 shall have become law, any dropped, retired, or fur 
 loughed officer to the same grade he would have 
 occupied had the Navy Board never had an exist 
 ence. 
 
 The objection to this Senate act is, that it calls 
 an officer to trial for mental, moral, or physical 
 incompetency, upon unconstitutional grounds, after 
 he has been convicted and punished. It allows 
 officers to submit to an investigation into their past 
 lives, simply because a cabal of designing men saw 
 fit, without the authority of law, and for private 
 reasons, to destroy them, and then fill their places. 
 But it has other advantages, which no high-toned 
 officer should overlook. It will, if made a law of 
 Congress, oblige that Navy Board to appear before 
 the court of inquiry, and compel them to expose 
 the reasons which influenced their individual action.
 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 273 
 
 In this point of view, we say, honorable inen, who 
 have nothing to fear from public scrutiny, would 
 rejoice at the prospect of bringing their defamers 
 to trial. And, with an American President, of 
 any party, who will not dodge responsibility, the 
 navy of the country would be reinstated, the honor 
 of brave men vindicated, and some redress afforded 
 for their past suffering. 
 
 But, Americans, that Senate bill we believe to 
 be a mere pretence, which never will be passed if the 
 same influence continues to prevail in the House 
 which did in the Senate. Why? Because its 
 ostensible friends know it to be such. The Presi 
 dent has the same power now to nominate that he 
 would have after the passage of the act, so said 
 Mr. Mallory to Mr. Bell ; arid who believes Mr. 
 Pierce would stultify himself any more than he has 
 done by nominating the very men he has con 
 demned ? Mr. Bocock, of the naval committee of 
 the House of Representatives, is the pliant friend 
 of Mr. Mallory and the board, and introduced the 
 amendment to the Senate bill, to destroy the court 
 of inquiry, by giving the President the power to 
 nominate (which he already possessed), purposely 
 
 to defeat its passage. He did it to protect the 
 12*
 
 274 Tlffi AMERICA!* NAVY. 
 
 board from public exposure before the court of 
 inquiry, and had already distinguished himself as 
 the author of the clause in the law to drop officers. 
 
 Mr. Mallory, the person who devised the deep 
 and villanous scheme to destroy our American men, 
 is a. foreigner^ West Indian, and his wife is a 
 Spanish woman. What a commentary upon our 
 nationality, to have a foreigner come and exercise 
 the privilege of tearing our navy to pieces, and 
 adding to the weeping and wailing of this people, 
 who, four years ago, were laughing with national 
 heartiness at the sure prospect of peace and prog 
 ress 1 
 
 A navy that has had a Stewart, the Nelson of 
 the service, a Decatur, a McDonough, a Law 
 rence, and a Perry, of Lake Erie memory ; a navy 
 that for seventy years has braved the breeze in 
 distant seas and in foreign climes, to be now over 
 slaughed under our own flag, and by a foreigner, 
 is enough to make the nation ring. Are all our 
 heroes dead? 
 
 Another of the follies of the late Senate bill is 
 the introduction of flag-captains, by Messrs. Mai- 
 lory, Shubrick, & Co. Capt. Shubrick, the insti 
 gator, it is, said, craves the admiralty, for which
 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 275 
 
 he is as unfit as he is unscrupulous in his efforts 
 to obtain it. 
 
 Shubrick, then, by his own act, put himself in 
 the safe line of promotion ; and Commodore Morris' 
 death has made him, with all his unfitness, heir 
 apparent. Hence the ridiculous idea of the flag 
 captaincy in the American navy. The material 
 of our navy bears no comparison with that of other 
 nations ; and this is the reform we need to exalt the 
 nation, instead of ruining its personelle. We want a 
 navy to progress with our country's growth, in the 
 quality of our ships and efficiency of our men. 
 For a whole year there was but one single ship 
 bearing our national flag in the Baltic Sea, while 
 so much of our commerce needed to be protected. 
 And, while our resources, properly managed, could 
 make a navy to meet the world, we have but 
 little improvement in naval construction in the last 
 forty years. Why? Because the navy commis 
 sioners and navy bureaus have ruined the navy. 
 These men, put in places which properly belong to 
 civilians, have squandered millions of the nation's 
 money, without benefiting the country or service 
 in any sense whatever. Where is there any evi 
 dence of originality, any evidence of benefit, by
 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 
 
 the enormous outlays of these bureaus ? We chal 
 lenge these men to point to any improvement in 
 naval architecture originating with them. All the 
 improvements of any importance have been ob 
 tained from other nations ; and were the United 
 States to go to war to-morrow, we should find our 
 men-of-war thirty years behind the advancement 
 of all other maritime nations. 
 
 Thus, my countrymen, you have before you the 
 history of the transactions of the Retiring Navy 
 Board, which, like a dark cloud, hang over the 
 proud and gallant navy of your country, which has 
 reaped so many triumphant laurels, enkindled the 
 fire of patriotism in the breasts of so many noble 
 officers and aspiring youth, and spread the glory of 
 her achievements and emulous prowess over the 
 whole globe. The injustice, the stigma, of these 
 transactions, will forever blot the annals of Presi 
 dent Pierce's administration ; because they are not 
 for a day, but will go down, on the stream of time, 
 to posterity, to tell the ignominious story of the late 
 Navy Board, and to raise a blush on the cheek of 
 our patriotic countrymen, who scorn such inglorious 
 deeds, while, at the same time, they honor with 
 increased estimation, and renewed plaudits of ap-
 
 THE AMERICAN NAVY. 277 
 
 probation, the suffering but noble-hearted and high- 
 minded victims of a false policy and a cruel oppres 
 sion. 

 
 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 
 
 * 
 
 CAPTAIN BARTLETTS VINDICATION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Now, after the exposition given in the preced 
 ing chapter, can the public wonder at the atro 
 cious outrage perpetrated upon so many distin 
 guished Americans, under the administration of 
 J. C. Dobbin, of the Navy Department ? Can it 
 wonder that a set of conspirators to rob and 
 plunder the name and fame of good men, did 
 walk into the department, and signifying to Mr. 
 Dobbin that they were the proper parties to reform 
 the service, set about the work, institute an Inqui 
 sition, create a clerkship to their board, and give 
 Dobbin the appointment ? 
 
 This is precisely what they did actually do ! 
 Chief Justice Gilchrist, in his unanswered argument 
 in the case of the " Brig Armstrong," says, " If the 
 
 278

 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 279 
 
 United States, in the plenitude of their power, see 
 Jit to submit the claims of a citizen to arbitration 
 without his assent, ought they not to make the most 
 full and ample provision, that he shall be fully and 
 fairly heard, and that he shall have all reasonable 
 opportunity to lay before the abitrator the evidence 
 on which he relies ? An award made, without the 
 party having had an opportunity to be heard, rests 
 neither upon law nor justice" " The position" he 
 adds, " that every party should have an opportunity 
 to be heard before the tribunal that is to pass judg 
 ment on his rights, needs no labored argument to 
 support it. It has been repeatedly asserted by the 
 most eminent jurists" In Regden vs. Martin, 6 
 H. & Johns., 403, the court said : " That the par 
 ties ought to have notice of the time of meeting, is 
 a position so strongly supported by common justice 
 that it would seem not to require the aid of authori 
 ties. Every man ought to have an opportunity 
 afforded him to be heard in defence of his rights" 
 In Falconer vs. Montgomery, 4 Dallas, 232, it is 
 said : " The plainest dictates of natural justice must 
 prescribe to every tribunal the law that ' no man 
 shall be condemned unheard ' It is not merely an 
 abstract rule, or positive right, but it is the result of 
 long experience and a wise attention to the feelings
 
 280 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 and dispositions of human nature. * * * * 
 Besides, there is scarcely a piece of written evi 
 dence, or a sentence of oral testimony, that is not 
 susceptible of some explanation, or exposed to 
 some Contradiction ; there is scarcely an argument 
 that may not be elucidated so as to insure suc 
 cess, or be controverted so as to prevent it. To 
 exclude the party, therefore, from the opportunity 
 of interposing in any of these modes (which the 
 most candid and intelligent, but a disinterested 
 person, may easily overlook) is not only a priva 
 tion of his right, but an act of injustice to the 
 umpire, whose mind might be materially influ 
 enced by such an interposition." In the case of 
 Lutz vs. Linthicum, 8 Peters, 178, Mr. Justice 
 Story said : " Without question, due notice should 
 be given to the parties of the time and place of 
 hearing the case ; and if the award was made 
 without such notice, it ought, upon the plainest 
 principles of justice, to beset aside." In Elmen- 
 dorf vs. Harris, 23 Wend., 628, it was laid down 
 as a fundamental rule of construction in reference 
 to every transaction in the nature of a judicial 
 proceeding, that the contract of submission ne 
 cessarily implies that the arbitrator is not author 
 ized or empowered to decide the question in con-
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 281 
 
 troversy, without giving the parties an opportu 
 nity to be heard in relation thereto. 
 
 We now proceed to the case of Lieutenant 
 Washington Allen Bartlett, who, by the deepest 
 malignity, jealousy, and injustice, has been 
 dropped from the naval service of his country, 
 by the late "Naval Retiring Board." And we 
 shall cite this most remarkable one in its interest 
 ing detail, because it has alone been the subject 
 of examination before the Naval Committee of 
 the United States Senate, and will alone break 
 and wither the whole action of that stupendous 
 and most unparalleled iniquity. 
 
 Indeed, we have no choice but to use his case, 
 for it is only through it, and Biddle's disgraceful 
 letter to the distinguished Maury, that we are 
 able to see behind the curtain of the Inquisition. 
 
 Lieutenant Bartlett was on duty upon the coast 
 of Africa, as first lieutenant of the flag-ship, when 
 the Council of Fifteen struck his name from the 
 rolls of the navy! Not a single allegation of 
 any kind, verbally or in writing, had ever ap 
 peared against him in the Navy Department, in 
 any form. And we here insert the letter of the 
 Secretary to Mrs. Bartlett, who, stricken down 
 by the sudden and unexpected attempt to put
 
 282 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 disgrace upon the good name of her husband, 
 writes, in the anguish of her soul, like a true 
 woman, to know, why his fair fame as an officer 
 has been outraged ? 
 
 NIVT DEPARTMKNT, Sept. SQifi, 1855. 
 
 MADAM;: Yonr letter of the 18th instant has been received. 
 The board of naval officers, recently convened in Washington, in 
 accordance with the law, merely reported the names and ranks of 
 officers who, in their judgment, came within the provisions of the 
 recent act of Congress, but not the facts or the grounds upon which 
 their action is based. No charges were preferred against any 
 officer. You will perceive, therefore, that I am unable to comply 
 witli your request to know what the charges were against Lieuten 
 ant Bartlett. 
 
 I am, very respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 J. C, DOBBIN. 
 MBS. WASHIHGIOS BARTLCTT, Note York. 
 
 This, the only official notice to this hour re 
 ceived, accompanied by the endearing solace of 
 her who best knew his worth, met him on active 
 duty abroad, and instantly created the deepest 
 and most unfeigned sorrow among all with whom 
 he was associated. And so highly was Lieuten 
 ant Bartlett esteemed by officers and crew, as an 
 officer, a gentleman, and a friend, that the sepa 
 ration, by those who witnessed it, is said to have 
 been one of the most painfully affecting ever seen 
 upon a frigate's deck, and resembled, from its 
 inexplicable character, and the emotions thereby 
 a funeral at sea !
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 283 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 We here insert, as corroboratory, the distin 
 guished testimonials of his commodore, com 
 manders, associates, and subalterns : 
 
 Testimonial of Commodore Crabbe, U. 8. Navy. 
 
 U. 8. SHIP JAMBSTOWN, 
 PORTO GRAKDB, Oct. 2&Z, 1856. 
 
 SIR : I have received your letter of this day's date, containing 
 a copy of a letter from the honorable Secretary of the Navy to Mrs. 
 Bartlett, [the same published in the body of the memorial,] in rela 
 tion to your retirement from the navy of the United States. 
 
 Although I have not received anything official from the Depart 
 ment upon the subject, yet the Hon. Secretary's letter to Mrs. Bart 
 lett, and the reasons set forth by yourself, will, no doubt, justify me 
 in relieving you from further duty on board this ship. In doing so, 
 however, I cannot avoid saying that I deeply regret the loss of your 
 services. Your gentlemanly and officer-like bearing, whilst under 
 iny command, has uniformly met my warmest approbation. 
 I am, with great respect, your obedient servant, 
 
 THOMAS CHABBE, 
 Commander-in-chief of U. S. 
 
 Naval Forces, Coast of Africa. 
 
 To LIEUT. W. A. BARTLSTT, 
 
 U. & Ship Jamestown. 
 
 Letter from Commander F. B. Ellison, U. S. Navy. 
 
 HBMPSTEAD, LONG ISLAND, Janiiary 17JA, 1866. 
 
 DEAR SIR : In reply to your request that I would state my opin 
 ion of your efficiency as an officer, and your deportment as a gen 
 tleman, during our recent association on board the "Jamestown," 
 where you served under my command, I with great pleasure say, 
 that in every particular, as a zealous and capable officer, and a well- 
 informed, intelligent gentleman, I regarded you as most exemplary. 
 Commodore Crabbe frequently expressed himself to me in very
 
 284 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 warm terms of you, as a highly accomplished officer, and like ex 
 pressions were made from all your messmates in the ward-room, 
 showing a uniformity of opinion throughout the ship. 
 
 Sincerely trusting that the error which seems to have been made 
 in your case may speedily be rectified, and that you may be honor 
 ably restored to your former position in the navy, 
 I am, very truly, 
 
 Your obedient servant and friend, 
 FRANCIS B. ELLISON, 
 
 Commander U. S. Navy. 
 
 W. A. BARTLETT, Esq., 
 
 Washington, D. G. 
 
 Testimonial of Lieut. Commanding, James F. Armstrong. 
 
 U. 8. FLAG-SHIP JAMESTOWN, 
 PORTO GRANDE, ST. VINCENT, Oct. 23d, 1856. 
 
 DEAR SIR : In forwarding you the enclosed letter from Commo 
 dore Crabbe, relieving you from further duty in this ship, I beg 
 leave to assure you of my deepest regret for the cause that has pro 
 duced it, and for the interruption of an intercourse and association 
 always confidential, harmonious, and friendly.,, ^ joj,,-. 
 
 I shall ever esteem you, in your character, as an officer and gen 
 tleman, and, in parting from you, tender you my sincere wishes for 
 your restoration to the service, and for your future welfare. 
 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 JAB. FBANCIS ARMSTRONG, 
 
 Lieut. Commanding. 
 Lorrr. WASHINGTON A. BARTLETT, 
 
 U. 8. Ship Jam&town. 
 
 Testimonial of all the Commissioned Officers of the U. 8. Flag-ship 
 Jamestown. 
 
 PORTO GBAICDE, ST. VINCENT, Oct. 24<A, 1856. 
 
 DEAR SIR : "We entertain too high an appreciation of your char 
 acter as a gentleman and an officer, and too warm a regard for you 
 as a messmate and friend, to allow you to leave us without saying 
 to you, in the sincerity of our hearts, that we deeply regret that you 
 are about to part from us, and, above all, the cause that takes you 
 away.
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CQtfSTOACY. 285 
 
 la the difficult and responsible relation that you have sustained 
 to us, as executive officer of the ship, you have ever, whilst dis 
 charging your duties with fidelity, borne yourself toward us with 
 the utmost frankness, cpnciliation, and courtesy. And, in the more 
 intimate and kindly relation, as a member of the little society that 
 we form amongst ourselves, and which can subsist in harmony only 
 by mutual cultivation of friendly feelings and the practice of friendly 
 offices, you have endeared yourself to us by your uniform amiability 
 of disposition, and by the desire that you have ever evinced to 
 cherish the most cordial intercourse with us all. 
 
 We, therefore, beg to assure you that, in parting from us, you are 
 taking leave of those who will ever remember you with pleasure,. 
 and who, whatever fortunes may betide you, will always continue 
 your well-wishers and friends. 
 
 Ever, very truly, yours, 
 GKO. CLTMEE, 
 
 4* 
 
 Fleet Surgeon, ranking with Commander. 
 T. H. PATTERSON, Lieutenant. 
 EDWARD BARNETT, Lieutenant. 
 T. M. TAYLOR, Purser (rank of Commander.) 
 JULIAN MYERS, Lieutenant. 
 SAMUEL RICHARD SWANN, Ass't Surgeon. 
 JOHN L. HEYLEN, Commodore's Secretary. 
 JNO. E. HABT, Acting Master and Lieut. 
 JAS. M. BRADFORD, Acting Lieut. 
 CHAS. W. THOMAS, Chaplain 
 la. WASHINGTON A. IURTLBTT. 
 
 _ 
 
 J'*^.! IL VJUll i '. i* I tr: :<; ) i-UJOV/ JIJWU Ulli *it. iht 
 
 Letter from the Junior Officers of the Jamestown. 
 
 U. S. SHIP JAMESTOWN, 
 POBTO GRANDE, ST. VINCBHT, Oct. 24A, 1855. 
 
 SIR: You are about to return to your home; in so doing, the 
 members of the steerage feel it their duty to express to you their 
 deep regret, and their sincere gratitude for the extreme kindness 
 with which you have universally treated them, during the time 
 they have had the pleasure of being under your command. You 
 may be assured that, after your leaving us, you will ever be cher 
 ished in our memory with feelings of the highest regard and esteem, 
 in your character as an officer and gentleman.
 
 286 AN AMERICAN HBttO 
 
 Sir, we bid you, with sorrow, a hearty farewell; with many 
 wishes for your future welfare and happiness, 
 
 Believe us, very respectfully, your obedient servants, 
 N. B. COXCKLIN, M. Mate. 
 0. W. LAWRENCE, M. Mate. 
 YAL. HALL VOORHEES, M. Mate. 
 O. N. HENKBL, M. Mate. 
 H. B. JOHNSON, C. Clerk. 
 
 LIEUT. W. A. BAKTLBTT, U. 8. Aavy. 
 
 Now we challenge for these papers a comparison 
 with any testimonials ever bestowed upon the 
 most distinguished of our officers by his brothers 
 in arms. They testify to his competency and 
 efficiency in every relation in which he was called 
 to act as an officer. And will it not be perceived 
 from these testimonials that, considering the deli 
 cate and responsible position which the executive 
 officer bears towards all above and below him, that 
 they exhibit the clearest evidence that the frigate 
 " Jamestown" was, under Lieut. Bartlett's admi 
 nistration, in the highest state of efficiency ? Every 
 officer ancl man would cheerfully follow the lead 
 of one whom they held in such confidence and 
 admiration ; and to whom they could look in 
 whatever emergency might arise on their cruise. 
 
 And this being the moment when Lieut. Bart- 
 lett ceased his naval services, it is proper here to 
 review in part his naval career. 
 
 His immediate commanders during the Mexican
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 287 
 
 j,*J 
 
 War were Commodore Lavallette and Capt. J. B. 
 Montgomery. Their testimonials are sufficient 
 without a single comment. 
 
 Testimonial of Commodore E. A. F. Lavallette on the services of 
 Lieut. Bartlett in the Pacific Squadron. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, January 28d, 1856. 
 
 DEAR SIB : I received your letter of the 22d instant, in which 
 you state, that " while absent from the country, serving as first- 
 lieutenant of the flag-ship of the African squadron, it has pleased 
 the late ' Navy Board ' to present my name to the President to be 
 stricken from the rolls as lieutenant in the Navy. 
 
 " I had the honor to serve under your command as a midshipman, 
 and again as a lieutenant, commanding the armed prize brig Argo 
 in the Gulf of California, and in the attack on Guaymas, and its 
 occupation. On that occasion you did tne the honor to assign me 
 the most advanced post, on the night previous to the attack, out of 
 supporting distance of the guns of the squadron, and out of sight, 
 being covered by the island which separated me from the squadron. 
 
 "How did I bear myself on that occasion? Did I meet your 
 expectations or not? 
 
 u From your knowledge of me, my abilities and acquirements, was 
 or was I not an efficient officer of the Pacific squadron during the 
 Mexican "War?" 
 
 In answer, I have to state, that your foregoing statements of our 
 operations in the Gulf of California are correct in every particular. 
 Your conduct on that occasion not only met my approbation, by 
 the. activity, energy and skill which you displayed in getting your 
 gun landed, merited and the effect which it produced by your 
 management, upon the works of the enemy entitled you to the 
 highest praise. 
 
 Your abilities and acquirements I consider quite equal to any of 
 your grade, and very superior to very many of them. I certainly 
 viewed you as an efficient officer of the Pacific squadron. 
 I am respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 E. A. F. LAVALLETTE. 
 
 WASH'S A. BARTLETT, Esq., 
 
 Late Lieut. U. 8. Jfavy, Wat/tinffto* City, D. O.
 
 Jtf 6 ' . 'li B WASHINGTON, D. C., February 18, 1856. 
 
 MY DEAR SIB: Your letter of the 6th instant was handed me, 
 and shonld have been Sooner answered, but for pressing engage 
 ments, which have occupied my time since its receipt. You state: 
 "It has become necessary that I should exhibit to the Government, 
 to Congress, and to the people, such concise testimony as I can 
 obtain as to my efficiency and qualifications as an officer of the 
 Navy from which I have been most unjustly dismissed and, there 
 fore, I appeal to you to state in whatever manner and form you may 
 please, whether I was or was not an efficient and capable officer in 
 all particulars and at all times, as an upright, capable, and zealous 
 officer of your ship and of the Navy ; and whether, by act or deed, 
 which may have come to your knowledge, I ever attempted, in any 
 manner, to avoid responsibility, or aught which friend or foe could 
 allege against me ; or whether any circumstances of duty, or other 
 wise, ever impaired my usefulness or your confidence in my integrity 
 and ability," etc. 
 
 I have quoted largely from your letter, in order to a more succinct 
 and direct reply to the several inquiries contained in it. 
 
 In reply, therefore, I take pleasure in stating that during your 
 long service from November 1844 to May 1848 in the United 
 States ship Portsmouth, under my command, with the sual oppor 
 tunities enjoyed by naval commanders of forming a just estimate of 
 the merits and qualifications of those serving under them, I have no 
 hesitation whatever in bearing my testimony to your high mental 
 and physical qualifications and efficiency as an officer of the Navy, 
 and an accomplished sea-officer. 
 
 At all times, and in all circumstances, I found you ready and 
 willing for the various duties assigned you, on shore and on ship 
 board, and ever prompt, .zealous, and capable in the performance 
 of them. I always regarded you, sir, as a most useful officer, not 
 only in the proper line of professional employment, but as interpreter 
 and translator of important official correspondence during the revo 
 lutionary movements in California and the war with Mexico which 
 followed ; your services were of signal importance to your com 
 mander, and (as regarded by him) to the public interests at tho 
 time. 
 
 "When, in the course of events, after the occupancy of San Fran 
 cisco, it became necessary to establish the magistracy of that place, 
 the duties of alcalde were assigned to you, and discharged with a
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 289 
 
 faithfulness and ability which claimed for you the commendation of 
 your immediate commander, as well as that of the commander-in 
 chief; and the people of the district, when required to elect their 
 civil officers, manifested their high appreciation, of your character 
 and services in the magistracy, in According to you an overwhelming 
 vote (over several candidates) for your continuance in office. 
 
 During your service under my command you certainly did possess 
 my confidence as an upright, intelligent, and most capable officer of 
 the ship and of the Navy. 
 
 Allegations were brought to my notice by officers of the Ports 
 mouth, at San Francisco, in 1846, which you promptly met, by a 
 demand for immediate investigation by court-martial or court of 
 inquiry, which the exigency of the public service precluded, at the 
 time. I should have deemed it exceedingly unjust to you, sir, as 
 well as to my own feelings, to have suffered any permanent impres 
 sion to your prejudice, on my mind, until sufficient evidence had 
 been adduced before a competent tribunal until shown to be true. 
 
 I know of nothing that occurred during the cruise of the Ports 
 mouth, or since, to the present ime, that ought in anywise to 
 diminish my friendly regard, or impair my confidence in your 
 integrity, high capabilities, and usefulness, as a naval officer. 
 
 I trust, my dear sir, that you may speedily satisfy the Govern 
 ment, Congress, and the people, of your innocence of any and all 
 allegations of a prejudicial character, which may have operated in 
 any degree in procuring your recent dismissal from the Navy, and, 
 by a speedy restoration, have it again in your power to render 
 valuable service to your country, for which. I regard you eminently 
 qualified. 
 
 Very truly, I am your friend and obedient servant, 
 
 J, B. MoNTGOMEKY, 
 
 Captain U. S. Nwoy. 
 
 W. A. BAXTUTT, Esq. 
 
 
 
 SECTION IL 
 
 The war having ended, and no further field for 
 active naval service being presented, Lieut. Bart- 
 lett accepts i the louder of the command of the 
 
 13
 
 290 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 Ewing, in the service of the coast survey, to 
 return to the Pacific Ocean, where he already 
 had had eight years of active duty. How 
 faithfully he performed these services is best 
 exhibited by the appreciation of the distin 
 guished superintendent of the survey, A. D. 
 Bache, LL.D. 
 
 The late Lieutenant, Commanding, "Wm. P. 
 McArthur, being the hydrographical chief of the 
 western coast, having deceased, in an eulogy 
 delivered by Professor Bache to his memory at 
 Washington, we find this reference to the emi 
 nent services of Lieutenants McArthur and 
 Bartlett : 
 
 The work which he accomplished will live for ever f Surrounded 
 by circumstances the most difficult perhaps which ever tried the 
 constancy, the judgment, the resources of any hydrographer, he van 
 quished circumstances. His reconnoissance of the western coast, 
 from Monterey to Columbia river, and his preliminary surveys 
 there, were made in spite of desertion and even mutiny in despite 
 of the inadequacy of means to meet the truly extraordinary cir 
 cumstances of the country. Happy that in his officers he had friends 
 devoted to him and to their duties especially happy in the officer 
 next to him in the responsibilities of the work. 
 
 And before the Naval Committee Professor 
 Bache said : 
 
 In justice to Mr. Bartlett, I should state briefly what those ser 
 vices were. He took the schooner Ewing, a small vessel, which 
 bad been used in the revenue service as a cutter, from New York
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 291 
 
 to San Francisco. "Was active in pursuing the mutineers who 
 attempted to drown Passed Midshipman Gibson, of the schooner 
 Ewing. "Went to Columbia river with Lieutenant Commanding 
 McArthur, though it was understood that unless a second vessel 
 were attached to the coast survey he was to return home. "Was 
 active, in the survey of Columbia river and the reconnoissance of 
 the western coast. The letters from Lieutenant Commanding 
 McArthur express his sense of Lieutenant Bartlett's services, and 
 refer to him for important information in regard to the coast, show 
 ing his confidence in him. He assisted assiduously in preparing the 
 coast survey charts of the western coast at the office. 
 
 We will now advert for a moment to the ser 
 vices of Lieut. Bartlett at the mouth of the 
 Columbia river, and his successful labors in open 
 ing to the commerce of the world that magnifi 
 cent water-course, an original American discovery 
 of the last century ; where Vancouver re 
 corded his extraordinary want of judgment, by 
 placing the name of "Disappointment" upon 
 that majestic headland which stands sentinel at 
 its mouth, and upon which an American sailor 
 had already placed the venerated name of ' ' Han 
 cock." That gigantic river, whose beauties are 
 so vividly and truthfully daguerreotyped by 
 Washington Irving, in his "Astoria," but whose 
 importance to the commerce of the world, and 
 facilities for use, were left to be exhibited by the 
 united efforts of those energetic and skillful offi 
 cers, McArthur and Bartlett.
 
 292 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 This will be the more apparent when we state 
 the well-established facts, that although the en 
 trance to this mighty river had been in the hands 
 of the English Hudson Bay Company forty 
 years, and the South Sea Exploring Expedition, 
 under its Lieutenant-Commodore Wilkes, had 
 spent months in its waters, yet it remained 
 for all practical uses as a great outlet of com 
 merce, as hermetically sealed, through the 
 imaginary dangers which were thrown around 
 its entrance, as if its mighty waters had never 
 found their natural course to the sea. 
 
 It will be remembered that Wilkes said it was 
 necessary to take the channel of the Columbia 
 with wind and tide both adverse (a physical im 
 possibility) in a five knot current! After the 
 loss of the Shark, whose commander, we suppose, 
 attempted the nautical manoeuvre described by 
 Wilkes, and the report and chart of that remark 
 able commander was given to the public,, the 
 time for going in and out the channel actually 
 doubled f The loss of the Peacock and Shark, 
 of the American Navy, and the known fact that 
 the Hon. Hudson Bay Company's commanders 
 took forty or fifty days to find their way into the 
 channel, and the same number to find their way
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 293 
 
 out of it, had long elicited the interest of the 
 commercial and scientific world. So far from gain 
 ing any advantage through Wilkes, the smallest 
 vessel of the company actually lay eighty-four 
 days near the mouth of the river (Baker's Bay), 
 with the Shark's crew on board, before this 
 * ancient mariner" dared to proceed to sea. And 
 four years later, when the Ewing, with Me Ar 
 thur and Bartlett on board, appeared off the mouth 
 of the rive^ in a enow-storm, on the 18th of 
 April, 1850, the same little vessel of the Hon. 
 Company's service, with the same commander, 
 was met there, having been cruising off and on 
 for weeks, though anxious to enter, through fears 
 of the imaginary terrors of the entrance ! The 
 Ewing boldly took the channel, and the Cadboro* 
 bravely followed suit. This was the last real de 
 tention that has ever occurred at the mouth of 
 the Columbia. The advent of the Ewing proved 
 the truth of Mr. Benton's prophecy, five years 
 previously, when he said, in substance, that not 
 withstanding this extraordinary report of Wilkes, 
 the time would come, within five years, when the 
 entrance of the Columbia would be as practicable 
 as a commercial channel, as the bay of New York ! 
 In order to show the true force of these
 
 294 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 marks, we place, side by side, the reports of 
 Lieutenants McArthur and Bartlett : 
 
 September 25th, 1850, McArthur wrote Pro 
 fessor Bache : 
 
 "Within the last eighteen months, more vessels have crossed tho 
 Columbia river bar, than had crossed it, perhaps, in all time past ; 
 and, during that time, no vessel has received the slightest injury, 
 and but few have met with much delay. 
 
 I have examined all the charts that have been made of the Co 
 lumbia river from the time of its discovery to the present, and find 
 that there has been continued changes going on, but at all times 
 has there been a good deep channel at the mouth of this river. 
 
 Report of Lieutenant Washington A. Bartlett, U. S. N., Assistant 
 in the Coast Survey, in relation to the draught of vessels which 
 can enter the south channel, Columbia river entrance, Oregon. 
 
 WASHINGTON, November SOtA, 1850. 
 
 SIR: In answer to your inquiries as to the draught of vessels 
 which may, at any time, be carried into the Columbia river by the 
 new south channel, I have to state that our late survey of that 
 channel, and my personal experience in passing over the south bar, 
 in vessels of deep draught, show conclusively, that vessels drawing 
 seventeen feet can be taken over the south bar at quarter flood, or 
 three-quarter ebb, without the least risk of touching, and twenty 
 feet can pass at high water. 
 
 In making the preceding statement, it is proper to state that I 
 have fully considered the "drop" which a vessel makes when in 
 the swell of the bar, which is, however, much less in the south than 
 in the old north channel, when the wind is in the usual northwest 
 ern quarter. 
 
 In the winter, or spring season, when the wind is in the south, 
 or southwest quarter, there is a lively breaker on the south bar, at 
 which time it will be smoothest on the north bar, and this south 
 erly wind being fair for the north channel, there is no occasion to 
 take the south bar in southerly winds going in ; yet, with a mode 
 rate draught in a sailing vessel, the south channel is ever safest in
 
 THE VICTIM OP A CONSPIRACY. 296 
 
 coming out, although the wind may be "dead in" to the bar; the 
 bar being so short and quickly passed, that it is not necessary to 
 tack in shoal water. 
 
 The U. S. steamer, Massachusetts, and U. S. sloop-of-war, Fal- 
 mouth, each drawing seventeen feet water, have passed the bar of 
 the south channel into the Columbia river since our survey was 
 made. 
 
 In addition, I would state that my experience at the mouth of the 
 Columbia, has convinced me that the south channel is the practica 
 ble commercial channel of that river for certainty and safety, with 
 the additional advantage of accomplishing the passage, to or from 
 the river, without waiting for a particular wind. Ships frequently 
 pass the bar inward, in fifteen minutes after receiving their pilot, 
 and outward, in thirty minutes after getting their anchors. 
 
 A disabled ship, that can be sailed so as to have good steerage 
 way, can pass over the south bar in safety, when it would be im 
 possible to get her in by the north channel. 
 
 From the 18th of April to the 5th of August, 1850, there was no 
 day that the south channel was not practicable for vessels, and was 
 in daily use. 
 
 I crossed the bar (south channel), in the pilot-boat " Mary Tay 
 lor," during the "heaviest bar" that occurred within the above 
 named period, beating out with the wind ahead. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Commander Wilkes, whose total sea service 
 in the navy, was but seven years and nine 
 months ! (which will account for his want of 
 practical ability to obtain proper deductions 
 from his own work), was made a post-captain 
 by the Naval Board, though he has not seen 
 salt water for the last fourteen years ! while 
 Lieutenant Bartlett's sea service was thirteen
 
 296 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 years and nine months, quite double that of the 
 present Captain Wilkes ! Such is " efficiency," in 
 the acceptation of the Board ! Had McArthur 
 lived to this day, and remained on that service, 
 he would most assuredly have been "dropped," 
 or " furloughed ;" for Lieutenant Maffit, of the 
 same date, who had performed eleven years of 
 like continuous sea service on the Atlantic coast, 
 and admitted by all to be, like McArthur, with 
 out a superior in the service, has been "fur 
 loughed!" We confidently expect, however, 
 that Maffit will be restored (and we know he 
 should be on his own merits), because Mr. Dob 
 bin, having known him from boyhood, takes a 
 personal interest in him, and, in defiance of the 
 Board's judgment, who had pronounced him 
 "inefficient." immediately augmented his com 
 mand from one to three vessels, an honor which 
 has not yet been conferred upon any one of that 
 inquisition, since it closed its sittings. The mo 
 ment the Secretary gave three vessels to Maffit, 
 he made him Naval Commodore! practically, 
 ranking with the oldest officers in the navy. 
 
 The publications emanating from the coast sur 
 vey office, relating to the hydrography of the 
 western coast, the discoveries and minute exam-
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 297 
 
 inations on the whole line of coast from Monterey 
 to the Columbia, carefully compiled sailing di 
 rections, plans for lights, and other improve 
 ments for navigation, which have been put in 
 operation by the government, and lauded by the 
 people, the confidence with which Congress in 
 creased the appropriations to extend this merit 
 orious work, will ever remain inscribed upon the 
 public records an enduring monument to the 
 energy and skill of Me Arthur and Bartlett. 
 
 In April, 1846, Commodore Sloat sent the 
 " Portsmouth " from Mazatlan to California ; on 
 arriving there, Captain Montgomery supplied the 
 wants of Captain Fremont, who had been hostil- 
 ized by Castor, the Commandant-General of the 
 Province of California. We quote from the let* 
 ter of Captain Montgomery, to show how valua 
 ble, at that juncture, were the military and civil 
 services of Lieutenant Bartlett : 
 
 Montgomery says : 
 
 " I have no hesitation whatever in bearing my testimony to your 
 high mental and physical qualifications and efficiency as an officer 
 of the Navy, and an accomplished sea-officer. 
 
 At all times and in all circumstances I found you ready and wil 
 ling for the various duties assigned you, on shore and on ship-board 
 aikl ever prompt, zealous, and capable in the performance of them. 
 I always regarded you, sir, as a most useful officer, not only in the 
 proper line of professional employment, but as interpreter and 
 
 13*
 
 298 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 translator of important official correspondence during the revolu 
 tionary movements in California and the war with Mexico which 
 followed ; your services were of signal importance to your com 
 mander, and (as regarded by him) to the public interests at the 
 time. 
 
 When, in the course of events, after the occupancy of San Fran 
 cisco, it became necessary to establish the magistracy of that place, 
 the duties of alcalde were assigned to you, and discharged with a 
 faithfulness and ability which claimed for you the commendation 
 of your immediate commander, as well as that of the commander- 
 in-chief; and the people of the district, when required to elect their 
 civil officers, manifested their high appreciation of your character 
 and services in the magistracy, in according to you an overwhelm 
 ing vote (over several candidates) for your continuance in office." 
 
 From the moment of Montgomery's arrival at 
 Monterey, on the 22d of the month of April, 
 1846, to the commencement of the war in that 
 quarter, he was in active preparation to take 
 instant possession of San Francisco, and the ver 
 satile talents of Bartlett were employed by his 
 commodore to their fullest extent. 
 
 As Military Secretary and Translator, Civil 
 Magistrate, and Judge of First Instance, with Ad 
 miralty Jurisdiction for the waters of San Fran 
 cisco, " Collector and Superintendent of the 
 Port," etc., Lieutenant Bartlett was found not 
 only fully qualified by his previous business 
 knowledge, but manifested great administrative 
 ability, by the obedience of all classes shown to 
 his government.
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 299 
 
 As Chief Magistrate of the Town and District 
 of San Francisco, he exercised all the powers of 
 a local " Cabildo," or " Mexican Ayuntamiento ;" 
 he caused the re-survey of the town, regulated 
 and named the streets and squares ; located mar 
 kets ; sites for public edifices ; and granted lots 
 to actual settlers, under the forms of the Spanish 
 laws of the Indies and colonies, which have ever 
 continued to rule over Mexican Territory. 
 
 Bartlett soon saw that the people were willing 
 to obey their new rulers, if they could but be 
 protected by them. And being well read in Kent 
 and Wheaton, he knew where to ascertain the 
 rights of the conquerors, and by reading such 
 Spanish authorities, and consulting such tradi 
 tional lore as the country afforded, he was able to 
 protect the rights of the conquered. 
 
 The original appointment of Bartlett, was con 
 firmed by the people at their first election of civil 
 officers, on the 13th of September following. 
 And when Commodore Stockton saw the harbor 
 filling with ships, the town of San Francisco 
 building up, he appreciated the talent and tact of 
 Bartlett so highly, that he confirmed him in all 
 his functions, as Chief Magistrate, Judge, and 
 United States Collector ; even though he then
 
 300 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 needed officers to conduct his military move 
 ments. 
 
 In February 22d, 1847, General Kearney ar 
 rived in San Francisco, and saw with gratification 
 a well ordered community under perfect control, 
 a civil court of " Common Pleas," and admiralty, 
 proceeding with all the formality of an old New 
 England county, a Court of Records, and Probate, 
 a custom-house, and safe for the public funds, 
 and a well-guarded prison for culprits. He could 
 not but commend such order in the public ser 
 vice, especially since no complaint was laid before 
 him, asking for reversal of a single decision or 
 decree of the Hon. Judge and Collector, and 
 which under the circumstances of the government 
 and Mexican customs and laws, General Kearney 
 must have entertained, had they been presented. 
 And it is a singular fact, that at no period subse 
 quent to this time, has there ever been any 
 reversal of a verdict, judgment or decree, made 
 by Bartlett. 
 
 After his election by the people, Judge Bart 
 lett laid aside his naval uniform for the time, 
 wearing only the staff and insignia of the magis 
 tracy. And it was under his authority as judge, 
 that the first regular jury was empanelled, for
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 301 
 
 the trial of any cause in California. Amongst 
 other criminal cases tried, there were two sea 
 men for piracy, or robbery on the high seas, who 
 preferring the judge to a jury, plead guilty, and 
 laid themselves at the mercy of the court. There 
 was, too, an interesting civil suit, which had for 
 years hung upon the Mexican docket, viz. : " Reed- 
 ley, vs. the Hon. Hudson's Bay Co.," and no Mexi 
 can Judge had dared, because of the power of 
 the British Government, to decide it against the 
 Company. 
 
 The Plaintiff appeared in court, a jury was 
 summoned, the case fully heard, and a verdict 
 given against that Company, and the money was 
 paid before an execution could issue against 
 them. The applause was great in finding that 
 an American had manifested proper appreciation 
 for their just rights, and without regard for the 
 animosity of any power, had accorded in the 
 spirit of our free institutions, the fullest justice to 
 whom it was due.
 
 302 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 We can now discover why this young officer 
 was acknowledged by all his superiors and peers 
 to possess " high mental and physical qualifica 
 tions and efficiency as an accomplished officer of 
 the navy, at all times and in all circumstances 
 ready and willing, on shore and afloat, and ever 
 prompt, zealous and capable in the performance 
 of the various duties assigned him. Whose ser 
 vices were of singular importance to his com 
 mander, and to the public interest." 
 
 
 In this connection, we shall continue to exhibit 
 the civil service of Lieutenant Bartlett, and for 
 the reason that it not only shows eminent ability 
 as an officer of the government, but because it 
 enabled him to execute the plans for improve 
 ments, which his service on the western coast had 
 shown him to be necessary, and which the gov- 
 ment adopted at his suggestion. 
 
 In the publication of the coast survey, we find 
 that Lieutenant Bartlett was the first officer who 
 called the attention of the government to the ab 
 solute and immediate necessity for lighting the 
 approaches to San Francisco, and a general plan
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 303 
 
 for the western coast. The subsequent examina 
 tions for exact sites for these works, exhibit the 
 closeness of his observations, as they were ulti 
 mately placed on the points designated by him in 
 his original communication. It was natural, 
 therefore, that the commercial interests of the 
 western coast . should look to him, to aid their 
 delegations in Congress in procuring for that 
 coast, such illuminations for the pathways of 
 commerce, as science and high mechanical skill 
 could produce. And to prevent being supplied 
 to that important region of our coast, any system 
 which scientific investigation had condemned, 
 but which had been so universally and pertina 
 ciously adopted on the Atlantic coast, by the late 
 general superintendent (who, for forty years or 
 more, controlled that department), and who, no 
 doubt, conscientiously believed that no improve 
 ment could be made on the then existing system ! 
 And yet such were his fears that it might be over 
 turned, that he reported officially to Congress, that 
 light-houses, so far from being useful, had become 
 public nuisances ! Hence it was, that Lieutenant 
 Bartlett determined to enlighten the hon. gentle 
 man who then presided over the Treasury, on the 
 vast importance of the subject to our commercial
 
 304 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 interest on that coast. The Secretary could not 
 resist their adoption ; he recalled the contracts 
 already made on the old system, and reluctantly 
 embraced the new. 
 
 Herein we discover the reasons why the Hon. 
 Mr. Corwin should have selected Lieutenant 
 Bartlett to proceed to Paris for further informa 
 tion, and to superintend the execution for the 
 general introduction of the ,Fresnel system 
 throughout the United States. 
 
 What was the result ? Why plainly this, that 
 Bartlett's reports from Paris the only position 
 where the examination could be made in detail- 
 caused the Department to adopt the system gene 
 rally on the Atlantic as well as Pacific coast. Con 
 gress having already passed a law giving the depart 
 ment the power to change or improve the lights, 
 as the public interests should require, the advo 
 cates of the old torchlight system were zealous 
 in their opposition to the improvements in France, 
 and the Secretary of the Treasury, doubting the 
 extent to which the Fresnel system could be car 
 ried, and being responsible for what he should 
 adopt, sent Lieutenant Bartlett as an enlightened 
 confidential agent, to Paris, in his behalf, and in 
 structed him, in part, as follows :
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 305 
 
 TRKASTJRT DSPARTMBKT, June 16, 1862. 
 
 SIB: Congress having authorized the construction of light-houses 
 at different points on the Pacific, the department contemplates fur 
 nishing them with the improved French lens, provided the needful 
 appropriation can be obtained to cover the increased expense ; but 
 previous to giving any positive orders for the purchase of them, it 
 wishes to obtain particular and detailed information upon A!! points 
 connected with the subject, and for that purpose has appointed you 
 to proceed to Paris. 
 
 You will, on your arrival, make yourself acquainted with the 
 different manufacturers of these lens, and ascertain whether there is 
 any choice between them as to the quality and excellence of their 
 work and their respective prices. The department wishes you to 
 procure the latter in detail. 
 
 With this you will receive a copy of a communication from the 
 Light-house Board on the subject of the French lens. The depart 
 ment has not yet approved of this report ; and it is not, therefore, 
 furnished to you as a guide, but merely in case it may contain some 
 details or information which might be useful to you. The department 
 will make no determination as to the kinds or orders of the lighting 
 apparatus and fixtures as recommended in this report, until after it 
 hears from you. 
 
 It has been suggested that the sixth order lens could be advan 
 tageously employed in various small lights on the coasts and harbors 
 of the United States, without making any other change except sub 
 stituting them for the present reflectors. You will please ascertain 
 on what terms this order of lens can be procured with a suitable 
 mechanical, or other lamp, and without other fixtures or accessories 
 of any kind ; or if you find, on inquiry, any of the latter would be 
 absolutely necessary, in order to make the suggested change, then 
 to include the cost of them also ; but to have nothing of the kind 
 that is not absolutely necessary. 
 
 The department, after hearing from you as regards these the 
 smaller sized lens and obtaining further information in connection 
 with the subject of this size, may probably try the experiment with 
 six or eight of the smaller light-houses, and if it succeeds, extend 
 to a much larger number. 
 
 The department would also wish to have the statement of cost 
 for any different kinds of materials whicli are, or can be used in the 
 construction of these apparatus, such as bronze, copper, iron, etc.,
 
 306 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 which might be indiscriminately used, with your views as to which 
 would be most advisable under all the circumstances. 
 
 Your report will also include the kind and cost of all the need 
 ful items necessary for the use of the light keeper, as connected with 
 the due care and operation of the light after it has been completed 
 and put into use, including not only such items as will be perma 
 nently required for the above purpose, but likewise, those which 
 are in regular consumption, estimating the supply of the latter for 
 a period of one year.
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 307 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WHILE the Light-house Board, by action of 
 its Chairman and Secretary, Shubrick and Jen 
 kins, have studiously kept Lieutenant Bartlett's 
 name out of view in all their reports, they have 
 made free use of his labors in those same docu 
 ments, and his important services for the safety 
 of our Navy and commerce are appropriated by 
 them as the result of their own investigation. 
 But when to induce the Secretary to give his con 
 fidence to the newly elected Board it suited their 
 purpose to refer to the action of Bartlett in Paris. 
 They write thus : 
 
 TREASURY DFPARTMENT, LIGHT-HOUSE BOARD, I 
 
 November IT, 1852. f 
 
 SIR : Your communication of Saturday last, with the accompany 
 ing report, papers, and drawings, from Lieutenant Bartlett, U. S. N., 
 special agent of the Treasury Department in Paris, to procure illu 
 minating apparatus for the light-houses on the western coast, have 
 been received, and in reply I am directed by the Board to say 
 
 1st. That the manner in which the duty of Lieutenant Bartlett 
 has thus far been discharged, merits their fullest approbation, and 
 that his report is full of information, and very explicit. 
 
 2d. That they recommend the Treasury Department to send
 
 SOS AW AMEfclCAN fflBBO 
 
 to Lieutenant Bartlett the snm of 48,500 francs, to meet the con 
 tracts made by him, as requested in his report to the Department. 
 These contracts are, in the opinion of the Board, made on very 
 favorable terms. 
 
 3d. That they recommend to the Treasury Department to autho 
 rize Lieutenant Bartlett to make contracts for the illuminating ap 
 paratus for the remaining lights recommended by the Board. 
 
 The Board has already taken steps preliminary to ordering the 
 illuminating apparatus for Sand Key, and now being informed by 
 Lieutenant Bartlett's report that the apparatus is finished, will com 
 plete the action contemplated. 
 
 I have the honor to be, 
 
 Very respectfully. 
 
 Your ob't servant. 
 (Signed,) WM. BfcANfoftfc SirtffiBKjfc, 
 
 Chairman Light-Howe oard. 
 The Hon. Secretary oftht Treatury. 
 
 Again, the Secretary, in his second letter, ad 
 dressed to Lieutenant Bartlett, writes : 
 
 deferring to the letter of instructions from the department, under 
 date of 16th inst., I have now to state that the amounts which 
 will be deducted from the contracts for building eight of the light 
 houses on the coast of the Pacific, in consequence of dispensing 
 with the lanterns and reflectors, specified in said contracts, will 
 enable the department to give a positive order for a portion of the 
 contemplated supply of French lens ; you are, therefore, authorized, 
 after your arrival in Paris, and having made yourself acquainted on 
 all the points alluded to in the above letter of instructions, to con 
 tract for a Fresnel lens, of a size not exceeding the third order, for 
 the light-house on Fort Point, and, also, for the one on Alcatross 
 Island, San Francisco Bay, and have them completed and shipped 
 as promptly as possible. 
 
 And then, referring to the economy which 
 should govern his operations, adds :
 
 THE VICTIM OF JL CONSPIRACY. 309 
 
 But the department, in this, as well as on all other points connected 
 with your mission, depends upon your beat judgment and discretion 
 being exercised, in purchasing everything on the most favorable 
 terms, consistent with a due regard to having proper workman 
 ship and materials. 
 
 In the very teeth of this plenary power con 
 ferred on Bartlett by the Treasury Department, 
 Lieutenant Misroon, when speaking for the Navy 
 Board, before the Naval Committee of the Sen 
 ate, affirmed "that Bartlett was ordered to no 
 other duty than to enter into contracts for eight 
 illuminating apparatus !" And Jenkins, secretary 
 of the Light-house Board, who acted as the 
 jackal, or lackey to the Navy Board, supports 
 Misroon, in the face of his own instructions to 
 Bartlett, of various dates, in 1852-3-4: 
 
 OFFICE LIUHT-HOUSH BOARD, 
 WASHINGTON Crrv, October 154ft, 1852. 
 
 DUIR SIB: I have written to-day to M. Lepaute, in relation to- 
 the apparatus for Sand Key, to which you called my attention in 
 your private note to me some weeks since. 
 
 If the apparatus can be had, I am authorized to say that the 
 Board will give the necessary orders to have it forwarded without 
 delay, and prompt payment provided. 
 
 I wish you would see M. Lepaute, and explain to him fnlly the 
 difference between the light-house, as at present organized, and the 
 previous mode of managing the lights of this country. We may 
 want some third, fourth, fifth, and sixth orders of lenses, and I wish 
 you would ascertain, from both Lepaute's and Letourneau's estab 
 lishments, what are the prospects of onr getting these different 
 orders, and in what numbers, within the next year, and if there is 
 any change of prices. 
 
 Messrs. Sautter & Co. have been informed, as well as M. Lepaute,
 
 310 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 that you will have the direction, examination, and test of all these 
 articles so long as you remain in Paris, after which steps will be 
 taken to obtain a proper person to attend to setting up and examin 
 ing such as may be ordered. If these orders can be filled at an 
 early day, another will follow immediately. 
 
 The implements, tools, etc., and a year's supply of the articles 
 enumerated in the list No. 1, are desired to accompany the Sand 
 Key apparatus when it is shipped. 
 
 The articles enumerated in lists No. 1 and 2, as well as the ap 
 paratus ordered, must be of the quality, quantities, and prices of the 
 French administration, without they can- be had for less. 
 
 If the little lighting lamps, called " Lucernes," do not cost more 
 than a trifle each, you may order a number of them. 
 
 I wish you would forward us something of a practicable kind, 
 relating to Colza oil. Any printed or manuscript notes on the sub 
 ject, will be most thankfully received, and the expense of purchase 
 refunded. 
 
 Your letter of the 12th, 13th, and 14th ultimo., to this Board, 
 with inclosures, have been received, and your letter of the 14th ult., 
 to the Secretary of the Treasury, has been referred to this office. 
 
 The Sand Key apparatus will, probably, be applied to the Cape 
 Hatteras tower, to save time; but the order for the duplicate, with 
 a lantern, can be changed, as you suggest, to a duplicate of the one 
 for the Farrallones and Cordouan. The lantern should accompany 
 it ; but it is desired that no unnecessary expense should be incurred 
 in constructing the lanterns, particularly now, that iron and copper 
 are both so high. The desire of the Board is utility, with as little 
 ornament, not necessary to the efficiency of the objects, as possible. 
 The best lights, at the smallest expense, consistent with utility and 
 economy. 
 
 And, if these are not sufficient, we are pro 
 vided with the testimony of Professor Bache, to 
 gether with Professor Henry, the distinguished 
 scientific members of the Board, who have given 
 prestige, in the public judgment, to that institu 
 tion, and whom we know unite in their appre-
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 311 
 
 elation of the services of Lieutenant Bartlett, as 
 conveyed in the following note : 
 
 WASHINGTON, December 5th, 1858. 
 
 MY DEAR SIK: 
 
 *********** 
 
 I Lave not seen Lieutenant Jenkins, or the Light-house Board, 
 since my return to Washington, but expect to do so soon. When 
 last here, your doings had given great satisfaction. For myself, I 
 do not believe we could have succeeded, in any other way, so well, 
 in setting our machine in motion, as in the way we took by sug 
 gesting to the Secretary of the Treasury to send you abroad. 
 
 Yours, truly, 
 Signed, A. D. BAOHB. 
 
 LJBCT. W. A. BARTLKTT, U. 8. 2f., Parit. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Americans, note the fact that, when Bart 
 lett was sent to Paris, this Light-house Board 
 had not even been created by law ; and, when 
 it was, the Secretary of the Treasury, under 
 whose instructions Bartlett was then acting, 
 became, ex officio, the President of that Board ! 
 What, then, do we see ? That, every subsequent 
 act of the especial agency at Paris is commu 
 nicated to that Board, for its approval, by the 
 Secretary of the Treasury ; and through which 
 Board the Secretary only communicated with tho 
 agent ever afterwards. 
 
 Can any intelligent reader fail thus to see
 
 312 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 that Bartlett was held responsible for the faithful 
 execution of every suggestion of that Board, and 
 the same discretionary power that was given 
 when he derived the appointment was maintained 
 to the last ? His suggestions were adopted, his 
 plans and contracts were approved ; and the 
 work, when finished, from time to time, was 
 pronounced by the French engineers as of the 
 finest possible execution. The expenditures for 
 this delicate, yet substantial illuminating power, 
 amounting to nearly three hundred thousand 
 dollars, were paid only on his certificates of the 
 exactness of the work, and in precise accordance 
 with the wishes of the government. These bills 
 being, in every instance, less than the originally 
 approved estimate. 
 
 The importance of all this will be best shown 
 by the Board's own reports to Congress, January 
 15th, 1853. The Senate session of XXXIId Con 
 gress, Vol. V. The Board having convened at the 
 Treasury Department, on the 9th of October last, 
 were duly organized by their President, the Hon. 
 Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
 Since that date the Board has executed, under the direction of 
 the Treasury Department, all the administrative duties relating to 
 the management of the light-house establishment. 
 
 It relies upon the officers to direct their first attention to the
 
 THE yiCTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 313 
 
 fulfillment of the wants of the navigator, for whose benefit the 
 establishment exists. 
 
 In an economical point of view, it is of equally great importance. 
 This subject has occupied the attention of those charged with the 
 management of European lights for many years.* 
 
 * Three years previous to Lieutenant Bartlett's mission to Europe, 
 a conditional or indirect order had been given to Mr. Henry Lepaute 
 of Paris to construct a proper lens light for Sand Key, Florida, and 
 another for Carysfort Reef, on that coast, by the late J. W. P. 
 Lewis, Marine and Light-house Engineer, who had obtained the 
 passage of a special act of Congress for those lights. The opposi 
 tion of the then existing Light-house Department to this great 
 improvement was so intense, that it succeeded in causing the Carys 
 fort Reef lens to be sold at auction, at the New York Custom 
 House, for $600, although the Government had indirectly con 
 tracted to pay $9,000 for it; and as by this act Mr. Lepaute had 
 lost all hope of being repaid for that beautiful work (and did finally, 
 when in 1853 the Government received possession of it, actually 
 lose over $3,000 dollars in expenses), he of course suspended work 
 on the order of Sand Key. But Lieut. Bartlett, on reaching Paris, 
 having tested the work as it stood in the atelier, and pledged him 
 self personally to Mr. Lepaute to procure its sale to the Government 
 if he would but finish it, Mr. Lepaute did so on Lieut. Bartlett's 
 individual credit. 
 
 As the new Light-house Board had got to work in November, 
 Mr. Bartlett's report upon it to the Secretary of the Treasury, and 
 asking its purchase, was sent to them, and enabled them to put it 
 up at once in Sand Key, the work of the Chairman and Secretary of 
 the Light-house Board. 
 
 There is one other circumstance in connection with this light 
 which must be told, as it shows that from the very beginning Mr. 
 Thornton A. Jenkins, who, although a Lieutenant in the Navy and 
 Secretary of the old and new Light-house Board, was not only 
 determined that Lieut. Bartlett should not have any public credit 
 for his work, but was also determined to cheat him by a trick out 
 of his rights to be paid his "reasonable" expenses while serving in 
 Europe. 
 
 Lieut. Bartlett had filed a bond in the Treasury for $15,000, 
 
 14
 
 314 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 Estimates to be of any value should be based upon a faitlifnl 
 examination of the different works by competent and disinterested 
 persons. 
 
 The lights authorized to ~be built on the Pacific coast were trans 
 ferred to the management of the Board on the 22d December, 1852. 
 
 The officer charged with the purchase of the remainder of the 
 lights contracted for on the western coast, having received his 
 instructions from the Secretary of the Treasury direct, it remains 
 for the Board to see that they are faithfully carried out, and that 
 the lights be supplied with them without unnecessary delay. 
 
 signed by Win. H. Aspinwall and Henry Grinnell, and Drake Mills, 
 as security for his faithful disbursement of the public money. Jen 
 kins has Bartlett's approval of Mr. Lepaute's prices for the Sand 
 Key apparatus, approved by the Board; then obtains from the 
 Treasury the exact sum of money requisite to pay it, having it 
 charged to Lieutenant Bartlett's account, as a disbursing officer of 
 the Government, and remits it to him, made payable to Mr. Le 
 paute's order, and asks Bartlett to send back the vouchers to the 
 Department ; Bartlett, never dreaming, from the tenor of the letter, 
 that he was charged with the money, sent back the vouchers, 4 eav- 
 ing the name of the paying officer in blank ; this voucher is now in 
 the Treasury Department, with the blank filled up in Jenkins' hand 
 writing, as if paid by the " Secretary of the Treasury." Why, but 
 to prepare himself to contest Bartlett's right to have his expenses 
 refunded, to an amount equal to three per cent, on the expenditures, 
 provided his expenses should amount to that sum ? 
 
 That Lieutenant Bartlett was the agent, responsible to the Treas 
 ury Department for the money expended for refitting Hatteras 
 light with its new illuminator, is incontrovertible, vide the follow 
 ing official letter : 
 
 TMUSUBT DEFARTMK.-T, 
 
 OFFICI or COMMISSIOXBR or CUSTOMS, January IZtfi, 1S54. 
 
 SIB: Your account for fitting Cape Hatteras light with first 
 order of illuminating apparatus, has been adjusted and closed on 
 the books of the Treasury. 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 Signed, H. J. ANDERSON, 
 
 C&mmiwioncr of Custom*. 
 LIFTT. W. A. BABTLTT, 
 
 Agent for fitting Cape Hatteras light, etc.
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 315 
 
 The Board, having the benefit of Bartlett's 
 reports on his investigations abroad, showing the 
 high point of efficiency and economy to which 
 the system had arrived, stated to Congress, " that 
 they would proceed with the gradual introduction 
 of a better description of illuminating apparatus, 
 the superiority of which is no longer to be ques 
 tioned, by adopting a system of instruction 
 founded upon scientific attainments and practical 
 knowledge." 
 
 When Lieut. Bartlett left Paris, he had super 
 intended, inspected, approved, and shipped to the 
 United States, to the order of the Light-house 
 Board, sixty-three Fresnel luminators, several of 
 which, especially of the great light off San Fran 
 cisco, exceeded in power any light ever previously 
 constructed in any part of the world, having the 
 power of six thousand six hundred Argand 
 burners concentrated in a single beam ! It now 
 flashes upon the mariner every consecutive mi 
 nute from sunset to sunrise ! 
 
 A duplicate of the same power he also con 
 structed for the Atlantic coast. Hon. John Y. 
 Mason, Ex-Secretary of the Navy, and Minister 
 to France, who, in company with other mem 
 bers of the diplomatic corps, and distinguished
 
 316 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 savaris of Europe, including Fresnel, surviving 
 brother of the inventor, Messrs. Reynaud and 
 Degrand, engineers of the French Light-house 
 Department, often attended the exhibitions of 
 Lieutenant Bartlett, attesting the power of these 
 lights ; and the Hon. Mr. Mason thus addressed 
 the Secretary of the Treasury : 
 
 UHITED STATES LEGATION, 
 
 PARIS, September Zd, 1854. 
 
 DEAR SIR: Lieutenant Bartlett, of the United States Navy, is 
 about leaving Paris, on his return to the United States. It gives 
 me great pleasure to bear my testimony to the care and vigilance 
 with which this gentleman has performed his responsible duties, 
 since I have been here, and to express my admiration of the splen 
 did lights which have been manufactured under his supervision for 
 the coasts of the United States. 
 
 I do not believe that there are, in the world, superior mechanical 
 structures for the safety of commerce than those which have been 
 prepared here, under the superintendence of Mr. Bartlett. The 
 chief credit is, unquestionably, due to the faithful and skillful man 
 ufacturers, but no small share is, in my judgment, due to Mr. Bart 
 lett, who has displayed zeal, industry, and intelligence, in the per 
 formance of his duties. I hope that you will not consider me obtru 
 sive in thus expressing my admiration of the lens lights, prepared 
 here for the exposed and dangerous coasts of my country. 
 I have the honor to be, most respectfully, 
 
 J. Y. MASON. 
 
 Box. JAMES GCTHBIE, 
 
 Secretary of the Treasury, Washington. 
 
 Having disposed of this assertion, that the 
 duties of Lieut. Bartlett were limited, we now 
 advert to another statement of Misroon, speaking 
 for the Naval Board, that he (Bartlett) claimed
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 317 
 
 expenses for constructing sixty-three light-house 
 illuminators ; but he was ordered to attend to no 
 other duty than to enter into contracts for eight 
 illuminating apparatus. This is absolutely and 
 most unqualifiedly untrue. 
 
 And this is met by the official letter of the Au 
 ditor of the Treasury, to which we call the atten 
 tion of the reader. 
 
 WASHINGTON, April 21<, 1866. 
 
 SIR : I am in possession of yonr letter of the 18th inst., request 
 ing me to furnish you copies of all the reports made by me in the 
 settlement of your accounts as the special agent of the Treasury 
 Department, for the purchase of light-house apparatus, etc., during 
 the years 1852, '53, 54, and '55. 
 
 The reports made by me in the settlement of your accounts, are 
 on file in the office of the Register of the Treasury, which is the 
 appropriate office to obtain copies. 
 
 You also ask, if I will state whether there is anything in the ac 
 counts rendered by you, or in the correspondence relating thereto, 
 calculated to impugn your personal or official honor ; and whether 
 your accounts were not rendered in a full and business-like man 
 ner. 
 
 In the settlement of your accounts, there was not anything that, 
 in the slightest degree, tended to impugn your personal or official 
 honor. 
 
 Your accounts were rendered in a full and business-like manner. 
 Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 T. L. SMITH 
 
 WASHINGTON A. BAKTLKTT, Esq.
 
 318 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 And we ask now, who are the public bound to 
 trust, the sworn auditor of the government, 
 whose business it is to investigate and pass upon 
 the accounts of all its officers, and which in this, 
 as in all other cases, were again inspected by the 
 Comptroller of the Treasury, or that Jacobin 
 slander of a secret Inquisition, whose purpose 
 it was to create a spot to blast the victim they had 
 marked out for their destruction. 
 
 Remember, Americans, that this same cabal did 
 ten years ago signally fail in a similar attempt 
 to injure the fair fame of the same gallant officer. 
 Why was he the subject then, of their low, petty, 
 ill-natured, unmerited slander, but because of the 
 rising character of the man, his genius, his enter 
 prise and promise, which at that day on the 
 " Portsmouth," excited the envy common to vul 
 gar minds. 
 
 It is sufficient for us to say, that after the indis 
 putable testimony of the sworn Auditor of the 
 Treasury, whose language we repeat, " that in the 
 settlement of your (Bartlett's) accounts, there was 
 not anything that, in the slightest degree, tended to

 
 THE VICTIM OP A CONSPIRACY. 819 
 
 impugn your (his) personal or official honor," that 
 we shall not enlarge upon this subject, except to 
 say, that Lieutenant Bartlett was sent abroad by 
 his government, with powers and duties for his 
 employment, and a discretion in their exercise, 
 with which it would have honored the oldest in 
 the public service of the country to have been 
 charged. That he performed them with signal 
 ability, to the entile satisfaction of two adminis 
 trations of different political sentiments, we know. 
 That he was sent upon a mission which was to 
 enlarge by his capacity and industry ; that he 
 was found equal to the task. Upon his labor 
 and researches great public improvement, which 
 gives protection to the navy and to commerce 
 along the vast coast of the United States, has 
 resulted. Two little lights in the Bay of San 
 Francisco had not long shown this improved 
 illuminating power, before Lieutenant Bartlett 
 had caused sixty-three to be constructed, and 
 shipped to the United States. These have now 
 expanded until upwards of three hundred illu 
 mine and bless the pathway of the mariner ! 
 
 It was not supposed that the original orders 
 would have extended to such a vast work, and 
 over so long a period of time. Nor could it have
 
 320 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 been supposed then, how much expenditure it 
 would involve. He was to be paid his " reason 
 able personal expenses," provided those expenses 
 should not exceed three per cent, upon the 
 amounts expended on that business. This would 
 have admitted for personal expenses, a sum of 
 nearly four thousand dollars. He faithfully exe 
 cuted his work, and is commended throughout for 
 all his proceedings. And presents an account for 
 his expenses, in accordance with his instructions. 
 These expenses covering nearly twenty- seven 
 months. The travel from Washington to Paris, 
 vi& England, and general expenses abroad, 
 amounted in the aggregate, to the sum of four 
 thousand and eleven dollars. Of this amount, 
 the auditor passed to his credit, the sum Of three 
 thousand seven hundred and fifty two dollars, and 
 eighteen cents. And here we remark, that every 
 public minister, indeed, almost every agent of the 
 government, who ever presented an account, has 
 had some items suspended or rejected. But, who 
 but a "Council of Ten," or an "Inquisition of 
 Fifteen," would dare, for this reason, to call their 
 high integrity in question ? 
 
 Lieutenant Bartlett's account was settled at the 
 treasury, with a balance in his favor ; although
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 321 
 
 the Hon. Secretary of the Treasury exercised the 
 power of construing his predecessors' instructions, 
 with a narrowness of view illy according with 
 the magnitude of the powers conferred by them. 
 And while he limited Lieutenant Bartlett's ex 
 penses to an amount not exceeding three per 
 cent, on the amount which that officer had him 
 self disbursed abroad, instead of allowing his 
 reasonable personal expenses not to exceed three 
 per cent, on the amount expended in the busi 
 ness ! and which the department knew, by its 
 own records, to be near three hundred thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 Bartlett made no claim as of right ; he rested 
 upon a liberal interpretation of his instructions. 
 He knew that he had faithfully performed his 
 duty ; he knew that a sum larger than three per 
 cent, had been saved the government on every con 
 tract ; he knew that a less sum of money than 
 the contract called for had paid it ; for, with 
 these savings, he had defrayed these very per 
 sonal expenses, without calling on the Depart 
 ment to do so. 
 
 One hundred and ten dollars and sixty-two 
 cents was the full amount of money required to 
 be taken from the treasury, to pay Lieutenant 
 
 H*
 
 322 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 Bartlett's personal expenses ! The balance had 
 been paid, by his savings on the amounts placed 
 in his hands, to cancel contracts. And, had no 
 part of the whole amount, which was placed to 
 his credit by the auditor, been arbitrarily with 
 held by the Secretary of the Treasury, there 
 would still have been but one thousand and thir 
 ty-nine dollars drawn from the treasury, on ac 
 count of his expenses ! 
 
 The Secretary allowed but three per cent, on 
 ninety thousand four hundred and thirteen dollars, 
 and ninety cents, while the books of the Register 
 of the Treasury show that Lieutenant Bartlett 
 actually disbursed and accounted for one hundred 
 and two thousand three hundred and ninety-four 
 dollars, and eight cents ; and while he claimed 
 no commissions, he had a right, in the common 
 sense view of the matter, as well as in the opinion 
 of eminent jurists, to claim his "reasonable ex 
 penses." He did this and nothing more. It was 
 the Board, and not Bartlett, who suggested, in 
 their report to the Secretary, the propriety of 
 paying commissions, on the amounts disbursed 
 by Bartlett, as "a partial reimbursement," and 
 which drew forth from the Secretary the follow 
 ing letter :
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 323 
 
 TREASURY DEPARTMENT, January 3d, 1856. 
 
 SIB : I have read the inclosed communication from Mr. Bartlett, 
 upon the subject of his claim for expenses, to and from Paris, and 
 whilst there. |* 
 
 Mr. Bartlett, being an officer of the government, and appointed 
 to go to Paris, was promised, as his letter of appointment shows, his 
 expenses in going and returning, and whilst there, not to exceed the 
 sum of three per cent, on the amount disbursed, as expressed in the 
 letter of appointment. The account, being stated on the principle 
 of allowing three per cent, on the amount disbursed, is not properly 
 stated. It should be stated by allowing the expense, in strict com 
 pliance with the letter of appointment, not to exceed three per cent. 
 This will require a re-statement of the account, and, when his 
 vouchers are not sufficient, yon will apprise him, and allow him 
 time to make them right. 
 
 I am, very respectfully, 
 
 JAMES GTTTHBIE, 
 
 Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
 H. J. ANDERSON, Esq., Commissioner of Customs. 
 
 Here, we find that astute and mighty official 
 expresses his opinion that Bartlett really did 
 have a letter of appointment ! 
 
 SECTION m. 
 
 But the Secretary was not ignorant of what 
 duties Bartlett had performed, as we find this 
 letter had previously enlightened him. 
 
 I (Mr. Bartlett) requested the Secretary "to have in view the 
 fact that I superintended, inspected, and shipped, to the United 
 States, for the Light-house Board (which is not less a part of the 
 Treasury Department), fifty-five illuminators for the Atlantic coast 
 (including Hatteras, etc.), and costing over eight hundred thousand
 
 324 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 francs, for which no expenses of agency or superintendency hate been 
 incurred, in any quarter, and CEBTAINLY NOT CLAIMED BY ME." * 
 
 r 
 
 He understood, perfectly well, that sixty-three 
 of these Fresnel lenses had, under the supervision, 
 of Bartlett, been constructed from 1st September, 
 1852, to 1st September, 1854 ; a greater num 
 ber than any other country has ever constructed 
 in ten years ! 
 
 * At the time Lieutenant Bartlett was serving abroad, the State 
 Department had occasion to send a sealed dispatch to Madrid, via 
 Paris. Ex-Governor Winslow, of North Carolina, now a member 
 of Congress, was selected for this special mission ; he was absent 
 from the United States just sixty-nirte days! and his expense ac 
 count was audited, after the regulation of some items, and paid by 
 the Department, as follows : 
 
 For expenses, $617 00 
 
 For pay, sixty-nine days, at $6 00 . . *, , . k . . $414 00 
 
 Total . . . ..... . $1031 00 
 
 Or, fourteen dollars ninety-four and one-fifth cents per day. 
 
 Lieutenant Bartlett was on foreign service of real responsibility, 
 from June 16th, 1852, to September 18th, 1854, a period of eight 
 hundred and twenty-one days, at the following cost to the govern 
 ment : 
 
 For his pay, as a Lieutenant in the Navy, being set down in the 
 Navy Register, on "special service in Europe," 
 
 For two years and three months ...... 8875 00 
 
 For " partial reimbursement of bis expenses," . . . 2712 42 
 
 Total . . . . . ". ,. V-' 1 , 608742 
 
 $6087 42 -f- 821 days = $7 41 per day, or, less than one half 
 the daily expenses of the Hon. Ex- Governor for carrying a dis 
 patch ! ! ! 
 
 Had the whole amount of Lieutenant Bartlett's expenses been paid, 
 it would have amounted to nine dollars and ten cents per day, for 
 pay and expenses !
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 325 
 
 Having shown something of the military and 
 civil character of Lieutenant Bartlett in the ser 
 vice of the country, we find peculiar pleasure in 
 directing Americans to his claims as a philanthro 
 pist. Here, as in other relations, he furnishes the 
 most undissembled evidences of a genuine feeling 
 for his fellow man. '-:'- " f 
 
 In the Winter of 1846 and '47, it is known 
 Lieutenant B. was chief magistrate of San Fran 
 cisco, where, in aiding and assisting the settler, 
 and frequently in protecting the houseless, he was 
 not less eminently useful to that young commu 
 nity, than in the preservation of law and order. 
 During his magistracy, breadstuffs became so en 
 hanced in price, by the action of speculators, as to 
 threaten immediate famine among the suffering 
 poor. Bartlett, foreseeing the result upon that 
 class, became himself immediately responsible to a 
 large amount for flour, binding the importer to 
 
 At this very time, the Secretary of the Treasury was allowing to 
 officers of the army, who were superintending public works, such 
 as the extension of the Treasury Building, and the Custom House, 
 and Light-house Inspector, at Portland, or any other superinteri- 
 dency in the civil service of the Treasury, a sum equal (including 
 his army pay), to eight dollars per day. Would an addition of one 
 dollar and ten cents per day, for such foreign service as Lieutenant 
 Bartlett rendered, with the remarkable economy and saving he pro 
 duced, have been an extravagant sum ?
 
 326 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 deliver it in single barrels only, to all comers at a 
 fixed low price, until all families should be sup 
 plied. And thus brought upon him the grateful 
 appreciation of that large and helpless class of 
 emigrants. 
 
 On another occasion, Bartlett, while chief mag 
 istrate, received a letter from the venerable Judge 
 of Sacramento, giving intelligence that some 
 eighty-five men and women were then perishing 
 in the snows of the Sierra Nevada, sixteen having 
 escaped after many weeks' detention. Bartlett 
 called the people together, and in the most affect 
 ing address to their humanity, besought their aid 
 for these sufferers, largely leading the subscrip 
 tion. The appeal was successful, and with pro 
 visions, blankets, and clothing, chief magistrate 
 Bartlett selected and dispatched this relief through 
 Midshipman Woodworth, son of the poet, late a 
 Senator of California ; and by this timely inter 
 position of Bartlett, these people were saved. 
 
 When commander of the "Ewing," in the Pacific, 
 Bartlett encountered a British ship from Panama, 
 bound to California. As its commander responded 
 "all well," Bartlett ordered his vessel "filled 
 away," when a shout went up from two hundred 
 suffering souls on board, "water, water, water!"
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 327 
 
 These people were on short allowances of half 
 pint per man, and the barbarous commander did 
 not wish it known to a United States vessel which 
 had outsailed and passed him at sea. 
 
 Bartlett instantly ordered the unfeeling com 
 mander to " back his top-sails," and wait until he 
 placed provisions and water on board, sufficient 
 to supply the pressing wants of these people, 
 which was speedily done. The whole country 
 will remember the appeals of Lieutenant Bartlett 
 through the "Washington and New York papers, 
 in behalf of the sufferers of the Cape de Verde 
 Islands ; as well as his address before the Corn 
 Exchange in that city, in which, in addition to his 
 own large contribution to this charity, Bartlett 
 tendered his own personal services to take the pro 
 visions himself to that unfortunate people free of 
 all charge. And he did not go simply because 
 passing vessels were found through which this as 
 sistance was forwarded, thus saving the necessity 
 of fitting out a ship for the especial purpose. 
 Thus did Bartlett perform his promise to the 
 people when he left the " Jamestown !" And 
 although called suddenly home, broken in the 
 service by conspirators against his fame, and de 
 prived of his pay, he stopped at the Canaries, sent
 
 328 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 money on shore, and by his indefatigable exertions 
 with friends and acquaintances, caused a supply 
 of the necessaries of life to be at once dispatched 
 to the starving Islanders, from the nearest points. 
 At Madeira and at Lisbon he made similar appeals, 
 and such was the estimate in which he was held 
 as a distinguished naval officer of the United 
 States, that food in immense quantities at once 
 went to that land of starvation and woe. The 
 American Consulate at each of these ports, and 
 the American Minister at Lisbon, long after Bart- 
 lett's return to the United States, tendered him 
 the thanks of the people and the Government for 
 the successful efforts of a wise philanthropy in 
 saving from death so many of the human family. 
 
 The archives of the Portuguese Legation in New 
 York city furnish these facts. It was by Lieu 
 tenant Bartlett's interposition, aided by Dr. Cly- 
 mer, fleet-surgeon of the African Squadron, that 
 famine was stayed, and the pestilence removed 
 from them. 
 
 Americans, if Rome decreed a civic crown to 
 him who had saved the life of but one citizen, 
 what should have been the reward to one like 
 Bartlett, whose record proves him a rare bene 
 factor of his race ?
 
 THE VICTIM OP A CONSPIRACY. 329 
 
 And yet, while in the performance of acts like 
 these, which elevated his national, as well as per 
 sonal character, we find a small lieutenant, devoid 
 of any consequence through his services, and 
 without a solitary claim upon the respect or gra 
 titude of a single junior, exercising his unmiti 
 gated selfishness and envy, by daring to assail, in 
 the secret councils of an inquisition, a man like 
 Bartlett, whom the God of nature has made his 
 superior. 
 
 And this same Misroon, the implacable enemy 
 of Lieutenant Bartlett, has maligned the char 
 acter of that officer, by assailing his personal and 
 official reputation, and in the face of the most 
 irrefragable proof, asserted that Bartlett was with 
 out friends in the Pacific Squadron, or the asso 
 ciation which belonged to officers of his rank. 
 
 No friends ! No social intercourse ! Let us 
 see ! Bartlett commanded the " Argo," an armed 
 prize in the Gulf of California, and subsequently, 
 another brig, also a prize to the "Portsmouth,'' 
 and as such, was continually consulted by Shu- 
 brick, for the local information of the coast which 
 he possessed, and was a constant guest at his 
 table, as he was at every table in the squadron. 
 
 Lieutenants Chatard, Heywood, Selden, Wise,
 
 330 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 Montgomery and Henry Lewis, M'Cree, Stanley, 
 Maddox, Tansil, M'Lanahan (killed at San Jose"), 
 Duncan, Carter, Stephen H. Rowan, Bullock, the 
 gallant and deservedly popular commander of the 
 "Cahawba" steam packet-ship ; Fleet-Surgeon 
 Dr. Charles Chase, Captain Watson, M. C., Lieu 
 tenant Revere, Pursers Rodman M. Price (the 
 present Governor of New Jersey), Spieden, the 
 late Dr. Powell, etc., etc., etc. ; Mr. John Par- 
 rott, and Mr. Bolton at Mazatlan ; Mr. Larkin at 
 Monterey, and Lienenduff, Howard, Mellus, etc., 
 etc., at San Francisco, American consuls and 
 merchants, at whose houses and tables Lieutenant 
 Bartlett was ever a welcome guest. These, with 
 scores too numerous to mention here, were then 
 his friends, and remain so to this day.* 
 
 * Young Midshipman Downs, the brother-in-law of Misroon, who 
 joined the Portsmouth at Misroon's solicitation, has become ever 
 since the warm and intimate friend of Bartlett, and subsequently 
 visited him at Key West, to renew the association, and recur to 
 their travels in the Pacific and Mexican services. 
 
 There are other ways besides, which society recognizes as the 
 true test of friendly consideration ! We have seen the notes and 
 obligations for money, which Bartlett holds over the sign manual 
 of his brother officers. And Lieutenant William Gibson, Captain 
 J. 0. Rich, marine corps, Lieutenant Hart, Dr. Hill, Lieutenants 
 Hanell, Harrison, Perry, and others, will attest that no officer ever 
 called on Lieutenant Bartlett for pecuniary aid, who did not 
 receive it.
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 331 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 In this connection we will for a moment ask 
 the reader's attention to the proof. 
 
 An American consul died suddenly at his post. 
 His nephew was the companion of Bartlett on 
 the ship. No money could be found belonging to 
 the deceased to reimburse the funeral expenses. 
 In a foreign land, where all parties are strangers, 
 these expenses have to be provided, even before 
 the interment of the body. 
 
 With no visible means, the small pay of the 
 nephew did not justify his assumption of the debt, 
 and no one appeared who was willing to take the 
 responsibility. 
 
 Bartlett alone stood forth, the firm friend of the 
 sufferer. "Draw your bill," said he, " on any 
 party whom you regard as your uncle's friend in 
 the United States. I will endorse it, Baring's 
 agent in this Island will so negotiate it, and you 
 can have all the money you require for this pur 
 pose. Should your friend be unable to meet the 
 bill in New York, I will instruct my agent to do 
 so, the moment it arrives !" 
 
 By this disinterested act of Bartlett's, the name
 
 332 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 of a man honored by his country with a commis 
 sion in a foreign land ; a name appreciated in the 
 literature of his own country ; a name dear to 
 American citizens, and hosts of friends, was pre 
 served from desecration and slander, and the 
 honor of our flag was preserved, in the estimation 
 of all who have an American " heart !" 
 
 And the strongest evidences of this regard, has 
 since been manifested to Bartlett, by the friends 
 of the distinguished dead. At another period of 
 this same cruise, the one in which he served 
 abroad, when broken at home, an officer lay ill, 
 and the surgeon declared the necessity of his im 
 mediate return home. He was without money, 
 and under the circumstances, a doubt arose, as to 
 drawing it from the public chest. To relieve the 
 depressing influence this was making on the 
 invalid, Bartlett came to his side, and begged him 
 to banish all anxiety on that account, promising all 
 the money needed to restore him to his friends. It 
 was, however, decided that the sum was due from 
 the government. But, the generous tender, and 
 its e"ffect upon the officer, is, to this hour, a 
 subject of his grateful eulogy upon Bartlett.* 
 
 * In the winter of 1851 and '2, Bartlett was one day at the navy 
 agent's, in New York, when two interesting youths called, and
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 333 
 
 Lieut. Washington A. Bartlett belongs to the 
 family of Josiah Bartlett, who first appended his 
 name to the Charter of our Independence. He 
 was appointed Midshipman in the Navy by 
 General Jackson, January 1833, while the De 
 partment was under the administration of Hon. 
 Levi Woodbury. Well instructed in mathe 
 matics, nautical astronomy, and navigation, he 
 was immediately selected by Commodore Wads- 
 worth as his " aid,' 7 and sailed in the Yincennes 
 to the Pacific. There he joined Capt. Lavallette, 
 and after active service for two years, rejoined 
 Commodore Wadsworth, who had shifted his flag 
 to the Brandy wine. 
 
 exhibited orders to proceed " without delay " to Norfolk, to rejoin the 
 "San Jacinto," being midshipmen. They stated they were sud 
 denly detached (from cause unknown to them), at New York, and 
 having exhausted their pay in fitting out a new mess, were in arrears 
 for board, and without means to reach Norfolk. The case was 
 modestly and feelingly presented, but without eliciting aid from the 
 agent of the government, who informed them that he had no 
 authority to advance for such expenses, and they must telegraph to 
 the department. But how could they, without a dollar! Bartlett 
 followed them out, having heard with emotion their pathetic, but 
 simple story. He knew the necessity of prompt obedience to 
 orders, and sympathizing with their condition, he at once tendered 
 the money, and urged their quick departure. These young officers 
 gave their note for immediate payment from Norfolk, which was 
 done, and it was not until the business transaction was being con 
 summated, that they knew their benefactor as Washington A. Bart 
 lett, a brother officer I
 
 334 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 During this period, Midshipman Bartlett at 
 tained proficiency in the Spanish language, assid 
 uously devoting those hours to study which his 
 comrades were wont to give to recreation. An 
 incident occurred shortly after Bartlett entered 
 the Fairfield, under Captain, now Commodore 
 Lavallette, which furnishes the strongest evidence 
 of confidence reposed in that young officer by 
 his superiors, as well as the necessity, of under 
 standing the native tongue of a people with whom 
 we are daily associated. 
 
 Commodore Wadsworth, of the Vincennes, 
 and Captain Lavallette, of the Fairfield, each 
 twenty-four guns, had forced General Mina, who 
 carried an admiral's flag on board the Columbian 
 frigate Columbia, of sixty-four 42-pounders, and 
 600 men, into a treaty, which guaranteed to our 
 flag the possession of the ship until the meeting 
 of the Columbian Congress in 1834. General Mina, 
 with his staff, and 500 artillerists, was also to leave 
 the ship, which had long closed the Guayaquil 
 river against American commerce, and made 
 almost piratical exactions upon our citizens. The 
 American ships, fearing treachery, or an attempt 
 to escape, had been prepared for action since 
 entering the river ; but after the treaty was
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 335 
 
 signed, the Yincennes proceeded to visit the city 
 of Guayaquil, and announce the favorable result 
 to American commerce. No sooner had she got 
 out of sight (being night) than a revolt took place 
 on the Columbia, and the time was occupied in 
 silently placing her in a perfect state of defense. 
 These proceedings were watched by the Ameri 
 cans on board the Fairfield, but the hour of sur 
 render by the treaty was not to be until nine 
 o'clock next morning. 
 
 At 8' 40 a boat was sent by Captain Lavallette 
 to the frigate, to inform her that at nine o'clock 
 a prize officer would be sent to receive her, and 
 watch the landing of the crew. The answer 
 returned was, that Mina no longer commanded, 
 that a colonel and naval commodore now held 
 control, that no treaty would be recognized, and 
 that they were prepared to stand to their guns. 
 
 Captain Lavallette now called to Midshipman 
 Bartlett, and in the firmest, clearest tone of voice, 
 said to him, in presence of all on board, " Proceed 
 to the Columbia, and say to whoever may be in 
 command, that unless when th'e bell strikes two 
 (or nine o'clock) I see her boats manned, and her 
 crew leaving the ship, and you inform me that 
 you are in command, as her prize officer by five
 
 336 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 minutes past nine, I will open my fire on her, 
 1 and sink her, boys, we must ; or she will sink 
 us.' Stay on board, when you get there," con 
 tinued he, " and let me see you on her rail as 
 quickly as possible, saying yes or no." 
 
 Bartlett landed on the deck of the frigate with 
 out resistance, in the presence of the old veteran 
 follower of Bolivar, and his scores of officers, and 
 immediately, like a high spirited American youth, 
 delivered his message and defiance. Its boldness 
 astonished commander and officers, and after a 
 short consultation, before the " bell struck two, 
 or nine o'clock," the commander said to Bartlett, 
 " The artillery will land as you direct, and the 
 sea officers and men, with the ship, are yours, to 
 save the effusion of blood" 
 
 After a prompt execution of this order, Bart 
 lett inspected the ship, and found the most ample 
 resources, and preparation for battle had been 
 made. The magazine passage was strewed with 
 loose powder, which was immediately flooded, 
 and all fires forbidden. 
 
 The wonder was, that they had not instantly 
 blown up the ship, with Bartlett on board. It is 
 very rare that a young midshipman has an opportu 
 nity to deliver such a message from a twenty-four
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 337 
 
 gun ship, of 200 men, to a frigate of sixty-four 
 guns and 600 men ! Its success, too, was still 
 more remarkable, which nothing but the indomi 
 table energy and American heroism of Captain 
 Lavallette and his officers could have accom 
 plished, 
 
 SECTION v. 
 
 The late Lieutenant, Commanding, W. P. 
 McArthur (who distinguished himself, and re 
 ceived three wounds in Florida), and Colonel 
 Morrison, who so gallantly led the Illinois regi 
 ment in their desperate fighting at Buena Yista, 
 under General Taylor, were Bartlett's messmates 
 at that time, in the Fairfield. The gallant com 
 mander, H. W. Morris, of New York, then a 
 lieutenant, commanded the second division of the 
 Fairfield 's guns, and this surprising victory over a 
 superior force was obtained by the surpassing 
 firmness and efficiency of American men. 
 
 Suppose, now, Bartlett had not spoken the 
 language of the people, no matter how great his 
 other qualities, he could not have been sent on 
 this fearful mission. Instead of returning to the 
 United States in the " Fairfield," Midshipman 
 Bartlett lengthened his cruise to four years and
 
 338 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 over, and on rejoining the " Brandy wine" again, 
 became aid to the commodore, with whom he 
 determined to continue, until he should haul down 
 his flag. 
 
 In that period of revolution and counter-revo 
 lution in Lima and Peru, generally, the com 
 modore was detained there. And while his ship 
 lay at Callao, his " aid" was constantly exposed 
 on that celebrated robber and assassin's course, 
 the "road to Lima," while bearing the commo 
 dore ? s dispatches to and from the ship ; which 
 duty, like all others, he fulfilled to the letter and 
 spirit. 
 
 There are eminent merchants now in New 
 York, who can bear testimony to the valuable 
 services of Commodore Wadsworth and his offi 
 cers, during the Gamorra, Santa Cruz, Salavery, 
 and Arbegosa wars in Peru. At one period for 
 weeks, the "Brandy wine" had about two hundred 
 ladies, gentlemen, and children guests of her offi 
 cers. 
 
 In August, 1837, Lieutenant Bartlett was or 
 dered to the receiving ship of Capt. Montgomery, 
 when an intimacy and friendship between this 
 admirable Commander and the youthful subaltern 
 was formed, which has never faltered in the sue-
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 339 
 
 ceeding series of years. We remember the name 
 of Montgomery embellishing the naval history of 
 the country in the successful part he bore in 
 Perry's victory on Lake Erie.* The service of a 
 receiving ship was not, however, suited to one of 
 the professional ambition of Bartlett, and we soon 
 find him transferred to the frigate " Fulton," the 
 second, under Captain, now Commodore Perry, 
 and the letter given by this distinguished officer 
 to Midshipman Bartlett, to present to the Board 
 of Examiners, indicated the warm personal regard 
 which it is well known that gentleman now bears 
 towards Lieutenant Bartlett. Having been de 
 tained by illness in New York, when the Fulton 
 Bailed to Washington, he next reported himself, 
 as ordered, to Commodore Ridgely, for duty at 
 the navy yard, and to attend the lectures of Pro 
 fessor Word, preparatory to examination. This 
 
 * Such was Captain Montgomery's confidence in the judgment 
 and skill of Bartlett, that when one night in the Pacific, into which 
 he had not been himself, a night of the deepest darkness, with baf 
 fling winds and hidden dangers on all sides, he communicated his 
 anxiety to Lieutenant Bartlett to be in port before morning. "If I 
 command the ship," said Bartlett, " I will certainly go in ; though 
 J have not seen it for ten years." "That is sufficient," said Oapt. 
 M., " take the ship, sir." And at daylight, next morning, great 
 was the astonishment of the people to find a large American ship in 
 port, and being just before the Mexican war, caused much surprise 
 among the Mexican oilicers of the. place.
 
 340 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 ordeal he passed at Philadelphia, in 1839; and 
 without the aid of any connection with Commo 
 dores or Washington officials, Bartlett took No. 7 
 in a class of 32 ! He was immediately selected 
 by Lieutenant Commanding Glenn with a party 
 of young officers, to survey "southern harbors," 
 and when finished, we find him the succeeding 
 year prosecuting that service under Commander 
 Powell. While on this expedition, Bartlett was 
 promoted to an acting lieutenancy, and made the 
 executive officer of the steamer "Poinsett," while 
 under Powell's command. It was then that the su 
 perb survey of Tampa Bay, Florida, was made by 
 the officers of the " Poinsett; the most magnificent 
 sheet of water which had then been surveyed by 
 American officers south of the Chesapeake. Cap 
 tains Glenn and Powell have ever borne testimo 
 ny to the skill, ability, and zeal which Bartlett 
 rendered to the service in these surveys of the 
 southern waters of the United States. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 In 1842, Bartlett was ordered to the coast 
 survey, under that most distinguished hydrogra- 
 pher, Commander Gedney, and was, for two
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 341 
 
 years, actively engaged with him in the prosecu 
 tion of this great work, between New York and 
 Delaware Bay. The exposure of life to imminent 
 peril, in these coast works, is best known to those 
 who are familiar with the subject. And any 
 well-informed naval officer knows that it requires 
 more than the usual science of seamanship to be 
 come an accomplished surveyor, or hydrographer. 
 There is a quick perception and ready judgment 
 called constantly into exercise, in the physical 
 difficulties which occur at every step, and which 
 must be overcome by the strongest resolution to 
 submit to whatever risk the occasion might pre 
 sent. For such duty, Bartlett has ever been seen 
 to be highly efficient, and when he left that service, 
 in 1844, he bore the highest evidences of the 
 confidence and esteem of his superiors. He was 
 next attached to the naval rendezvous, at New 
 York, for some months, when he was ordered to 
 the " Portsmouth," as sailing-master, but he soon 
 became the junior lieutenant, and made the 
 cruise of three years and ten months in the 
 Pacific ocean, and, during the entire Mexican 
 war, was on the West coast of Mexico, or some 
 part of California. 
 
 It was on this cruise of the "Portsmouth,"
 
 342 AN AMERICAN HERO 
 
 that Misroon, one of the Inquisition, acted as the 
 executive officer of the ship. Lieutenant Mis 
 roon there showed so total and selfish a disregard 
 for the comfort of others, that every watch officer 
 sought the earliest opportunity to escape his con 
 tact. Lieutenants Shenck, Forrest, and Carter, 
 left the ship the very first opportunity. And it 
 is a singular fact that, among all the active offi 
 cers of the ship, that joined her at Portsmouth, 
 Lieutenant Bartlett was the only one who ad 
 hered to his post, and, although he did not like 
 the personal bearing of Misroon, his habits of 
 subordination (the surest test of the future influ 
 ence of an officer) were such, that he never, for a 
 moment, forgot his own dignity, or the respect 
 duty required him to render to the executive of 
 the ship, without regard to the personnel of the 
 man who filled that position. 
 
 In making this exposition of the character and 
 services of Lieutenant Bartlett, the author has 
 had not only the data, but the vouchers before 
 her for every item that has been stated. And 
 she asserts, without the fear of refutation, that so 
 overwhelming is the proof of the scrupulous 
 integrity and honor of Lieutenant Bartlett, that 
 no unprejudiced mind can resist the conclusion,
 
 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 343 
 
 after investigating this evidence, that he has been 
 basely wronged by the unscrupulous action of a 
 cabal, instigated by unprincipled and envious 
 revilers ! 
 
 We do not believe that a higher integrity 
 ever characterized the settlement of any official 
 accounts under this government than has been 
 displayed by Lieutenant Bartlett. And if, 
 after an entire knowledge of all the facts in 
 this connection, it could have been pronounced 
 otherwise, then those of General Washington, 
 during the American Revolution, would not 
 have passed unscathed ! 
 
 It is a crying shame, a burning shame, that 
 this American citizen has been so outrageously 
 maligned and persecuted in the service of his 
 country ! And as the honor of that country is 
 identified with the character of its true men, so 
 has the nation been dishonored by those who 
 have trampled down its naval heroes, and in a 
 spirit of merciless recklessness, without contri 
 tion or remorse, consummated an act which 
 would not have been tolerated under any despot 
 ism of Europe ! 
 
 Our fathers saw the triumph of right, and left 
 to their sons their speaking actions. Shall that
 
 344 THE VICTIM OF A CONSPIRACY. 
 
 heroic generation be slighted now? To give 
 peace and liberty, American men struck tyrants 
 and hurled back their thrones ! They founded 
 liberty on the enfranchisement of the mind. 
 They counted not parties, but principles, and 
 rejected restrictions, distinctions, and exclusions ! 
 We have the witnesses of that great age when 
 we started as a nation into life, and he that halts 
 now in condemning that action which has wan 
 tonly outraged the personal and political rights of 
 Lieutenant Bartlett and his associates in the naval 
 service, condemns and rejects the very men who 
 gave to the whole world America !
 
 LUt-ifflLJ 
 
 nocirs 
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IT was our fathers' wish to keep the administra 
 tion of this government in an American sphere. 
 They wanted no colonial or territorial dependence. 
 They wanted to maintain the Union, and therefore 
 asserted the right of the American people to the 
 exclusive control of their own matters. They said, 
 in the constitution they left us, that Congress could 
 sell the public lands, that it could admit new 
 states, but not a word was mentioned about organiz 
 ing any government without the rights of a state. 
 
 Under this constitution we Americans have sig 
 nally prospered, while our influence has exerted a 
 mighty power over all the civilized states of the 
 world. There is not a nation with which we have 
 not a commercial and political relation. There is 
 not a country in which our enterprise has not 
 15*
 
 346 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 entered, nor an ocean on which our ships do not 
 float. American genius is more or less impressed 
 upon every people and clime, and mutual interest 
 and sympathy bind us to mankind. We have no 
 need now, Americans, to fear to assume the prin 
 ciples which have guided us thus triumphantly ; 
 nor can we limit those principles within our own 
 borders. Our example, our ideas, our discoveries, 
 our inventions, our habits of life, our social, politi 
 cal, and religious institutions, must ultimately ex 
 tend our form of government. And to see our 
 maxims securely applied to other people ; to see 
 our laws, the settled principles of equality and 
 justice, administered throughout Christendom ; to 
 see our industry and enterprise exacting equality 
 everywhere, could not but create an honest exulta 
 tion within the breast of every true American. 
 
 We, then, my countrymen, have a mission to 
 perform, out of our country ; we have to throw 
 our weight, in behalf of equality and justice, over 
 the countries of the world, and to guard with a 
 vigilant eye the principles of Protestantism and 
 Americanism, that our own strength shall increase, 
 our own resources expand, and an additional im- 

 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 347 
 
 petus be given to our moral, commercial, and polit 
 ical greatness. 
 
 On the 1st of July, 1823, Central America 
 formed a federal republic, called the "United 
 Provinces of Central America," doubtless designed 
 to accord with our system of government, and 
 adopting our constitution as its guide. The suc 
 ceeding year, they emancipated all the slaves in 
 the republic, amounting to about one thousand, 
 and indemnified the owners for the pecuniary loss. 
 The constitution of this republic was ratified in 
 November of that year, and the first federal con 
 gress was convened the 1st of September, 1825. 
 But this union did not bind the states together 
 like those of the United States of North America. 
 It did not prevent the effusion of blood. And their 
 constitution was but " a passive instrument, power 
 less for good, and only active for unimportant or 
 pernicious purposes. ' ' The unchecked force of num 
 bers, influenced by bad, designing men, soon anni 
 hilated the union, by making the small states 
 tributary to the larger ; a fate, Americans, we shall 
 surely feel, if ever our own beloved Union shall be 
 cursed by separation. 
 
 On the 20th of July, 1838, in the thirteenth
 
 348 CENTBAL AMERICA. 
 
 year of the Central American republic, Congress 
 met for the last time under the constitution, and 
 the states returned to their former political system. 
 In 1840, General Francisco Morazan, " the Wash 
 ington of Central America," made an effort to 
 restore the union of these states ; but the Jesuit 
 priesthood united with the Indians, under Carrera, 
 in opposing the liberties of the people, and expelled 
 the "father of his country" from his native soil. 
 Morazan subsequently returned, in 1842, to Costa 
 Rica, where he was murdered ; and this consum 
 mated the destruction of that unfortunate republic 
 in Central America. And, Americans, mark the 
 fate of that country, and you will see, in its feeble 
 ness, suffering, and horror, but a faint picture of 
 what these United States will encounter, if ever 
 the traitors within our borders shall sever the bonds 
 which now hold us as one people. 
 
 A light from heaven has now guided a son of our 
 American republic, to open the way for the beauti 
 ful flag of the free, to deliver that misguided people, 
 and bring them out of the humiliating condition to 
 which tyranny and priestcraft have subjected them. 
 Gen. William Walker, now President of Nicaragua, 
 a citizen of the United States, has commenced, and
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 349 
 
 we trust will not fail, to renovate that land. He 
 was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and his age 
 does not exceed thirty-three years. His personal 
 appearance is not commanding, by any means ; 
 being of small stature, without the prepossession of 
 address or manner. But there is an expression of 
 meekness, accompanied by a nasal tone and slug 
 gish utterance, which would arrest attention in 
 any assembly ; and these peculiarities made young 
 Walker a subject of interest at a very early age. 
 
 He was remarkable, as a boy, for the ardor of 
 his friendships, the amiability of his disposition, 
 and his obliging character towards his companions. 
 If a "hard sum," or an " awful lesson," was ex 
 citing his young friends, Walker was eagerly 
 sought to remove the difficulty. He was never 
 known to be at recitation unprepared, and was so 
 sensitive of his reputation at school, that the 
 slightest mistake or blunder he might make would 
 affect him to tears. He rarely then was known to 
 laugh, although he often participated in the amuse 
 ments of his companions. 
 
 But, to give the secret of Walker's rise from the 
 modest school-boy of Nashville to the presidency 
 of Nicaragua, we must tell you he had a good
 
 350 CENTBAL AMERICA. 
 
 mother, an American woman, who loved God anc 
 her country, and by gentleness, affection, and 
 purity, exemplified and inculcated into the mind of 
 her son the faith and doctrine of our Protestani 
 Bible. He thus, as the eldest of four children, be 
 came the reliance of his widowed mother, and by 
 the amiability of his disposition, and the sweetness 
 of his temper, supplied the place of a daughter to 
 her as a companion. 
 
 Walker was educated a Christian youth, and 
 made a proficient in Christian law. This stimu 
 lated him to spread American principles, and en 
 listed the sympathy of his fellow-men in his new 
 and important mission of introducing a new admin 
 istration and laws, exciting enterprise, and pro 
 claiming human rights and freedom in that darkened 
 land. He was originally intended for the ministry, 
 but a visit to Europe interposed, and he remained 
 in Paiis two years to prosecute the studies of law 
 and physics. He returned home, and connected 
 himself with the editorial corps of his country, first 
 at New Orleans, where he was connected with the 
 Crescent, and then with the Herald, at San Fran 
 cisco, California. 
 
 His independence, as well as ability, soon made
 
 CENTRAL AMBEICA. 351 
 
 him a terror to evil doers ; and an article reflecting 
 upon the judiciary in California caused him to be 
 arraigned for contempt of court. He was con 
 demned, and made to pay a fine of five hundred 
 dollars, and suifer incarceration. 
 
 This tyranny excited the just indignation of even 
 that community, and every public demonstration 
 was made to encourage Walker in his advocacy of 
 the liberties of the people. When he afterwards 
 appeared before the legislature to demand the 
 removal of this unjust judge, he awakened the con 
 fidence and respect of the assembly, although he 
 failed to secure the expulsion of his enemy. 
 
 Gen. Walker's first military effort was directed 
 to conquer Sonora, in northern Mexico. But the 
 brig was seized in which his party were to embark, 
 by the interference of the government. This mo 
 mentary detention was followed by greater suc 
 cess on the part of Walker ; and, landing in Lowei 
 California, in October, 1853, he was soon declared 
 president of that country. 
 
 The motive which influenced Walker was frankly 
 exposed, namely, to take possession of Mexico, by 
 first securing the provinces of the north. The 
 invasion of Sonora was then made. His numbers
 
 352 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 became reduced by desertion and starvation, and he 
 and his surviving men, clothed in tattered garments, 
 were compelled to retreat. This expedition occu 
 pied seven months, when Walker returned to Cali 
 fornia, and resumed his occupation of editor. 
 
 In August, 1854, a company, formed for commer 
 cial purposes, organized in California, and set sail 
 for the gold regions of Central America. After an 
 absence of some months, it was proposed to aug 
 ment their forces, and send for Walker, to 
 enlist in negotiations with the Spanish American 
 republics. A grant of twenty-one thousand acres 
 of land was offered this party to enlist in the 
 democratic cause, and the siege of Granada. 
 Walker demanded fifty-two thousand acres, and 
 would consent to nothing less. This proposition 
 was accepted, and after five months of preparation, 
 attended by formidable opposition on the part of 
 capitalists, he embarked early in May, 1855, upon 
 the enterprise of colonizing these states by Ameri 
 can means, and on American principles. Sixty- 
 two persons composed this entire expedition, armed 
 each with a rifle, revolvers, and knives. 
 
 The scenes of massacre and carnage which fol 
 lowed the dissolution of the union in Central
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 353 
 
 America, demonstrated that these people were unfit 
 for self-government. In Nicaragua and Guatemala, 
 particularly, the strife had become most fearful 
 with the Indian and negro, in opposition to the old 
 Spanish races. 
 
 Two years ago, Castellan, a republican democrat, 
 without the support of wealth or power, attempted 
 to redeem his oppressed countrymen, by intro 
 ducing the principles of freedom. He was opposed 
 by Chamorro, a haughty aristocrat, who, by intrigue 
 and wealth, secured his reelection, against the will 
 of the people. Castellan and other political oppo 
 nents were then thrown into prison. The Supreme 
 Court was abolished, and these men finally banished 
 from the country. 
 
 Castellan fled to Honduras, where, under the 
 protection of President Cabanos, the friend and 
 patron of human rights, they conceived the idea of 
 revolutionizing Nicaragua for the sake of liberty. 
 Castellan and his associates returned and triumphed. 
 He became Provisional Director, which office he 
 held until his death, September, 1855. 
 
 The priesthood, the most powerful enemy to the 
 rights of the people in Central America, as every 
 where else where they prevail, now united with the
 
 354 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 autocrat Chamorra, to defeat the liberals ; and this 
 proud demagogue obtained almost the entire state 
 of Nicaragua. At this crisis Chamorra died, and, 
 amidst the savage ferocity which followed among 
 his chiefs, who assumed the quarrel, General Walker 
 entered, and arrested the career of bloodshed by 
 the immediate restoration of peace and order. 
 
 Gen. Walker repaired to Leon, the capital of 
 the state, exhibited his contract, and reported him 
 self ready for action. 
 
 The ministry had steadily opposed the coming of 
 the Americans ; and Walker, disgusted by their 
 delay to give him a formal recognition, was about 
 embarking for Honduras to aid the patriot Cabanos 
 against Guatemala, when a courier was despatched 
 entreating him to stop, and the next day the 
 Americans enlisted in the cause of Nicaragua. 

 
 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE battle of Rivas was the first to engage the 
 fifty-eight Americans who were then under Walker. 
 He added to that number one hundred natives, who 
 fled at the first fire, leaving the Americans to 
 encounter five hundred of the enemy alone. The 
 fight continued several hours, and while the Ameri 
 cans left double their own number of the enemy 
 dead on the field, they remained without the loss 
 of a hair of their heads. Walker, seeing the odds 
 of eight to one was too great an exposure, made for 
 a house where the enemy was sheltered, and drove 
 them out and occupied it. These Chamorrins 
 then held a council, and decided to dislodge them ; 
 but every attempt was made futile by American 
 shot, which was poured into each as he attempted 
 to approach. At night, however, the Americans 
 fought their way out, and retreated to Virgin Bay. 
 
 This Rivas battle inspired the Nicaraguans 
 with such awe of American arms, that they
 
 356 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 regarded it certain death to go within three hundred 
 yards of their rifles. Gen. Bocha owned one hun 
 dred and eighty killed in that fight, and the 
 conduct which the Americans displayed under such 
 fearful odds soon encouraged the democratic party 
 to hope for success under the intrepid Walker. 
 
 The battle of Virgin Bay followed next. Here, 
 again, the fifty-eight Americans, with one hundred 
 and twenty natives, were all Walker's force, while 
 the servile party had five hundred and forty. 
 Beside, they had cannon, and were protected by 
 timber, while the Walker party were exposed in the 
 streets. But these enemies to freedom were again 
 routed. Gen. Walker was struck by a spent ball 
 in this battle, and other Americans escaped in a no 
 less remarkable manner. 
 
 The Americans, after making a good impression 
 at Virgin Bay, proceeded to San Juan, where, with 
 death meeting them at every turn by cholera, this 
 little American band remained, encouraged by the 
 example of their brave commander. From San 
 Juan del Sur, Walker, with his troops, proceeded 
 in October to Granada, where some fighting was 
 done, fifteen of the enemy being killed, and seven 
 taken prisoners. The Americans were fired upon
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 357 
 
 from the Romish church ; and, on approaching it, 
 found men, women, and children, to the number of 
 eighty souls, chained, in abject misery, whom the 
 Americans instantly released. 
 
 Lieut. Col. Gilman, and twenty-five Americans, 
 were now detailed to obtain the fort, a mile east 
 of the city, which was armed by forty men ; and 
 on the morning of the 13th October, 1855, the 
 battle of Granada was fought. Gen. Walker, dis 
 carding the natives, had but one hundred and ten 
 men, with whom he took the Grand Plaza, captured 
 all their artillery, and, after killing but ten men, 
 from three hundred to four hundred surrendered as 
 prisoners. In this engagement, but one American 
 was slightly wounded. 
 
 Walker's power was now felt, and he was then 
 military commander in the vanquished Sebastopol 
 of Nicaragua. On the day succeeding the battle 
 of Granada, the native citizens met, and adopted 
 resolutions offering Walker the Presidency of Ni 
 caragua. This he declined in favor of Gen. Corral. 
 
 Col. Wheeler, the American Minister, was then 
 consulted, and requested to take to Gen. Corral, at 
 Leon, a proposition of peace. Wheeler at first 
 declined, under the fear that it might compromise
 
 358 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 his government ; but, becoming satisfied that it did 
 not, he proceeded at once to Rivas. Corral was 
 absent ; and, after a few hours, Wheeler ordered 
 his horses, to return, when he was told he could 
 not leave, and armed soldiers were placed at his 
 door. Thus detained for two days, his friends 
 became alarmed at his absence, and sent a special 
 messenger to Rivas, who, unable to enter, was 
 informed by a native woman, true to the instincts 
 of humanity, that the American Minister was a 
 prisoner. 
 
 The steamer Virgin immediately proceeded to 
 Rivas by the quickest water course, and fired four 
 heavily-loaded cannon on Saint George, the nearest 
 point to the town. Col. Wheeler then informed 
 the governor, through the Minister of War, that, 
 if he was detained another day, his friends would 
 attack Rivas, and exterminate its population. This 
 produced the desired eifect, and Wheeler obtained 
 his passports, and an escort of one hundred men to 
 the ship. 
 
 Reinforcements now began to pour into Nicaragua 
 from California. Col. Fry and Mr. Parker H. 
 French arrived in October, accompanied by brave 
 and spirited men. They were too late to partici-
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 359 
 
 pate in the conquest of Granada, but there were 
 still enough to engage them in Nicaragua. Col. 
 Fry and Mr. French took passage in the Virgin, at 
 Virgin Bay ; and, determined to take San Carlos 
 by surprise, sent the captain and two men ashore, 
 requesting the immediate surrender of the fort. 
 
 They were seized and made prisoners, and the 
 steamer was fired into by twelve -pound shot five 
 times. The American riflemen, detached from 
 Walker, under Capt. Turnbull, were then sent 
 ashore, to take the fort ; but their ammunition got 
 wet by the rain, and they were obliged to retreat 
 to Virgin Bay. About an hour after these men 
 left, the New York steamer San Carlos arrived, 
 and was hailed from the fort before reaching it ; 
 and an eighteen-pounder was fired into her, in 
 stantly killing a mother and child, residents of 
 California, and otherwise committing serious out 
 rages upon the ship. 
 
 A few days later, while these passengers were 
 waiting for transit at Virgin Bay, a troop of horse 
 men surprised them, and fired seventy shots over 
 their heads. The excitement now was appalling, 
 and passengers fled in all directions, while many 
 were subsequently caught, and deprived of their
 
 360 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 revolvers. These two steamers, Virgin and San 
 Carlos, then made for Granada, and placed their 
 passengers under the protection of Col. Wheeler, 
 the American Minister. 
 
 While this outrage was being perpetrated on 
 passengers at Virgin Bay, Gen. Walker was in 
 Granada, organizing the army, of which he was 
 made general ; and in sixteen days from his en 
 trance into that city, peace had been made, and a 
 new government organized. 
 
 Why did Walker thus become the liberator of 
 Nicaragua ? We answer, because his integrity 
 inspired confidence with friends and enemies ; and 
 when he refused the Presidency, it carried convic 
 tion to the minds of the people that he would not 
 deceive them to glorify himself. 
 
 On the 19th of October, Gen. Corral was inau 
 gurated President of the country. A public 
 thanksgiving was made for peace, and oaths taken 
 to perpetuate it. " Look at that man Walker, 
 sent by Providence to bring peace, prosperity, and 
 happiness, to this blood-stained, unhappy country," 
 was the language of Padre Vijil, who subsequently 
 was sent on a mission to the United States, for the 
 recognition of Nicaragua's independence. Walker
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 361 
 
 and Corral reviewed the army on that day ; and it 
 certainly must have gratified any American to 
 behold the promising prospect of that country, in 
 an American citizen claiming to teach the people 
 the rights and the benefits of democratic freedom. 
 
 By every monthly steamer from California, ad 
 venturers flocked to Central America ; and from 
 both sides of the continent Walker's forces were 
 steadily augmented, until they had grown from fifty- 
 eight to upwards of one thousand men. Nor were 
 these emigrants confined to mere adventurers, with 
 out education or fortune. On the contrary, men 
 imbued with the true spirit of American progress, 
 who could look to the future, and see America's 
 magnificent destiny, were found identified with the 
 " Nicaragua Expedition." 
 
 The devastation of war was sadly visible over all 
 Central America. Granada, upon whom a new era 
 had then dawned, was reduced from thirty thousand 
 to about eight thousand. Walker was soon placed 
 in emergencies which prove the real character of 
 men, and settle the question of fitness for mental 
 and moral responsibility. A man named Jordan 
 had fired at a native when intoxicated ; and, under 
 
 the belief that the man would recover, Jordan was 
 16
 
 362 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 sentenced by court martial to leave the country. 
 Subsequently, the man, however, died, and Walker 
 ordered Jordan to be shot, next morning, by a file 
 of twelve rifles. The mother of the boy went 
 down upon her knees, and implored Walker's clem 
 ency. Padre Vijil and others also begged the 
 same, on their knees. But Walker was inexorable. 
 He had made this stern decree to satisfy justice, 
 and no power could dissuade him from its execu 
 tion. 
 
 Treason was now discovered in the President of 
 the country, and he too was made to pay the pen 
 alty of the traitor. Gen. Corral, to whom Walker 
 yielded the chief magistracy, and who, with the 
 Bible in one hand and the treaty in the other, had 
 promised to sustain and respect the government, 
 was proved to have been plotting its entire destruc 
 tion. Treasonable design on the part of Corral was 
 proved by a fair trial, and he was sentenced to be 
 shot. Walker approved the finding of the court 
 and sentence ; and, on November the 8th, at two 
 o'clock, he ordered Corral to be led to the great 
 square, in the presence of the garrison, and die the 
 death all traitors should die. Rivas then was made 
 President of the country.
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 363 
 
 At this time, new reinforcements came to Walk 
 er's aid ; and a letter to him from Col. Kinney, 
 proposing to recognize Gen. Walker as commander- 
 in-chief of the army of Nicaragua, provided 
 Walker would recognize him as Governor of Mos 
 quito Territory. Walker thus characteristically 
 replied : " Tell Mr. Kinney, or Col. Kinney, or 
 Gov. Kinney, or by whatever name he styles him 
 self, that, if he interferes with the territory of 
 Nicaragua, and I can lay my hands on him, I will 
 most assuredly hang him." 
 
 The American minister, Mr. J. H. Wheeler, 
 officially recognized the new government of Nica 
 ragua, and he was officially received by President 
 Rivas on the 10th of October. On the 17th of No 
 vember, the Nicaragueuse newspaper was started; 
 and, with an independent press, and a free consti 
 tutional government, it became at once an important 
 object to have it recognized by all the states of the 
 world, but, above all others, by that of these United 
 States. Col. Parker H. French was consequently 
 sent as minister plenipotentiary to this government. 
 This placed the administration in its usual attitude 
 of weakness before the world ; and, the authorities 
 at Washington becoming alarmed about Central
 
 364 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 American matters, the District Attorney of New 
 York, Mr. McKeon, was directed to guard us 
 against fillibusteros with a vigilant eye. Here, 
 Americans, with the Cuban affairs and the burn 
 ing of Greytown staring us in the face, the ad 
 ministration suddenly becomes frightened at a very 
 harmless fact ! 
 
 In the mean while the government of Nicaragua, 
 learning the treatment awarded to its accredited 
 minister, immediately dismissed or suspended all 
 official communication with Mr. Wheeler, the 
 American minister, and revoked the appointment 
 of Mr. French, that he might return to Nicaragua. 
 The refusal of Mr. Pierce's administration to recog 
 nize this ambassador was based upon the unwar 
 ranted conclusion, in view of the facts, that Walker's 
 government had not been acknowledged by the 
 people of that republic. Col. French, instead of a 
 reception befitting his mission, was arrested on the 
 charge of enlisting soldiers, and the steamer North 
 ern Light detained from her regular trip, and pas 
 sengers taken from her. But American acumen 
 was quick to discern the utility of Walker's govern 
 ment, and the people, undaunted by the petty 
 refusal of Mr. Pierce to sanction American rule,
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 36o 
 
 which promised reform in a foreign land, pressed 
 on with alacrity to Nicaragua, under those inalien 
 able rights which are the heritage of American men. 
 
 The early explorations in the gold regions of 
 Nicaragua were made under the temporary estab 
 lishment of peace, and satisfactorily demonstrated 
 that, with the advantage of such machinery as is 
 used in California, the product from them would be 
 infinitely greater. With the common rocker, from 
 five to ten dollars a day were at once realized. The 
 climate of Nicaragua, too, is inviting to settlers ; 
 the fevers do not prevail there, as in California ; 
 the air is cool and salubrious, and labor is rarely 
 impeded at any season of the year. 
 
 Nothing can surpass the beauty of the natural 
 scenery of Nicaragua. Its plains, valleys, and vol 
 canoes, the plumage of its birds, its beautiful verd 
 ure, and the ever- vary ing hues of its mountain 
 ranges, present attractions for habitation rarely 
 pointed out to man. Then the richness and variety 
 of the products of its soil are not less noted ; and, 
 with the exception of cotton, there is not a vegeta 
 ble growth in the United States of America that 
 does not flourish in Nicaragua. 
 
 What is there, then, Americans, to arrest or check
 
 366 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 the advancement of this new republic under Ameri 
 can men? Nothing but interior impediments, arising 
 from the want of education among the people. La 
 bor is cheap. It is on the very road of commercial 
 travel, and between our Pacific and Atlantic states. 
 In point of geographical locality, with an ocean each 
 side, in the great centre of trade, Nicaragua must 
 become a great "highway" of commerce through 
 out the world. Now, what she needs is the right 
 kind of population. To obtain this, Americans must 
 have the bona fide evidences of interest. With its 
 auspicious position, its gold, and its American pro 
 tection, we shall see American settlers increasing 
 from year to year. 
 
 The government of Honduras has made grants 
 already to the Honduras mining and trading com 
 pany, of New York. The daily discoveries prove 
 the universal presence of this metal. 
 
 After California was discovered, England became 
 alarmed at the travel across the Central American 
 isthmus, and thought there would be another effort 
 to get a ship canal between the oceans ; and, to 
 arrest Americans in taking exclusive advantage of 
 this central route, England brought about the 
 unique treaty of 1850, made by Mr. Bulwer on
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 367 
 
 the part of Great Britain, and Mr. Clayton in be 
 half of the government at Washington. This 
 " Clayton-Bulwer Treaty" ostensibly settled this 
 disputed region ; and, under this idea, it was con 
 firmed and ratified. The states of Central Amer 
 ica supposed it was a full redress for their past 
 grievances ; but too soon they discovered the 
 whole affair was a failure, England asserting her 
 claim to the " Ruatan Islands " and the " Mosquito 
 coast." It is useless here to inquire into the fal 
 lacy of this claim. It is clearly proven she never 
 did of right possess it ; and recent negotiations at 
 London have resulted in the entire withdrawal from 
 this pretension. 
 
 The effect of our government's refusal to recog 
 nize the independence of Nicaragua through Mr. 
 French was very disastrous. Guatemala, Hondu 
 ras, and Costa Rica, immediately followed the 
 example, and refused all correspondence with Walk 
 er's government. Col. Schlessenger was sent as 
 commissioner to Costa Rica, to inquire into the 
 reasons of its refusal to recognize, stating that 
 Nicaragua desired peace with all the neighboring 
 states. He was treated with scorn, and driven from 
 the country. Gen. Walker instantly declared war
 
 368 CENTRAL AMERICA . 
 
 against Costa Rica, and the most energetic meas 
 ures were taken to avenge the insult. The Costa 
 Rican government then authorized its. president 
 alone, or in union with other states, to take up arms 
 against Nicaragua, and " drive the foreign invaders 
 from the soil." The militia of Costa Rica, amount 
 ing to nine thousand, were called into action, and 
 one hundred thousand dollars were immediately 
 raised for their support. The army commenced its 
 march to Nicaragua before the design was known 
 to Gen. Walker. A printing press was taken along, 
 and daily bulletins issued of their progress. 
 
 Schlessenger, an unprincipled German, was se 
 lected by Walker, more from the spirit of retaliation 
 than personal regard, to head the forces sent against 
 Costa Rica. This force amounted to two hundred 
 and seven in number, commanded by Schlessenger, 
 when he left Virgin Bay for Costa Rica. These 
 were composed of two American companies from 
 New York and New Orleans, and two other compa 
 nies of Germans and Frenchmen. 
 
 The guides left this little band on reaching Costa 
 Rica ; and the brutal conduct of Schlessenger to the 
 troops, requiring them to march under a torrid sun 
 and lie by under a cool moonlight, and innumerable
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 369 
 
 acts of cruelty and cowardice, soon disgusted the 
 Americans, and inspired their deepest resentment. 
 He showed, besides, marked difference in his treat 
 ment towards Americans and the other troops. A 
 German, for example, who had committed an act 
 which in military law merited death, was scarcely 
 reprimanded ; while a New Yorker came near being 
 shot for picking up a piece of bread as he was walk 
 ing. The fear of American fire only prevented that 
 act of the ignominious coward. 
 16*
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE battle of Santa Rosa is in all respects the 
 most disreputable engagement which ever occurred 
 upon this continent, or was associated with the 
 American name. Santa Rosa was the hacienda 
 occupied by Schlessenger and his forces when they 
 fired upon the enemy. The Americans took their 
 position in the front ranks, and while the battle 
 was raging, Schlessenger appeared at the corner 
 of the house behind the New York troops, and, 
 in utter consternation, cried out, " There they are, 
 boys! there they are!" Then, retreating, ex 
 claimed, " Campaigne, Francaise ! " and ran with 
 his best speed, followed by the Frenchmen. The 
 Germans caught the influence, and, dashing their 
 weapons on the ground, fled likewise. The Amer 
 ican party remained unmoved and undaunted, and 
 as soon as the real intentions of the enemy were 
 discovered, Lieut. Higgins gave the order to fire,

 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 371 
 
 and never did an angry volley of shot go out with 
 a greater will, or do more effective execution. 
 
 The enemy fell back, but, on reloading, pressed 
 nearer to the gates of the hacienda, when the brave 
 Parker, engaged in checking them, was shot to the 
 heart. Cahart, another brave American, now took 
 his position on the plaza, and shot the enemies' 
 leader as he rode up and down their lines, and who 
 three times before had fired his rifle into the 
 American ranks. By this time, Major O'Neill, 
 who had gone after Schlessenger, returned, saying 
 ' * he wanted to be with the company who would 
 fight;" and the New York company then, seeing 
 the enemy approaching with such fearful odds, 
 withdrew, under O'Neill's sanction. 
 
 Here note the fact that this New York company 
 was the only one which fired a volley in that 
 action ! These forty-four men were reduced to 
 twenty-two by the action, and were the last to 
 leave the spot. The enemy, too, on this occasion, 
 beside being double Schlessenger 's force, were 
 picked and tried soldiers, who had before fought the 
 Americans at the bloody battle of Rivas. The 
 troops in the American camp were entirely un 
 prepared for this engagement. And it was not
 
 372 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 remarkable that rowdies and raw recruits should 
 run, when their leader took them by surprise and 
 set the example. ^ 
 
 The whole management of this expedition to 
 invade Costa Rica was defective, and served to 
 warn Americans from taking arms again under an 
 incompetent leader, like Schlessenger, or relying for 
 cooperation upon men without principle, experience, 
 or patriotism. Schlessenger was caught, and tried 
 by court-martial on two indictments, One was, 
 that he had acted the traitor when Walker sent him 
 as minister to Costa Rica, and that he betrayed his 
 country to that government. The other was, cow 
 ardice in deserting the American army in that 
 country. Before the court, however, had consum 
 mated the trial, Schlessenger suddenly disappeared, 
 and joined the ranks of the enemy. 
 
 After Schlessenger 's defeat by the Costa Ricans, 
 no effort was made to impede their invasion of 
 Nicaragua, and about three thousand concen 
 trated at Granada. The havoc of property, and the 
 murder of wounded American citizens residing at 
 Virgin Bay and San Juan del Sur, are among the 
 acts of the most atrocious barbarity on record. The 
 Americans, however, found some little redress for
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 373 
 
 these outrages, a few days later, when Col. Green, 
 with but fifteen men, met two hundred Costa Ri- 
 cans, killed twenty-seven and dispersed the remain 
 der, only losing one man and wounding two 
 others of that little party of Americans. 
 
 We next find the Costa Eicans entering the city 
 of Bivas, on the 7th of April, to take possession. 
 Gen. Walker, on hearing this at Granada, deter 
 mined to expel the enemy from Rivas ; and, with 
 only five hundred men, including one hundred 
 natives, he made preparations, in a single day, to 
 attack the enemy in their stronghold, with a prac 
 tised force of two thousand seven hundred men. 
 With this democratic party, Walker surprised the 
 enemy by coming in by a route which they had never 
 suspected. But when the troops were seen, as they 
 ascended the eminence to approach the city, the 
 enemy poured down their batteries with tremen 
 dous violence, which the American forces returned 
 with such fierce energy and rapidity, that in five 
 minutes fliey had the entire possession of the 
 plaza. The Costa Ricans fled to their barricades, 
 and, concealing themselves for protection, continued 
 to fire. Then, too, they had the advantage of a 
 cannon, which made them more formidable. The
 
 374 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 Americans, having none, determined to seize it. 
 The design was no sooner formed than Lieut. Col. 
 Sanders gave the order to fire on the Costa Ricans, 
 and, regardless of danger, he and his brave fol 
 lowers rushed in and captured this fatal weapon of 
 war. They took it to the corner of the plaza, and 
 placed it under the management of Capt. McArdle, 
 a ready and accomplished artillerist ; and in a few 
 minutes that engine, which was destined to destroy 
 Walker's forces, was playing fatally over the enemy. 
 Infuriated to madness, the Costa Ricans tried to 
 recover their gun, but the Mississippi rifles drove 
 them back to concealment. A body of these rifle 
 men now stationed themselves on a house-top, and 
 during the engagement killed, at least, one hun 
 dred of the enemy. Seeing the American party 
 invincible, the Costa Ricans, with three hundred 
 remaining, retreated towards San Juan del Sur, 
 where they were met with a reinforcement of two 
 hundred and fifty from Virgin Bay. As soon as 
 Gen. Walker was notified of their approach to San 
 Juan del Sur, he sent a body of men to protect that 
 part of the town in which the American rangers 
 were stationed ; and after signal execution on their 
 part, the Costa Ricana again were repulsed, with
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 375 
 
 slaughter. More than one hundred dead bodies of 
 the enemy were left to tell the story, while two of 
 the noblest of the democratic party became victims 
 in this action, Lieut. Morgan, of Gen. Walker's 
 staff, and Lieut. Doyle, of the army. 
 
 This fighting was excessive, and showed the de 
 termined spirit by which the Americans were actu 
 ated. They fought from morning to night, and 
 when the enemy ceased hostilities it was soon dis 
 covered to be a ruse to reinforce themselves. Lieut. 
 Gay, who subsequently died from excessive exer 
 tion and useless exposure to danger, was the man 
 to detect the trick ; and it was decided to rout 
 the Costa Ricans from the place they so much 
 coveted. 
 
 Ten officers, beside three privates, armed with 
 rifles and Colt's revolvers, equipped themselves for 
 the expedition, and entered the building of the foe 
 to determine on a plan of operation. As soon as 
 they did, they gave the signal and fired, and drove 
 the enemy to the fence without any loss, except a 
 single wound upon one gallant officer, Capt. Breck- 
 enridge. The opposition was at least one hundred, 
 but these thirteen Americans, with bullets flying 
 all over them, persisted, and accomplished their
 
 376 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 purpose of dislodging the enemy, without the loss 
 of a single man, killed or wounded. 
 
 The enemy still obstinately attempted to main 
 tain their ground, and in the continued action 
 Capt. Hueston was killed. Thirty of the enemy 
 now paid the atoning penalty for this brave Ameri 
 can spirit who had fallen, and the remaining twelve 
 carried such havoc into the Costa Kican ranks that 
 they once more desisted, and sought safer quarters. 
 
 Retreating and assailing continued, until, after a 
 loss of ten more of their number, the Costa Ricans 
 again reached the old cathedral, from behind where 
 they renewed the assault on the Americans. Lieut. 
 Gay, who was in the first battle of Rivas, and in 
 all the future engagements of Nicaragua, was now 
 compelled to lay down his life. He who projected 
 the engagement died in its triumph. 
 
 The English and Germans held Minie' rifles, 
 which they used dexterously ; and it was by those 
 foreign jacobins, who had joined the despot's party 
 in Central America to put down liberty and tram 
 ple upon human rights, that most of our American 
 citizens were killed. 
 
 The Walker party, in this second Rivas engage 
 ment, was not one fourth as great in number as the
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. - 377 
 
 Costa Bicans. Beside, all the barricades and fort 
 resses were with the enemy. Gen. Walker, for 
 hours, in this battle, moved about on horseback, un 
 moved and undismayed, reposing confidently upon 
 the justice of his cause, and sustained continually 
 by the sublimity of his victories. The staff of Gen. 
 Walker demonstrated extraordinary courage and 
 daring, and, with the exception of the brave Capt. 
 Sutter, they all died gallantly and desperately as 
 serting the rights of human freedom. Col. Kenew, 
 also the volunteer aid of Gen. Walker, was not 
 less noted for his prowess in arms ; while the 
 native force in this battle, under their distinguished 
 leader, Col. Machado, who fell in the engagement, 
 certainly deserved the highest commendation for 
 their eminent courage. 
 
 This engagement of the llth of April, 1856, is 
 one of the most remarkable in the history of Central 
 America. The Costa Ricans had actually killed 
 at least six hundred of their number ; how many 
 wounded and deserted was never ascertained. Their 
 quick retreat and abandonment of Rivas tell the 
 unfortunate result to them. And now look at the 
 disparity again. The Americans came off with
 
 378 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 fresh laurels, having had but thirty killed, aad the 
 same number wounded. 
 
 By this time recruits came in numbers from New 
 Orleans, New York, and California, to reinforce 
 the Americans by joining the Nicaraguan army, 
 while public meetings in the United States, and 
 the voice of the press, united in paeans of praise 
 for the brave deeds of Americans on foreign soil. 
 Hostilities now seemed to cease towards Gen. 
 Walker by the northern states of Central America, 
 and the proclamation of President Rivas was ac 
 cepted by San Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, in 
 the most amicable spirit. The enlistment of soldiers 
 was therefore stopped in these states, and the new 
 levy ceased ; and, the Rivas government of Nicaragua 
 being acknowledged, the surrender of that country 
 to Anglo-Saxon liberty seemed to have been made. 
 
 There are those, unquestionably, among us, who 
 censure the idea of American expansion, and would 
 squeeze the very thought from the minds of the 
 people. But, Americans, you may search the 
 records of history, in vain, to find that any people 
 were ever condemned or defamed for their con 
 quests. Why have Caesar, Alexander, Charles the 
 Fifth, Charlemagne, and Napoleon, been held in
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 379 
 
 admiration by the human race ? Simply because 
 they extended their conquests into foreign territo 
 ries. And while American youth will study the 
 histories of those heroes with interest and pleasure, 
 they will never be inspired with enthusiasm for the 
 opposite class of men. And this sympathy, in 
 stinctive with Americans, for any people struggling 
 to be/ree, carried brave men to the Mexican army, 
 to the Russian army in the Crimea, as well as to 
 Nicaragua, when they beheld their own countrymen, 
 imbued with the true spirit of liberty, and nerved 
 with Anglo-American energy, unsheathing the sword 
 upon that soil to accomplish what years of blood 
 shed might not otherwise have done for that people. 
 Walker has done for Nicaraguan liberty what La 
 fayette, De Kalb, Pulaski, Kosciusko, had done 
 for American liberty, and for such considerations. 
 Who, then, can repress patriotic emotion, or deep 
 sympathy for his triumph? 
 
 When the people of Nashville, Tennessee, the 
 place of Walker's birth, heard of his brave deeds, 
 they met to testify their joy, and bore witness to 
 the singular purity of his character, and his high 
 mental and moral endowments. They had watched 
 his movements with filial solicitude, from the Che-
 
 380 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 mora and Castellon revolutions to the battle of 
 Rivas, which secured to Nicaragua independence ; 
 and when it was demonstrated that Walker had 
 covered himself with glory, there was no measure 
 to their generous admiration. 
 
 After the battle of Costa Rica, on the llth of 
 April, to which the friends of liberty in the United 
 States looked with so much apprehension, Gen. 
 Walker, without ammunition, remained on the spot 
 until next day, and, then marched with music to 
 Granada unmolested, leaving the Costa Ricans to 
 evacuate the town. 
 
 And now, my countrymen, you may inquire 
 whence the determined hostility of the Costa Ricans 
 to the government of Nicaragua. It was the re 
 sult of British instigation to drive out the Ameri 
 cans, which English and French agents encouraged, 
 after the government at Washington refused to 
 accept Mr. French. When, then, the fortunes of 
 Gen. Walker seemed about to end, England made 
 offers of thousands of her arms to prejudice the 
 natives against Americans, and, if possible, to get 
 the control of Central America. The conduct of 
 the President of Costa Rica was unparalleled, in 
 denying Americans the right to engage in foreign 

 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 381 
 
 service, and ordering them when taken prisoners 
 in all cases to be shot. The attempt, then, of Costa 
 Rica to control and prescribe the action of Ameri 
 cans, was enough to call upon every citizen of the 
 land to bid our people " God speed " in Nicaragua 

 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Is it nothing, Americans, to see a son of this 
 soil opening two hundred and fifty thousand acres 
 of land to the agricultural pursuits and industry of 
 freemen who may choose to go there and occupy it ? 
 Is it nothing to see two millions of people being 
 regenerated from papal ignorance and degradation ? 
 Is it nothing to see this portion of the Western 
 world affording its facilities for commerce, by bring 
 ing together the extremes of trade, which will 
 benefit mankind ? 
 
 When we consider that British power nerved the 
 Costa Ricans with twenty-five hundred fighting 
 men, to punish Americans for bringing Nicaragua 
 to the desire for independence, and that France and 
 Spain aided the effort, what American would hesi 
 tate to give every proper encouragement to Walker? 
 From the moment we acquired California, too, the 
 isthmuses of Nicaragua and Panama have been 
 important to us.
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 383 
 
 In 1811, Congress declared the Territory of 
 Florida to be necessary to the United States, and 
 passed a resolution to keep it out of the hands of 
 foreign powers. On the 15th of January, the same 
 day the President approved the act, Congress 
 authorized Mr. Madison to take possession of that 
 territory, and, if required, to use the army and navy 
 of the country to defend it ; and such civil and judi 
 cial power was given as would protect Americans 
 in all their rights of person, property, and religion. 
 
 My countrymen, no effort was withheld by Eng 
 land to deprive this Union of Texas ; and, to pre 
 vent the acquisition of California, which she wanted 
 to colonize, her squadron followed ours with a vigi 
 lant eye. When, then, she saw Nicaragua almost 
 in American arms, she set about aiding the Costa 
 Bicans to put Americans down. Can we ever 
 forget how England treated our fathers in their 
 colonial independence ? And yet, what has added 
 so much to her greatness as our nationality ? Had 
 we never possessed California, England could never 
 have penetrated the gold mines of Australia. 
 What right, then, had she to interfere, because an 
 American hero appeared by invitation in Nicaragua, 
 t ) fix a higher glory upon his own glorious institu- 

 
 384 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 tions, which open the main chance alike to all the 
 sons of the soil ? 
 
 It was England's interference that dissolved the 
 union of the Central American states in 1838, just 
 as she is now attempting to separate these United 
 States to-day by intrigue and treachery on the 
 question of slavery, about which she cares nothing, 
 but to use as an instrument of discord to destroy 
 our beautiful system of government. England 
 bound herself by treaty to abandon Central America ; 
 and yet, in the face of her solemn engagement, 
 she has maintained ascendency over the Mosquito 
 territory, held on to the Bay Islands, and en 
 croached on Honduras ; and, two years after the 
 Clayton and Bulwer treaty was ratified, we find 
 the queen issuing a warrant to erect these islands 
 into a British colony ! 
 
 Now, Americans, do you not consider it right to 
 extend the protection of your laws to a people who 
 invite you to take up their cause ? Do you not, in 
 the self-relying, self-denying spirit of your ances 
 tors, wish to see the principles of self-government, 
 upon which they planted this confederacy, made 
 impregnable to tyrants in other lands ? In this 
 sense, e^ery American is a pillar to support the
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 385 
 
 edifice of freedom, and to prepare this people for 
 the perpetuity of Protestant liberty. Look at the 
 length and breadth of our country, beginning with 
 a slip upon the Atlantic, and moving on until it 
 has met the roar of the Pacific. We have Mexico, 
 nearly equal to our original dimensions. We have 
 secured the territory of the West. And when we 
 see what American energy and American princi 
 ples have already done in Central America, and 
 consider how our own territory is to be defended, 
 we have no reason to doubt that our stars and 
 stripes will yet float over the Pacific gate of the 
 Nicaragua transit ; because we cannot believe 
 that Americans, now, will ever allow the key of 
 the Gulf of Mexico to fall into the hands of 
 savages. They will not consent that the Central 
 American states, essential to the commerce of the 
 United States, shall ever be owned by their enemies. 
 They will not allow any foreign power to arm 
 Spanish colonists to murder their kinsmen ; which 
 has been the work of European despotisms, who 
 hate our interests, and tremble at the consequences 
 of seeing Central America yield to Anglo-American 
 intelligence, liberty, and laws. And, sooner than 
 witness the unprovoked assault our people have 
 17
 
 386 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 sustained at Nicaragua and Panama, it would be 
 better far to repeal the neutrality laws, and let 
 Americans defend their own personal rights. 
 
 Gen. Walker intercepted the letters intended 
 for the Consul General of Costa Rica in London, 
 proving that England furnished arms to the ene 
 mies of Americans. Beside, the whole British 
 West India squadron went to the San Juan del 
 Norte to testify that government's sympathy, and 
 is there still, because Americans struck down the 
 foe in Nicaragua, and defended the people who 
 were panting for freedom. The route to California 
 was also endangered by the English squadron at 
 the mouth of the river. 
 
 Now, my countrymen, mark the Jesuit trick ! 
 These bloody Costa Ricans never declared war at 
 all against Nicaragua, but against the Americans 
 in that state, thereby denying them the power to 
 defend the rights of human freedom. Ameri 
 cans, then, were shot when taken, their houses 
 burned, their bodies consumed to ashes ; and still, 
 as citizens of the United States, claiming protection 
 from no other government. Think jou that our 
 Washington, could he rise from the deep slumber
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 387 
 
 of the grave, would refuse his sympathy to the 
 heroic Walker and his adherents ? Read his words ! 
 
 On the 1st day of January, 1796, in reply to the 
 minister of the French Republic, on the latter 
 presenting the colors of France to the United 
 States, George Washington pronounced these noble 
 words: "Born, sir, in a land of liberty; having 
 early learned its value ; having engaged in a 
 perilous conflict to defend it ; having, in a word, 
 devoted the best years of my life to secure its 
 permanent establishment in my own country, my 
 anxious recollections, my sympathetic feelings, and 
 my best wishes, are irresistibly excited, when 
 soever, in any country, I see an oppressed nation 
 unfurl the banners of freedom." 
 
 Had Gen. Walker taken possession of Nicaragua 
 merely to keep the peace, he would have been 
 justified by the precedent and practice of other 
 nations. At least three countries in Europe are 
 now occupied by the foreign troops of England, 
 France, and Austria. Nothing could exceed the 
 enthusiasm of the people, as the stars and stripes 
 were raised at the American legation ; and all the 
 subsequent acts of Gen. Walker, after the estab 
 lishment of the Rivas government, and the acknowl-
 
 388 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 edgment by the natives that he was their deliv 
 erer, confirms the prophecy of Padre Vijil, a few 
 days before Walker entered Granada, when he 
 said, " Our only hope now is in Heaven and Gen. 
 Walker/' 
 
 Walker has been censured for the execution of 
 Corral, most unjustly. Did not Corral himself 
 select the Americans to try him, having no faith iii 
 his own countrymen ? And the two most intimate 
 associates of Corral, who attended him to execu 
 tion, are now the warmest friends of Walker. 
 
 When the presidential election again came 
 around, the candidates all sympathized with demo 
 cratic freedom ; but Walker was called, in prefer 
 ence to all others, to the presidency ; and, from the 
 day of his inauguration, Nicaragua acquired a 
 position, from which, we believe, she will never 
 willingly recede. After the defection of Rivas, 
 who, it is remembered, absconded with his cabinet 
 on the 21st of June, Gen. Walker, in virtue of the 
 authority placed in him by the treaty, appointed 
 Fermin Ferrer president pro temp ore ; and he, 
 Rivas, and Salizar, all were candidates for the suf 
 frages of the people, as well as Walker. But, while 
 Walker was elected by nearly sixteen thousand
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 389 
 
 votes, the aggregate vote of the other three did 
 not much exceed seven thousand. 
 
 This election occurred the 10th of last July ; 
 and, on the 12th, Walker took the oath of office. 
 The ceremonies were very imposing. The Ameri 
 can flag and those of Nicaragua and France were 
 in front of the stage, an open Bible and crucifix 
 placed on it, and a cushion laid upon the floor, on 
 which President Walker knelt reverently, and took 
 the oath of office. On the platform sat the pro 
 visional President, Ferrer, the bishop, Col. Wheeler, 
 and some of the field officers and their staffs. An 
 appropriate valedictory was delivered to the people 
 by President Ferrer, and an inaugural by President 
 Walker which would have honored any President 
 of our own country, divested, as it was, of all use 
 less verbiage, all specious professions, but carrying 
 an intuitive conviction into the minds of the people 
 that they had at last found a man in whose integ 
 rity and honor they could confide. 
 
 The assembly then proceeded to the church, 
 according to their old custom, where the Te Deum 
 was performed, with the usual ceremony of blessing 
 the President, to which Walker submitted. Some 
 may say, "Why did he do this, being a genuine
 
 390 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 Protestant?" We answer, because reason and the 
 Word of God justified the necessity of temporarily 
 tolerating useless rites, which ignorance and papal 
 prejudice had fastened upon the people. In this 
 way he might hope to enlist their good-will, and 
 gradually develop the benign influences of light 
 and liberty, and prepare that down-trodden race to 
 discard the infatuation of Jesuit priests, and the 
 consequent degradation to which they are subjected. 
 And until the population of Central America, or 
 anywhere else, shall have become Americanized by 
 Protestant faith, they are unfitted to tread the 
 American soil as citizens ; and we earnestly dep 
 recate the idea of the annexation to our own terri 
 tory of a race of savage idolaters, as the greatest 
 national calamity that could befall us. 
 
 In all subsequent difficulties by which the safety 
 of the government of Nicaragua and President 
 Walker has been perilled, the same determined 
 courage has signalized the man. He executed 
 Salizar when he was proved a traitor, and issued 
 an exequator to the British consul when he detect 
 ed his complicity. The want of resources, and the 
 consequent desertion of American troops, have at 
 times since looked fatal to republican hopes ; but, 
 whatever may be the result, it is glorious to recount
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 391 
 
 the brave deeds of Americans upon that foreign soil ; 
 and it will ever invest it with interest, to know that 
 it is enriched by the blood of American martyrs, 
 which, ultimately, must germinate the eternal prin 
 ciples of truth and freedom. 
 
 And, while we are astonished at the unequalled 
 valor of our brave men in a foreign land, we find 
 in their gallant and patriotic doings fresh evidences 
 of the spirit with which they would meet the enemy 
 on their own soil, if called to defend the national 
 honor of their country, her rights, her altars, her 
 homes, and her liberties. 
 
 We deprecate war, and believe it is opposed to 
 the benevolent principles of Christianity, and we 
 trust no occasion shall ever arise to plunge us into 
 its cruelties ; but, if this inevitable necessity should 
 come, it is a blessing to feel that we are armed with 
 brave defenders, millions of freemen, ready to repel 
 the invader, and triumph mightily over the foe. Cen 
 tral America is yet in the mists of papal ignorance 
 and delusion, through the influence and tyranny of 
 a heartless, domineering priesthood, which must 
 first be put down, and their power annihilated, 
 before any free government can hope for permanent 
 endurance, and the true sun of liberty rise to bless 
 and gild the horizon of her hopes.
 
 
 THE ROMISH SYSTEM A POLITICAL 
 CORPORATION, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BY the Declaration of our Independence there are 
 certain imprescriptible rights, derived from God, 
 and of which man cannot be deprived by a ma 
 jority, or have weakened by any conditions imposed 
 by society. These are rights everywhere. They 
 are necessary elements of free agency, and without 
 them God is not worshipped at all. God has given 
 to man the Bible, and the possession and use of 
 this are man's inalienable privileges. The Romish 
 church has, in its general councils, restrained the 
 printing, translation, and circulation, of the Bible ; 
 and, by this restriction, has invaded the natural 
 and indefeasible rights of man. 
 
 The American constitution, which guarantees 
 these religious principles, and the state constitu-
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 393 
 
 tions formed since its adoption, have reaffirmed this 
 safeguard in these words : " All men have a natu 
 ral and indefeasible right to worship God according 
 to the dictates of their own consciences." "No 
 man can, of right, be compelled to attend, erect, 
 or support, any place of worship, or to maintain any 
 ministry, against his consent ; no human authority 
 can, in any case whatever, control or interfere with 
 the rights of conscience ; and no preference shall be 
 given by law to any religious establishment or mode 
 of worship." This is the constitutional definition 
 of religious liberty. 
 
 The constitution, then, is republican, and, by 
 these prescriptions, Protestant ; and hence the lib 
 erty, the intelligence, and the unequalled blessings, 
 of the people of the United States, over the down 
 trodden, priest-ridden populations of the Roman 
 Catholic countries of Europe, and of South America 
 and Mexico. Romanism is an arbitrary and Irre 
 sistible power over its subjects ; and the man or 
 woman who becomes its voluntary devotee renounces 
 the most precious rights of freedom, and cannot be 
 otherwise than mentally debased. So, whoever thus 
 surrenders these constitutional rights into the hands 
 of the priest cannot be a good American citizen, 
 17* 
 
 X* .
 
 394 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 nor free in any true sense. The " indelible brand 
 of slavery ' ' is put upon every child who is born 
 under the dominion of the Romish church, by its 
 sacrament of baptism. And the fourteenth canon 
 on baptism is thus : " Whoever shall affirm that, 
 when these baptized children grow up, they are to 
 be asked whether they will confirm the promises 
 made by their god-fathers in their name, at their 
 baptism ; and that if they say they will not, they 
 ,ire to be left to their own choice, and not to be 
 compelled in the mean time to lead a Christian life 
 by any other punishment than exclusion from the 
 eucharist and other sacraments, until they repent, 
 let him be accursed." 
 
 It is by force, then, not by moral means, that 
 this obedience is enjoined ; and the promises made 
 by the godfathers are to be obeyed, or the subject 
 is to be forever " excluded from the eucharist and 
 othe'r sacraments." It is made not only the seal 
 of bondage, but also the seal of salvation. And 
 nurses and physicians, and the laity at large, are 
 authorized to administer baptism to the dying infant, 
 while the priest, in order to enforce these shocking 
 popish rites, often leaves the mother suspended be 
 tween life and death, to save her babe from the fate
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 395 
 
 of a heretic ! This is the first delusion practised 
 upon an individual, as it is also the death-blow to 
 the first principles of liberty. 
 
 The next device to destroy the liberty of the 
 individual and of nations is auricular confession. 
 This papal injunction is so called because the priest 
 alone, without any authority from heaven or natu 
 ral right, puts forth a claim to know all the secrets 
 of all the people. This is the most dangerous feat 
 ure of the Romish church to the liberties of our 
 country, and plainly proves it to be a mere political 
 corporation to advance its power. This invasion of 
 the primordial rights of man, and his responsibility 
 to God only, is an alarming violation of human 
 agency, as a free citizen,and the safety of the states. 
 It is putting the people and their rulers under the 
 priesthood. This confers an omnipresent espionage, 
 by which the Pope of Rome can gain the secrets 
 and control the votes of every Papist elector, and 
 becomes a priestly political power over the millions 
 of his subjects in all parts of the United States. 
 This secret power of the confessional has enabled 
 the priesthood, wherever it has prevailed, to extort 
 legacies from wealthy individuals, to dictate wills, 
 to subsidize the wealth of provinces, as well as to
 
 396 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 govern magistrates and monarchs ; and is the means 
 by which that ambitious hierarchy has always ruled 
 the countries and states in which it got a foothold. 
 The dogmas for self-examination in the Book of 
 Devotion, by the authority of the Roman Catholic 
 priesthood in the United States, and in use all over 
 our land, are enough to destroy all kinds of liberty 
 God ever gave to the mind of man. 
 
 The power of the confessional, too, over morals, 
 is incredible and astounding. The " Christian's 
 Guide to Heaven," issued under the sanction of 
 Archbishop Kendrick, of Baltimore, is so vile, so 
 shocking an outrage upon decency and morals, that 
 none other than a Romish Jesuit could conceive it ; 
 and even the men who print and circulate it have 
 desired its suppression. This book says : "If you 
 have anything upon your conscience which you have 
 a particular difficulty in confessing, cease not, with 
 prayers and tears, to importune your heavenly Father 
 to assist you in this regard, until He gives you grace 
 to overcome the difficulty. Let your confession be 
 entire as to the number of your sins, and such circum 
 stances as quite change the nature of your sins, or 
 notoriously aggravate them." The fifth chapter of 
 the Council of Trent, on Confession, commands the
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 397 
 
 most secret kind of " mortal sins " to be confessed, 
 as indispensable to forgiveness. Can Americans 
 need more than this to open their eyes, and see the 
 ruin of the heart, the ruin of conscience, the ruin 
 of female virtue and modesty ; the ruin of the 
 sanctity of the family, by invading its privacies, and 
 creating, whenever it pleases, discords ; the ruin 
 of liberty, and the subjugation and final ruin of the 
 country ? Hence we see how that hierarchy has 
 jesuitically contrived to pry into the secrets of the 
 people, to know their thoughts, feelings, acts, inten 
 tions, and desires. 
 
 One question, among others in their odious books 
 asks a woman if she loves any of the priests. Ho\\ 
 does she answer her good confessor ? Tell Ameri 
 cans, ye holy fathers ! In the fourteenth session 
 of the Council of Trent, it is written in the decree 
 of penance thus : " It is plain the priest cannot 
 sustain the office of judge if the cause be unknown 
 to them, nor inflict equitable punishments if the sins 
 are only confessed in general, and not minutely and 
 individually described. Those who do otherwise, 
 and knowingly conceal any sins, present nothing to 
 the divine goodness to be forgiven by the priest." 
 Again, the sixth canon is as follows: "Whoever
 
 398 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 shall deny the sacramental confession was instituted 
 by the divine command, or that it is necessary to 
 salvation ; or shall affirm that the practice of con 
 fessing to the priest alone, as it has ever been 
 observed from the beginning of the Catholic 
 Church, and is still observed, is foreign to the 
 institution and command of Christ, and is a human 
 invention, let him be accursed." 
 
 Now, Americans, what is this but putting the 
 priest, as judge, in God's place ? It is forcing a 
 man or woman to unveil the inmost secrets to a 
 mere creature, which act of confession belongs and 
 is due to God alone. Here, in our beloved country, 
 there are upwards of two thousand priestly confess 
 ors to-day, into whose ears are poured the entire 
 secrets of the wife, and sister, and daughter, who 
 have breathed, not only their words and actions, 
 but the very thoughts, feelings, and desires, when 
 alone, to the celibate confessor ! ! ! Blush, hus 
 bands, brothers ! Be amazed at this extorted con 
 fession and intrusion into your family privacies and 
 secrets, under the garb of religion, and which not 
 even a Gabriel, much less mortal authority, has a 
 right to assume or exercise ! Do we wonder, are 
 we startled, at the depth of depravity which flows
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 399 
 
 like a polluted stream out of the confessional ? 
 Here, too, into the ear of this same confessor, are 
 poured the secrets of all the villains connected with 
 that church, who have incited mobs, stolen their 
 neighbors' goods, oppressed the poor, cheated and 
 lied at the ballot-box ; and then to return, the 
 very next day, to act over again the same guilty 
 practices, because, the priest having given absolu 
 tion, the white-washed culprits can take a fresh 
 start on the march to crime, until the "bag of 
 sins " is filled again, for the priest in the confes 
 sional to cast into the reservoir of oblivion, and, 
 by absolution, give another new start. And so, in 
 alternate repetition, the confessional, by the united 
 action of the priest and the guilty culprit, aids the 
 police, multiplies subjects in courts of justice, the 
 penitentiary, and prisons, and, like Othello, does 
 the state some service. 
 
 In all the devices of human ingenuity, none has 
 ever been found so effective, on this earth, to ad 
 vance the crafty schemes of a potentate, and to 
 entrap and fasten the will, and control the interests, 
 temporal and spiritual, of mankind, as this master 
 piece of Satan, the invention of the confessional.
 
 400 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 But, however dangerous the confessional is, it is 
 only one part of the machinery employed by the 
 political corporation of Rome in effecting its designs 
 to bring the world to its feet.
 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE suppression of the freedom of the press is 
 another. When, in 1460, the art of printing, 
 through the genius of Faust, was invented, it was 
 like an angel of light suddenly bursting through 
 the mists of darkness which had so long covered 
 the earth. The first fruit of this sublime invention 
 was the printing of the Bible. This immediately 
 awakened the alarm of the papal hierarchy ; for it 
 was a sign of a successful invasion upon the fort 
 ress of imposture, more mighty and portentous 
 than the attack of all the irresistible hordes of 
 Attila upon the city of Rome. A struggle at once 
 commenced with this light of genius and liberty 
 against despotism ; and, from that time to the 
 present, the apocalyptical despot, in league with 
 the other despots of Europe, has shown his deter 
 mined antipathy to the freedom of the press. 
 
 Milton represents Satan in his passage over
 
 402 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 chaos, looking toward paradise, and spying the sun 
 in his " meridian tower," and makes him exclaim, 
 
 
 
 " To thee, 
 
 O sun ! but with no friendly voice, I call, 
 To tell thee how I hate thy beams." 
 
 With the same instinctive aversion and irrecon 
 cilable hatred, this hierarch of Rome exclaims 
 against the press ; and whenever he has occasion, 
 and revolutionary symptoms appear, he thunders 
 from the Vatican his bulls. In this act, he only 
 imitates his inexorable predecessors, and carries 
 out the decrees of Romish councils. 
 
 We will here present the canons upon which the 
 decrees against the press are based. 
 
 The great Council of Lateran, held at Rome 
 A. D. 1515, under Leo X., session tenth, enacted 
 thus : " We ordain and decree that no person shall 
 presume to print, or cause to be printed, any book or 
 other writing whatsoever, either in our city [Rome] 
 or in any other city, unless it shall first have been 
 carefully examined, if in this city, by our vicar 
 and the masters of the holy palace, or, if in other 
 cities and dioceses, by the bishop or his deputy, 
 with the inquisitor of heretical pravity for the dio-
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 403 
 
 cese in which the impression is about to be made ; 
 and unless, also, it shall have received, under 
 our hands, their written approval, given without 
 price and without delay. Whosoever shall ever 
 presume to do otherwise, beside the loss of the 
 books, which shall be publicly burned, shall be 
 bound by the sentence of excommunication/' 
 And, in another part of this decree, they further 
 say, "that the transgressing printer was to pay 
 two hundred ducats, to help to build St. Peter's 
 Cathedral at Rome," and "to be suspended for a 
 year from his trade," &o. 
 
 The Council of Trent affirmed this decretal, and 
 enacted, Rule 1st: "All books condemned by the 
 supreme pontiffs or general councils before the 
 year 1515, and not comprised in the present index, 
 are nevertheless to be considered as condemned." 
 The creed ', as adopted by every Roman Catholic, 
 requires all " to receive undoubtedly all things 
 delivered, defined, and declared, by the sacred 
 canons and general councils, and particularly by 
 the holy Council of Trent." 
 
 Here, then, is the destruction of all liberty to 
 print, read, or think, enforced and sealed by that 
 council. " Concerning the index of books, the
 
 404 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 most holy council, in its second session, under our 
 most holy lord, Pius IV., intrusted it to certain 
 select fathers to consider what was needful to be 
 done in case of divers censures, and books either 
 suspected or pernicious, and then report to the holy 
 council ; and, having heard now that their labors 
 are completed, but yet seeing, on account of the 
 variety and number of said books, the council can 
 not minutely judge in the case, therefore it is 
 decreed that whatever is determined by them shall 
 be laid before the most holy Pope of Rome, so that 
 it may be completed and published according to 
 his judgment and authority." 
 
 This is the authority or decree in council to 
 sanction the act of the Pope and the committee. 
 So the " committee on the index " went to work 
 to draw up a list of " prohibited books." It is a 
 very large volume, and the book can be had but in 
 few of the libraries of America. In this book, ten 
 "rules" are added, which the Pope approved and 
 the church receives. Every succeeding Pope, to 
 Pius IX., has ratified it. The second of these 
 rules will show something of this tyranny : " The 
 books of heresiarchs, whether year above men 
 tioned, or those who have been or are heads or
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 405 
 
 
 
 leaders of heretics, as Luther, Zwingle, Calvin, 
 Balthaser, Pacimontanus, Luenchfeld, and other 
 similar ones, are altogether forbidden, whatever be 
 their names, titles, or subjects." 
 
 The fourth rule is this : "Inasmuch as it is 
 manifest from experience that, if the Holy Bible, 
 translated in the vulgar tongue, be indiscriminately 
 allowed to every one, the temerity of men will 
 cause more evil than good to arise from it, it is on 
 this point referred to the judgment of bishops and 
 inquisitors, who may, by the advice of the priest 
 or confessor, permit the reading of the Bible in the 
 vulgar tongue, by Catholic authors, to those whose 
 faith and piety they apprehend will be augmented, 
 not injured, by it ; and this permission they must 
 have in writing ; but, if any one shall have the 
 presumption to read or possess it without such 
 written permission, he shall not receive absolution 
 until he have first delivered up such Bible to the 
 ordinary. Booksellers, however, who shall sell or 
 otherwise dispose of Bibles in the vulgar tongue, 
 or any person not having such permission, shall 
 forfeit the value of the books, to be applied by the 
 bishop to some pious use, and be subjected by 
 the bishop to such other penalties as the bishop
 
 406 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 
 
 shall judge proper, according to the quality of the 
 offence. But regulars shall never read nor pur 
 chase such Bibles without license from their supe 
 riors." 
 
 The fifth rule allows " books of heretics, contain 
 ing but little of their own, to be used by Catholics, 
 after having been corrected by their divines." 
 
 The sixth rule says : " Books of controversy be 
 tween 'Catholics and heretics of the present time, 
 written in the vulgar tongue, are not to be indiscrim 
 inately allowed, but are to be subject to the same 
 regulations as the Bible in the vulgar tongue." 
 
 The tenth rule is thus : " In the printing of 
 books, or rather the writings, the rules shall be 
 observed which were ordained in the tenth session 
 of the Council of Lateran, under Leo X. There 
 fore, if any book is to be printed in the city of 
 Rome, it shall be first examined by the Pope's 
 vicar, and the master of the sacred palace, or 
 other persons chosen by our most holy father for 
 that purpose. In other places, any book or manu 
 script intended to be printed shall be referred to 
 the bishop, or some skilful person whom he shall 
 nominate, and the inquisitors of heretical pravity
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 407 
 
 of the city or diocese in which the- impression is 
 executed." 
 
 " Moreover, in every city and diocese, the house 
 or place where the art of printing is exercised, and 
 also shops of booksellers, shall be frequently visited 
 by persons deputed by the bishop or his vicar, con 
 jointly with the inquisitors, so that nothing that is 
 prohibited may be kept or sold." 
 
 " If any persons shall import foreign books into 
 the city, they shall be obliged to renounce them to 
 the deputies. Heirs, or executors, shall make no 
 use of the books of the deceased, nor in any 
 way transfer them to others, until a catalogue 
 is presented to the deputies, and obtained their 
 license, under pain of confiscation of the books." 
 
 " Finally, it is enjoined on all the faithful, that 
 no one keep or pretend to read any books contrary 
 to these rules, or the prohibited index." "But, if 
 any one shall keep or read the works of a heretic, 
 he shall instantly incur the sentence of excommuni 
 cation, and those who keep works interdicted on 
 another account, beside the mortal sin committed, 
 shall be severely punished at the will of the 
 bishops." 
 
 Thus are the consciences, the intellects, tram-
 
 408 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 melled, and the access to knowledge shut out from 
 the sight of Americans, who are subjects of the 
 Romish church. Think of this, 0, my country 
 men, think, and protect your schools for the educa 
 tion of your children ! 
 
 What says the decree of the Holy Council of 
 Trent, on the mere edition of God's Holy Word ? 
 Why, plainly this : " That considering no small 
 advantage may accrue to the Church of God, of all 
 the Latin editions in circulation, some one should 
 be regarded as authentic, doth ordain and declare, 
 that the same old and vulgate edition, which has 
 been approved by its use in the church for ages, 
 shall be held authentic in lectures, sermons, expo 
 sitions, and disputations, and that no one shall dare 
 or presume to reject it, under any pretence whatever." 
 And further, " That in matters of faith and morals, 
 no one, confiding in his own judgment, shall dare 
 to wrest the Sacred Scriptures to his own sense of 
 them, contrary to that which hath been held, and 
 still is held, by Holy Mother Church, whose right 
 it is to judge of the true meaning and interpretation 
 of the Sacred Word, or contrary to the unanimous 
 consent of the fathers, even though such consent 
 has never been published."
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 409 
 
 Now, Americans, do not forget to note this 
 solemn fact, that what this Komish system styles 
 the "vulgate," or "old Latin version of the 
 Bible," is filled with interpolations, additions, and 
 subtractions, and the falsehoods of the Apocrypha, 
 and treats with entire contempt the original Greek 
 language of that blessed book, which alone is able 
 to make us " wise unto salvation." 
 
 This Roman policy forces upon its church a 
 spurious Bible, and ordains it a standard opposed 
 to God's Word, and makes it also exclusive, in 
 order to carry out its own accursed purposes. It 
 forbids men and women to think for themselves. 
 You will further find, on the thirtieth page of their 
 index of " prohibited books," that they actually 
 forbid the reading of any Bible in any translation 
 Not merely the Protestant, but the Roman Bible, 
 and this only under the sanction of their church, 
 thus : ** Biblia Vulgar i quocunque Idiomate con- 
 scripta," which means, the Bible, in whatever 
 idiom written, is prohibited. 
 18
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Now, let the hierarchy of Rome, in the United 
 States, to-day, rise up, if they dare, and deny that 
 the decrees and rules which we quote here from 
 their councils and papal authorities are not true ; 
 are not rigidly enforced by them upon every sub 
 ject of their priestly influence ! Let any lover of 
 his country deny that this power tramples liberty 
 in the dust! Pope Gregory XVI., in his ency 
 clical letter addressed to the faithful of the world, 
 August 5th, 1832, at the time of his coronation, 
 wrote thus : 
 
 " Towards this point tends the most vile, detest 
 able, and never to be sufficiently execrated liberty of 
 booksellers, namely, of publishing writings of what 
 ever kind they please ; a liberty which some persons 
 dare with such violence of language to denounce and 
 promote." " The Apostles," he continues, "pub 
 licly burned a vast quantity of books." " This 
 matter occupied," says he, " the attention of the
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 411 
 
 fathers, who applied a remedy to so great an evil by 
 publishing a salutary decree for compiling an index 
 of books in which improper doctrines were contained. 
 We must exterminate the deadly mischief of so many 
 books ; for the matter of guilty error will never be 
 effectually removed unless the guilty elements of 
 depravity be consumed in the flames." "The Holy 
 See has striven throughout all ages to condemn sus 
 pected and noxious books, and wrest them out of 
 men's hands. It is clear how false, and rash, and 
 fruitful of enormous evil to the Apostolic See, is the 
 doctrine of those who not only reject the censorship 
 of books as too severe and burdensome, but proceed 
 to that length of wickedness as to assert that it is 
 contrary to equal justice, and dare to deny to the 
 church the right of enacting and employing it." 
 
 It needs no telescope, Americans, to discover 
 now why Pope Pius the Ninth, the successor of 
 Gregory, has had his foreign hierarchy at work, to 
 get the Bible out of your public and free schools, 
 and to expunge passages from school-books, which 
 treat of the Reformation, and rights of men to be 
 free to worship God as they choose. It is no won 
 der, now, why they dare to commit the blasphemy, 
 and insult the Christian community, in publicly
 
 412 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 burning the Bible in New York, and other places 
 in our country. 
 
 The right to worship God, Americans contend, 
 none can take away, unless it interferes or involves 
 the rights of other men. This religious right is 
 spoken of in the constitution as a civil right, which 
 it neither gave nor can take away. The constitu 
 tion protects this right of free worship ; and de 
 clares, in direct terms, that, "when any form of 
 government becomes destructive of these ends, the 
 people have the right to alter and abolish it." It 
 asserts the necessity of revolution, if these rights 
 are undermined. The tyranny of forcing men to 
 accept, without choice, the doctrine and faith of the 
 Romish church, submitting to the tyranny of the 
 confessional, making a Romish priest the judge and 
 lord of conscience, is an invasion upon the just 
 political exercise of American men. The Romish 
 catechism says, that " the priests hold the place, 
 the power, and authority, of God on earth." 
 The practical effect of the confessional is to put 
 all men who confess to them in their power, and 
 at their disposal. Hence the danger to American 
 liberty. Out of the Romish church, they teach,
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 413 
 
 there is no salvation. In it, remember, Ameri 
 cans, there is no liberty. 
 
 Jesuitism, says De Pradt, embarrasses itself very 
 little about means, scruples are trifles. The de 
 cisions of the Council of Trent are laws with all the 
 Roman Catholics. The broad seal is set by this 
 last great council, and over the whole earth every 
 Romanist is under the following obligation : * * I 
 also profess, and undoubtedly receive, all other 
 things delivered, defined, and declared, by the 
 sacred canons, the general councils, and particu 
 larly the holy Council of Trent." The hierarchy 
 impose on the civil power, by this oath, to punish 
 heretics ; to exterminate them, in order to give 
 their lands to Catholics ; while, in return, great 
 indulgences are given to their persecutors. 
 
 Baptism, by their catechism and theology, makes 
 subjects of the church ; and, being so, the church 
 has ordained means to punish them. 
 
 No Protestant in our land would dare to refuse 
 his son or daughter the right to unite with Papists, 
 although they knew it would shut the Bible from 
 their sight, make the pardon of the priest their 
 means of salvation, require them to confess their 
 inmost secret sins to wicked men, and send them
 
 414 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 into " voluntary slavery " of the most abject and 
 degraded character. Why? Because the system 
 is beguiled under the name of religion. And it is 
 an invasion on Protestant liberty, on our constitu 
 tional republican rights, to abridge personal choice. 
 
 The political system of Rome is subject here, 
 as in all other countries, to the Roman head of 
 the church, whom the foreign hierarchy are sworn 
 to support and obey by the most solemn oath, in 
 things temporal and spiritual. They are even 
 bound to put to death, when o'rdered, any heretic 
 in a Catholic family, and deny them the right to 
 lie down in the same family grave-yard. 
 
 History, as well as the evidence of the present 
 day, is full of these facts. De Pradt says : " Cath 
 olicism is not organized like other worships. The 
 latter have no common centre ; no exclusive source 
 from whence flows power in every religious society. 
 They have no Rome, nor precedents of Rome, nor 
 pretensions of Rome. The exaltation or depression 
 of these worships is of no importance in the political 
 order of states. It is not so with Rome ; everything 
 in Catholicism tends to Rome. The Pope is chief 
 of one hundred and twenty millions of followers.
 
 BOMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 415 
 
 Catholicism cannot have less than four hundred 
 thousand priests. The idolatrous worship of that 
 church and its priests is spread everywhere. The 
 Irish priests in America are more obsequious to 
 Rome than the German or French priests, who are 
 placed nearest to her. Reverence is increased with 
 distance. Rome, viewed at a distance, is a colos 
 sus. The Pope counts more subjects than a sover 
 eign ; more even than many sovereigns together. 
 These have subjects only on THEIR OWN TERRITORY. 
 The Pope counts SUBJECTS ON THE TERRITORY OF 
 ALL SOVEREIGNS. These command only the exterior. 
 The' Pope penetrates deeper. He commands the inte 
 rior. The seat of his empire is placed in the con 
 science itself. If the whole world were Roman 
 Cat holies , then the Pope would command the 
 world. What a power ! What would it leave to 
 others ? In a word, he would shake the world, and 
 shroud it in midnight darkness. He did it, for 
 ages, in respect to Europe. Not to know how to fore 
 see, is not to know how to govern or judge the world." 
 
 The writer who gave this graphic description of 
 the political system of Popery was an Abbe of the 
 Pope, and knew the exact meaning of all he said. 
 
 If ever Rome has the power in this country,
 
 416 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 which she is striving, by the aid of all Catholic 
 Europe, and certain blind, selfish American politi 
 cians, to attain, the treasonable war will be waged 
 under the name of religion. Rome knows her polit 
 ical men, and her zealous agents in the United 
 States, almost to a unit ; and she knows her re 
 sources, also, to a dollar. She waits only for 
 strength to her increasing resources, and the multi 
 plication of her numbers, for her successful aggres 
 sion on the ballot-box, and her acquisition of the 
 civil power. When ripe, eventually, and in suc 
 cessful domination, she will confiscate our lands. 
 She will pay her devoted political aspirants, as the 
 price of their treason, in papal votes. She will 
 enlist the zealous devotion of all the Catholic Irish, 
 and priest-ridden foreign Papists, through the 
 dangerous and unlimited power of priestly absolu 
 tion in the confessional, and the dispensation of 
 indulgences by t^ie Pope. 
 
 The bull is published, and is irrepealable, in 
 America, to-day, in which " the great hunter of 
 men" raves through the earth, and lays his curse 
 and his claim on all the civil and religious rights 
 of man, not even leaving a grave for a heretic. 
 He claims jurisdiction over armies, navies, seas,
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 417 
 
 lands, treasures, coasts, &c. The Pope could 
 order the extermination, by a crusade, of heretics 
 within any province under his undisputed control. 
 What hinders him but the iron will and the ma 
 jority of Americans, from putting in operation the 
 persecuting principle inherent in the very system 
 of Popery ? 
 
 Has not the Pope palsied and ruined every coun 
 try, where his power could be felt? Look at the 
 kingdoms and states of Italy, Lombardy, Florence, 
 Tuscany, Genoa, Naples, so flourishing, once, in 
 maritime prosperity, and all the arts of genius ! 
 Look at Spain, Portugal, France, Austria, Mexico, 
 the states of South America ! 
 
 Why that tyrannical oppression of the beautiful 
 valleys of Piedmont? Why that bloody triumph 
 of the Vatican over the martyred Waldenses and 
 Albigenses ? Why has this spirit, of persecution 
 extinguished every rising effort for liberty, trod 
 den crowns in the dust, and drenched Europe and 
 the earth in blood ? If the Pope, at any time, 
 relaxed his grasp of empires, and his tortures of 
 the Inquisition, if, at any time, the fires at the 
 stake have been put out, and the groans of slaugh- 
 18*
 
 418 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 tered victims have ceased to fall on the ear, to 
 what is it to be ascribed but to the want of unre 
 strained power, and the energies of some Luther, 
 some Elector of Saxony, some conquering arm of 
 Marlborough, Charles XII., or a Napoleon? Did 
 the Pope attempt to tread on the liberties of Venice 
 in the seventeenth century, and is he a lamb to 
 day ? If he spared not Venice then, why does he 
 spare the United States to-day ? For this sinxple 
 reason, the want of strength and a majority. For 
 it is the boast of the hierarchy, that its principles 
 and character never change. 
 
 Du Pin, the papal historian, furnishes the most 
 striking picture of the Papacy in the seventeenth 
 century : 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE INTERDICT OF VENICE, FULMI 
 NATED BY POPE PAUL V.* 
 
 " The difference of the Republic of Venice with Paul V. 
 is one of the most important points of the ecclesiastical 
 history of the seventeenth century ; not only hy reason on 
 the subject of the dispute, but also much more on account 
 of the great number of questions which were agitated on 
 occasion of that difference, by the most able divines and 
 lawyers of that time. The Senate of Venice made two de 
 crees in the beginning of that century ; by the first of which 
 
 * From Du Pin's Ecclesiastical History, VoL viii. Book ii. Chap. 1. 
 Century 17th.
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 419 
 
 it was forbidden, under severe penalties, to build hospitals 
 or monasteries, or to establish new convents or societies, in 
 the state of Venice, without the permission of the senate. 
 By the other, which was made the 26th of March, 1605, a 
 law made in 1536 was renewed, confirmed, and extended 
 over all parts of the state, forbidding all the subjects of the 
 republic to sell, alienate, or dispose in any manner whatso 
 ever, of immovable goods in perpetuity, in favor of ecclesi 
 astical persons, without the consent of the senate; upon 
 condition, nevertheless, that if any legacies of immovable 
 goods were bequeathed, those goods should be sold within 
 two years after, and the purchase given to discharge those 
 legacies. There happened at the same time two criminal 
 affairs, which concerned the ecclesiastics. Scipion Sarra- 
 sm, canon of Vicenza, who had taken off the seal of the 
 magistrates, affixed to the Episcopal chancery, at the re 
 quest of the chancellor, the see being vacant, was seized by 
 the senate, and put into prison, for having insulted one of 
 his kinswomen, whom he intended to debauch; and some 
 time after, Count Baldolin Valde-marino. Abbot Feveza, 
 being accused of many enormous crimes, was imprisoned 
 by order of the senate. The Pope, Paul V., being per 
 suaded that the decrees and enterprises against the clergy 
 encroached upon ecclesiastical jurisdiction, complained of 
 them to the ambassador of Venice, and demanded of the 
 senate, by his nuncio, that the decrees should be revoked 
 immediately, and the ecclesiastics imprisoned by the au 
 thority of the senate delivered into the hands of his nuncio, 
 to be tried by ecclesiastical judges ; threatening to interdict 
 the republic, if he was not obeyed immediately. The senate 
 answered, the 1st of December, 1605, that they could not 
 release prisoners accused of crime which -belong to the
 
 420 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 recognizance of the secular judges, nor revoke the laws 
 which they had a right to make, and which they believed 
 necessary for the good of the state. The Pope, having re 
 ceived this answer by letters from his nuncio, and by word 
 of mouth from the ambassador of Venice, despatched on the 
 10th of December two briefs ; the one addressed to Marin 
 Grimani, Doge of Venice, and the other to the republic, by 
 way of monitory, exhorting the state to revoke their de 
 crees, which he thought contrary to the canons, and preju 
 dicial to the liberties of the church ; declaring that they 
 who made these laws, or caused them to be executed, had 
 incurred ecclesiastical censures, from which they could not 
 be freed but by revoking those statutes, and reestablishing 
 affairs in their former state. He commanded them, under 
 the penalty of excommunication, latce Sententiee, to revoke 
 them, which, if they refused, he protested that he should be 
 obliged to put in execution the penalties annexed to such 
 offences, without any other citation ; being not willing that 
 God should call him to account one day for having thus 
 failed in his duty, and not being able to dissemble, when he 
 saw the authority of the holy Apostolic See infringed, the 
 ecclesiastical immunities trampled under foot, the canons 
 and holy decrees neglected, and the rights and privileges 
 of the church subverted." 
 
 The Pope sent these briefs to his nuncio at Venice, with 
 orders ' ' to present and publish them ; and acquainted the 
 cardinals, in a consistory held the 12th of that month, with 
 the subject of complaint he had against the republic of 
 Venice, and with what he had done thereupon. Neverthe 
 less, the republic appointed Leonardo Donato, procurator of 
 St. Mark, to go express, and treat of this affair in the 
 quality of ambassador at Rome. The nuncio, not having 
 received those briefs till the day after Donato had been
 
 . 
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 421 
 
 chosen ambassador, thought he ought to put off the publica 
 tion of them, and wrote to the Pope, who ordered him to 
 present them. The nuncio received this order on Christmas 
 eve, and presented, the day following, the briefs to the 
 counsellors assembled to assist at a solemn mass, in the 
 absence of the Doge Grimani, who was extremely ill, and 
 died the day following. His death was the reason why the 
 briefs were not opened, the senate having ordered that no 
 affair should be transacted, but that of the election of a doge. 
 The Pope, on his side, wrote to the nuncio to protest to the 
 senate that they ought not to proceed to a new election, 
 because it would be null, as made by excommunicated per 
 sons. The nuncio pressingly demanded audience to make 
 this declaration ; but the senate would not give it him, it 
 being not customary to receive any memorials from the 
 ministers of foreign princes during the interregnum, but 
 compliments of condolence. The electors were not a long 
 time in choosing a new doge. The 10th of January, 1606, 
 Leonardo Donato was advanced to that high dignity. All 
 the ambassadors went immediately, according to custom, to 
 visit the new doge, and pay him their compliments. But 
 the nuncio would not visit him. The doge did not omit 
 writing to the Pope, according to custom, to notify his elec 
 tion to him ; and the Pope received his letter. The first 
 affair which was transacted at Venice, after the election of 
 the doge, was the difference of the republic with the Pope. 
 It began with nominating the Chevalier Duodo in the place 
 of Leonardo Donato (who was elected doge), ambassador at 
 Rome. After this the briefs were opened ; and when the 
 senate saw what they contained, before they returned an 
 answer to the Pope they determined to have the advice of 
 some divines and lawyers. The lawyers whom they princi 
 pally considered were Erasmus Gratian, of Udina, and Mark
 
 422 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 Antonio Pellegrin, of Padua; and the famous Fra-Paolo 
 Sarpi, of the order of the Servites, was appointed the divine 
 of the republic. It was also resolved not only to consult 
 the doctors of the university of Padua and of Venice, but 
 also the most able lawyers of Italy and Europe, who sent 
 them their opinions, with the laws of the other kingdoms 
 and churches of Christendom, which had any relation to the 
 affair in question. Then the senate, after having understood 
 the opinion of the doctors, returned this answer to the Pope, 
 the 28th of January : { That they heard, with a great deal 
 of grief and astonishment, by letters from his holiness, that 
 he had condemned the laws of the republic (observed with 
 success for many ages, and with which his predecessors had 
 found no fault), as contrary to the authority of the holy 
 Apostolic See ; and that he regarded those who had made 
 them (who were men of piety, and had well deserved of the 
 see of Rome) as persons who broke the ecclesiastical immu 
 nities; that, according to the admonition of his holiness, 
 they had caused to be examined their ancient and modern 
 laws, and that they had found nothing in them which could 
 not be ordained by the authority of a sovereign prince, or 
 which infringed on the power of the Pope ; because it is 
 certain that it belongs to a secular prince to take cognizance 
 of all societies which are founded within his own jurisdic 
 tion, and to take care that no edifices may be raised which 
 may prejudice the public safety, when there are in a state 
 as great a number of churches and places of devotion as is 
 sufficient. That they never refused giving leave to build 
 them ; the republic even contributing thereto very liberally 
 on her part. That the law prohibiting the alienation of the 
 goods of the laity forever in favor of the ecclesiastics re 
 garding nothing but temporal affairs, it cannot be pretended 
 that they have done anything by that against the canons.
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 423 
 
 That if the Popes had power to forbid the ecclesiastics to 
 alienate in favor of secular persons the goods of the church 
 without her consent, it might be lawful for princes to pro 
 hibit seculars also to alienate theirs in favor of the eccle 
 siastics without their permission. That the ecclesiastics lose 
 nothing by their decrees, because they receive the value of 
 the immovable goods which are given or bequeathed to 
 them. That this alienation, weakening the state, is not less 
 prejudicial in spiritual than temporal concernments. That 
 the senate cannot believe they have incurred any censure 
 by making these laws, since princes have by a divine law, 
 from which no human authority can derogate, the power of 
 making laws in temporal affairs. That the admonitions of 
 his holiness have no effect but in matters that are purely 
 spiritual, and not in a temporal afiair, which is in all things 
 separate, and wholly exempt from the pontifical authority. 
 That the senate does not believe his holiness, who is full of 
 piety and religion, will persevere, without knowledge of the 
 cause, in his menaces. That these were an abridgment of 
 the senate's reasons, which their extraordinary ambassador 
 would give him to understand more largely.' 
 
 " The Pope, having received this answer of the senate, 
 declared to the ambassador that he could not relax his 
 severity if they did not revoke their laws, and deliver into 
 the hands of his nuncio the prisoners. He complained still 
 more of another decree they had made upon the emphytheo- 
 ses,* and caused his complaints to be delivered by his nun 
 cio to the senate. As he knew they would give him no 
 satisfaction thereupon, he gave .orders for another brief to 
 be presented, the 10th of December, to the senate, whereby 
 he required that the two prisoners should be delivered to 
 his nuncio, under the penalty of excommunication. The 
 
 * A term of law for a long lease, from ten to a hundred years.
 
 424 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 senate answered that they would not divest themselves of 
 the right which they had to punish the crimes of their sub 
 jects, which they had always enjoyed from the establish 
 ment of their state, with the consent of the sovereign pontiffs. 
 The extraordinary ambassador of the republic came to Rome, 
 and represented to the Pope the reasons of their proceed 
 ings ; but nothing was able to move his holiness. He caused 
 a monitory to be drawn up against the republic of Venice, 
 and having communicated it to the cardinals in consistory, 
 the 15th of April, he ordered it to be published and fixed 
 up in the public places at Rome. This monitory imported 
 that the senate of Venice being not willing to revoke the 
 laws which they had made in prejudice of the ecclesiastical 
 authority, nor to deliver their prisoners, he declared these 
 laws to be null, and pronounced the doge and republic of 
 Venice excommunicated, if, within the space of twenty-four 
 days, to begin from the day of the publication, they did not 
 revoke, break, and annul, the aforesaid laws, and actually 
 deliver the canon and the abbot into the hands of his nuncio. 
 That till such time as they should pay obedience to this 
 order, he forbade them to bury in consecrated ground those 
 who happened to die ; and that if, within three days after 
 the twenty-four were expired, they did not comply, he laid 
 the whole state under an interdict ; and forbade all masses 
 and divine offices to be celebrated, except in such cases and 
 places as were privileged by common law. And that he 
 deprived the doge and senate of all the goods which they 
 possessed in the Roman church, or in other churches, and 
 of all the privileges or indultos which they had obtained 
 from the holy see, and especially from those which they 
 had to proceed against clerks in certain cases. The moni 
 tory was addressed to the patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, 
 their vicar-generals, and to all the clergy, secular and regu-
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 425 
 
 lar, having ecclesiastical dignity in the state of the republic 
 of Venice. 
 
 " The senate, being informed that the monitorial bull was 
 published, recalled their extraordinary ambassador, forbade 
 all ecclesiastical prelates to publish or set up the bull of 
 the Pope, and commanded that all they who had copies of 
 it should carry them to the magistrates of Venice. The 
 Pope, on his side, recalled the nuncio who was at Venice, 
 and dismissed the ordinary ambassador of the republic. At 
 the same time the chiefs of the council of ten sent for the 
 superiors of monasteries, and of the other churches of Venice, 
 and declared the intention of their sovereign to be that they 
 should continue to perform the divine offices, and that no 
 one should leave the ecclesiastic state without leave, assur 
 ing those who staid of protection ; and declaring that they 
 who departed should not carry with them any of the goods 
 and ornaments of the churches. They commanded them, 
 in case any brief was sent to them from Rome, or order 
 from their superiors, to send it to the magistrates before 
 they read it. And the governors of all the cities of the 
 state were enjoined to give the same orders in the places of 
 their jurisdiction. The superiors immediately all promised 
 to obey the orders that had been given them, and to perform 
 divine service as before. A council was held upon what 
 was proper to be done concerning the monitory of the Pope. 
 Some gave their advice to appeal from it, as many princes, 
 and the republic itself, had done on the like occasion. But 
 others believed there was no occasion for having recourse to 
 this remedy, pretending that the briefs were notoriously 
 null of themselves. This opinion was followed, and nothing 
 was done, but a mandate made in the name of the doge, 
 addressed to all the ecclesiastics of the republic, wherein he 
 declared that, having received advice of the publication,
 
 426 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 April 17th, at Rome of a certain brief fulminated against 
 him, and the senate, and sovereignty of Venice, he thought 
 himself obliged to employ his cares in maintaining the 
 public tranquillity, and supporting the authority of the 
 prince. That he protested before God he had not omitted 
 any means of informing and laying before the Pope the 
 strong and convincing reasons of the republic. But that 
 having found his ears closed, and seen the brief he had pub 
 lished against all kind of reason and justice in opposition 
 to the doctrine of the Holy Scripture, the fathers and 
 canons, and to the prejudice of the secular authority which 
 God has bestowed upon sovereign princes, the liberty of the 
 state and. the public repose, and to the great scandal and 
 offence of the whole Christian world ; he held that brief to 
 be not only unjust, but also null, unlawfully fulminated in 
 fact, and contrary to the rules of law, and that he would 
 use the same remedies which his predecessors and other 
 princes have used against the Popes, who abused the au 
 thority which God had given them to edification, and passed 
 the bounds of their power. And this he was the more in 
 clined to do, forasmuch as he was certain that this brief 
 would be looked upon in the same light, not only by all the 
 subjects of the republic, but also by the whole Christian 
 world. That he was persuaded they would continue, as 
 before, to take care of the souls of the faithful, and to per 
 form the divine offices, beuag fully resolved to persevere in 
 the Catholic and apostolic faith, and the respect which is 
 due to the holy Roman church. This mandate, dated the 
 6th of May, 1606, was immediately published and set up at 
 Venice, and in all the cities of the state. 
 
 "As the term of twenty- four days allowed by the briefs 
 approached, and the Jesuits, who had received particular 
 orders from the Pope, showed plainly that they were in-
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 427 
 
 clined to observe the interdict, and would at least abstain 
 from saying of mass, they were commanded, on the 10th of 
 May, to give an express declaration of the measures they 
 designed to take. They acknowledged then that they could 
 not celebrate mass during the interdict, and that if the 
 senate obliged them to do it, they chose rather to retire from 
 Venice. Upon this answer, the senate resolved to send 
 them away, and appointed the grand Vicar of the Patriarch 
 to receive the ornaments of their churches, and gave them 
 order to depart immediately. They went out that evening, 
 carrying each of them a consecrated host about their necks ; 
 and being put into two barks, retired to Ferrara. The 
 Jesuits in the convents which were in the other cities of the 
 republic departed also. As it was manifest that the Capu 
 chins, Theatins, and other regulars, after the example of 
 the Jesuits, were resolved to observe the interdict, the senate 
 published a decree, the last day of the term, by which all 
 those who refused to celebrate the divine offices, in the 
 accustomed manner, were enjoined to retire out of the juris 
 diction of the republic ; upon which the Capuchins and 
 Theatins departed also, and the other religions were placed 
 in the government of their churches. The Capuchins of the 
 territories of Bresca and Bergamo stayed, and continued to 
 perform divine offices, like the other ecclesiastics, secular 
 and regular, of the republic. 
 
 "The nuncios of the Pope, who were in the courts of 
 Catholic princes of Europe, endeavored to exclude from 
 divine service the ambassadors and envoys of Venice ; but 
 their attempts were fruitless. They continued to be treated 
 as they used to be, and were admitted to prayers, assem 
 blies, and the ecclesiastic ceremonies, as heretofore, in 
 France, Spain, Italy, and Poland. The ambassador of the 
 republic assisted in person at Vienna, in the first solemn
 
 428 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 procession of the Holy Sacrament, which was made by the 
 Jesuits. But the nuncio, who was not present for fear of 
 meeting the ambassador, gave out such menaces, that the 
 ambassador did not think fit to be present at the two follow 
 ing ones. Though the interdict was not observed in the 
 states of Venice, it occasioned tumults and seditions in 
 several places, which the senate, having attributed to the 
 suggestions of the Jesuits, made a decree, the 14th of June, 
 whereby they declared that the Jesuits should never more 
 be received for the future in any place of the state of A r enice, 
 and that this decree should never be revoked, before there 
 had been first read the whole process in presence of all the 
 senate, which should be composed at least of a hundred and 
 four score senators, and unless there were five for one who 
 voted for the revocation. 
 
 " Nevertheless, the Christian princes interposed to accom 
 modate the difference betwixt the Pope and the Venetians. 
 But these would not hear any proposition of accommodation 
 before the Pope had taken away the interdict, and the Pope 
 demanded before all things the revocation of the decrees. 
 The ambassador of the most Christian king exerted himself 
 more strongly and efficaciously than any one else in bring 
 ing matters to an accommodation, and at length effected it. 
 The King of Spain assured the Pope that he would assist 
 him with all his forces, and that he had given orders for 
 that purpose to his ministers in Italy. But these promises 
 had no other effect than to retard the accommodation, and 
 had like to have kindled a war in Italy. Some unknown 
 persons having set up in the state of Venice a placard by 
 which the republic was exhorted to separate herself from 
 the Roman Church, the senate commanded that search 
 should be made after the author of it, and protested that 
 their intention was never to depart from the Catholic reli- 

 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 429 
 
 gion, nor the obedience due to the Holy See. They pub 
 lished afterwards several orders to maintain a war, in case 
 they should be attacked. The Pope, on his side, solicited 
 the princes of Italy to put himself into a condition to attack 
 the Venetians, or to defend himself, if he should be attacked 
 by them. On each side preparations of war were made, 
 but the dispute never came to an open rupture. It was not 
 so in the war which was carried on by the pen ; for a very 
 great number of writings were published on both sides, with 
 heat, vivacity, and learning. Though the affair had a 
 lowering aspect, and all things threatened a rupture, the 
 ambassadors of France did not cease, nevertheless, to nego 
 tiate an accommodation."
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WE learn from his history that the Pope, only 
 two centuries ago, excommunicated a whole people 
 for- exercising the right to punish, by civil jurisdic 
 tion, two ecclesiastics, for drunkenness, murder, 
 and other crimes, and for prohibiting the erection 
 of monasteries and nunneries. These matters be 
 longed to the state government alone. The courts 
 of the church had no right to try civil cases, or 
 inflict temporal punishment, without infringing on 
 the liberties of the people, and violating the laws 
 of God. The Pope demanded that these criminals 
 of the republic of Venice should be tried by him 
 in his ecclesiastical court, and threatened an in 
 stant interdict if prompt obedience did not ensue. 
 The monasteries were polluting and ruining their 
 country ; and the senate passed salutary laws pro 
 hibiting their future erection, without the consent 
 of the legislature, and regulating the bestowment 
 of property on the clergy, who were securing the
 
 A.Cr.S.irfresidrng Ofnter ofthr I'frJtr c. 'Mf "rated Amnxvu vi the Ruied St.it.
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 431 
 
 treasure and soil of the country in their own hands. 
 The Pope would not allow the state to govern his 
 subjects, though they resided in it. 
 
 The Jesuits observe, Americans ! left Venice 
 to espouse publicly the cause of the Pope as a 
 military foe to Venice ; and the oath of allegiance 
 to the Pope, by every Jesuit bishop and priest, will 
 lead to the same results in this country whenever 
 the blow is struck openly for Popery. 
 
 " The Pope," says Du Pin," solicited the pow 
 ers of Italy to put him in a condition to attack the 
 Venetians, or defend himself if attacked by them." 
 Thus the Pope, the head of the church, placed him 
 self at the head of the army, to crush the republic 
 of Venice for punishing two priests who had been 
 found guilty of incest and murder. 
 
 The Jesuits then were the soldiery of the Pope, 
 and left their country to join him in arms. But, 
 to the glory and praise of Jehovah, there were 
 some patriotic spirits in Venice who stood up for 
 liberty, and who showed their love for the rights of 
 the people by punishing their priestly persecutors, 
 and annihilating their convents and monasteries, as 
 Spain and Portugal had done before them. 
 
 All men, if their minds are not demented, love
 
 432 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 freedom ; and when Roman Catholics have become 
 sufficiently enlightened and caught the true spirit 
 of liberty, they have burst their chains of bondage, 
 and risen up in Romish countries, as they did in the 
 Reformation of Luther, and recently have done in 
 Sardinia, New Granada, and partially in Mexico. 
 It is by the spread of knowledge and the influence 
 of true liberty that the hierarchy of Rome will, at 
 last, fall. A system so false and pernicious, a 
 power so grasping, a despotism so at war with human 
 rights, so bloody and insufferable, cannot last for 
 ever. The people of the earth will, in the fulfil 
 ment of scriptural prophecy, comprehend that God 
 has given them the will to be free. 
 
 The Church of Rome claims to be infallible, and 
 that it has an unquestioned right to enforce all its 
 rules and tyrannical oaths upon its subjects. It 
 declares damnation on all out of its visible com 
 munion. It dares to claim universal spiritual and 
 temporal dominion, a more arrogant and impious 
 pretence than ever Zenghis-Khan or the most wicked 
 or victorious tyrant ever claimed. In the decretals 
 by Pope Gelasius to the Emperor Aurelius, it is 
 written thus : 
 
 " 0, august emperor, there are two by whom the
 
 EOMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 433 
 
 world is chiefly ruled, the sacred authority of 
 the Popes, and the kingly power ; in the which, 
 that of the priests preponderates, inasmuch as in 
 the divine examination they will have to answer to 
 the kings of men. " "Be well aware, therefore, that 
 in these matters you depend upon their judgment, 
 and they cannot be subservient to your will ; for 
 asmuch as you see that the necks of kings and princes 
 are put under the knees of priests ; and that, when 
 they have kissed their right hands, they believe 
 themselves to be partakers of their prayers." The 
 heading of the chapter is in these words : " It is 
 necessary to the salvation of all the faithful in 
 Christ, that they be subject to the Pope of Rome, 
 who has the power of both swords, and who judges 
 all, but is judged by none." " Moreover we declare, 
 assert, define, and pronounce, that it is altogether 
 necessary to salvation for every human creature to 
 be subject to the Pope of Rome." 
 
 What a preposterous decree ! "What arrogant 
 blasphemy ! The Pope pronounces himself to be 
 God's vicegerent on earth ; to dispose of church 
 and state, heaven and hell ; to determine the eter 
 nal salvation or damnation of the souls of men ! 
 In perfect consistency, he gave a grant to Spain 
 19
 
 434 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 of America, even before its discovery. This grant, 
 never having been revoked, is in full force ; and 
 Mr. 0. A. Brownson, his Corypheus in America, 
 says that the Pope holds it as his possession ! And, 
 with the Pope's increasing millions of subjects, his 
 accumulating revenues, his subtle secret and open 
 emissaries, his numerous and constantly multiplying 
 papal schools, seminaries, colleges, nunneries, and 
 monastic establishments, and all his swarming 
 priests and Jesuits, is there not, my countrymen, 
 ground for apprehension and serious alarm ? No 
 matter whether our politicians and unsuspecting and 
 busy people see this danger ; no matter whether 
 the hope of accomplishing a particular end be ful 
 filled now or centuries to come ; the springs and 
 ramifications of this system, often concealed, and 
 wholly unlike all other human inventions, are in 
 powerful operation, and its agents labor assiduously 
 to effect this end. 
 
 Pope Pius V., in his bull to Queen Elizabeth, in 
 which he deprives her of her kingdom, and releases 
 her subjects from allegiance to her government, 
 said : " He who reigns on high, to whom is given 
 all power in heaven and in earth, hath committed 
 16 Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, out of
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 435 
 
 which there is no salvation, to one alone on earth, 
 namely, to Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and to 
 the Roman Pontiff, successor to Peter, to be gov 
 erned in the fulness of power. This one man he 
 hath appointed prince over ALL NATIONS AND ALL 
 KINGDOMS, that he may pluck up, destroy, scatter, 
 ruin, plant, build." 
 
 The bull against Henry of Navarre and Prince of 
 Conde', by Sixtus V., says: "The power of the 
 Roman Pontiff passes an uncontrolled sentence on 
 all ; casts down the most powerful from their thrones, 
 tumbles them down to the lowest parts of the earth, 
 as ministers of the proud Lucifer." 
 
 Among the definitions of papal power received 
 and in use in the Romish system, we find the 
 twenty-seven sentences or dictates of Pope Gregory 
 VII. 
 "8. The Pope alone can use imperial ensigns. 
 
 9. All princes must kiss the feet of the Pope 
 only. 
 
 12. That it is lawful for him to depose emperors. 
 
 17. That no chapter or book is canonical without 
 his authority. 
 
 19. That he himself ought to be judged by no 
 man.
 
 436 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 27. That he may absolve the subjects of unjust 
 men from fidelity to their princes." 
 
 Pope Leo III. says, " That the church, his 
 spouse, had given him the mitre in token of things 
 spiritual ; the crown, in token of things temporal : 
 the mitre for the priesthood, the crown for the 
 kingdom, making me a lieutenant of Him, who 
 hath written upon his thigh and his vesture, King 
 of kings and Lord of lords ; / enjoy alone the 
 plenitude of power, that others may say of me, next 
 to God, and out of his fulness we have received." 
 
 These doctrines are brought to America, and, 
 although not written in our statute-books, nor pro 
 claimed from the top of the capitol, yet every 
 " cross " on the splendid cathedrals and popish 
 chapels in this country ; every elevation of the 
 " host" by the bishops and priests before the eyes 
 of the crowding multitudes which throng them ; 
 every sermon on the Sabbath which teaches implicit 
 obedience to the Pope ; every oath of every Jesuit 
 and prelate, and all the solemn binding vows of 
 the millions of their adherents, proclaim, as with 
 the voice of a trumpet, these dangerous am 
 unchangeable edicts. 
 
 In the book called " Three Books of the Sacn
 
 KOMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 437 
 
 Ceremonies of the Holy Roman Church," printed at 
 Cologne, 1571, it is seen how the Pope reigned 
 in his days of greatest temporal splendor. These 
 were his orders : 
 
 " 1. The Emperor shall hold the Pope's stirrup. 
 
 2. The Emperor shall lead the Pope's horse. 
 
 3. The Emperor shall bear the Pope's chair on 
 his shoulder. 
 
 4. The Emperor shall bear up the Pope's train. 
 
 5. The Emperor shall bear the basin and ewer 
 to the Pope. 
 
 6. Let the Emperor give the Pope water. 
 
 7. The Emperor shall carry the Pope's first dish. 
 
 8. The Emperor shall carry the Pope's^zrs^ cup" 
 This is the man who claims to be the successor 
 
 of St. Peter, the follower of our blessed Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, who said to his disciples, 
 " Silver and gold I have none! " 0, the pride, 
 the ostentation, the guilty ambition, of this Roman 
 god, " sitting in the temple of God, and calling 
 himself God!" 
 
 The religion of Protestants in America, as well 
 as the constitution, oppose not the hierarchal pre 
 tensions of Rome only, but all established religions 
 on earth. Both Protestantism and the constitution
 
 438 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 deny the right of the legislatures to enact laws 
 against the freedom of conscience or private judg 
 ment. They deny that the majority has any power 
 over the minority in these matters which belong to 
 God alone. No mortal has this right ; and whoever 
 assumes it, be he monarch or priest, is a base and 
 impious tyrant, against whom rise up the laws of 
 heaven, and the conscious reason of man. 
 
 They who peopled our soil, and fought on the 
 battle-fields of the Revolution, the illustrious and 
 heroic representatives of the first American Con 
 gress, who legislated our freedom, with Washington 
 at their head, felt the strong impulse of Protestant 
 principles, and imbued the immortal instrument of 
 the constitution with those principles, and thus 
 established the glorious edifice of civil and reli 
 gious liberty. Every true American patriot changed 
 his allegiance to every foreign government, and 
 denied the right to any civil authority or priestly 
 usurper to trample on these native principles, or 
 legislate away the rights of conscience. This 
 denial, by the American inhabitants, with the 
 exception of the Roman Catholics, was made even 
 before the adoption of the constitution. But the 
 papists have never dared to deny their allegiance to
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 439 
 
 the foreign hierarchy of Rome, and therefore have 
 never denied to the priesthood, or to the Pope, this 
 usurped right to control the conscience, or to think 
 and decide as they may dictate, in all matters of 
 religion. Why ? Their dogmas forbid ; the pivot 
 of the lips of the priest, on which their salvation 
 or damnation turns, and all the inextricable and deep 
 web of superstitious mummeries in which they are 
 immersed, sealed by " infallibility," forbid. Their 
 souls, and consequently even the disposal of their 
 bodies, are not their own. Freedom of conscience 
 being in the hands of the priest, and the priest in 
 the hands of the Pope, all the papists in this coun 
 try, unless a little too much Americanized, form 
 one great army, and move as a unit under the dic 
 tation of the priest. They are here, therefore, 
 what, in spirit and in the principles of their 
 system, they were under Raymond, Godfrey, Tan- 
 cred ; what they were at the siege of Rochelle 
 under the cardinal minister of France, when, for 
 twelve tedious months, the Protestants endured 
 their unrelenting persecution and cruelties ; what 
 they were when the fires of Smithfield, under the 
 reign of bloody Mary, lighted up England, and 
 multitudes of Protestants perished ; what they
 
 440 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 were on St. Bartholomew's night, when they mur 
 dered more than sixty thousand Protestants ; 
 what they were under the Inquisition ; what 
 they are in Rome, in Italy, in the armies of 
 the Austrian and French tyrants, bayoneting 
 the patriot sons who venture to breathe the 
 aspirations of liberty ; what in^Spain, in Portugal, 
 and wherever the priests hold their conscience, and 
 dictate their ready obedience and movements.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE Pope's power, which grants pardon, forgives 
 sins, past, present, and to come, is in full force 
 here. He pardons rebellion and high treason ; 
 dispenses with oaths, promises, or vows. And, 
 though a subject take one thousand or five hundred 
 thousand oaths to support the civil government, 
 if it is not a Roman Catholic government there can 
 be no possible security for his allegiance. 
 
 Is there an American who will say, in the face of 
 these facts, that the system of Popery is favorable 
 to civil and religious freedom ? Is there one who 
 will deny that its dogmas and practices are opposed 
 to the principles of that constitution, which are 
 dear to freemen as their hearts' blood ? 
 
 Not merely the Pope, but the priests, can forgive 
 sins. The priests are the monarchists ; they are 
 the hierarchy of Rome ; they are the church, and 
 the church is the foe of divine truth and human 
 
 liberty. 
 
 19*
 
 442 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 When Rome ceases to be consolidated, its system 
 has ended. It has no vitality, but through the 
 great tyrant, who " calls himself God," and rules 
 on the ruins of religion, liberty, and law. Protest 
 ants, on the other hand, cannot consolidate, in the 
 same manner, under one supreme head, who unites 
 church and state. They own no such head. The 
 Pilgrims of Plymouth, the Huguenots of South 
 Carolina, the disciples of Wm. Penn, the Hol 
 landers who colonized Manhattan, were all alike 
 Protestants. But it was their freedom to think and 
 choose each the mode of worship it adopted, and 
 they were each and all resolutely and unanimously 
 united in the founding of American liberty. 
 
 Bishop England, a most crafty Jesuit, in his book 
 transmitted from Rome, 26th March, 1833, speak 
 ing in praise of the Pope's encyclical letter against 
 liberty, says : "In the venerable successor of St. 
 Peter I behold the former active, zealous, and 
 enlightened prefect of the propaganda, whose deep 
 interest and laborious exertions in the concerns of 
 the Church of the United States have been so bene 
 ficial." He further says, " that stripping the Holy 
 See of its temporal independence would inflict a 
 deep wound on religion." And, in addressing the
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 443 
 
 cardinals, whom this same Bishop England styles 
 ' ' the venerable and eminent senate of the Christian 
 world," he further wrote : " That the grain of 
 mustard-seed (the Papal Church in America), cul 
 tivated with success, under the auspices of Pius 
 the Sixth, has mightily grown to a rapid tree, and, 
 protected by Gregory XVI., is now extending its 
 branches above an enlightened community, re 
 posing in peace under its shadow." 
 
 To show further that this political corporation of 
 Rome does what it dares and can do to subvert our 
 liberties, we ask you, Americans, in conclusion, to 
 read the letter of Bishop England, written from 
 Rome, upon American nationality, soon after the 
 news of the burning of the Massachusetts convent 
 reached that city, and which was published under 
 his direction, in Charleston, South Carolina. 
 
 " How often," says he, " do I wish my voice 
 could be heard across the Atlantic, proclaiming to 
 your meetings what I have seen and heard since I 
 left you ! A people valuing freedom, and in the plen 
 itude of its enjoyment, destroying religion, nay, 
 having nearly effected its destruction, by reducing to 
 practice here the principles which the Veterists and 
 Conciliators contend for among you.
 
 444 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 " The Americans are loud in their reprobation of 
 your servile aristocracy, who would degrade religion 
 by placing it under the control of a king's minister; 
 and could your aristocracy and place-hunters form 
 the state of Catholicity here, they would inveigh 
 against the Democrats, who would degrade religion 
 by placing its concerns under the control of a mob ; 
 and I am perfectly convinced they are right. 
 
 " I am convinced that if these gentlemen of 
 the Irish hierarchy, who are suspected, and I fear 
 with good reason, of being favorable to Velotistical 
 arrangements, had each one month's experience 
 of the operations of the principle here, their good 
 sense, and piety, and zeal for religion, would compel 
 them to suffer inconvenience rather than commit the 
 fate of the religion of millions under their charge, 
 and myriads yet unborn, to the influence of that most 
 destructive principle, to release themselves and their 
 flocks from the unmitigated persecution they now 
 suffer. The people here claim and endeavor to as 
 sume the same power which the clauses and conditions 
 would give the Crown among you, though not to the 
 same extent. The consequence is that religion is 
 neglected, degraded^ despised, and insulted, with 
 impunity"
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 445 
 
 This bold assertion of Bishop England against 
 * c responsibility to the people as the great principle 
 of the American system," is confirmed by that of 
 all other leaders in the design upon American 
 liberty. The Catholic Telegraph, published in 
 Cincinnati, the contemporary of Cardinal England, 
 spoke thus of our republicanism : * ' The system 
 may be very fine in theory, very fit for imitation on 
 the part of those who seek the power of the mob, in 
 contradistinction to justice and the public interest. 
 But it is not of a nature to invite the reflecting 
 part of the world, and shows, at least, that it has 
 evils." 
 
 This foreign emissary and his coadjutors, the 
 Jesuits and agents, who are under a bond to the 
 Pope, dare to announce to our faces that the burn 
 ing of one convent in New England, by a mob, 
 " is one fact in condemnation of the system of 
 American institutions, confirmed lately by numerous 
 other proofs." 
 
 Bishop Flagett, of Bardstown College, Ken 
 tucky, gives to his patrons abroad this plain hint 
 at their ULTERIOR POLITICAL DESIGN, and that no less 
 than the entire subversion of our republican govern 
 ment. In regard to the difficulty of Catholic mis-
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 sionaries with the Indians, he says the greatest is, 
 " their continued traffic with the whites, WHICH 
 
 CANNOT BE HINDERED SO LONG AS THE REPUBLICAN 
 GOVERNMENT SHALL SUBSIST." 
 
 Do Americans know that, at the point of the 
 bayonet, every individual must kneel or retreat, at 
 the sight of a Catholic procession of the idolatrous 
 "host," in every country in the American world, 
 as well as papal Europe, where the power of the 
 Romish system prevails? What though Papists 
 are idolatrous ; what though Bishop England says 
 11 NOTHING is MORE OFFENSIVE TO CATHOLICS THAN A 
 TRANSGRESSION OF THIS PRINCIPLE," that is, kneel 
 ing to a popish procession ? What though it is the 
 custom among the European slavish masses to wor 
 ship a " wafer," which the priest (who secretly 
 laughs at the credulous ignorance of his dupes) 
 tells them is converted, by a few mumbling words 
 which he utters, into a real God ; what though the 
 priests close the Bible, and their poor blind sub 
 jects know no better than to permit this despotism ? 
 Are Americans to be compelled to take off their 
 hats to such a ridiculous deception, to consent to 
 be fools, and kneel down to such a monstrous im 
 posture ? And yet an Irish Papist, some months
 
 itOMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 447 
 
 ago, at a Popish procession in Cincinnati, had the 
 astonishing impudence to assault a Protestant and 
 knock off his hat, because he chose to maintain his 
 independence ! How many hats will be knocked 
 off when Rome gets to be more powerful ? If this 
 is the first lesson to Americans, what will be the 
 second, and the last ? 
 
 The Canon Law is Rome's Magna Charta. 
 Robinson, the historian (a favorite author of Ro 
 manists), says, " The Pope's public political end was 
 to be absolute ruler of all the priesthood ; and, 
 through them, of all mankind." " It is a Jewish 
 Christianity, having in it the seed of a hierar 
 chy;" "they sunk the people to elevate the 
 order;" "the order created a master-like Aaron." 
 " If this dispute," says he, " had been only about 
 wearing the bells and pomegranates, as Aaron had 
 done, and a breast-plate, that none but a Jew 
 could read, it might have created mirth; but it 
 took a very serious turn when it was perceived 
 that Aaron had under all his fine things a KNIFE 
 and a BLOOD BASIN." 
 
 Abbe De Pradt says : " Jesuitism is EMPIRE BY 
 RELIGION. The general of the Jesuits is a veritable 
 King." The Pope is master of the general. He
 
 448 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 says, " it is organized intolerance." Who is chief 
 of this immense family, this militia present every 
 where ? THE POPE. He counts more subjects than 
 any sovereign ; more than even many sovereigns 
 together. IF THE WHOLE WORLD WERE CATHOLIC, 
 
 THEN THE POPE WOULD COMMAND THE WHOLE WORLD." 
 
 " Catholicism," this Abbe De Pradt further 
 says, " is not organized like other worships. The 
 latter have no common centre ; no exclusive source 
 from whence flows power in every religious society." 
 THEY HAVE NO ROME.
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 Now, my countrymen, by the very highest 
 Roman Catholic authorities on earth, we have 
 exposed the design and tendency of this corpora 
 tion to subvert civil and religious liberty and law. 
 Rome counts in her communion more than one 
 hundred and fifty millions throughout the world. 
 The entire Protestant world now exceeds but little 
 upwards of one hundred and twenty millions. 
 Rome has one, and only one, centre, and boasts of 
 her unity, indivisibility, and common principles of 
 the great tyrant who dwells in the "Eternal City." 
 Protestants have no central head, and are never 
 under such ecclesiastical rule. Yet, in the last 
 three hundred years, where but with Protestants, 
 and under Protestant governments, have science, 
 enterprise, commerce, agriculture, order, law, and 
 liberty, the inventions of mechanical genius, na 
 tional and individual prosperity, flourished in all
 
 450 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 their beauty, grandeur, and successful triumphs ? 
 And here in the United States, where free institu 
 tions and liberty are best enjoyed, have not these 
 developments been most gratifying and surprising ? 
 
 The records of the world respond, Nowhere be 
 side. Place not only the United States, but free 
 England, Holland, or Scotland, in contrast with 
 Catholic Italy, Catholic Spain, Catholic Germany, 
 and Catholic Ireland, and what a striking contrast 
 immediately presents itself ! When Luther blew 
 his trumpet, nations started up from the slumber 
 of ages, burst the iron fetters which had chained 
 them, and came forth into the light of heaven, 
 and, rejoicing in its beams and the energies of 
 their new manhood, stood erect, and commenced 
 their march to national and individual independ 
 ence, and the free enjoyment of the rights which 
 God and nature gave them. 
 
 Who can estimate the value of this deliverance ? 
 It is beyond all price. Its magnificent results 
 over Protestant nations are known and felt in free 
 government, free conscience, free speech, free 
 press, the diffusion of knowledge, the expansion 
 of the human faculties, the happiness of families, 
 the triumphs of peaceful arts and industry, and all
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 451 
 
 the prosperity and glory which are shed on nations 
 and their members. 
 
 America we hold to be Bible ground, and her 
 institutions and principles are suited to all religious 
 sects who do not claim to be infallible ; but the 
 system of Rome, by its own documents, avows its 
 plan to alter and prohibit books, and YET KEEP THEIR 
 TITLES ; to change the ideas of authors ; to educate 
 a political influence, which, " in ten, or, at most, 
 twenty years," they have said, was to wield or con 
 trol the destinies of this country; and, in a word, 
 " to dictate to the souls OF MYRIADS OF IMMORTAL 
 BEINGS," and chain down the human faculties. 
 
 Our fathers declared in the Continental Congress 
 that THE CATHOLIC RELIGION HAD DEL 
 UGED ENGLAND IN BLOOD ; " and they rose, in 
 the might and spirit of unconquerable patriots, for 
 the defence of their religious rights, that you, 
 Americans, might be able now to vindicate and 
 perpetuate them. Wait not till the Rubicon is 
 passed ! The Jesuits are within our lovely en 
 closures. What countries, where they have gained 
 a foothold, have they not ruined ? What monster 
 errors do they not promulgate ? What insidious 
 plots do they not contrive ? They are already
 
 452 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 combined with certain political leaders to distract 
 this country. They are in our state politics. 
 They are in our Washington counsels. Have they 
 not already shocked the community by burning our 
 Bibles ? Have they not ejected it from our schools? 
 Have they not defaced our school-books, and de 
 nounced our beautiful system of education, and 
 American schools, as the "nurseries of hell"? 
 Have they not attempted to gag free speech, to 
 seize the ballot-box, and assault our citizens in the 
 exercise of their legal franchise ? Have they not 
 demanded the public funds, to support their secta 
 rian education ? And, with astonishing boldness, 
 has not their leading prelate, acting in concert 
 with all the popish bishops in this country, dictated 
 to his political partisans in the legislature to alter 
 the laws to suit his Jesuitical and ambitious de 
 signs, to divert to his personal use, and in his legal 
 right, the whole property of the church ? Are not 
 these men busy, and do they not act as spies in all 
 our state and federal elections ? And yet how 
 feeble is the voice of Americans ! how silent are 
 many of the presses of the country ! While these 
 foreign agencies are at work ; while dangers 
 threaten from foes open and secret, alert and sub-
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 453 
 
 tie, bound by oaths to make every interest, civil, 
 political, and religious, subserve one grand end, 
 the supremacy of a foreign hierarchy in our 
 midst, these presses lift up no voice, speak in 
 no indignant spirit of liberty. They are like a 
 dead weight to the majestic wheel of the republic. 
 They breathe not a whisper of warning against the 
 designs of Catiline. They refuse to repel his 
 insidious and impudent treacheries. They affect 
 not to see, either through fear or through parti 
 sanship, the footsteps of the foreign intruder 
 within the bowers of our happy homes ; or the 
 wily serpent coiling among the pleasant flowers, 
 and stately foliage, and magnificent cypress, of 
 our virgin scenery. They wink at the stratagems 
 of Sylla, but condemn the merits of Fabius. They 
 spurn the patriotic indignation of the Gracchi, and 
 take to their embraces the plotting Tarquins. With 
 the calculations of the political chess-board, their 
 fame and independence are nicely balanced by a 
 successful move, or aristocratically interwoven with 
 the price of stocks in the market of the highest 
 bidder. Non tali auxilio. 
 
 The patriotic heart of the nation demands no 
 questionable Gloucesters, but magnanimous Syd-
 
 454 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 
 
 neys, and heroic Hampdens, to defend the proud 
 battlements of our liberties, and to stand in the 
 breach on the invasion of the enemy. In every 
 community, and often in responsible and prominent 
 stations, there are men who either will not or can 
 not see danger till their house is in flames over 
 their heads, or the assassin has effected his pur 
 pose. The time is approaching when no dubious 
 action will be tolerated ; when the love of country, 
 and the calls of patriotism, will awaken the most 
 sluggish apathy. The field is chosen by the pa 
 pacy. The plans are laid. The agents are com 
 missioned not to faint or halt. America is to be 
 the field on which the last great battle of the world 
 is to be fought. The struggles of Rome will be in 
 proportion to the value of the object, and the 
 greatness and majestic splendor of the prize. 
 Never were motives more impulsive and command 
 ing ; never was an issue when the victory will be 
 more coveted and magnificent, and the results so 
 striking and extensive. But let this foreign influ 
 ence beware ! The spirit which animated our 
 ancestors glows with unabated fervor. In the 
 words of the great orator of Yale, " Their sons 
 scorn to be slaves," nor will they be circumvented
 
 ROMANISM A POLITICAL CORPORATION. 455 
 
 or repelled in the background by monks and 
 priestcraft. Let not the calm forebode the storm ! 
 The American " sky is charged with lightnings 
 fiercer than ever flashed over that which canopies 
 us all." Let not the fatal step be taken, nor the 
 hand of the papal tyrant dare to press too closely 
 on the American heart ! While the ' * light of free 
 dom is glowing with undiminished fires," may we 
 hope to succeed in this grand battle of light 
 against darkness, of liberty against the com 
 bined forces of priests and despots !
 
 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A RECOGNITION of the Protestant religion as the 
 support of this government has been made by all 
 who have administered it in the true spirit of repub 
 lican freedom. Washington, Madison, Monroe, 
 Adams, Jackson, and Harrison, offered supplications 
 to God " to make our country continue the object 
 of his divine care and gracious benediction." So 
 do the principles of the American party date their 
 origin with Luther, and were witnessed in the flames 
 which made martyrs of Cranmer and Latimer. 
 These principles came to our shores with the Prot 
 estant Huguenots of Florida, who were there mur 
 dered by the Spanish Inquisition for " seeking free 
 dom to worship God." They afterwards passed 
 over with the Mayflower, when the Pilgrims landed
 
 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 457 
 
 on Plymouth Rock. They appeared prominently 
 in all the Revolutionary battles ; they were em 
 bodied in the Declaration of Independence, which 
 our fathers signed, and then sealed with their blood. 
 
 When it was resolved, in the second session of 
 the Continental Congress, 1774, " to open to-morrow 
 with prayer at the Carpenters' Hall," Rev. Mr. 
 Duche, whom Mr. Adams called the most eloquent 
 man in America, made the first prayer, in these 
 precise words : 
 
 " Lord, our Heavenly Father, high and mighty 
 King of kings and Lord of lords, who dost from thy 
 throne behold all the dwellers on earth, and reignest 
 with power supreme and uncontrolled over all king 
 doms, empires, and governments, look down in 
 mercy, we beseech thee, on these American States, 
 who have fled to thee from the rod of the oppressor, 
 and thrown themselves on thy gracious protection, 
 desiring to be henceforth dependent only on thee. 
 To thee have they appealed for the righteousness of 
 their cause ; to thee do they now look up for that 
 countenance and support which thou alone canst 
 give. Take them, therefore, heavenly Father, un 
 der thy nurturing care ; give them wisdom in coun 
 cil, and valor in the field ; defeat the malicious 
 20
 
 458 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 
 
 designs of our cruel adversaries ; convince them of 
 the unrighteousness of their cause ; and if they will 
 still persist in their sanguinary purpose, 0, let the 
 voice of thine own unerring justice, sounding in 
 their hearts, constrain them to drop the weapons of 
 war from their unnerved hands in the day of battle. 
 Be thou present, God of wisdom, and direct the 
 councils of this honorable assembly ; enable them 
 to settle things on the best and surest foundation, 
 that the scene of blood may be speedily closed, that 
 order, harmony, and peace, may be effectually re 
 stored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, 
 prevail and flourish amongst thy people. Preserve 
 the health of their bodies and the vigor of their 
 minds ; shower down on them and the millions they 
 here represent such temporal blessings as thou seest 
 expedient for them in this world, and crown them 
 with everlasting glory in the world to come. All 
 this we ask in the name and throiigh the merits of 
 Jesus Christ, thy Son and our Saviour. Amen ! " 
 At the close of the Eevolution, 26th of August, 
 1783, Washington's first words, when he appeared 
 before Congress, were a grateful acknowledgment to 
 God, who had guided the Americans to battle and 
 victory. And so he subsequently expressed himself.
 
 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 459 
 
 when he resigned as commander in chief of the 
 army, 23d of December, that same year. Upon 
 the memorable event of his inaugural as President 
 of the nation, he said : 
 
 * ' In this first official act, my fervent supplication 
 is to that Almighty Being, that his benediction may 
 consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the peo 
 ple of the United States a government instituted 
 by themselves. No people can be bound to acknowl 
 edge and adore the invisible hand which conducts 
 the affairs of men more than the people of the 
 United States ; and the destiny of the republican 
 model of government is justly considered as deeply, 
 perhaps finally, staked on the experiment intrusted 
 to the hands of the American people." 
 
 When the convention sat to frame our constitu 
 tion, and when all the governments of modern Eu 
 rope had been examined without finding one suited 
 to the condition of the American people, Dr. Frank 
 lin arose and addressed the president upon the im 
 portance of prayer ; that, as "God governs the 
 affairs of men," no blessing could be expected upon 
 their deliberations without it ; and that the consti 
 tution was the result of the infinite wisdom of the 
 Almighty, and beyond the powers of any mortal
 
 460 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 
 
 assembly of men, is the indubitable conviction of 
 the American people. 
 
 Thirteen years before the Declaration of Inde 
 pendence, Pownal, who had been Governor of 
 three of the colonies, made this prophecy of 
 America's destiny : 
 
 " A nation to whom all nations will come ; 
 a power whom all powers of Europe will court to 
 civil and commercial alliances ; a people to whom 
 the remnants of all ruined people will fly ; whom 
 the oppressed and injured of every nation will seek 
 for refuge," he exclaims, "ACTUATE YOUR SOVE 
 REIGNTY, EXERCISE THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF YOUR 
 THRONE." 
 
 And, now, without a monarch, an army, or an 
 aristocracy, it will defy every Judas and Cain, 
 foreign or native, who interposes between the 
 rights, the honor, and the religion, of the American 
 branch of the Anglo-Saxon race. 
 
 Our national interest and Christianity are insep 
 arable ; and as the people of the land of Bunker 
 Hill, who built and paid for their churches, resisted 
 the right of a foreign Andros to ring their bells, so 
 will Americans, who claim the Protestant as their 
 religion, resist the further aggression upon their
 
 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 461 
 
 schools, their property, and their institutions, by the 
 political Romanism, of which they justly complain. 
 At a recent meeting in Hope Chapel, New York 
 city, Dr. 0. A. Brownson, editor of the Roman 
 Catholic Review, said : " We Catholics are here a 
 missionary people. We are here to Catholicize the 
 country. It remains for us Catholics to make it 
 morally, intellectually, spiritually great. We are 
 here God's chosen instruments for that purpose." 
 Mr. McMasters, another fierce Romish editor, said : 
 " Catholics were here not only to contribute to sup 
 port their religion, and thereby their priests, but to 
 make the people understand it. If they did not do 
 so, they would be wiped out from the land in a sea 
 of blood." How are the poor papists to understand 
 it, Americans, when the priests keep them in igno 
 rance, by shutting out the light of truth from their 
 minds ? The leading French journal of the 3rd of 
 April, this year, speaking for the Romish church, 
 says : " Railroads are not a progress ; telegraphs are 
 an analogous invention ; the freedom of industry is 
 not progress ; machines derange all agricultural 
 labor ; industrial discoveries are a sign of abase 
 ment, not of grandeur." The following is from 
 the Univers, their most influential paper in all
 
 462 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 
 
 Europe: " To make Rome the District of Co 
 lumbia for the whole world, and the Pope the 
 interpreter of the constitution of the United 
 States." This declaration of the above journal 
 expresses, of course, the avowed sentiments of the 
 papists now in our republic. 
 
 Is it not time, Americans, to expose this worn- 
 out foolery, when the great aim of this foreign con 
 cern is to say mass over our nation's soul ? With 
 papal baptism, papal matrimony, and papal rulers, 
 what is to be the effect on our country, unless Prot 
 estantism counteract such teaching over the minds 
 of the papal masses ? 
 
 We have shown, in another chapter, that their 
 device of baptism is a most entangling scheme to 
 proselyte and extort money, and make its votaries 
 slaves. That confession to the priests, in order to 
 salvation, is an invasion upon personal liberty, and 
 all sorts of human liberty. That the Church of 
 Rome does interfere with liberty of thought, by 
 denying the right to read, buy, or circulate books. 
 And by its decrees in council it has taken the 
 Word of God out of its system, and made it a 
 criminal offence for any subject of their church to 
 have anything to do with that holy book ! By
 
 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 463 
 
 their Catechism of the Council of Trent, p. 313 
 this Romish system says, " Without the presence of 
 the parish priest ', or some other priest commissioned 
 by him, or by the ordinary, and two or three wit 
 nesses^ there can be no marriage" They thereby 
 declare that none but Catholic priests can perform 
 the marriage ceremony. They have made this civil 
 rite, then, a sacrament. They can dispense with 
 prohibitions, or make them to suit all circumstances ; 
 and have, for political purposes, removed the im 
 pediment, and married brothers and sisters ! The 
 Church of Rome, therefore, begins with a rite to 
 make subjects, at birth ; to secure them through 
 marriage ; to rule them through life ; and by indul 
 gences and absolution in the Confessional to license 
 practices of all iniquity ; and sends them to Para 
 dise, or denies it, in proportion to the amount of 
 money paid. 
 
 We contend, as a Protestant people, that no 
 power but the Word of God, or argument, and 
 human persuasion, can be lawfully used to influence 
 the conscience of any man. The constitution 
 regards the religion of men so far as to require 
 men to believe in God, and in the existence of 
 future punishment and reward. Without this
 
 464 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 
 
 belief there is no sanctity to oaths. But the Romish 
 confessional can absolve oaths, and render any law 
 of our country a nullity which is opposed by the 
 priest ; and, consequently, the priest wields a secret 
 power above our government and the laws of the 
 land. There is not a thief, there is not a murderer, 
 or a perjurer, or an incendiary, or a traitor, if he is 
 a papist, but can go the very next day, or within a 
 week, after the committal of the crime, and get 
 absolution of the priest. If a papist swears in a 
 court of justice on our Protestant Bible, he regards 
 it as having no binding force on his conscience. Is 
 not, then, the confessional a most dangerous and 
 anti-republican power? The idea that religious 
 opinions and secular trusts have no connection, and 
 . do not interfere with the discharge of public or offi 
 cial duty, has been a sad mistake with Protestants 
 long enough ; and to this mistake or error the 
 rapid advancement of Romanism may partly be 
 ascribed. Take marriage as an illustration. Prot 
 estants hold it in the light of a civil contract, of 
 divine institution, but not peculiar to any church. 
 Catholics make it a sacrament. The people, at 
 first, look at this papal rite and obligation as of 
 very small consequence, and would not regard it in 
 connection with a man's fitness for office, whether
 
 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 465 
 
 connection with a man's fitness for office, whether 
 his opinion was for or against it, as a sacrament. 
 But, when it is understood that the descendants 
 from every Protestant marriage in this country are 
 pronounced by that church illegitimate, it becomes 
 a matter of immense consequence to look at the 
 effect of the system in connection with liberty. 
 
 By a treaty, or concordat, of the French gov 
 ernment and the Pope, Pius VII., under Napoleon 
 Bonaparte, in 1802, it was agreed to reestablish the 
 cures and sees, under certain conditions. The Pope 
 declared himself very grateful, and publicly said 
 he owed more to Napoleon than any other, next to 
 God. But the laws of the French government in 
 regard to marriage were distressing him, and in 
 1807 he sent a cardinal from Rome to Paris to 
 negotiate the difficulty. Afterwards the discussion 
 opened at Rome, when the doctrine that no mar- 
 riage was real or valid without the intervention of 
 a priest was decided. But, finding the French code 
 was extending through Europe, he despatched in 
 structions to his church to counteract the immoral 
 doctrine of marriage as a civil right. The accom 
 panying are extracts of the Pope's letter to Poland, 
 in 1808, where an attempt was made by law to con 
 20*
 
 466 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 
 
 form to this dogma. " Such a transaction,'' says 
 the Pope (in this letter), '* proposed by a Catholic 
 prelate to a royal minister, upon a subject so sacred, 
 considered in its consequences, in its whole tenor 
 leads directly to consequences which sectaries have 
 proposed to themselves, namely, to make Catholics 
 and bishops, and even the Pope himself, confess 
 that the power of governing men is indivisible. 
 . :*' ;. For a Catholic bishop to acknowl 
 edge in Catholic marriages, civil publications, civil 
 contracts, civil divorces, civil judgments, is to grant 
 the prince power over the sacraments and discipline. 
 It is to admit he can alter the forms and the rites ; 
 can derogate from the canons ; can violate ecclesias 
 tical liberty; can trouble conscience ; that he has, 
 by consequence, power over things ecclesiastical, 
 essentially privileged, and dependent on the power 
 of the Keys ; which is as much as to say, he can 
 put his hand in the censer, and make his laws pre 
 vail over the laws of the church. The bishop shoald 
 either have dissembled, and tolerated a disorder 
 imposed by irresistible force, or he should have 
 informed the royal minister that the code, so far 
 as respects marriage, cannot be applied to Catholic 
 marriages in Catholic countries."
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THEN the Pope goes on to say: "If we 
 examine the history of nations, we shall not find 
 a Catholic prince suffering to be imposed on his 
 subjects the obligation to publish their marriage, 
 or discuss its validity or nullity before a judge 
 of the district. If pastoral remonstrances proved 
 useless, the bishop should still have continued to 
 teach well the flock committed to his care, 
 
 " 1st. That there is no marriage if it is not con 
 tracted in the form which the church has estab 
 lished to render it valid. 
 
 " 2d. That marriage once contracted according 
 to its forms, no power on earth can sunder it. 
 
 " 3d. That it remains indissoluble under all acts 
 and circumstances. 
 
 "4th. In case of doubtful marriage, the church 
 alone decides the validity or invalidity. 
 
 " 5th. Marriage, without canonical impediment, 
 is indissoluble, whatever impediment the lay power
 
 468 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 
 
 may impose, without the consent of the Universal 
 Church, or of its Supreme Head, the Roman Pon 
 tiff. 
 
 "6th. That every marriage contracted, notwith 
 standing a canonical impediment, though abro 
 gated by the sovereign, ought to be holden null 
 and of no effect ; and that every Catholic is bound 
 in conscience to regard such a marriage as void 
 until made valid by a lawful dispensation of the 
 church, if, indeed, the impediment which renders it 
 null may be removed by a dispensation" 
 
 Americans, you all allow that marriage consti 
 tutes and perpetuates society ; that it commends 
 itself, as of the first importance, to the civil power. 
 Are you willing, then, to surrender duties so 
 momentous to the order and peace of families and 
 our country, and enacted and sanctioned by our 
 legislatures, to foreign priests, or to any priesthood 
 whatever ? The Romish system, by the Council 
 of Trent, says : " Marriage contracted without the 
 solemn forms of the church is void, which this 
 council could not have done if it depended on the 
 nature of two contracts, which depend on two dis 
 tinct powers, the one, civil, and dependent on 
 civil laws ; the other, religious, and dependent
 
 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 469 
 
 on the laws of the church." The belief that it is 
 necessary to go to the Pope of Rome to get a dispen 
 sation from a canonical impediment, because a man 
 regards marriage as a sacrament, and not a civil 
 contract, and that his union by the civil law would 
 be void, and his children illegitimate, without it, 
 is a sufficient cause, we say, to disqualify any 
 Romanist from holding a civil trust under our 
 Protestant government, and cannot exist without 
 affecting his conduct as a public officer, no matter 
 what may be said or affirmed to the contrary. The 
 system that blesses horses and dogs for money,* in 
 the name of the Holy Trinity, may well afford to 
 curse American Protestant liberty. This law of 
 Romish marriage, therefore, is most pernicious and 
 anti-republican. 
 
 In 1654, after the final rising of the Council of 
 Trent, Pius the Fourth issued a creed, which is 
 received universally by the Roman Catholic Church, 
 and is by a bull enforced upon the profession of 
 every doctor, teacher, and head of a university. 
 No election or promotion is valid without it. An 
 other papal law requires the same profession of the 
 heads of cathedrals, monastic institutions, and the 
 military order, which law directly interferes with
 
 470 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 
 
 liberty. Milner, a popish writer, in his " End of 
 Controversy," chap, xiv., says : " The same creed, 
 namely, the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, the 
 Athanasian Creed, and THE CREED OF POPE Pius 
 IV., DRAWN UP IN CONFORMITY with the Holy Coun 
 cil of Trent, and EVERYWHERE RECITED AND PRO 
 FESSED TO THE STRICT LETTER," &c. In addition to 
 a profession of faith, twelve NEW ARTICLES, as for 
 eign to the Christian creed as light from darkness, 
 are subjoined. The following are extracts from 
 each of these articles : 
 
 1. "I admit and embrace apostolical and eccle 
 siastical traditions." 
 
 2. "I admit the Sacred Scriptures according to 
 the sense which the Holy Mother Church held and 
 does hold, to whom it belongs to judge of the true 
 sense and interpretation of the Holy Scriptures ; 
 nor will lever interpret them otherwise than accord 
 ing to the unanimous consent of the fathers." 
 
 The first binds the soul to pagan traditions ; the 
 second, to the impossibility of thinking or acting as 
 a responsible being ! 
 
 3. "I profess that they are truly seven sacra 
 ments, instituted by Jesus Christ, for salvation, 
 namely, baptism, confirmation, eucharist, penance,
 
 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 471 
 
 extreme unction, orders, and matrimony ; and that 
 they confer grace." 
 
 4. "Without the sacrament of baptism, which is 
 the sacrament of faith, no one can ever obtain jus 
 tification." 
 
 That is, without the priest blesses the soul ! 
 
 5. " That in the mass there is offered to God a 
 true, proper, propitiatory sacrifice for the living 
 and the dead." 
 
 Every priest by this act is made to offer up a 
 sacrifice of our blessed Saviour, directly violating 
 that passage which says, " Christ was once offered 
 up." If Christ was only once offered up (not by 
 the priest, but by himself), how can he be offered 
 up again, and that, too, by a priest ? But this 
 " sacrifice of the mass " is not Christianity : it is 
 papal mystification and paganism, an absurdity. 
 None but a Catholic priest can offer up the sacrifice 
 of the " mass," and turn a wafer into a God ! ! ! 
 Who can think of such blasphemy without a shud 
 der? But this is not the worst of this turning 
 a "wafer" into God. Rome compels physically 
 all persons, whoever they be, to bow to, and wor 
 ship, this wafer- God ! ! ! Is not this compulsory 
 law anti-republican ?
 
 472 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES 
 
 6. This article speaks of Purgatory, that is, 
 a temporary punishment for the faithful on their 
 way to heaven. ' ' The souls therein are helped by 
 the suffrages of the faithful." Prayers, well paid 
 for, are one of the most successful of Rome's 
 deceptions to enrich her treasury. The father, for 
 the soul of his child or wife, employs the official 
 services of the priest, to deliver that soul from the 
 horrors of purgatorial torment ! It makes slaves 
 of the poor laity, whose hard earnings and scanty 
 wages are exacted and given to this end ; while 
 the priests extort and secure endowments from the 
 deceased wealthy, to save them from punishment ! ! 
 
 We find a church in Venice, in 1743, was in 
 arrears for sixteen thousand four hundred masses ; 
 and Florentine tells of a Spanish priest who was 
 paid for eleven thousand eight hundred masses 
 which he never said ! Thus do the priesthood of 
 Rome traffic in souls ; cheat the people of liberty ; 
 cheat them of their money ; cheat them of their 
 hopes ; cheat them of their salvation ! And this 
 purgatorial lying, extortion, and compulsion, are 
 anti-republican. 
 
 7 and 8. These articles profess belief in the doc 
 trine of heathen worship of saints, and images, and
 
 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 473 
 
 relics "the image of Christ, of the Virgin 
 Mother of God," and of other saints. This belief 
 is binding on all. 
 
 This is anti-Christian, and tends to make the peo 
 ple heathenish ; and this pagan ignorance is inimi 
 cal to the whole genius of our republican system. 
 
 9. Professes faith in the power of indulgences, 
 which directly promotes and gives license for 
 crimes. " I also affirm that the power of indulgence 
 was left by Christ in the church, and that the use 
 of them is most wholesome to a Christian people." 
 They are very "wholesome" for the Pope- and 
 priests to fill their coffers with money, and to mul 
 tiply crimes all over the land. They are sometimes 
 called " bills of exchange on purgatory." 
 
 These indulgences are dispensed by the Pope 
 through the priests. They are a bundle of licenses 
 to commit all manner of iniquities. There is 
 always a great demand for these little packages ; 
 and, depending on the foreign will of the Pope, 
 they bring a fine price, and give the hierarchy an un 
 bounded power over their people of the whole earth. 
 
 10. " I acknowledge the Holy Catholic, Apostolic 
 Roman Church for the Mother and Mistress of all 
 churches ; and I promise true obedience to the Bishop
 
 474 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 
 
 of Rome, successor to St. Peter, prince of the Apos 
 tles, Vicar of Christ," " THE MISTRESS OF ALL 
 CHURCHES." 
 
 Is there anything to surpass this arrogant 
 assumption of priestly power, t his direct alle 
 giance to the Pope? What is it but a slavery, 
 which our free spirits should denounce, and at 
 which we should revolt ? Is our country safe with 
 such a decree ? 
 
 llth. " I likewise, undoubtedly, receive and 
 profess all other things, delivered, denned, and 
 declared, by the sacred canons of the General Coun 
 cil." This is adopting all the persecuting, immoral 
 legislation of the " Council of Trent," the "worst 
 of all." Yet, every priest and every papist in our 
 land is bound by oath to receive " all things 
 denned, delivered, and declared," by that Council. 
 " And I condemn, reject, and anathematize, all 
 things contrary thereto, and all heresies which the 
 church has condemned, rejected, and anathematized. ' ' 
 Here at one sweep they curse all heretics, or Prot 
 estants, wherever they are found. 
 
 12th. " This true Catholic faith, without which 
 no man can be saved, which I at present freely profess, 
 and truly hold, the sane I will take care of as far
 
 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 475 
 
 as in f lies, and shall be most constantly held and 
 confessed by me, whole and unviolated, with God's 
 assistance, to the last breath of my life ; and by all 
 my subjects, or these, the care of whom, in my 
 office, belongs to me, shall be held, taught, and 
 preached." "I THE SAME, N, PROMISE, vow, AND 
 
 SWEAR, SO HELP ME GOD AND THESE HOLY GOSPELS." 
 
 This is the priest's article especially. He is a slave 
 to the Pope, and is himself a PARISH POPE TO THE 
 PEOPLE. 
 
 Mark this, Americans : the Romish priest swears 
 by an oath that there is no salvation to those who 
 do not believe this creed ; that is, who do not believe 
 in the supremacy of the Pope, indulgences, transub- 
 stantiation, purgatory, image worship, saint wor 
 ship, persecution against Protestants, traditions, &c. 
 He swears also to spread these anti- Christian and 
 persecuting doctrines among those under his care, 
 and to do all he can to enforce them, without refer 
 ence to right or liberty, to his life's end ; to sup 
 press freedom of thought and speech, a:id to make 
 subjects for the Pope of Rome ! Now, Protestants, 
 all this is subversive of our free institutions. If 
 the priests and the papists do not oppose, denounce,
 
 476 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 
 
 and persecute to death (whenever they can and 
 dare), all Protestants, they swear to a lie. 
 
 We repeat, they are bound, by their oath to the 
 Pope of Rome, to receive all the persecuting and 
 tyrannical decrees of the general councils of that 
 church. We say, they are bound to teach and 
 diffuse principles utterly opposed to all the dear and 
 cherished rights of American liberty to your chil 
 dren ; and they ought not to be intrusted with the 
 education of freemen, if you wish to preserve the 
 precious and glorious privileges of our land. The 
 whole body of papists, by the creed of Pius IV., 
 is fastened and indissolubly bound up with the 
 hierarchy of Rome ! And how dangerous and 
 inimical is it to the liberties of this republic !
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 WE will now give you the precise oath which 
 binds every Roman Catholic bishop in the United 
 States of America, and in the whole world, to the 
 Pope of Rome and his throne. It is taken from 
 Barrow's unanswered " Treatise on Supremacy," 
 and is a COMPLETE FEUDAL OATH. Here it is : 
 
 "I, N, elect of the church of N, will hencefor 
 ward be faithful and obedient to St. Peter, the 
 Apostle, and to the Holy Roman Church, and to our 
 Lord, the Lord N, Pope N, and to his successors 
 canonically coming in. I will neither advise, con 
 sent, or do anything, that they may lose life or mem 
 ber, or that their persons may be seized, or hands 
 any wise laid upon them, under any pretence whatever. 
 The counsel which they shall intrust me withal, by 
 themselves, their messengers, or letters, I will not 
 knowingly reveal to any to their prejudice. / will 
 keep them to defend and keep the holy papacy, and 
 the ROYALTIES OF ST. PETER, saving my order,
 
 478 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 
 
 against all men. The legate of the apostolical 
 see, going and coming, I will honorably treat, and 
 help in his necessities. THE RIGHTS, HONORS, 
 
 PRIVILEGES, AND AUTHORITY, OF THE HOLY ROMAN 
 
 CHURCH OF OUR LORD THE POPE, and his foresaid 
 successors, I will endeavor to preserve, defend, in 
 crease, and advance. I will not be in any council, 
 action, or treaty, in which shall be plotted against 
 our said Lord, and the Romish church, anything 
 to the hurt or prejudice of their persons, right, honor, 
 state, or power ; and if I shall know any such thing 
 to be treated or agitated by any whatsoever, I will 
 hinder it to my power, and as soon as I can will 
 signify it to our said lord, or to some other, by whom 
 it may come to his knowledge. 
 
 " The rules of the holy fathers, the apostolic 
 decrees, ordinances, or disposals, reservations, provi 
 sions, and mandates, I will observe with all my 
 might, and cause to be observed by others. HERE 
 TICS, SCHISMATICS, AND REBELS TO OUR SAID LORD, 
 OR HIS FORESAID SUCCESSORS, I WILL TO MY POWER 
 
 PERSECUTE AND OPPOSE. I will come to a council 
 when I am called, unless I am hindered by a 
 canonical impediment. I WILL BY MYSELF IN PERSON 
 
 VISIT THE THRESHOLD OF THE APOSTLES EVERY THREE
 
 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 479 
 
 YEARS, AND GIVE AN ACCOUNT TO OUR LORD AND HIS 
 FORESAID SUCCESSORS OF ALL MY PASTORAL OFFICE, 
 
 and of all things any wise belonging to the state of 
 my church^ to the discipline of my clergy and people, 
 and, lastly, of the salvation of souls committed to my 
 trust ; and will, in like manner, humbly receive and 
 diligently execute the apostolic commands. 
 
 " And if I be detained by a lawful impediment, 1 
 will perform all things aforesaid by a certain messen 
 ger, hereto especially empowered a member of my chap 
 ter, or some other in ecclesiastical dignity, or else 
 having a parsonage ; or, in default of these, by a 
 priest of the diocese ; or, in default of one of the 
 clergy (of the diocese), by some other secular or regu 
 lar priest, of improved integrity and religion, fully 
 instructed in all things above mentioned. And such 
 impediment I will make out by lawful proofs, to be 
 transmitted by the aforesaid messenger to the Cardi 
 nal proponent of the Holy Roman Church, in the 
 congregation of the sacred council. 
 
 ' * The possessions belonging to my table I will nei 
 ther sell, nor give away, nor mortgage, nor grant aneu, 
 in fee, nor any wise alienate, no, not even with the 
 consent of the chapter of my church, without con 
 suiting the Roman Pontiff. And if I shall make an>
 
 480 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 
 
 alienation, I will thereby incur the penalties con 
 tained in a certain constitution put forth about this 
 matter. So HELP ME GOD, AND THESE HOLY GOS 
 PELS." 
 
 Such is that servile and persecuting oath. This 
 doctrine of the supremacy of the Pope and the 
 priesthood makes bond-slaves of all people who be 
 long to them. It makes a God on earth of the Pope 
 at Rome. He is an ambitious tyrant over the PRIEST 
 HOOD, and the priests are tyrants over the people. 
 
 No man can take this oath to the Pope, and be 
 & faithful or true citizen of the United States, or a 
 safe and consistent citizen of any country. No 
 Catholic bishop, then, is an honest citizen of the 
 United States ; if he were, he would be a perjurer. 
 In another chapter, we have shown, in the memo 
 rable contest between the Pope and the republic 
 of Venice, that the Jesuits all turned traitors, and 
 jledfrom Venice, and went over to the Pope ! The 
 Jesuits, who are the Pope's greatest propagandists, 
 never did, according to all history ar*d the authority 
 of the French Parliament, dwell in any country, 
 without destroying its liberties and its morals. The 
 foreign hierarchy who control the Roman Catholic 
 church in the United States to-day are Jesuits,
 
 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 481 
 
 from the leading bishops spread over the states, to 
 the Irish priest who came by the last emigrant 
 arrival. 
 
 It is in accordance with the American principle 
 to examine everything presented to us. We are 
 carrying forward the glorious emancipation Luther 
 began. The liberty, civil and religious, we so 
 earnestly cherish and develop, is Bible liberty, 
 and its home is on American ground. Without note 
 or comment, we send that blessed book abroad over 
 the world, the emblem of this ennobling, sublime 
 liberty, and the guardian evidence to all who breathe 
 American air to stand erect as freemen, and to 
 bow, unmolested by papal curses and bulls, in the 
 worship of our God. This blessed volume has been 
 translated into more than one hundred and sixty 
 languages of the earth ; and, without the cost of 
 a single mass or prayer for a soul in purgatory, it 
 is, through American means and Protestant teach 
 ing, enlightening, and comforting, and instructing, 
 millions of the human family. 
 
 Two years ago, there was a consecration in St. 
 Patrick's Cathedral, New York, of Bishops Bailey, 
 McLaughlin, and Dr. Goesbriand, by the papal Nun 
 cio, Monsignor Bedini. The Jesuits then took that 
 21
 
 482 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 
 
 oath in Latin, as we have given it in correct Eng 
 lish ; but the priests published a version in English, 
 for the newspapers, and little pamphlets contain 
 ing an account of the ceremonies ; one of which 
 pamphlets is now before us, and it contains a com 
 plete and wilful forgery. It omitted all the perse 
 cuting and political part, which the oath we give 
 contains, and which is the exact one used here and 
 at Rome this very day. They always deny this 
 gross deception to Americans, and three fourths of 
 the American Roman Catholic laity also deny it 
 Why ? Because these Jesuits find it expedient to 
 cheat and deceive Protestants and their own papist 
 subjects in this American land. 
 
 Cruelty is a central principle in the Church of 
 Rome, and, therefore, anti-republican. It is very 
 common, at present, with Roman Catholics, to deny 
 that their church approves religious persecution , 
 and in this assertion they are backed up by ignorant 
 or designing Protestants, for political purposes 
 solely. But there is no fact more clearly proved, 
 both by history and the dogmas of their church 
 everywhere contained in their canons and bulls, and 
 carried out in practice to the present day. The 
 prisons of Rome, and all the Italian prisons under
 
 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 483 
 
 the influence of the Pope, are, at this moment, 
 filled with victims groaning under these horrid 
 cruelties. The Inquisition, in some form, and every 
 priest and his devotees, are agents to execute this 
 intolerance. 
 
 The commentary of Menochius, which is a text 
 book at all Catholic colleges and seminaries of 
 learning, declares, in connection with the parable 
 of the wheat and the tares, that the Saviour " does 
 not forbid heretics (or Protestants) to be taken away 
 and put to death," and refers to Meldonatus on this 
 special article of their belief. And these are the 
 words of the authority alluded to: "They who 
 deny that heretics are to be put to death ought 
 much rather to deny that thieves, much rather that 
 murderers, ought to be put to death ; for heretics 
 are the more pernicious than thieves or murderers, 
 as it is a greater crime to steal and slay the souls 
 of men than their bodies." 
 
 Bellarmine, the papal authority constantly ap 
 pealed to, says : " Experience teaches us that there 
 is no other remedy (than death) ; for the church has 
 advanced by degrees, and tried every remedy. At 
 first she only excommunicated, tlien fined, then exiled ; 
 at last she ^as compelled to have recourse to death.
 
 484 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 
 
 ***** If you throw them (Protestants) into 
 pnson, or send them into exile, they corrupt their 
 neighbors by their language, and those who are at a 
 distance by their books ; therefore, the only remedy 
 is, to send them speedily to their proper place-" 
 
 The following is the curse of Pope Benedict 
 VHI. : 
 
 "May they suffer the curse of God and of the 
 world ; may they suffer it in their body, may their 
 mind become stupefied, may they meet with all 
 bodily pains, and end in perdition. 
 
 " May they be damned with the cursed ones, 
 and perish with the wicked. 
 
 " May they be cursed with the Jews, who did 
 not believe in our Lord, and crucified him. 
 
 " May they be cursed with the heretics, Prot 
 estants, who attempt to overthrow the Holy Mother 
 Church. h-.'H 
 
 1 ' May they be damned in the four parts of the 
 world : cursed in the east, abandoned in the west, 
 interdicted in the north, excommunicated in the 
 south. 
 
 "May they be cursed in the day, excommuni 
 cated in the night.
 
 BOMANKM OPPOSED -TO OUR LIBERTIES. 485 
 
 " May they be damned in heaven, on earth, and 
 in the regions below." 
 
 Says the historian Bruys : "Secular powers, 
 if need be, may be compelled by church censures 
 to destroy all heretics (Protestants) marked by the 
 church, out of the lands of their jurisdiction." 
 Labb., Tom. 13, p. 934.' Bruys' Hist, of the 
 Papacy, Tom. iii., p. 148. 
 
 The Council of Constance, 1414, in which Pope 
 Martin presided, not only condemned and burned 
 alive Hues and Jerome of Prague, but issued their 
 terrific anathema against the millions of heretics 
 all over Europe, and commanded all kings, emper 
 ors, and princes, forthwith to exterminate by fire 
 and sword. 
 
 This dogma of persecution is introduced into the 
 class-book at Maynooth Jesuit College, for which 
 England contributes annually thirty thousand 
 pounds sterling. See Delahogue's Tract. Theolog., 
 cap, 8. De Membris, p. 404, Dublin edit., 1795. 
 
 The oath which every Roman bishop swears 
 contains this central principle of persecution. 
 
 The following propositions are taken from Dr. 
 Den's System of Theology, a text-book for every 
 papal theological seminary in the land : ^
 
 486 ROKANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 
 
 1st. * ' Protestants are heretics, and as such are 
 worse than Jews and Pagans." 
 
 2d. " They are, by baptism and blood, under the 
 power of the Roman Catholic Church." 
 
 3d. " So far from granting toleration to Protest 
 ants, it is the duty of the church to exterminate 
 the rites of their religion." 
 
 4th. "It is the duty of the Roman Catholic 
 Church to compel heretics to submit to her faith." 
 
 5th. "That the punishments decreed by the 
 Roman Catholic Church are confiscation of goods, 
 exile, imprisonment, and death." 
 
 A converted Popish priest, in a late work, says * 
 
 " During the last three years I discharged the 
 duty of a Romish clergyman, my heart often shud 
 dered at the idea of entering the confessional. The 
 recitals of the murderous acts I had often heard 
 through this iniquitous tribunal had cost me many 
 a restless night, and are still fixed with horror upon 
 my memory. But the most awful of all considera 
 tions is this, that through the confessional I have 
 been frequently apprised of intended assassinations, 
 and most diabolical conspiracies ; and, still, from 
 the ungodly injunctions of secrecy in the Romish 
 creed, lest, as Peter Dens says, ' the confessional
 
 BOMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 487 
 
 should become odious,' I dared not give the slight 
 est intimation to the marked-out victims of 
 slaughter." 
 
 Pope Urban II. says : 
 
 "We do not consider those as homicides who, 
 burning with zeal for the Catholic church against 
 excommunicated persons, happen to have killed any 
 of them." 
 
 Pope Sixtus V., in a public address, applauded 
 the assassination of Henry III. of France. 
 
 The Rhemish translators of the New Testament, 
 on Rev. 17 : 6, "Drunken with the blood of the 
 saints," say : 
 
 " Protestants foolishly expound it of Rome, for 
 that they put heretics to death, and allow of their 
 punishment in other countries ; but their blood is 
 not called the blood of saints no more than the 
 blood of thieves, man-killers, and other malefactors, 
 for the shedding of which, by order of justice, no 
 commonwealth shall answer." 
 
 Bellarmine and Maldonatus, two of the highest 
 authorities at Maynooth, teach the same doctrines. 
 The proceedings at Rome in regard to the massacre 
 of St. Bartholemew prove that Rome would have 
 equally gloated over the Gunpowder Plot, if it had
 
 488 BOMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 
 
 only been successful. She has never disavowed 
 any of her atrocious principles, whilst the recent 
 avowals of Dr. Cahill, the Rambler, and the Shep 
 herd of the Valley, demonstrate that modern Papists 
 are quite as bloodthirsty as their ancestors. 
 
 " The Inquisition was first established at Tou 
 louse, in 1233. It subsequently spread in Spain, 
 Portugal, and other countries, increasing in power 
 and cruelty. The managers of the inquisitional 
 courts were men of low origin and brutal nature, 
 who had unlimited power from the Pope to put to 
 death any person suspected of heresy ; and heresy, 
 in the Church of Rome, means nothing but opposing 
 the pretensions of the Papacy. Under the tryanni- 
 cal sway of the Inquisition, parents were required 
 to stifle all their natural affections, and children 
 forgot their reverence, gratitude, and love. The 
 immense power of the Inquisitor General we refer 
 to. Among other practices of the Inquisition, it 
 was common for persons to be seized and murdered 
 in order to get possession of their property. It 
 was in vain to search the world for an institution 
 to compare with this in atrocity and merciless bar 
 barity. 'Deliver yourself up a prisoner to the 
 Inquisition,' filled the soul with horror, and made
 
 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUK LIBERTIES. 489 
 
 the frame motionless, for it was the prelude to the 
 dungeon and death. The infamous practices of 
 the inquisitional courts were made up of cruelty, 
 blood, death ! 
 
 ' ' Romanism has not changed by the light and 
 progress of civilization. In 1825, under Pope 
 Leo XII., the work of the Inquisition was recom 
 menced with great vigor. It was as dark, baneful, 
 and bloody, as ever. From that period until the 
 late revolution in Italy, scenes of horror transpired, 
 the details of which are known only to their atro 
 cious authors. In 1849, the Constituent Assembly 
 determined that the tribunal should be abolished, 
 and the building appropriated to some military 
 purpose. In the buildings were the bones of human 
 beings without number, thrown together in a man 
 ner to shock the feelings. There are to-day a 
 thousand patriots suffering, in gloomy and filthy 
 dungeons, all the horrors that the victims of the 
 Inquisition endured. The truth is, that the spirit 
 of deadly persecution is inherent in Romanism. 
 It is one of its vital forces. While Romanism 
 prides itself upon its immovability, progress is an 
 integral part of Protestantism ; and its onward 
 march, however slow, is steady and direct." 
 21*
 
 490 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 
 
 To those who think that this spirit of intolerance 
 is relaxed in our day, either in the United States 
 or in other lands, we could present a volume of 
 convincing and oyerwhelming facts to prove the 
 contrary. But the following specimens will be 
 sufficient : 
 
 A few years ago, a Protestant minister in the 
 West, after preaching to his own congregation on 
 the subject of Popery, was met by the priest of the 
 town at the church door, and told by him that, 
 "were it not for the laws of the country, he would 
 cut his throat." "Yes," said the minister, "I 
 know that already." 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Nast, of Cincinnati, who has been 
 instrumental in the conversion of many German 
 papists, by preaching, lecturing, and publishing a 
 German paper, received a letter a few months 
 since, stating that if he did not stop his efforts, 
 they would do with their fists what their priests 
 cannot do with their pens, "knock your eyes out." 
 
 An Episcopal clergyman in the West stated that 
 a member Df his church married a Roman Catholic 
 lady, who, by his influence, was converted to the 
 Protestant faith. The father of the young lady 
 called +o inquire if it was so. "Yes," said the
 
 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 491 
 
 daughter, " it is." On leaving the house, he said 
 to his son-in-law, " Sir, I will never be satisfied 
 till I have washed my hands in your heart's blood." 
 
 Who was it, a few years since, that drove six 
 hundred families from the Austrian empire into 
 the Prussian territory, because they would not 
 renounce the reformed religion? It was popish 
 priests. 
 
 Who was it that drove the Eev. Mr. Rule from 
 Cadiz ? Papal authorities, directed to do so by 
 the archbishop of the see. 
 
 Who flogged a man nearly to death for renounc 
 ing Popery, in the State of Pennsylvania ? It was 
 a popish priest. In the neighborhood of Doyles- 
 town, a German Catholic attended a funeral sermon 
 of a Protestant minister, after which a priest called 
 and asked him if he had become a Protestant. 
 "If you have," said he, "you have committed a 
 mortal sin; confess your sin to me." " I have 
 confessed my sin to Christ," said the sick man, 
 " and obtained absolution." The priest urged him 
 with increasing warmth to confess ; he declined. 
 The priest then seized a chair, jumped on the bed, 
 and pounded him with it till he broke it in pieces ; 
 he then took from his pocket a raw-hide, and began
 
 492 ROMAHISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 
 
 to scourge him, to compel him to confess. A 
 stranger, passing by, hearing the noise, entered 
 the house, and, finding the priest in the act of 
 scourging the sick man, he seized him by the collar, 
 and dragged him down stairs. Soon after, the 
 man died. The priest was arrested and tried in 
 Doylestown court-house, and fined fifty dollars and 
 costs, and left the country. 
 
 Who was it that threatened the city of Boston ? 
 It was the lady superior of the convent, who, after 
 that unclean and anti-republican cage had been 
 attacked by rioters, said : " The bishop has more 
 than twenty thousand Irishmen at his command, 
 who will tear your houses over your heads, and you 
 may read your riot-acts till your throats are sore ! " 
 We condemn the riot, but did that justify this 
 diabolical and bloody threat of this female Jesuit ? 
 
 Who was it that persecuted recently four hun 
 dred Madeira Protestants, and forced them to flee 
 from their native country? The priests of the 
 island. 
 
 A convert to Protestantism, travelling along the 
 road leading to Scariff, Ireland, in the county of 
 Clare, was accosted by some laborers in the field. 
 After threatening him several times, they at length
 
 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 493 
 
 suffered him to pass, saying, " If you dare to come 
 this way again, you bloody Sassenah rascal, we '11 
 blow your brains out ! " Limerick Standard. 
 
 A savage -looking ruffian violently attacked the 
 Rev. Mr. Marks, a Protestant clergyman, late of 
 the Molyneux Asylum, in the public streets of 
 Dublin, and, without provocation, knocked the 
 reverend gentleman down. What next ? Warder. 
 
 On the evening of Wednesday last, 13th inst., 
 as John Honner, a respectable Protestant, was re 
 turning home from the Macroon Sessions, he was 
 savagely assaulted midway between Castletown and 
 Enniskeane, by some person at present unknown ; 
 no less than sixteen wounds having been inflicted 
 on his head and face, besides several others on his 
 body and limbs ; his skull was severely fractured. 
 Cork Standard. 
 
 The names of nearly one hundred persecuted 
 Protestant clergymen are given in the Tipperary 
 Constitution. The manner in which they were 
 treated is thus marked : stoned to death ; mur 
 dered ; stoned ; fired at ; dangerously assaulted ; 
 abused and persecuted ; plundered ; interrupted 
 and assaulted in the performance of duty ; house
 
 494 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 
 
 attacked, demolished, or burned down ; driven 
 from his home, or his country. 
 
 Some time ago, M. Maurette, a French Roman 
 priest, was brought to the knowledge of the truth 
 as it is in Jesus, and, in consequence, abandoned 
 the pale of the idolatrous and apostate church in 
 which he had been brought up. Having convinced 
 himself of the danger of continuing in Babylon, he 
 wished to induce as many as possible of his coun 
 trymen to flee out of her infected communion. 
 With this view, he published a statement of the 
 reasons that had led him to adopt the Protestant 
 faith, and plainly and forcibly exposed the super 
 stition of Rome, by the usual arguments employed 
 by the divines of the French Protestant church. 
 For this he was condemned, on the 17th of May, 
 1844, by the Court of Assizes of L'Ariege, to a 
 year's imprisonment, and a fine of six hundred 
 francs ! 
 
 You have all heard of the brutish papal persecu 
 tions at Damascus, where two or three of the un 
 protected sons of Abraham were recently flogged, 
 soaked in large vessels of water, their eyes pressed 
 out of their sockets with a machine, dragged about 
 by the ears till the blood gushed out, thorns driven
 
 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 495 
 
 in between the nails and flesh of their fingers and 
 toes, and candles put under their noses, burning 
 their nostrils. This is Popery ! After hearing of 
 this act of persecution, and hundreds of others 
 constantly taking place in papal countries, and our 
 own country, who will believe that this unchange 
 able church has changed her system of butchery ? 
 What she has been she is now ; and you, my Prot 
 estant brethren, would feel it if she had the power. 
 Now, with the fact of the presence of this mighty 
 enemy in our beloved land, what more astonishing 
 than the apathy and blindness of our statesmen, 
 and the slumbering security in which our patriotic 
 citizens, to whom liberty is so sweet and dear, fold 
 their arms, and never dream of papal danger? 
 Do they imagine that our country is too great, our 
 resources too vast, our numbers too overwhelming, 
 to feel the slightest apprehension on this subject ? 
 What was it but a spark that kindled up the con 
 flagration of Rome, and that was to blow up the 
 Parliament of England ? What was it but a Guy 
 Fawkes, employed by the Jesuit priests to make 
 that fatal arrangement, to overturn Protestantism 
 in England ? What was it but one gilded bauble 
 from the Pope that corrupted the royal monarch,
 
 496 BOMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 
 
 Henry II., to submit himself and kingdom to the 
 dictation of the Vatican ? What is it but Pusey- 
 ism, now in the hands of the subtle and scheming 
 Nuncio of Rome, aided by the University of Oxford, 
 and the crafty spies and emissaries of Rome, that 
 is undermining the foundation of Protestantism, and 
 shaking the fancied stability of the throne of the 
 Stuarts, in that land of the early Reformation, and 
 heroic defenders of the bulwarks of liberty ? 
 
 Do our listless Galbas imagine that the two 
 thousand papal bishops, priests, and Jesuits, with 
 their millions of obedient subjects, and multitudes 
 of endowed nunneries, seminaries, and colleges, 
 planted over our land like so many batteries, with 
 their guns and ammunition ready for action, are 
 sent here and put in operation merely for the idle 
 amusement of that foreign potentate ? Is the prize 
 less tempting, by its surpassing beauty and mag 
 nificence, than other territories and states, at which 
 its policy has been directed, and over which its 
 skilful and deep-laid plots have triumphed ? There 
 are but a few of our people, comparatively, who 
 are aware of the secret and mighty springs which 
 are at work in the wheels within the wheels of this 
 spiritual and political machine. Its central power
 
 ROMANISM OPPOSED TO OUR LIBERTIES. 497 
 
 is at Rome ; but its army of chameleon and vigi 
 lant spies are everywhere. Our people may despise 
 its intrigues, and laugh at the warnings of more 
 reflecting patriots, who stand like sentinels on the 
 watch-towers of liberty ; but so reasoned the inhab 
 itants of Troy, when the treacherous wooden horse 
 entered within its gates and took the city. 

 
 A PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMER 
 ICAN CITIZENS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 AMERICANS, do you know that every time you 
 unfurl the banner of your country, and rally to 
 the defence of your republican school system, you 
 insult the sensibilities of the anti- American party, 
 foreign and native ? Remember, the debt of grati 
 tude has been fully paid to those who have aided 
 you in cutting down your forests, levelling your 
 mountains, opening your highways, digging your 
 canals, settling your lands, and even in the 
 blood shed for the common defence of the country. 
 It is paid in the prosperity, the happiness, the 
 success, of their posterity, for whom they labored, 
 suffered, and endured. They looked to the good of 
 their children ; you, Americans, have now to do
 
 
 Of NKWYORK
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOB AMERICANS. 499 
 
 the same. It is the duty of the father to protect 
 himself and family from injurious influences ; and 
 it is a still more imperative duty for the nation to 
 protect its people from the same. Then, shall we 
 not be permitted to roll back the tide of priestcraft, 
 and place in its way the great counter wave of 
 American common and free school education ? 
 This is a question for wise men of all parties. 
 This is the principle of that eclectic party which 
 the people baptize in their own name to-day ! 
 
 Remember, the greatest as well as the cheapest 
 insurance upon this Union is its republican learning. 
 You must educate those who are to make laws for 
 yourselves and your children who are to elect 
 your judges and your rulers. The more schools 
 you build, the fewer jails and alms-houses you will 
 require. An extended and free education will give 
 to America more private and public prosperity, 
 more financial success, more political tranquillity, 
 than all other means combined. And, if neglected, 
 or surrendered into foreign hands, liberty cannot 
 long linger upon your native soil. American citi 
 zens must be respected the world over ; and it is 
 their education which secures the rights of con 
 science, and of religious worship, and is the main 

 
 500 PUOTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 
 
 guarantee of integrity and loyalty to their own 
 country. 
 
 There is in the United States now an organiza 
 tion called " Christian Brothers/' It has its seat 
 in Italy, and under a special bull of the Pope is 
 found in every city and neighborhood of our coun 
 try where Popery has made a foot-print. This 
 society obliges every * ' Christian Brother ' ' *to 
 renounce his native country, friends, acquaintances, 
 and even parents ! And these are the ' ' Brothers ' ' 
 who conduct the schools, colleges, nunneries, and 
 monasteries, of Romanists, all over our land. They 
 infuse into the youth of the country the poison of 
 religious and national enmity, and there are thou 
 sands of tiieir pupils in New York and other states, 
 who, though born upon the soil, will proudly 
 declare they are Roman Catholics, and not Ameri 
 cans ! And, that there may be no mistake as to 
 the rules and constitution of this secret society, to 
 whom not only American Roman Catholics, but 
 unsuspecting Proteetante, commit the souls and 
 bodies of their children, we give some of their 
 "directions,'* obtained from that little printed vol 
 ume, which is approved by the Pope, and sanctioned 
 by all his bishops in our country, but concealed
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 501 
 
 from the public eye. The author is John Baptist 
 La Salle, an Abbot of Normandy, in France, 
 assisted by Father Boudin, of the Society of Jesus, 
 and rector of the Jesuits' Novitiate at Rouen. 
 
 NATIVE COUNTRY. "Each brother is absolutely required 
 to renounce his native country." (Pages 16 and 18 of the 
 Rule of Government for the use of the Christian Brothers.) 
 
 DEPENDENCY. "Absolute and blind obedience to the 
 commands of the Brother Superior." (Ditto, page 48.) 
 
 SELF-DENIAL. "We have to renounce our own judg 
 ment, because we are unable to judge things but in a 
 worldly manner." (Ditto, page 91.) 
 
 DIFFIDENCE. "When the 'Brothers' converse with 
 persons, strangers to the Order, they will observe an abso 
 lute silence in all that regards the Institution. They are 
 prohibited from letting anything transpire out of the So 
 ciety. They shall never say in what localities, and how 
 numerous, are the ' Brothers, ' even if requested ; but, in 
 case they cannot avoid an answer, they will limit themselves 
 to speak only of the spirit of the Institution." (Rules and 
 Constitutions, page 34.) 
 
 PARENTS AND FRIENDS. "They will break all affec 
 tions which should bind them to the world, even with parents 
 aad friends. 
 
 " The ' Brother' shall never speak of his parents, nor of 
 his native country, nor of what he has done, unless with 
 persons such as the bishop, in case he should be interro 
 gated." (Ditto, page 38.) 
 
 "The 'Brothers' are warned NOT TO ATTEND THE 
 FUKE&ALS OF THEIR PARENTS, only in the church, in case
 
 502 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOE AMERICANS. 
 
 they reside in the sairie locality. But the Superiors will 
 see that even THIS DOES NOT OCCUR ! " (Ditto, page 65.) 
 
 ESPIONAGE. "If one of the fraternity should propose a 
 new maxim, which was known to be false, or might cause 
 serious consequences, the other ' Brothers ' will combat it 
 with silence, and report it immediately to the Brother Supe 
 rior." (Ditto, page 32.) 
 
 HYPOCRISY. " The ' Brothers ' will carry their heads 
 always straight, inclining it only in front, never turning 
 behind, nor incline it on one side or on the other. Should 
 necessity compel them to it, they will turn the whole body 
 quickly and with gravity. 
 
 " They will avoid to show their forehead turned into 
 ringlets, but the nose above all, in order that strangers may 
 see in their faces an external wisdom, which might be the 
 sign of spiritual virtue. 
 
 " They ought never to keep their lips neither too close, 
 nor too open." (Ditto, pages 35, 36.) 
 
 The books of this society for the education of 
 Americans are published under the authority of 
 Archbishop Hughes, of New York, and endorsed 
 by other bishops thus : 
 
 " I recommend the series of school-books compiled by the 
 
 Christian Brothers, and published by ( ), New York, 
 
 and wish them to be used in every school in the diocese 
 where there are no other Catholic school-books in the hands 
 of the children. 
 
 "f J. B., Archbishop of Cincinnati." 
 
 " We heartily recommend for the use of our Catholic
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 503 
 
 schools the books of the Christian Brothers, published by 
 ( ), New York. f JOHN, Bishop of Albany." 
 
 11 1 earnestly recommend the books of the Christian Broth 
 ers, published by ( ), for the use of our Catholic schools 
 
 in this Diocese. f JOHN, Bishop of Buffalo." 
 
 The last great Romish convention in Baltimore 
 had for its true object nothing but to further the 
 assault upon the education of the American masses. 
 
 Soon after its session, eight states of the Union 
 made a simultaneous movement for a division of 
 the public school funds for this purpose. In Cali 
 fornia alone, however, was the effort successful. 
 
 A pupil in a Roman Catholic school cannot, 
 under the heaviest penalty, open the lids of a book, 
 or look at a print or painting, which has not been 
 sanctioned and approved by the church ! Even the 
 emblems on the tombs of masons in Jamaica have 
 been effaced by stone-cutters, under the Jesuit 
 priests, because that institution was hateful to the 
 Pope. 
 
 Long before the murder of the Huguenots in Flor 
 ida, under the Spanish Inquisition, the Pope had 
 made disposal of the entire American continent. 
 Pius the Fifth exercised this right to the monarchs 
 of Spain ; and the only way to possess it is that
 
 504 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 
 
 wisely adopted, in attempting to seduce the people 
 through educational influences ; in plain English, 
 to keep them ignorant, as they do the masses in all 
 Romish countries. 
 
 " We want to make Rome the District of Colum 
 bia for all Christendom," is the bold avowal of an 
 editor of the Popish press. In the District of 
 Columbia no citizen can even vote for the President 
 of their country, while the Jesuit college of George 
 town furnishes the education to many of the officers 
 of the government. And in the state department, 
 especially, much facility is thus afforded for man 
 agers of that institution to know the private trans 
 actions of our national bureaus. Even the lion 
 loves the lair of its nativity, and the wolf seeks the 
 cavern where it was born ; but here is a secret, in 
 visible influence, training Americans upon their 
 own soil to curse country, family, and government, 
 because these shelter and protect from all tyrant 
 foes. 
 
 Americans, there is a voice calling you to action 
 now, stronger than that of court, jury, or country ; 
 it is the voice of God ! It is time to rise and fix 
 a higher value to the education of all the people,
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 505 
 
 when men are dismissed for Americanism from 
 office. 
 
 In Norfolk, Va., at the late election of Gov. 
 Wise, it was publicly and semi-officially announced 
 by the press that no one in the navy yard at that 
 station could vote the American ticket, unless at the 
 expense of his place ; and fifteen hundred men were 
 forced for their bread to vote against their senti 
 ments, after making an example by removing 
 three experienced mechanics, who had expressed 
 their partiality for American principles before that 
 election. In the treasury department, whether in 
 the custom-houses, light-houses, or the erection of 
 new light-houses, the same system has invariably 
 been pursued. So, also, of the employes con 
 nected with the post-office and the transportation 
 of mails ; and all the patronage of the general 
 government, and of the states which have sympa 
 thized with President Pierce's administration, the 
 greatest crime has been faithfulness to the princi 
 ples and policy of the government your fathers left 
 you. They disclaimed all foreign interference in 
 American affairs ; they declared the Union must 
 be preserved ; that none but Americans should rule 
 your country ; that national treaties were inviolate ; 
 22
 
 506 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 
 
 that no union should exist between church and 
 state ; that personal morality was indispensable for 
 office ; and that we must have open Bibles in all 
 our public schools. 
 
 In -the legislature of Lower Canada, Normal 
 schools have been abolished by Romanists, and 
 none but those under the eye of the priests exist ; so 
 that mass, confession, the sacraments and dogmas 
 of the Romish church, employ the whole time of 
 the pupils. So will they have it in all the states of 
 our Union, as soon as a sufficient number of Jesuits 
 can be had to cooperate with corrupt politicians in 
 our legislatures. Our public schools will be con 
 verted into jails for American women, and our 
 Normal schools into Romish theological seminaries. 
 Are we a people, Americans ? Have we a country 
 and government of our own ? If so, can we, as 
 Anglo-Saxon Protestants, sanction or endure to have 
 mass said over our national soul by these meddling 
 Jesuits, who thus insult our great nation with such 
 worn-out -foolery ? Intelligence of the people is the 
 foundation on which our institutions are based ; and 
 a practical Protestant education, therefore, is the 
 essential element of our democratic freedom ; hence, 
 as a system of instruction, our Protestant free
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 507 
 
 schools are inseparable from our liberties. This 
 right to educate the people is the right of self- 
 government, and our common schools are, in this 
 sense, the means of self-preservation. No man is 
 fit to be considered an intelligent voter, unless he 
 is able to read the vote and the constitution from 
 whence he derives the right of suffrage. 
 
 Americans boast of their free press ; but how can 
 that save their liberties, unless they have a free 
 and enlightened people to read its products ? What 
 kind of an idea can we expect the masses to have 
 of freedom, when, without an education of the 
 mind, it implies in their judgment to do as they 
 please ? What kind of freedom is it which excludes 
 the Bible from the people, and therefore forces the 
 desecration of the Sabbath on the nation? In no 
 country upon earth has liberty ever existed, where 
 the Bible is hid from the education of the people. 
 This has always kept republicanism out of France ; 
 the people cannot be fit for it without an open 
 Bible in their schools and families. Sixteen years 
 ago, the assault upon the American system of edu 
 cation openly commenced in the State of New York. 
 At that time the Bible was found in all the public 
 schools, and some portion of God's holy word was
 
 508 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 
 
 reverently read at the opening exercises every day. 
 The Romish hierarchy became alarmed, and Bishop 
 Hughes determined to prevent any Roman Catholic 
 from entering these free schools. He went before 
 the Common Council, and demanded a portion of 
 the school fund to establish separate Roman Catholic 
 schools, where no Bible could be read, and no God 
 served but the Pope and his priests. The Council 
 of New York city of course refused the application. 
 He then had a petition numerously signed by 
 his subjects, and sent it to the Legislature, asking 
 that the power be taken away from the corporation 
 of that city. The report and bill found the warmest 
 cooperation in the executive of the state, and had 
 it been sanctioned by the Legislature, more than 
 one half of the Jesuit priesthood in New York 
 would have been paid out of the school fund of 
 that city ! The rejection of this iniquity, by the 
 people's representatives, exasperated the foreign 
 hierarchy ; and Bishop Hughes, as their leader, 
 called a public meeting at Carroll Hall, to nominate 
 a ticket to the next Assembly of the state. His 
 political speech was vociferously cheered, and, as 
 Americans caught the sound, it revived the spirit 
 of the heroes of our liberties, and the American
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 509 
 
 party, from that hour, was born to give salvation 
 and deliverance to this people. 
 
 Our countrymen, give us your attention while 
 we consider this solemn subject, in which, more 
 than any other, you are deeply interested, and we 
 will embrace in the next chapter the Dangers of 
 Education in Roman Catholic Seminaries.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THERE are now hundreds of Roman Catholic 
 seminaries and colleges in full operation, and mul 
 tiplying rapidly over our country. To monopolize 
 instruction wherever they can, and to get the con 
 trol of schools, that the whole may be reduced to 
 the pliant domination of the Pope, to this end 
 the order of Jesuits was established. That they 
 will involve this land in troubles and conflicts, is 
 just as certain as that they are swarming over our 
 country. Where is the American parent, let alone 
 the Christian under vows, who, knowing the aim 
 of the Jesuits, will turn over his child to be trained 
 up by men who will use that child afterwards as 
 their tool to ruin the liberty, civil and religious, 
 which our fathers transmitted, a priceless boon, to 
 us? 
 
 Will you lend me, therefore, Americans, your 
 candid attention, while I present the dangers of
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 511 
 
 intrusting your sons and daughters to be educated 
 in Roman Catholic seminaries ? 
 
 1st. EDUCATION IN ROMAN CATHOLIC SEMINARIES 
 
 IS DANGEROUS, BECAUSE THE METHOD OF INSTRUCTION 
 IS SUPERFICIAL AND ANTI-REPUBLICAN. 
 
 The character of the instruction imparted in 
 these priestly schools is most superficial, and its 
 whole tendency is anti-republican, and only cal 
 culated to weave around the mind the narrow 
 and Jesuitical prejudices inimical to freedom of 
 thought and expanded intellect. Their method 
 can never make good scholars, independent of the 
 papal influence so sedulously thrown over them. 
 They omit the modern improvements in some 
 branches, and abridge to a narrow compass, to suit 
 their purposes, some of the most important works. 
 They emasculate every sentiment favorable to lib 
 erty, or our free Protestant institutions, every 
 thing relating to the reformation by Luther, and to 
 those heroic and noble founders of liberty who 
 reared this beautiful and Protestant republic, or 
 who have appeared at any time in the world ; or, 
 if their deeds or names are mentioned, they are 
 depreciated and misrepresented. Books have been 
 brought out from the schools, and publicly exposed,
 
 512 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 
 
 in the city of New York, some pages of which had 
 been blackened over, or defaced and stricken out, 
 by the priests and their teachers. Their system of 
 elementary and scientific instruction is narrowed to 
 conform to their ecclesiastical expurgation and 
 repression of the youthful faculties. History is to 
 them a dangerous subject, especially when the sons 
 of Protestants are the pupils, and is, therefore, 
 skimmed in a compend prepared by means well 
 adapted to the end. Philosophy, natural, moral, 
 and mental, is studied very superficially. So are 
 the mathematics. The whole system of education 
 is adapted to make only counterfeit republicans. 
 With a very plausible appearance, they advertise 
 11 fashionable schools," where the " manners of the 
 young ladies will be polished after the most ap 
 proved patterns," and where the young gentlemen 
 will be ' ' educated in all manly arts and scientific 
 attainments." With such professions and adver 
 tisements, they impose upon Protestants. It is 
 the syren song of the sorceress, to charm the ear 
 with seductive music, and beguile the unsuspecting 
 listeners into their treacherous bosom. It is the 
 white signal of a foe, a trumpet blown from the 
 Vatican across the Atlantic, to summon Americans
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 513 
 
 to adorn their banner with the papal cross, and to 
 bayonet their own bodies. 
 
 Unhappily, too many Protestants have contrib 
 uted already to build up these seminaries of deadly 
 mischief, and dangerous weapons of destruction. 
 Have not the Protestants, in their liberality, been 
 totally blind to the artful designs of the Romish 
 priests and " Sisters of Charity," who have taken 
 all pains to wave before their eyes these false 
 colors, and to spread out, in flaming capitals, these 
 flattering and gilded cards of a " solid and fashion 
 able ' ' education ? In this mistaken liberality of 
 Protestants, they have only been made unwitting 
 tools to advance the grand policy of Rome to gain 
 a controlling influence in the states, and to add 
 subjects, power, and wealth, to their hierarchy. 
 
 2d. THESE SEMINARIES ARE DANGEROUS, BECAUSE 
 THOSE WHO PRESIDE OVER THEM, AND ARE TEACHERS, 
 ARE JESUITS AND JESUITESSES. 
 
 Since the order of the Jesuits was established 
 by Pope Paul III., in 1540, they have usurped 
 and controlled education in all the domains of the 
 Papacy. But who are the Jesuits ? They are the 
 body-guard of the Pope. They poison the fountains 
 of literature, and are everywhere the destroyers of 
 22*
 
 514 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOE AMERICANS. 
 
 youth. Pretending to favor intelligence, they are 
 the agents of darkness, the corrupters of female 
 virtue in the confessional, the libertines of monas 
 teries, having the nuns for their concubines ; the 
 bane of families, society, governments, and the 
 scourge of the world. 
 
 The Jesuitesses are the tools of the priests or 
 Jesuits. They always follow them, and are placed 
 over the nunnery schools. An able and reliable 
 writer says : 
 
 " All who have acquired any knowledge of the interior 
 working of the papal system are well aware how much use 
 that system has already made of the agency of woman. 
 This has been the case very specially where 'it could not put 
 forth any very large measure of direct power ; and to this 
 the Jesuits have always devoted their utmost skill and 
 treacherous craft. Their great aim is to gain the confi 
 dence of females in every rank of life, and of every shade 
 of character, and to employ them all as agents. They may 
 be ladies of rank, wealth, and beauty ; and may use their 
 personal influence in the very highest circles, around the 
 throne, and behind the throne. They may be in the middle 
 classes, and may manage to become acquainted with all the 
 affairs of the busy and engrossing events of political and 
 commercial life. They may be governesses and nursery 
 maids, and may insinuate their plausible wiles into the 
 unsuspicious minds of even young children. They may be 
 the seeming benefactresses of poverty and wretchedness, and 
 may thus gain ascendency over the compassionate and the
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 515 
 
 sentimental ; or they may even haunt the scenes of deepest 
 infamy, and ensnare youth into passion and crime. What 
 they have to do, and are trained to do, is to acquire either 
 an influence over men in all stations, so as to induce them 
 to give countenance and support to Popery, or such a knowl 
 edge of all men's designs as to be able to betray them to 
 their priestly and Jesuitical advisers. This is done through 
 out all Europe, to an extent that scarcely any person can 
 even imagine. By this secret, universal, and almost invisi 
 ble agency, Rome contrives to know everything that is done, 
 or said, or almost thought, by every man, in every circle ; 
 and can counterplot and overreach every attempt that can 
 be made or framed against her wide enterprise of establish 
 ing universal dominion on the ruins of all true liberty, civil 
 and sacred." 
 
 These agents are far more powerful when they 
 are employed in education. Here they act, as in 
 every other department, with the most crafty de 
 sign, to captivate the young mind, and to attract 
 young ladies into their seminaries, which are 
 always an appendage to a convent or a nunnery. 
 They are the spies of the priests. They are bound 
 to carry out the designs of Romanism. With a 
 bland and winning exterior, they conceal from the 
 view of Protestants their real intentions. But 
 behind this exterior, when Protestants and all out 
 ward responsibilities are withdrawn, they show
 
 516 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOB AMERICANS. 
 
 their real traits to be the most imperious, cruel, 
 and tyrannical. 
 
 The following testimony is from a competent 
 witness, who has had good opportunities of watch 
 ing them in France : 
 
 "A great number of Protestants speak of these Jesuit 
 ' Sisters ' as ' walking angels,' or representatives of the 
 Virgin Mary. But I am convinced that, if many of the 
 Protestant pastors of France were to contribute only a small 
 part of the annoyances they have endured from those ' walk 
 ing angels,' a huge volume of facts might be published, 
 which would prove that the words Protestant and demon 
 are synonymous in the opinion of a vast majority of these 
 ' Sisters.' My dear departed friend, the Rev. A. Le Four- 
 drey, pastor at Brest, who visited the hospitals in that 
 important seaport for twenty-two years, often told me that 
 he never met with such an intolerant set of human beings 
 as these ' Sisters.' Many of them, he has said, attend their 
 patient till they find out that he is a Protestant ; and then, 
 unless they have some secret hope of onverting him, very 
 often their charity degenerates into brutality. It would, 
 doubtless, open the eyes of Protestants, as to these { Sisters,' 
 were they only to become a little better acquainted with 
 them. Could they only, for a moment, look upon their 
 wrathful countenance when they see a person with a Bible 
 in his hand, they would then, perhaps, understand the dan 
 ger of these Jesuitesses ; " and, we add, of sending the 
 daughters of Protestant parents to their schools in the 
 United States. 
 
 The daughters of Protestants who, unhappily,
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 517 
 
 enter these nunnery seminaries, see nothing but 
 what is agreeable, polite, and perhaps delightful, 
 until they are finally persuaded for this is a 
 constant end the Jesuitesses have in view to 
 take the white and black veil ; and then, when 
 shut out and imprisoned, under bars, and lock and 
 key, they find, when too late, their sad mistake, 
 and the awful deception which has been practised 
 upon them. They find that these Jesuitesses, who 
 appeared as angels of goodness, full of heavenly 
 smiles, are but demure, unsocial, treacherous 
 tyrants.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 3d. THESE SEMINARIES ARE DANGEROUS, BECAUSE 
 THE BIBLE AND ALL CHRISTIAN INFLUENCES ARE RE 
 MOVED, AND THE IDOLATROUS RITES AND PAPAL MUM 
 MERIES OF THE ROMISH CHURCH ARE SUBSTITUTED IN 
 THEIR PLACE. 
 
 One of the first evidences that the pupil has 
 passed from a Christian society and Protestant 
 associations, after entering a Roman Catholic semi 
 nary, is the taking away of the Bible. This is 
 invariably done to every pupil. Why is the Bible 
 taken away ? Does it deserve this treatment ? Is 
 it not the revelation from heaven to man, in which 
 mercy, peace, and salvation, are made known to our 
 world ; the treasure of wisdom and truth ; the only 
 safeguard of man's rights, and of social, mental, 
 moral, political, and religious liberty ? Is not that 
 mode of instruction to be suspected which leaves 
 out its pure morality, its salutary motives, its 
 sublime influence and precepts? Can that system

 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 519 
 
 be right which takes from the trunk of the pupil 
 this blessed Book, and robs the owner, not only of 
 property, but of the only guide of youth to hap 
 piness and heaven ? Is Rome afraid of the Bible ? 
 Yes, we have come to the difficulty. Rome is 
 afraid of the Bible ! Rome is from beneath, the 
 Bible is from above. The light of truth shines too 
 clearly for its toleration. The worship of the 
 Virgin Mary, the Pope, and his infallibility, his 
 cardinals, and his supremacy, celibacy of the priests, 
 purgatory, images, beads, relics, the mass, transub 
 stantiation of a wafer, penances, and all the pomp 
 ous ceremonies and pagan puerilities, have no 
 place in this book of heaven. Popery is not found 
 in the Bible ; but the Bible opposes Popery, and all 
 its works of darkness. It must not be in the 
 possession of the pupil, for then the human impos 
 tures and lucrative incomes of the priests and 
 Jesuitesses would be exposed. Having removed 
 this grand obstacle to their success, the new pupils 
 are directed to those popish observances to which 
 they have been heretofore strangers. There is no 
 consulting their inclinations, nor the inclinations 
 of their parents. Unquestioned and absolute sub-
 
 520 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 
 
 mission is required. They are compelled to con 
 form to these religious and pagan ceremonies. 
 
 In the mean time, the pupil is totally unsuspecting 
 of any design to alienate attachment to previous 
 ideas and parental modes of thinking and worship, 
 or to eradicate the lessons imbibed from Protestant 
 education. Knowing nothing of Jesuitism, its 
 consummate art, its practised deceptions, its insid 
 ious approaches, and bland addresses, the new 
 pupil is easily deceived, and, by a gradual, con 
 tinued process, becomes habituated to the impres 
 sions and instructions of the teachers, until, like a 
 bird in the snare of the fowler, the web is woven 
 and the innocent son, or daughter, becomes a 
 Papist. The effect is, to bring the pupils to the 
 feet of the monks and Jesuitesses, to reduce them 
 under a yoke of superstitious dread and fear, to 
 deprive the mind of all elastic energy, and fa 
 effeminate and dwarf the intellect and soul. An 
 other effect is to alienate the affections from the 
 parents, whom the daughter or son is taught to 
 believe are heretics, and, therefore, unworthy of 
 their confidence as guides in this world, much less 
 as guides to the next. Have you ever reflected, 
 parents, upon the effect of these papal delusions ?
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 521 
 
 the poison which is inhaled ? The danger to which 
 your children are exposed, in this respect, in these 
 seminaries, is confirmed by numerous and incontro 
 vertible testimonies ; and, could the examples and 
 the statements be set before you in all the truth 
 and vividness of the reality, you would shrink from 
 these institutions with horror. 
 
 " Experience," says a writer, " furnishes many signal and 
 mournful examples of the perversion of the minds of ingen 
 uous youth, when committed to the instruction of Roman 
 ists. Never shall I forget one remarkable instance, which 
 occurred many years ago, not only within the bounds of my 
 own knowledge, but in one of the families of my own pas 
 toral charge. An amiable, elegant, and highly-promising 
 youth was sent to a Roman Catholic seminary, for the 
 single object of learning, to rather more advantage than was 
 otherwise practicable, a polite living language. He attained 
 his purpose, but at a dreadful expense. He very speedily 
 became a zealous Papist ; began in a few weeks to address 
 and reproach his parents, by letter, as blinded heretics, out 
 of the way of salvation ; was deaf to every remonstrance, 
 both from them and their pastor, and remains to the present 
 day a devoted, incorrigible Romanist. And similar to this 
 is the mournful story of hundreds of the sons and daughters 
 of Protestant parents in our land, who have inconsiderately 
 and cruelly committed their children to papal training, and 
 found, when too late, that they had contracted a moral con 
 tagion never to be eradicated." 
 
 " I am well acquainted," says Dr. Sandwith, " with a 
 gentleman of great influence, and great ability, who has
 
 522 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 
 
 seen much of the world, and in the course of his travels on 
 the Continent was so impressed with the importance of a 
 knowledge of the continental languages, that, in an evil 
 hour, he brought home a Roman Catholic governess to 
 instruct his children in that accomplishment. Now, the 
 effect of that did not appear at first. His children had been 
 generally taught the principles of Protestantism, and for a 
 while all went on smoothly. But, so insidious is the prog 
 ress of Popery, the foundations of Protestantism in that 
 family were being sapped while no external effect appeared ; 
 but, after a while, his wife went over to the Roman Catholic 
 church, and then I need not say in what danger the whole 
 family were placed. Thus is Roman Catholicism ever seek 
 ing to undermine and overthrow Protestantism ; by indus 
 triously introducing Roman Catholic governesses and Roman 
 Catholic servants into Protestant families, the mischief is 
 accomplished ere we are aware. It is well for us to be on 
 our guard." 
 
 The opposition of Popery to Protestantism is 
 well known. Every Papist, as well as the priests, 
 is bound by the decrees of the Council of Trent to 
 oppose, to the utmost of his power, "heretics," 
 that is, Protestants. Hence Papists, in the United 
 States, are laid under a solemn obligation, at the 
 peril of excommunication, never to enter a Prot 
 estant church. The system of education, infusing 
 into the minds of pupils this bitter hostility to 
 Protestants, is, in the most dangerous sense, anti- 
 republican. " Spreading over our cities, towns,
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 523 
 
 and rural districts, enjoying all the advantages of 
 native citizens, they are not with us, but against us. 
 While our Protestant people had charitably supposed 
 that Romanism had undergone some modification 
 for the better, yet it is unchanged in all its essential 
 points. It has lost none of its virulence and enmity 
 to Protestants." Hence, on " Maunday Thurs 
 day," once every year, in Rome, and in all Catho 
 lic churches of the United States, Protestants, here 
 and all over the world, are solemnly, with " bell 
 and candle," cursed and damned. Archbishop 
 Hughes, in his organ, the Freeman's Journal, tells 
 us, "Protestantism is dangerous to the country. 
 All who love truth and sustain right must seek the 
 counterbalancing power to disunion in the Catholic 
 population of the country." The dogmas enjoining 
 this unchristian hatred and unmitigated bigotry to 
 
 Protestants, and to all who entertain different sen- 
 
 
 
 timents, are spread all over the canons of the 
 Romish church, and have been acted out in every 
 period of its history. A gentleman writing from 
 Italy states the following fact : 
 
 " An English lady lost a daughter at Rome, and on the 
 tomb, which was in the English Protestant cemetery, she 
 wished to have the verse from St. Matthew, ' Blessed are 
 the pure in heart, for they shall see God,' inscribed ; but an
 
 524 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 
 
 officer of the Pope, connected with the censorship, entered 
 the workshop of the statuary who was working at the tomb, 
 and forbade him inscribing more than the first half of the 
 verse, as he said it was neither right nor just that heretics 
 should see the Lord." 
 
 Thousands of Protestants in the United States 
 are ignorant of the workings of this system ; that 
 it is a system chiefly of proselytism to gain their 
 sons and daughters over to Rome, to secure, as far 
 as possible, the control of their faculties, and, as a 
 consequence, to ruin their moral and mental quali 
 ties, and all their dearest hopes of heaven. 
 
 4th. THEY ARE DANGEROUS, BECAUSE ROMANISM IN 
 
 ITB INSTRUCTIONS AND FRUITS IS IMMORAL. 
 
 The moral profligacy of the Romish priests and 
 nuns has for ages characterized the histories of that 
 church, and filled with "astonishment, loathing, 
 and horror, the Christian world." The evidence 
 on this subject is clear and' overwhelming. The 
 Popes of Rome, from Gregory VIII., through all 
 the succeeding centuries, with scarcely an excep 
 tion, were notorious for peculation, extortion, glut 
 tony, concubinage, murder, perjury, theft, lying, 
 forgery, and other crimes, which served to show 
 more than anything else to what shameless degra 
 dation these lordly pontiffs could descend, and how
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 525 
 
 much they have deserved the universal execration 
 of mankind. Parallel with these, and in natural 
 consistency with their immoral tenets and instruc 
 tions, have been the vices and awful corruptions 
 of monasteries and nunneries. 
 
 Unless we are prepared to discard the accumu 
 lating testimony of a thousand years ; unless we 
 are willing to set at naught the suffrages of the 
 greatest and best men that ever adorned the church 
 of God ; nay, unless we are prepared to reject the 
 confessions of some of the most respectable Roman 
 ists themselves, we cannot evade the evidence 
 that many, very many, of those boasted seats of 
 celibacy and peculiar devotedness, have been, in 
 reality, sinks of deep and awful licentiousness. 
 Indeed, if it were not so, considering what human 
 nature is, and considering the nature and manage 
 ment of those institutions, it would encroach on the 
 province of miracle.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE tree is known by its fruits ; the fruits are 
 known by the tree. The fruits of priestly educa 
 tion are strikingly seen in all Roman Catholic coun 
 tries. What a picture do Austria, Rome, Spain, 
 Portugal, Belgium, Roman Catholic Ireland, Mex 
 ico, Cuba, Central America, and the South Ameri 
 can states, present ! The annals of the world, in 
 no countries, can present such an amount of pau 
 perism, ignorance, crimes, and licentiousness. By 
 official documents, submitted to the House of Com 
 mons, in 1854, there were, in Catholic Ireland, 700 
 cases of murders in three years, or 54 to every mil 
 lion of inhabitants, besides filth, ignorance, vices, 
 and other crimes of every phase and degree. In 
 papal France, the existence and fruits of the Rom 
 ish religion, with priestly instruction, have produced 
 a nation of infidels ; while, in the city of Paris 
 alone, according to the census in 1854, there were 
 29,066 legitimate, and 19,000 illegitimate chil-
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 527 
 
 dren. In the city of Vienna, regarded as the model 
 city of the Papacy, there were 8,081 legitimate, 
 and 10,000 illegitimate ; more than half. But 
 priestly education in Rome itself, the very fountain 
 of the Papacy, shows its striking effects. On the 
 authority of Metamier, out of 4,543 births, 3,160 
 were foundlings, three fourths of whom die in the 
 Romish asylums, while misery, rags, beggary, indo 
 lence, and every species of vice and immorality, 
 abound. And this in the consecrated city of the 
 Pope, with its 10,000 papal priests, monks, nuns, 
 and in a population of only 130,000 ! Mirabeau 
 says : 
 
 " A peasant who knows how to read, in papal countries, 
 is a rare being. There is often only one school for a whole 
 bailiwick ; and, moreover, the schoolmasters are ignorant and 
 ill-paid. The priests govern the whole nation ; and they 
 wish this state of things to last, as it is advantageous to 
 them. They increase superstition all they can, and this 
 superstition is destructive of every kind of industry. The 
 infinite numbers of fetes, pilgrimages, and processions, keep 
 up idleness and misery. In the island of Sicily alone, 
 there are 28,000 monks and 18,000 nuns in all, 46,000 
 useless individuals out of a population of 1,650,000 souls ; 
 that is to say, one idle monk amongst every 35 inhabitants. 
 It is a phenomenon to find a person among the lower classes 
 who can either read or write, throughout the insular and 
 continental part of the kingdom of Naples. This is, I say,
 
 528 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 
 
 from personal cognizance. As a necessary consequence, the 
 people are a prey to the most absurd superstitions ; credu 
 lous believers in the sacrilegious farces called miracles, such 
 as the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius, and other 
 similar tricks of priestly legerdemain, and the blind instru 
 ments of scheming priests." 
 
 Dr. Giustiniani, in a late work, described the 
 immoral lives of the priests in Rome as a thing so 
 common that it excites little surprise, except with 
 strangers. He speaks of the moral corruptions of 
 auricular confession, the depth of pollutions which 
 characterize this feature of priestly power. " But 
 why," says he, "should I speak of this moral 
 depravity of Popery in Rome ? It is everywhere 
 the same. It appears differently, but never changes 
 its character. In America, where female virtue is 
 the characteristic of the nation, it is under the con 
 trol of the priest. If a Roman Catholic lady, the 
 wife of a free American, should choose to have the 
 priest in her bedroom, she has only to pretend to 
 be indisposed, and, asking for the spiritual father, 
 the confessor, no other person, not even the hus 
 band, dare enter. In Rome, it would be at the 
 risk of his life ; in America, at the risk of being 
 excommunicated, and deprived of all spiritual priv 
 ileges of the church, and even excluded from
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 529 
 
 heaven." Such, parents, all over the papal world, 
 are the baneful and dangerous effects of coming in 
 contact with priests and Popery. Can you consent 
 
 % 
 
 to place your children under their influence and 
 power ? Are you willing to hazard their mental 
 and moral training to such hands? to hazard all 
 that is dear in life ? 
 
 5th. ROMAN CATHOLIC SEMINARIES ARE DANGEROUS, 
 
 BECAUSE THEY DENY LIBERTY OF OPINION, AND SUBJU 
 GATE THE CONSCIENCE. 
 
 The conscience belongs to the individual, and is 
 responsible to no human being, but to God alone. 
 In the Declaration of Independence and the federal 
 constitution, no more sacred principle was enunci 
 ated than the liberty of private judgment, or opin 
 ion, and freedom of conscience. This right is 
 inherited by creation ; no human or ecclesiastical 
 governments can confer it or take it away. It is 
 the birthright of the individual, and inalienable. 
 But the hierarchy of Rome, in its insatiable thirst 
 for power and blasphemous presumption, claims the 
 conscience of every human being. We need not ask 
 where it derived this claim ; for the demand is so 
 absurd that nature, reason, and heaven, at once be 
 lie it, and declare its foul usurpation. It, of course, 
 23
 
 530 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 
 
 like every other tyrannical usurpation of that cor 
 rupt church, only proves its astonishing impudence 
 in making the demand. But, nevertheless, it issues 
 its dogmas and decrees to this effect, and from the* 
 eleventh century to this hour has subjugated the 
 conscience of its votaries. They must think as the 
 church that is, the priests think. They must 
 not dare to assume the exercise of reason and free 
 dom of conscience in any matters of faith, or in 
 what concerns the priesthood ; for the priests alone, 
 not the Bible, nor heaven, enact their rules and 
 publish their dogmas by which they claim the con 
 science. Pope Pius IX., only a few years ago, de 
 nounced the liberty of the press, and all Bible 
 societies ; and Archbishop Hughes confines the 
 same liberty of conscience to the interior of the 
 soul. "There is not," says he, "a single reli 
 gious book, of common reputation, in the Roman 
 Catholic church, which does not make unlimited 
 obedience to a priestly confessor the safest and 
 most perfect way to salvation." 
 
 Are you ready, parents, to commit your daugh 
 ters to the guidance and care of Jesuits and Jesuit- 
 esses, whose one great aim is to teach them to re 
 nounce the native sentiment of liberty, to proselyte
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 531 
 
 them to their faith, and to get hold of the con 
 science ? Do you consent that they should surren 
 der this right, this American principle, the grand 
 principle of their indefeasible inheritance ? But, by 
 placing them in Romish seminaries, you place them 
 in a situation where, from all past experience, not 
 one in twenty, if one at all, ever escapes the snare. 
 The conductors of these establishments make to you 
 very fair promises, and will deny any attempt at 
 creating a sectarian feeling, with a view to detach 
 their affections from the ties of family or home, or 
 to alienate their free Protestant preferences ; but 
 it is the art of their profession to deceive, and their 
 very oath and their invariable practice contradict 
 these statements. One of the maxims of Jesuits 
 is, to prevaricate, to affirm, or deny, as the case 
 requires. Another maxim is, "the end justifies 
 the means ; " and as any means for their interest 
 are justified, so truth or lying is equally ready at 
 their command. And so common is this vice of 
 lying, not only among the Jesuits, but among the 
 more ignorant Papists, that the remark of the fact 
 is proverbial among Protestants. And the wonder 
 ceases when it is known that the maxims of the 
 Jesuits inculcate duplicity and deceit in all their
 
 532 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 
 
 phases. For the proof of this, we need only refer 
 to their rules and instructions contained in their 
 published books, and in the "Moral Theologies" 
 of Ligori, Escobar, Bellarmine, and Dens, which 
 are the text-books for candidates preparing for the 
 priesthood in the Roman Catholic college at May- 
 nooth, Ireland, and in all similar institutions in 
 Europe and America. 
 
 6th. THESE SEMINARIES ARE DANGEROUS, BECAUSE, 
 
 UNDER THEIR PLAUSIBLE DISGUISE, ROME HOPES TO 
 REPEL THE CHARGE THAT SHE IS HOSTILE TO KNOWL 
 EDGE, AND THUS ENTICE PROTESTANT SONS AND DAUGH 
 TERS TO BECOME THE VICTIMS OF THEIR TREACHEROUS 
 PURPOSES. 
 
 This proposition, that Rome is hostile to knowl 
 edge, would seem paradoxical, since the Romish 
 church boasts of being the channel of the transmis 
 sion of learning for six hundred years before the 
 invention of printing in the fifteenth century, and 
 exhibits such zealous endeavors to set up schools and 
 colleges in the United States. But we shall show 
 that these pretensions of Rome are but deception ; 
 that they are intended to create a false impression 
 over the minds both of Papists and Protestants in the 
 United States. That Rome is the enemy of knowledge,
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 533 
 
 that is, opposed to the general diffusion of it among 
 the body of the people, is a truth conclusively estab 
 lished by such facts and considerations as the fol 
 lowing, namely : There have been other channels 
 beside Rome to transmit the learning of previous 
 centuries, namely, the Greek church, whose patri 
 archs, through the whole existence of the Romish 
 church, have been cotemporary and in regular par 
 allel succession with the Popes, down to the present 
 day. The Greek church is as old as the Roman ; 
 and so is the Waldensian church, which, through 
 all the persecuting wars which Rome waged against 
 her during the dark ages, still preserved her sep 
 arate identity. The Popes, certainly, have care 
 fully preserved whatever works of great writers she 
 possessed, for the simple reason that they very 
 rigorously locked their books up in the libraries, 
 not allowing any one to open a single volume, 
 they were forbidden books. It was no difficulty, ifc 
 can easily be imagined, for the Popes to preserve 
 their books for centuries, as we shall show in the 
 next chapter.
 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CARDINAL WISEMAN, in his lecture, delivered in 
 Leeds, said that science, literature, and the arts, 
 never flourished more luxuriantly than under the 
 papal system, and that the Romish church is the 
 mother of all wisdom. In proof of this proposition, 
 he refers to Italy. He said, in substance, Italy is 
 the first country in Europe in point of talent and 
 genius, and it is also the foremost country of the 
 papal dominion ; therefore, the papal domination is 
 the immediate creator and patron of lofty genius 
 in science, literature, and art. That is evidently 
 false ; for Ireland is the greatest country in the 
 United Kingdom for talent, producing the best 
 order of poets, orators, and scientific and literary 
 men. But Ribbon Societies are an exclusively 
 Irish institution ; therefore Ribbon Societies pro 
 duce the best orators, poets, statesmen, and literary 
 people, of all the United Kingdom. Is not that as 
 good an argument as Cardinal Wiseman's? If in 
 Italy there is still great genius, it is not because
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOB AMERICANS. 535 
 
 Italy is under papal dominion, but it is because 
 Italy is Italy, and she produces great genius not 
 by the ruling of the Pope, but because it is, as it 
 were, the natural product of her sun and soil. It 
 was not a Pope that called forth the genius of a 
 Cicero, a Virgil, a Livy, and a Horace, and all 
 the ancient poets and orators. Her genius is not 
 from the Pope, but it is in spite of the Pope and 
 Popery. Therefore, the great men of that country 
 appertain to Italy, and not to the Vatican. In 
 Rome itself, the Popes, in many instances, have 
 been destroyers instead of conservators of the glo 
 rious works of antiquity. Pope Barberini destroyed 
 the Coliseum, in order to build palaces for his 
 bastard children with the venerable marbles of that 
 once splendid edifice ; whilst Urban robbed the 
 Pantheon of many of its glories. What has the 
 Roman Catholic church done to compare with the 
 memorials of the ancient Roman civilization ? The 
 dome the great beauty of the Basilica of St. Peter 
 - is the dome of the ancient Pantheon ; that is, 
 the idea was taken by Michael Angelo from that 
 building. Certainly, the Popes, not for the sake 
 of the people, but for their own advantage, built 
 many very fine churches, and they employed able
 
 536 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 
 
 artists to beautify them. Wiseman spoke of Dante, 
 Petrarch, Boccacio, and Galileo, in support of 
 his proposition. But Dante was persecuted by the 
 Popes, and his works were forbidden to be read 
 until two centuries ago ; the Jesuits even now 
 exclude his writings from their schools. Petrarch 
 was forbidden to be read, too, because he wroio 
 two sonnets satirizing a Pope. Boccacio is also 
 denounced ; in fact, all the great writers of Italy 
 have been placed in the Inquisitorial Index Expur- 
 gatorius. That is the patronage of the Roman 
 church for men of letters. 
 
 The figure of St. Peter, which Rome boasts of 
 being such a noble specimen of art, and which is 
 placed for admiring reverence in her temple, is an 
 ancient bronze Jupiter. The splendid ruins of art 
 left by pagan Rome to papal Rome only served to 
 the latter as quarries. By accident of position, 
 papal Rome became trustee ; but a more reckless 
 and scandalous trustee there never was than the 
 Vatican proved for ages. The fairest columns of 
 the Ionic and Corinthian orders were torn down 
 from their porticos, and broken up for building 
 material. The marbles of Paros and Numidia were 
 burned for lime. Ever since the admiration of
 
 PEOTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 537 
 
 strangers for what remained, after ages of such 
 waste, awoke Rome to the value of her treasures, 
 she has been their careful custodian. But, without 
 doubt, all the destruction wrought upon the monu 
 ments of antiquity by all the Goths and Vandals 
 that ever set foot in Rome was a bagatelle to the 
 dilapidation carried on by the Popes. Let this 
 boast, therefore, of Cardinal Wiseman, and the 
 priestly and lay lecturers in the United States, of 
 Rome's being the warm and liberal patron of ex 
 pansive genius and learning, no longer impose upon 
 superficial minds and credulous Protestants. Rome 
 has always shackled the human faculties ; always 
 cramped human genius ; always kept the Scriptures 
 shut up from the people ; always performed much 
 of her service in an unknown tongue ; always op 
 posed liberal investigations of either morals, phi 
 losophy, or theology. 
 
 Did she not condemn Galileo for asserting a true 
 problem of science ? Did not her hostility to the 
 culture of the masses, and closing the fountains of 
 literature, and discouraging light and knowledge, 
 create the '* Dark Ages "? Did she not thunder 
 forth her bull against the inventor of the art of 
 printing, and tremble when the first Bible appeared 
 23*
 
 538 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 
 
 in type ? Did she not frame the Index Expurgato- 
 rius, which put an interdict upon many of the 
 most splendid works of learning, and which is still 
 in full force, with many additions of the most valu 
 able and popular books, such a Milton, Macaulay's 
 History, Irving' s Life of Washington, and numerous 
 other kindred works, which contain liberal ideas, 
 and advocate the freedom of man? What anathe 
 mas and execrations did she pour out upon the 
 illustrious refbrmer, Luther, for advocating free 
 inquiry, and opening the sources of knowledge ! 
 And have not her priests and most prominent 
 writers, participating in this spirit of defamation, 
 assailed that defender, and all the reformers who 
 shone as bright lights amid Rome's moral and 
 intellectual darkness, and emitted their fruitful 
 venom ? Have not the priests and Romish presses 
 in our country denounced liberal inquiry and Prot 
 estant education, which favors the free and manly 
 improvement of the mind, and the development of 
 all its rational and noble faculties ? 
 
 Macaulay, in his History, observes that, " The 
 loveliest provinces in Europe have, under the rule 
 of Rome, been sunk in poverty, in political servi 
 tude, and in intellectual torpor ; while Protestant
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 539 
 
 countries, once proverbial for their sterility and 
 barbarism, have been turned by skill and industry 
 into gardens, and can boast of a long list of heroes, 
 statesmen, philosophers, and poets." Yes, Rome 
 is an enemy to the human race, and seeks to hide 
 the "key of knowledge" from all within her 
 withering influence. We could write not merely a 
 few brief paragraphs, but a volume, to illustrate 
 this truth. The following specimens, among num 
 berless others which are passing in the world, to 
 establish the proof of our proposition, we present 
 to the reader. 
 
 " The Univers, the most celebrated organ of the Jesuits 
 in France," says the Congregatwnalist, "is speaking 
 openly against the use of the living languages or popular 
 idioms in the sciences, letters, and arts, as well as in theol 
 ogy, and regrets that books are not now written in Latin, as 
 in the middle ages. All knowledge must be confined to a 
 few select minds, in order that the priests may retain an 
 unbroken hold on the multitude ; wide and thorough discus 
 sions on any subject are dangerous, because they liberalize 
 the mind, and cherish the thirst for intellectual improve 
 ment that ill comports with the great aims of Romanism, 
 to bind the world over to ignorance, for the sake of pecuni 
 ary accumulation. The time was, till the seventeenth cen 
 tury, when books on medicine, history, the natural sciences, 
 astronomy, and politics, were written in Latin, and the 
 common people were excluded from all knowledge, except
 
 540 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOB AMERICANS. 
 
 of the catechism, which the curate taught them ; the return 
 of such times is equivalent to the return of ' the golden age ' 
 in the eyes of the Jesuit fathers, and for it they are laboring, 
 though in their labors at sowing the wind, they are prepar 
 ing to reap the whirlwind." 
 
 Sir Walter Scott, in his "Life of Napoleon." alluding to 
 Spain, says, "The education of the nobility was committed 
 to the priests, who took care to give them no lights beyond 
 Catholic bigotry." 
 
 M. Leone, an Italian, settled in England, now 
 engaged on the great work of the codification of 
 the commercial laws of Great Britain, paid a visit 
 to Italy during the Italian republic. 
 
 "On the fall of the pontifical government," said he, 
 " the republicans immediately established schools in every 
 town, and village, and rural district. There were day- 
 schools, and night-schools, and Sabbath-schools. I was 
 inexpressibly delighted at the wonderful change. But, ah ! 
 back came the Pope ; and in a week, in one short week, 
 every one of these schools was closed ! Italy is again sunk 
 in its old torpor and stagnation, and one black cloud of 
 barbaric ignorance extends from the Mediterranean to the 
 Adriatic! I sat down," says he, "on the steps of the 
 Temple of Vesta, which, though crumbling with age, is one 
 of the most beautiful of the ruins of Rome. Three boys, 
 the eldest fifteen years of age, came about me, to beg a few 
 baicchi. I took an opportunity of putting a few questions 
 to them, judging them a fair sample of the Roman youth. 
 The following dialogue occurred : 
 
 '"Can you tell me,' I asked, 'who made the world?
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 541 
 
 The question started a subject on which they seemed never 
 to have thought before. They stood in a muse for some sec 
 onds; and then all three looked around them, as if they 
 expected to see the world's Maker, or to read his name 
 somewhere. At last the youngest and smartest of the three 
 spoke briskly up, ' The masons, Signore.' It was now my 
 turn to feel the excitement of a new idea. Yet I thought I 
 could see the train of thought that led to the answer. The 
 masons had made the baths of Caracalla ; the masons had 
 made the Coliseum, and those other stupendous structures 
 which in bulk rival the hills, and seem as eternal as the 
 earth on which they rest ; and why might not the masons 
 have made the whole affair ? I might have puzzled the boy 
 by asking, ' But who made the masons ? ' My object, 
 however, was simply to ascertain the amount of his knowl 
 edge. I demurred to the proposition that the masons had 
 made the world, and desired them to try again. They did 
 try again ; and at last the eldest of the three found his way 
 to the right answer, ' God.' ' Have you ever heard of 
 Christ?' I asked. 'Yes.' 'Who is he? Can you tell 
 me anything about him ? ' I could elicit nothing under 
 these heads. ' Whose Son is he ? ' I then asked. ' He is 
 Mary's Son,' was the reply. 'Where is Christ?' I in 
 quired. 'He is on the Cross,' replied the boy, folding his 
 arms, and making the representation of a crucifix. ' Was 
 Christ ever on earth ? ' I asked. He did not know. ' Are 
 you aware of anything he ever did ? ' He had never heard 
 of anything that Christ had done. I saw that he was think 
 ing of those hideous representations which are to be seen in 
 all the churches of Rome, of a man hanging on a cross. 
 That was the Christ of the boys. Of Christ the Son of the 
 living God, of Christ the Saviour of sinners, and of his 
 death as an atonement for human guilt, they had never
 
 542 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 
 
 heard. In a city swarming with professed ministers of the 
 Gospel, these boys knew no more of Christianity than if they 
 had been Hottentots." 
 
 And now, in the view of all these clear and 
 positive evidences, from her history and uniform 
 practice, that Rome is hostile to knowledge, we 
 ask, how is it that Rome is so zealously engaged 
 in setting up schools and seminaries in the United 
 States ? The answer is ready at hand : It is to 
 create an impression on the minds of our Protest 
 ant people that she is a warm friend to education. 
 In this land of light and intelligence, she is neces 
 sarily forced to put on an appearance of being that 
 patron, to avoid the imputation of the opposite 
 charge, which she, with adroit Jesuitism, knows 
 would be injurious to her interests, and might 
 entirely frustrate all her plans of papal aggrandize 
 ment and influence. She must, therefore, assume 
 this pretension, and appear to be the friend of 
 education. But, in the midst of all these attempts 
 to delude superficial Protestants, the "cloven foot" 
 protrudes, the symbolic type of its owner. She 
 arrogantly approaches the state superintendent and 
 committees of schools, and demands the exclusion 
 of the Bible from Protestant schools. These Prot-
 
 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 543 
 
 estant officers, not being adepts in the crafty 
 schemes of this enemy of our noble system of 
 education, thoughtlessly complied, in some in 
 stances, with the demand, and thus betrayed the 
 high trust reposed in them. The next subtle 
 design was, to demand of the Legislature to divide 
 the school funds of the state, to favor her Jesuit 
 sectarian plan of separate schools for her sectarian 
 ends. In this she has not yet succeeded. Other 
 demands she has made, all going to establish the 
 fact that Rome is hostile to knowledge, and, with 
 a seeming zeal, establishes schools and seminaries, 
 to entice Protestant parents to send their daughters 
 and sons into them, more effectually to accomplish 
 her objects. 
 
 In conclusion, let me appeal to all classes of our 
 people. Patriots, do you love your country ? Do 
 you value the priceless legacy transmitted by the 
 fathers of the Revolution ? Do you appreciate and 
 rejoice in its Protestant laws, institutions, and gov 
 ernment ; in its charter of independence ; in the 
 value of its American system of education, and in 
 its model schools, which approach nearer to perfec 
 tion than any yet devised by the skill, wisdom, 
 experience, and genius, of man ? Are you awake
 
 544 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 
 
 to guard inviolate these inestimable privileges and 
 sentinels of liberty from the touch of ruthless 
 hands, and from the spoliation and corruptions of 
 the invader ? Then never let the public funds be 
 used for sectarian, foreign purposes ; and give no 
 countenance to papal approaches, whose hierarchy 
 is the bane of knowledge, and in deadly hostility 
 to this free republic. The following document, 
 from the Roman Catholic journal at Buffalo, will 
 show the confidence with which that hierarchy is 
 at work in the United States : 
 
 " Whoever undervalues the spiritual power of the church 
 in the United States wanders in a fearful labyrinth. We 
 have not only seven archbishops, thirty-three bishops, and 
 seventeen hundred and four priests, all in the service of the 
 Pope and the church, but we have also thirty-one colleges, 
 thirty-seven seminaries, and a hundred and seventeen female 
 academies, all founded by the Jesuits, bringing danger and 
 death to unbelief and mischief, to American Know-nothing- 
 ism, and un-American radicalism. And the hierarchal 
 band which, like a golden thread, surrounds forty-one dio 
 ceses and two apostolic vicarites, and stretches from the 
 Atlantic Ocean to the still waters of the Pacific, and main 
 tains an invisible secret magnetic connection with Rome, 
 this hierarchy is to us a sure guarantee that the church, 
 perhaps after severe struggles and sufferings, will one day 
 come off victorious over all the sects of America. It is 
 computed that there are, at present, more than two millions 
 of Catholic inhabitants in the United States who are bap-
 
 PKOTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 545 
 
 tized and confirmed Catholic soldiers of the Lord, and who, 
 at the first summons, will assemble in rank and file ; then 
 will men not undervalue the power of the Catholic church 
 in the United States. I will scatter sand in no one's eyes, 
 and therefore I stand forth openly, and directly declare that 
 the power and the influence of the Catholic church are 
 stronger than many believe. Whoever doubts this must be 
 either a fool, or blind." 
 
 In this document, my countrymen, weigh the 
 expressions, * * the secret magnetic connection with 
 Rome," and that these papal seminaries and col 
 leges are " all founded by the Jesuits ; " and then 
 consider the dangers which hover over our land. 
 
 Fathers, mothers, do you love your children? 
 Can you intrust the dearest objects upon which 
 your parental hopes, and the joys of the family 
 roof, centre, to the supervision and charge of Jes 
 uits and Jesuitesses ? Why do the conductors of 
 these papal seminaries manifest such a remarkable 
 zeal in pursuit of females, and especially the 
 daughters of Protestant parents ? They know 
 that, in gaining them, they can secure the most 
 powerful influence, and often gratify their avari 
 cious desires in greater profits ; but the one great 
 end they have in view is, to proselyte them to their 
 faith. Remember, they give a special preference 
 to Protestants. They select the most wealthy and
 
 546 PROTESTANT EDUCATION FOR AMERICANS. 
 
 beautiful, and persuade them to the confessional 
 and into the convent ; and, when once secured 
 there, they become the slaves of a tyrannic priest 
 hood. 0, could you comprehend their designs, 
 could you penetrate into one tithe of their art, and 
 ruinous plots against the life, honor, and liberty, 
 of your daughters, you would start back aghast 
 at the insidious and fatal sacrifice of the objects 
 and images of your affection. Could the secrets 
 of the confessionals be uncovered, there is not a 
 priest that could stay in the city of New York, or 
 Baltimore, or Philadelphia, one week. Pause, 
 then, parents, I beg of you, while your daughters 
 are safe on this side of an admission into these 
 pestiferous and ruinous establishments !
 

 
 HON. EDWIN 0. PERRIN. 
 
 THE father of this American, the late Judge Perrin, of 
 Maryland, became one of the earliest settlers of Ohio, and 
 at Springfield, in that state, the subject of this sketch was 
 born. The death of his father, and the consequent depri 
 vation of young Perrin' s patrimony by the injudicious 
 management of his estate, obliged him, like most of the 
 public men of our country, to become the architect of his 
 own fortune. After acquiring a suitable education by his 
 industry and energy, he adopted the law as his profession, 
 and studied with Judge Mason, of Ohio. Mr. Perrin sub 
 sequently removed to Memphis, Tennessee, where he mar 
 ried Miss Stanton, sister of the Hons. Richard and Fred 
 erick P. Stanton, late Representatives in Congress from 
 Kentucky and Tennessee and who, estimable for every 
 excellence and virtue, is also admired for her intelligence, 
 beauty, and accomplishments. 
 
 Under the administration of Gen. Taylor, Mr. Perrin was 
 appointed navy agent of Memphis, and discharged the duties 
 of that office with fidelity and faithfulness, until the acces 
 sion of Franklin Pierce, who found Mr. Perrin's political 
 principles good cause for removal. He then removed to the 
 city of New York to pursue his profession, and united with 
 the great American party in the attempt to restore the 
 country to its pristine integrity and purity. In the elections 
 of 1855 he became the eloquent defender of American
 
 548 HON. EDWIN 0. PERRIN. 
 
 principles upon the hustings, and the people greeted him 
 with enthusiasm wherever he was heard in that cause. A 
 company of volunteers, soon after the success of the Ameri 
 can ticket in New York, was organized as the " Perrin 
 Guard," in that city ; and in contending for the prize of a 
 magnificent silver basket, presented by Mr. Perrin, the cap 
 tain of that company said : " Our distinguished guest, Edwin 
 0. Perrin : One of Tennessee's ablest orators. We extend 
 to him a cordial welcome to the home of his adoption, the 
 Empire City of the Empire State. Long may he live to 
 defend with eloquent tongue our common country and our 
 country's cause ! Having adopted his name, let us emulate 
 his devotion ! " Mr. Perrin closed his speech with the follow 
 ing: 
 
 " The Volunteer Soldiery of New York : A standing 
 army in time of peace, and no running army in time of war. 
 Their discipline and courage at home have only been equalled 
 by their patriotism and bravery abroad. May the junior 
 American corps prove worthy descendants of their gallant 
 seniors; maintaining for the future what they have so 
 gallantly achieved in the past." 
 
 After the nomination of the American Presidential ticket, 
 Mr. Perrin appeared again in the political field, to press with 
 eloquence and earnestness the election of Millard Fillmore 
 to the chief magistracy of the nation. Like the heroes of 
 our Revolutionary battles, he put aside all other pursuits for 
 the American cause, and is now winning "golden opinions," 
 throughout the State of New York, for the intelligent per 
 suasions and thrilling appeals he is making to the patriotism 
 of the people, and which are the more effectively enforced 
 because of the impregnable defences which surround and 
 elevate his character.
 
 HON. EDWIN 0. PERRIN. 549 
 
 The genius and oratory of Mr. Perrin, are not only emi 
 nently original, but the peculiarity of his style gives him great 
 individuality. He is animated and bold, and attracts and cap 
 tivates his audience by his wit and humor. The extract, from 
 a well-known democratic organ of the State of New York, will 
 show the estimate in which he is held, in this connection, with 
 out regard to party consideration : 
 
 The Fillmore men had a large meeting at the Court-house in this city 
 last Saturday evening. Every seat and vacant place was filled. Hon. 
 E. 0. Perrin was the speaker. Mr. Perrin was formerly from Tennessee, 
 but is now a resident of this State. He is a young man, not far, w 
 should say, from thirty years of age, yet he is one of the most eloquent 
 orators, and captivating speakers we ever heard in our life. We have 
 listened to the graceful oratory of Henry Clay ; we have been riveted to 
 our seat by the fascinating voice, pleasing gestures, and sublime eloquence 
 of Wm. C. Preston, of South Carolina ; we have heard the gifted Breck- 
 inridge, and been carried away captive on the wings of his matchless 
 eloquence ; we have been one of a thousand who have been moved first 
 to tears, and then provoked to laughter, by the overwhelming and pow 
 erful eloquence of Gough yet, none of these men, in our judgment, sur 
 passes, in fluency of expression, in the eloquency of words, in beautiful 
 imagery, and, in fact, in all those elements that go to make a popular 
 and eloquent orator, Hon. E. 0. Perrin, the eloquent Tcnnessean. To 
 Buch of our readers who may think us over-enthusiastic, we can only say, 
 go and hear Mr. Perrin, and judge as to his eloquence for yourselves. 
 He is full of humor as well as pathos; he can, in a moment, change 
 " from grave to gay, from lively to severe " His style and manner more 
 closely resemble Gough than do any other man's we ever heard. We 
 cannot, of course, give a synopsis of Mr. Perrin's speech. In conclusion, 
 he paid a glowing tribute to Clay and Webster, and closed with a grand, 
 beautiful, and eloquent appeal in behalf of the Constitution and the 
 Union of the States. 
 
 Mr. Perrin's mother was a daughter of Mr. Maddox Fisher, 
 of Lexington, Kentucky. She was born and reared almost 
 beneath the shades of Ashland, and remained through life the 
 devoted friend of the honored statesman and patriot, of whom
 
 650 HON. EDWIN O. PEERIN. 
 
 every Kentuckian is proud. The press has, within the last 
 year, often styled Mr. Perrin the " young man eloquent I" and 
 a commendable public spirit has not been wanting in attesting 
 their appreciation of the worth and estimate of their distin 
 guished fellow-citizen. We have no specimen of Mr. Perrin's 
 published speeches before us, save a Masonic address, which 
 would be more interesting to the craft than to the public gen 
 erally.
 
 JfJTVf YORK. 

 
 MR. SIDNEY KOPMAN. 
 
 THE father of Sidney Kopman was the late Louis Kopman, 
 of New York. He was introduced into the United States 
 by Robert Southey, the poet, and William Roscoe, the his 
 torian, of Liverpool, and was eminent in his day as one of 
 the largest importers of British goods in New York and 
 Savannah, Georgia. Mr. Kopman was a scholar, an ac 
 complished gentleman, and an unobtrusive Christian, in 
 communion with the Church of England ; and after enjoying 
 for more than eighty years the most faultless reputation 
 in every relation in life, he has transmitted these excellences 
 of character to his son, whose portrait appears in these 
 pages. 
 
 Mr. Sidney Kopman was born in New York, and was 
 educated to the mercantile profession ; and, after a long ex 
 perience as clerk in his own city, he became a merchant in 
 Memphis, Tennessee. During the period of the Mexican 
 war, he acted as the efficient chief clerk to Capt. Win. K. 
 Latimer, of the United States Navy, at the Pensacola Navy 
 Yard. He there founded a lodge of the benevolent society 
 of Odd Fellows, and for many years has been an active and 
 prominent member of the Masonic fraternity. He con 
 tributed the leading editorials of the Pensecola Gazette, 
 when in Florida. 
 
 After the Mexican war closed, Mr. Kopman was among 
 the first to make a commercial exploration to California, b v
 
 552 ME. SIDNEY KOPMAN. 
 
 the way of Cape Horn. In this perilous voyage of six 
 months, he most miraculously escaped shipwreck at Terra 
 del Fuego, the extreme point of Patagonia. He was at 
 Juan Fernandez, visited the Island of Madeira, was present 
 at the opening of the Chilian congress, and slept two weeks 
 upon the Andes Mountains. He was presented, with several 
 other Americans, to the Emperor of Brazil, at Rio Janeiro, 
 and penetrated the interior of that state to visit the diamond 
 mines ; and, finally, after the completion of a most hazard 
 ous voyage of twenty-three thousand miles, with the attend 
 ant evils, at one time, of a threatened famine, he settled 
 down in San Francisco and Sacramento, California, for 
 some months, to make a survey of the country, and then 
 return to New York, by the way of Mexico. 
 
 The Mercantile Library of his native city, New York, 
 was for many years an object of the deepest solicitude to 
 Mr. Kopman, and to whose energy and action, as a member 
 of that association, may be attributed much of the present 
 position and standing of the institution. He has recently 
 been elected an honorary member of the historical society 
 at Madison, Wisconsin. 
 
 Mr. Kopman early enlisted in the great national move 
 ment to regenerate the country, and has been one of the 
 most earnest and active members of the American party. 
 In the formation of organizations in the country, he has 
 efficiently contributed in the three past years, by inducing 
 prominent men, who have visited New York, to unite with 
 the American order, which prepared the way for their indi 
 vidual cooperation when they returned to their own homes. 
 From four to five hundred members, who are now exerting 
 an extended influence in their respective localities, gave 
 their first adhesion to the cause under the earnest pleadings 
 of this true American ; while the author cannot neglect
 
 MB. SIDNEY KOPMAN. 553 
 
 to acknowledge tbe valuable data furnished by Mr. Kopman 
 in connection with this work. 
 
 Few possess more extended literary acquirements, or a 
 better-cultivated taste, than Mr. Kopman ; and his remark- 
 ible gift of remembering all that he has read would not 
 make it inappropriate to style him a moving cyclopedia 
 of useful knowledge. But the crowning virtue of the man 
 is in the beauty of his character, his high moral rectitude, 
 and his pure integrity. 
 
 Within a few days of the sailing of the Arctic Expedition, 
 in 1853, under the command of Dr. Elisha K. Kane, it was 
 made known in New York city, by Mr. Kopman, that Doctor 
 Kane was a member of the Masonic fraternity ; and the most 
 prompt and efficient efforts were made by him to testify the 
 appreciation of the Order, for the services of this daring and 
 enthusiastic American who had undertaken the perilous search 
 for a long lost brother ! 
 
 The announcement made by Mr. Kopman, that Doctor Kane 
 was a Free Mason, created extraordinary feeling among the 
 fraternity of New York ; and the Arcana Lodge, of which 
 Mr. Kopman was a member, was the first to propose a public 
 demonstration by the craft of that city, in honor of the labors 
 of Dr. Kane in the cause of science and humanity ! The esti 
 mate placed upon this evidence of interest is best exhibited by 
 Doctor Kane's own letter to Mr. Kopman : 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, May 12M, 1868. 
 
 DEAR SIR AND BROTHER : I have received your eloquent letter, inclos 
 ing the resolutions of the Free and Accepted Masons, of Arcana Lodge. 
 These resolutions, expressive of the sympathy of our brethren with the 
 objects of the Expedition, under my command, are to me especially 
 pleasing. I shall communicate them, formally, to the officers and men, 
 
 24
 
 554 
 
 ME. SIDNEY KOPMAN. 
 
 as an indication of valued sympathy at home, and a useful stimulus in the 
 search after our lost brother, Sir John Franklin. 
 
 I hare the honor to be, faithfully, 
 
 Your friend and brother, 
 
 .. i E. K. KAM*. 
 
 Srosrr KOPMAN, Esq., 
 
 Secretary of Arcana Lodge, New York city. 
 
 The Grand Lodge, of New York, was convened, and, on the 
 evening previous to the sailing of the Expedition, Doctor Kane 
 met its officers and members, by invitation, at the Medical 
 College, in Crosby street ; and the press, after these interesting 
 ceremonies, announced the fact, that he was an honored mem 
 ber of that " Ancient Order." Next morning the Expedition 
 sailed 1 The waters around New York, as the "Advance" 
 passed out of the Narrows, were crowded with sailing craft, 
 all bearing the flags and emblems of Masonry, and bidding 
 " God speed" to the honored Commander, and brave and noble 
 crew, who seemed, even then, prepared for that almost super 
 human endurance to which danger and privation did actually 
 call them.* 
 
 * Subsequently, Mr. Eopman resigned his office in Arcana Lodge, 
 when the most flattering eulogium was passed upon him by his brethren, 
 for " the interest he had manifested, and the energy and zeal he had 
 displayed, in aiding the Lodge to attain its present position and stand 
 ing."
 
 GENERAL NATHAN RANNEY. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch was born in Bethlehem, in 
 the State of Connecticut, the 27th of April, 1797. In the 
 war with England, 1812, he entered the army of the United 
 States, though but sixteen years of age; and his deter 
 mined bravery, and fearlessness in the discharge of his 
 duties, made him prominent in every battle, and exposed 
 him to every danger in the thickest of the fight. But, his 
 only purpose in enlisting in the war being a patriotic one, 
 he was steadfast in his refusal of all promotion tendered 
 him, and adhered to his original intention of remaining in 
 the service during the five years for which he had enlisted. 
 It cannot be doubted that, had his ambition led him to a 
 different decision, he would long since have occupied the 
 highest rank among the gallant men of the army. 
 
 In 1819, Gen. Ranney located in St. Louis, Missouri, 
 where, as a prominent member of society and an enterpris 
 ing merchant, he has eminently assisted in the opening 
 prosperity of St. Louis, and possesses a hold upon the con 
 fidence and esteem of the community equal to that enjoyed 
 by any other resident. 
 
 In 1827, he became a member of the Presbyterian 
 Church. And so faithful, active, and consistent, has he 
 proved, in the discharge of every Christian duty belonging 
 to his religious profession, that he has held the important 
 and responsible position of elder, almost ever since, in iJbe
 
 556 GEN. NATHAN RANNET. 
 
 congregation with which he worships. " All that I am is 
 through the blessing of God," has been the glorious sen 
 timent which has emulated this noble American to action, 
 and given him a name that kings, with their sceptres, might 
 wisely envy. 
 
 In 1855, the convention of the soldiers of 1812 met in 
 Philadelphia. Gen. Ranney addressed that assembly in 
 these words : 
 
 " FELLOW-CITIZENS AND FELLOW-SOLDIERS: Much has 
 been said in relation to the militia of this country, and their 
 services in the late war with Great Britain. They are, 
 indeed, the bulwark and safety of our country ; but, while 
 just honors have been paid to them, the gallant spirits who 
 fought by their side with equal honor and equal success 
 the soldiers of the regular army of .1812 were not men 
 tioned. I propose, on this occasion, to make a few remarks 
 in relation to the regular soldiers of that eventful war. 
 
 "It will be recollected by most of you, perhaps, that 
 the soldiers and officers of 1812 came from the first fam 
 ilies of the land. They entered the army, not as mercena 
 ries, but from patriotic motives, with a determination to 
 serve their country, and drive back the myrmidons of 
 Britain from our sacred soil. [Applause.] I will give 
 you briefly the history of one of those soldiers, which, with 
 some modifications, may be the history of every soldier in 
 the regular army. 
 
 " There was a lad belonging to one of the most respecta 
 ble families of the United States, who, at the age of sixteen 
 years, was the favored of his family. At that age he 
 left his home and his school, and enlisted as a private in 
 the 29th Regiment for five years. His father's brother, 
 who was a colonel in the army, obtained an order for the 
 boy's discharge. The discharge came, and was refused. 
 [Great applause.] A commission was also offered him, 
 and that, too, was refused. This lad served under General 
 Wool. He was one of the three hundred who met Gov 
 ernor Provost eighteen miles from Platteburg, and who cut
 
 GEN. NATHAN RANNEY. 557 
 
 their way, inch by inch, until they reached the banks of the 
 Saranac. He was one of thirty who crossed the Saranac 
 and set fire with hay and tar to the underbrush of dry pine 
 directly under the guns of the British battery, and returned 
 across the Saranac by floating a hundred yards down that 
 stream, and fainting from the loss of blood. He was but 
 one of a regiment through whose instrumentality, in part, 
 the British lion was made to turn in defeat from the Amer 
 ican eagle. [Applause.] This same person, in the dark 
 ness of night, led twenty men into a British town of five 
 hundred inhabitants, and where British guards were sta 
 tioned to defend it, and took three distinguished prisoners, 
 and carried them safely into the American camp, with loss 
 of only one man wounded. He was made a sergeant, and 
 afterwards a provost-marshal, that being the highest non 
 commissioned officer in the army. But he did not seek the 
 life of a soldier as a profession. He determined to serve 
 his country as a patriot, and when national honor and na 
 tional rights were vindicated to return into civil life. Now, 
 in the far West, the lad then, but man now, has reared an 
 interesting family, and maintains a good name there, and 
 commands the respect and honor of his fellow-men. [Voices 
 "Give us his name!"] I'll come to that by and by. 
 I know, fellow-soldiers, that so dearly does that man love 
 the quiet and unostentatious position which he now occu 
 pies, that were Congress at this day to offer to confer upon 
 him a title of Lieutenant-General of our army, or any 
 other trust of a like character, that he would refuse it. If 
 he has served his country, it alone is satisfaction. He has 
 but discharged his duty. [Applause.] 
 
 Fellow-soldiers, many of us will never meet each other 
 again on this side of Jordan. This meeting is interesting 
 to me more so than any which it has been my fortune to 
 ever attend, since the scenes of that war. We have all 
 fought our last fight but we have still the warfare of life 
 before us. Let us, then, so contend that we shall win a 
 crown of victory, and be led by the eternal Captain of our 
 salvation to our last, our eternal home in heaven ! [Great 
 applause, and cries of 'Tell us the name of that boy.']
 
 558 GEN- NATHAN RANNEY. 
 
 Fellow-soldiers, he stands now before you. [Renewed ap 
 plause, and nine cheers for General Ranney.]" 
 
 In 1836, General Ranney was induced to accept the post 
 of Brigadier-General in the Missouri militia; which he 
 filled with honor to himself, and entire acceptability to those 
 under his command. This constitutes the only military 
 situation he has consented to occupy in his adopted state. 
 
 In politics, he was an original Jackson democrat, and 
 until the American party was organized he was well 
 known as a leader in the ranks of the democracy of the 
 state. He was among the first to enrol his name upon the 
 records of the party to which he is now attached, and of 
 which he is a firm, bold, and eloquent advocate. He feels, 
 as do his brethren everywhere, all over America, that the 
 safety of the Union and of the nation depends upon guard 
 ing the ballot-box from the inroads that are being made 
 upon it by the influx of foreigners ; opposition to extremists 
 both of the South and the North ; a conservative, peace- 
 loving, and country-loving band of patriots, who are ready 
 and willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of their 
 native land. In his youth, he fought for his country ; in 
 his manhood, he has prayed for it ; and in his old age, he is 
 ready to die for it. 
 
 The same influences which led Gen. Ranney to battle for 
 his country when a youth of only sixteen summers have 
 again brought him into the present American revolution ; 
 and to an immense gathering of freemen in the rotunda of 
 the court-house of St. Louis, in March, 1856, who had 
 convened to ratify the American nominations for President 
 and Vice President, he spoke as follows : 
 
 " AMERICANS : We are here, not as Northern men from 
 the North, not as Southern men from the South, but as
 
 GEN. NATHAN RANNEY. 559 
 
 Union men of the United States. We meet to give a hearty 
 sanction to the Philadelphia nomination of President and 
 Vice President. 
 
 " We have had but one Washington and Jackson, one 
 Webster and Clay, and but one Calhoun. 
 
 " Fillmore and Donelson are good men, the best in the 
 Union. A better, a stronger, a more suitable nomination, 
 cannot be made by any party, nor one better calculated to 
 succeed. Three times in my life I have rejoiced with ex 
 ceeding great joy ; first when, in 1814, at Plattsburgh, one 
 thousand four hundred Americans defeated fourteen thou 
 sand of Lord Wellington's best troops." 
 
 " 
 
 The constitution must be preserved from violation. 
 The one billion five hundred million dollars of slave property 
 is nothing, compared with the worth of the Union. Ay, can 
 the ten thousand millions of property in the world purchase 
 of us the fame of Washington, or the memory of York- 
 town, of Monmouth, of Saratoga, or of Plattsburgh and 
 New Orleans ? No ! the Union must it shall it 
 will be saved ! The nation looks to us for its safety. The 
 good men of the North will help us, and our prospects are 
 good. We take no step backward ; our platform is the con 
 stitution and the rights of the states. 
 
 ' ' The Christian who throws away his Bible has no re 
 ligion. The American who throws away the constitution 
 has no country. Americans, let our party do right, and 
 act right, if the heavens fall ! 
 
 " The third time of my joy was at the nomination of 
 Fillmore and Donelson. My reasons are, that the nominees 
 are worthy ; that the country looked for such men, with the 
 determination to elect them." 
 
 On the 4th of June, 1856, the American party of Mis 
 souri held a mass meeting at Hannibal, in that state. Gen. 
 Ranney was present to enforce the principle that " Ameri 
 cans alone should rule America." And he did it with a
 
 560 GEN. NATHAN RANNEY. 
 
 will, which found its way with electric power into the hearts 
 of thousands. He told the people that 
 
 " For more than thirty years he was a consistent, an un 
 flinching democrat, and that he had acted with them in 
 good faith as long as they had continued honest and pure in 
 principles ; but two years ago his conviction was certain that 
 the democratic party had changed, had become corrupt; 
 and he had done what every honest man should do, thrown 
 himself body and soul into the great American cause ; that 
 he had become a member of the only party truly national, 
 and truly devoted to the preservation of this Union." 
 
 At a convention held in Burlington, Iowa, in October, 
 1851. a member from St. Louis, in a set speech, declared 
 that " while the rains of heaven were refreshing and 
 fructifying the earth, and swelling the tide of the Missis 
 sippi, he thanked his God that not one drop came from 
 SOUTH CAROLINA ! ! ! " 
 
 Gen. Ranney, his personal friend, born in New England, 
 but loving the whole Union, rebuked him, with this signifi 
 cant language, for his wanton attack upon a sister state : 
 "Why, sir," said he, "attempt to goad men on to mad 
 ness, who were placed under different circumstances with 
 ourselves, and of which we know but little ? " 
 
 He then referred to the glorious history of this chivalrfc 
 and heroic state, to the memory of Marion, Sumpter, 
 Greene, and others ; to the battles of Yorktown, Cowpens, 
 and the Eutaw Springs, and asked the President, in a mild 
 but emphatic manner, if all these were to be forgotten. Ho 
 stated that there was one delegate in that assembly whose 
 body had been scarred, and whose limbs had been disfigured, 
 while fighting side by side with the Carolinian against our 
 ancient foe in the war of 1812. 
 
 He also referred to the choicest blood of South Carolina
 
 GEN. NATHAN RANNET. 561 
 
 which had enriched the plains of Mexico, and said, "Mr. 
 President, shall we be no longer allowed to revere and 
 honor these events, and be compelled to steel our hearts 
 against the noble actors in them ? 
 
 " Sir, the rains of heaven, falling upon the eastern slope 
 of the Alleghany Mountains, refreshing and fructifying the 
 soil of South Carolina, ran some of it down her rivers, and 
 some of these ' drops ' helped to swell the tide of the sea 
 that floated the Constitution, the Guerriere, the Wasp, and 
 the Hornet, and enabled the American navy to obtain vic 
 tory and renown." 
 
 Said Gen. Ranney, " Is this gallant state to be made 
 accountable for all the vagaries of some of her Hotspurs, 
 and mistaken friends ? 
 
 " Why not attack good old New England, the land of 
 churches and school-houses, and make her accountable for 
 the infamy of the Hartford Convention, and the infernal 
 acts of her hosts of abolitionists, who cast aside the laws of 
 the land, and the authority of the Bible, and ridicule our 
 holy religion? No, Mr. President," said Gen. Ranney, 
 " I love New England, and I love South Carolina ; and, 
 with all their faults, I will love them still." 
 
 As president of the Missouri Bible Society, Gen. Ran 
 ney is also known for his distinguished efforts to advance 
 the circulation of the Word of God, as well as diffuse ita 
 spirit among his fellow-men. 
 
 Gen. Ranney is the artificer of his own fortune, and his 
 industry, intelligence, and energy, have more than supplied 
 any deficiency of early culture ; while the history of his 
 life is replete with every virtue, and, without flaw or blem 
 ish, may well serve as a model for every American patriot.
 
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