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 Second War with England 
 
 SUNDRY PAPERS 
 
 BY REV. HENRY OTIS THAYER 
 
 THE TIMES CO., PRINTERS 
 Bath, Maine 
 
Second War with England 
 
 SUNDRY PAPERS 
 
 BY REV. HENRY OTIS THAYER 
 
 THE TIMES CO., PRINTERS 
 Bath, Maine 
 
#• 
 
 F3i^ 
 
 
 
 7^7 
 
 PUBLISHER'S NOTE— !'PP«Btt35a&^ 
 
 The first paper — Enterprise-Boxer Combat — was originally contributed 
 to Sprague's Journal of Maine History and copied with author's revision by 
 the Bath Independent, in August numbers of 1914. The other papers were 
 regular contributions to the Times and Independent and all are now reprinted. 
 
 
 ./•f IJ \9\i 
 
FIRST PAPER 
 
 THE ENTERPRISE AND BOXER 
 
 Their Naval Combat, September 5, 1813 
 
 I. The Kngageinent and Its Locality 
 
 Any one who has sought in many 
 historical works comprehensive 
 views of the war, and for any reas- 
 on has given special notice to this 
 one engagement, has not failed to 
 perceive variant opinions respecting 
 the place where the Yankee and the 
 Briton contended for the prize of 
 war. 
 
 Narrowly viewed it may be es- 
 teemed a trifling matter, but the 
 entire movements of the vessels dur- 
 ing two days are required for the 
 clear apprehension and historical 
 setting of the occurence. Trifling 
 items combine to make the fullness 
 and truth of history. 
 
 Maine's excellent historian, Wil- 
 liamson, wrote not twenty years 
 after the event. He states that the 
 Boxer was ordered to cruise off 
 Portland in order to bring on an 
 engagement. His form of statement 
 implied that the Enterprise was 
 stationed there and responded upon 
 challenge, and the fight then took 
 place. His trusted accuracy and 
 authority may have aided in guid- 
 ing subsequent writers and in es- 
 tablishing an opinion that "off 
 Portland" was the scene of the com- 
 bat. Certainly that opinion has 
 widely iprevailed to the present 
 time, as many volumes and lesser 
 publications give evidence. 
 
 It will be found in at least four 
 biographical dictionaries of dates 
 from 1857 to 1910. Winsor's pro- 
 found Critical History has it "near 
 Portland;" Bryant's Popular His- 
 tory, "in sight of Portland;" J. S. C. 
 Abbot's History of Maine repeats 
 Williamson; Harper's Encyclopaedia 
 of U. S. History, 1912, asserts "off 
 Portland," changing the statement 
 of an earlier edition; an able local 
 investigator of that city published 
 the same. During recent decades a 
 leading religious newspaper of Bos- 
 ton has three times at separate peri- 
 ods, so asserted in its children's de- 
 partment; a Portland newspaper of 
 the passing centennial day of the 
 engagement gave Portland and Cas- 
 co Bay as the locality. Other in- 
 stances are not needed to show the 
 existence of the opinion within and 
 without the state. 
 
 In support of this belief our hon- 
 ored poet Longfellow has had 
 weighty influence, though seldom 
 are poets trustworthy historians. 
 But it is by no means certain that 
 the restrictions of rhyme allowed the • 
 clear utterance of his real opinion, 
 indeed he wrote of "the sea-fight far- 
 away," and then in the cadence of 
 four lines was woven the poet's rem- 
 iniscent vision of two distinct facts, 
 the fight and the burial, the shotted 
 guns of the far away combat and 
 
SKCOND WAR WITH F.NGI.AND 
 
 the requiem guns resounding over had become known at Halifax and 
 
 the bay. 
 
 If historical students and writers, 
 however informed, have drawn con- 
 
 the Boxer, newly fitted out at St. 
 John, was on the lookout for the 
 Yankee brig; indeed had just pre- 
 
 clusions which assign the conflict to i viously sailed as far as the Kennebec 
 the vicinity of Portland, then ordin-iand returned eastward, 
 ary readers and persons claiming [ . The Enterprise had entered on 
 some knowledge of the Enterprise- her duty, and sailins? from Ports- 
 
 Boxer affair will in large majority 
 be expected to declare the same be- 
 
 mouth harbor had anchored in Port- 
 land harbor on the third of the 
 
 lief. Such seems to be the fact in month. Her commander. Lieutenant 
 
 that city and in the State and in oth- Burrows, gained no information that 
 
 er States. I such a vessel as his antagonist 
 
 The authors cited, however, fan- proved to be was on the coast, but 
 
 not be esteemed a majority. Sever- sailing out on the morning of the 
 
 al historians have written no more fourth, (Saturday), and getting ru- 
 
 definitely than "the coast of Maine. I mors of privateers about Monhe- 
 
 One assertion is broadly made "be- gan, stood away for that island. 
 
 tween Cape Elizabeth and Seguin." i „ , ^, , . u ^f 
 
 , ^ ., , ,. ., Early the next morning when off 
 
 Another definitely, "near the •' ^ • , 
 
 Pemaquid, a sail was descried, — a 
 
 mouth of the Kennebec." Others 
 point farther east to the place of the 
 encounter, "open sea inside Monhe- 
 gan;" again "outside" and "off 
 "Monhegan;" but a larger number! 
 only localize the engagement by ref- 1 
 erence to Pemaquid or to its bay or 
 point. Of these, first stands Loss- 
 ing's War of 1812, 1868, a work 
 of exacting research and authority: I 
 Harper's Cyclopedia. 1892; F. £. I 
 Hill, Twenty-Six Ships, 1903; and, 
 nine others to be hereafter men- j 
 tioned. ! 
 
 It is justly due and is fully con-i 
 ceded to all writers who have de- ^ 
 Glared for the Portland location to' 
 
 brig, wholly unknown, and Captain 
 Burrows (to be called so, though in 
 rank only a lieutenant) must dis- 
 cover whether friend or enemy. It 
 was the Boxer at anchor in Pema- 
 quid Bay, — a local report said, be- 
 tween John's Island and the shore. 
 After reconnaissance for a time, 
 more needed by the Enterprise than 
 the other, the Boxer's ensigns were 
 hoisted, accompanied by the chal- 
 lenge gun. This by naval etiquette 
 was an invitation to further acquain- 
 tance and proclaimed the waiting 
 vessel an eager adversary. 
 
 The Enterprise now tacked to the 
 
 believe that the opinion would not; south and ran out to the open sea 
 have been I'titertained had they been and was followed by the Boxer as if 
 able to consider Intelligently the of- | in chase, — both standing out a few 
 ficlal report of the engagement. j miles west of Monhegan. Such was 
 
 A glance is here desirable at the the meeting of the combatants, — the 
 state of local war affairs. At the first stage of the engagement. It 
 
 beginning of September, 1813, the 
 
 took place not "off Portland," but 
 
 Enterprise had been ordered to the nearly forty miles east, at Pema- 
 Eastern coast. J. F'enlmore Cooper quid. After those first courtesies of 
 says she was to cruise from Cape naval warfare, the two brigs, with 
 Ann to the Bay of Fundy. to deal defiant ensigns aloft, sought the free 
 with swarming smugglers and Brit- range of the open sea for the test 
 Jsh privateers. The plan, however, | of ships, and guns and men. 
 
ENGAGEMENT OF ENTERPRISE AND BOXER 
 
 These events of the morning of 
 the fatal day are taken from reports 
 made after the death of Captain 
 Burrows, by the senior officer in 
 command, Lieutenant Edward Rut- 
 ley McCall. His own signature was 
 M'Call, but the other form has come 
 into use. 
 
 Captain Burrows sought full sea- 
 room off shore for his tactics; — 
 first, to discover the character of his 
 antagonist, for his was the caution 
 of true courage and prudence, not 
 recklessly to risk his ship by en- 
 gaging if disparity of size and guns 
 was too great; also, he wished to 
 test the sailing qualities of the foe 
 and to seek the advantage of posi- 
 tion. 
 
 II. The Aged Seaman's Accoimt 
 
 Information respecting incidents 
 of the engagement, as well as its lo- 
 cation, I am fortunately able to 
 draw directly from a trusty source, 
 a seaman who participated in the 
 fight. 
 
 It was my privilege to know an 
 aged Kennebec shipmaster, a sturdy, 
 strong-minded seaman of the old 
 school. Captain William Barnes of 
 Woolwich, who when a youth of sev- 
 enteen served one of the guns of the 
 Enterprise on the fateful day. He 
 was neither reluctant nor desirous 
 to talk of the cruise and the fight; 
 indeed frowned upon the thought 
 that any distinction was due there- 
 by. I was told that in former days 
 at social or public gatherings, ne 
 had repelled attempts to do him hon- 
 or, by toast or eulogy. Forcibly he 
 declared to me his scorn for honors 
 derived from warfare, emphatically 
 asserting war to be wicked slaugh- 
 ter. 
 
 He informed me that in the anx- 
 ious hours of preliminary tactics the 
 contestants ranged and circled in 
 
 free sea-room between Monhegan 
 and Seguin. Here was the arena of 
 conflict; in extreme length twenty- 
 one miles, but much less in their ac- 
 tual range. I gained the old sea- 
 man's estimate of distances and po- 
 sition at the hour of the final duel. 
 The locality as I apprehended it, 
 will best be shown by reference to 
 the diagram in my note book made 
 at the interview. Join Monhegan 
 and Seguin by a line; extend 
 a line from each, of nearly equal 
 length, to intersect a few miles 
 further sea-ward, forming a tri- 
 angle. The apex of the triangle 
 movable as the brigs held the east- 
 ward tack will represent the ocean 
 space of combat where, after six 
 hours of maneuvering, in part be- 
 calmed, the vessels closed in and 
 their broadsides thundered. The 
 offing of Damariscove Island nearly 
 agrees with the estimate; or a close 
 approximation to the fact will be 
 Longitude 69 degrees, 3 6 minutes 
 and Latitude 43 degrees and 42 
 minutes. 
 
 An aged woman of Georgetown 
 told me of viewing the battle at no 
 long distance easterly. A statement 
 in an address on September 9, 1913, 
 before the Portland Board of Trade 
 by Mr. Fritz H. Jordan points to the 
 same locality, and is in closer 
 agreement than any other account 
 so far found, with the description 
 given by the aged captain. 
 
 A fair presumption, therefore, will 
 place the vessels at the first broad- 
 side some eight miles southeasterly 
 from Seguin; their movements dur- 
 ing forty-five minutes in action 
 would advance them at surrender 
 well towards the ofling of Monhegan 
 several miles out to sea. Captain 
 Barnes asserted one disadvantage 
 of the Boxer: the brig stood higher 
 out of the water and offered a better 
 target. He mentioned, as have 
 
SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND 
 
 others, how badly cut up slie was 
 both above and below; that eight 
 eighteen-pound shot holes were in 
 one plank in her hull, near the water 
 line; her condition required that 
 twenty-two men be put to the 
 pumps, and had rough weather 
 come on, she would have foundered 
 before reaching Portland. Com- 
 modore Hull when later he examined 
 the prize said there was difficulty 
 in keeping her afloat to get her in. 
 
 Young Barnes was stationed ai 
 the second gun aft and saw much of 
 his commander. Of the fatal wound 
 he told how at a moment of special 
 need Burrows stepped forward to aid 
 in running a gun to place, and while 
 bent over, with foot for advantage 
 on the bulwarks to exert all his 
 strength, a musket ball drove in at 
 the groin and upward into his body. 
 Further he asserted that Lieutenant 
 McCall refused to take command, 
 but yielding to the obvious demand, 
 I conclude that he with his associate. 
 Lieutenant Tillinghast, continued 
 the action aided by suggestions and 
 directions of their commander, who 
 heroically endured his suffering and 
 refused to be carried from the deck. 
 His death delayed eight hours. His 
 antagonist, Captain Blythe, was in- 
 stantly killed at the beginning of 
 the combat. 
 
 Captain Barnes further gave high 
 commendation to Tillinghast, and 
 regarded him the superior of the 
 two in efficiency. He thought him 
 deserving a major share of praise 
 for the success when the two offi- 
 cers were forced to take such re- 
 sponsibility. The Boxer once at- 
 tempted boarding, which was skill- 
 fully evaded, yet her jib dragged 
 along the Knterprlse's quarter. 
 
 Another unreported incident was 
 detailed by Capt. Barnes who as a 
 member of the crew was fully cog- 
 nizant of the facts. A subordinate 
 
 officer, the sailing masler, Haiiter 
 by name, he regarded a coward, but 
 also called him a braggart, yet he 
 was the first to show weak knees in 
 the action, left his post, ran about 
 kneeled to peek over the bulwarks 
 to see what was going on. During 
 the preceding hours of the comman- 
 der's sailing tactics, his talk to the 
 men was unworthy of a seaman in 
 his position, harmful, insubordinate, 
 through casting reflections on his 
 Lommander, declaring in loose talk 
 before the crew, — "Oh, there'll be 
 no fight; he won't fight; he'll run 
 away; I'm ashamed; I'll quit the ser- 
 vice." For this conduct he was sum- 
 moned before a court martial, was 
 condemned and cashiered. Barnes 
 asserted, "He only saved his neck 
 because he did not stand well with 
 the crew," the board of inquiry be- 
 lieving their testimony was biased 
 and hostile, more damaging than 
 the facts warranted. Full details of 
 the case are desirable, but minutes 
 and findings of the board of inquiry 
 were doubtless destroyed witli other 
 naval records. Four men on the 
 Boxer were examined and listed for 
 cowardly deserting their posts. 
 
 A recent historian has a story 
 germane to the Harper case, which 
 gives support to the statement of 
 Captain Barnes. Preparing for the 
 fight which he planned to make. 
 Captain Burrows had a long nine 
 brought aft and placed to play out 
 of a stern port, even cutting away 
 woodwork to get range. Some looked 
 on the proceeding with startled eyes 
 and in suspense, and subdued talk 
 went around that the captain was 
 I)lanning to run away and had put 
 out the gun to be a stern chaser and 
 ensiire escape. The Intense feeling 
 brought a party of men together, 
 who decided to make representa- 
 tions to the captain of their senti- 
 ments and fears and declare their 
 
ENGAGEMENT OF ENTERPRISE AND BOXER 
 
 7 
 
 eagerness to meet the enemy. Their 
 delegate, F. H. Aulick, proved weak- 
 hearted in going aft and only gave 
 the message to Lieutenant McCall 
 who reported it to the captain. The 
 answer given was clear and emphat- 
 ic, they would speedily have the 
 fighting they wanted. I must pre- 
 sume that the suspicion and restive- 
 ness among the crew grew out of the 
 sailing master's reprehensible talk. 
 Burrows's scheme was justified by 
 results, for the long nine, suspected 
 as a defense in timorous fiight. 
 
 publication declared it a mistake to 
 send her to America; "not strong 
 enough to fight, nor fieet enough to 
 escape by flight; we do not believe 
 she was calculated for any other 
 service than taking coals for the 
 coasting trade." Some minimized 
 the size of the crew and salved the 
 soreness of defeat. Much dispute 
 was raised on the comparative size 
 of the crews; it was maintained 
 they were nearly equal; Commo- 
 dore Hull believed by reckoning 
 hammocks and similar fittings and 
 
 proved in the action a telling wea- 1 other facts obtained, that the Boxer 
 
 pon of offense, by its raking fire, 
 which possibly decided the battle. 
 
 At the time of the interview, Cap- 
 tain Barnes had passed the four- 
 score line, but had a clear mind and 
 forty-seven years of sea service 
 to his credit. I stood by the 
 shrouded form at the end, March 
 4, 1882, at the hour of silent 
 final departure from his home. 
 Probably then was starred the last 
 remaining name on the list of the 
 gallant crew who saw the Boxer's 
 braggart nailed flag torn down. He 
 had attained eighty-five years; was 
 a native of Berwick. His share of 
 the prize money, unless my pencil 
 failed, was sixty-two dollars and 
 fifty cents. I have also notes from 
 business documents, believed au- 
 thentic, showing the aggregate sales 
 of the Boxer and equipment to be 
 eleven thousand six hundred seven- 
 ty-four dollars with expenses of five 
 hundred fourteen dollars and thir- 
 ty-one cents. After her captain's 
 death. Lieutenant David M'Greery 
 took command. 
 
 entered the fight with about one 
 hundred men, while the crew of the 
 Enterprise numbered one hundred 
 and two. Some recent writers be- 
 lieve they find evidence that the 
 Boxer's roll was sixty-six. The 
 British government was assailed in 
 London because it never issued an 
 official report. 
 
 Captain Barnes said the Boxer's 
 crew, expectant of meeting and cap- 
 turing the Enterprise, deridingly 
 called her "Shingle Jack," but the 
 Yankee crew when they learned that 
 the vessel at anchor in the harbor 
 was calling in by signal guns her 
 boats ashore, returned the compli- 
 ment, "Ah! we understand; chicken 
 stealing," — in allusion to foraging 
 on farm houses. 
 
 A party from the Boxer had gone 
 on Saturday to Monhegan; they 
 were the surgeon, H. Anderson, two 
 midshipmen, Nixon and Pile, and an 
 army lieutenant on board for his 
 health, J. A. Allen. The latter in 
 a defensive statement wrote that the 
 
 Her capture was a bitter pill to three accompanied the surgeon who 
 British expectations and pride. Ex- had been invited to visit a crippled 
 planations and excuses were many, j son of Josiah Starling, a prominent 
 Grouchy individuals cast curses on man of the island. A London sketch 
 the brig without cause. A Halifax declared they went "pigeon shoot- 
 writer said she belonged to a des- ing:" — both stories are probably 
 picable class of vessels. A London! true, for after the surgeon's hour 
 
8 
 
 SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND 
 
 with the sick boy, he and his com- 
 panions could seek their game. 
 
 As the Boxer sailed out from 
 Pemaquid they expected to be taken 
 off, and took a small boat to reach 
 their ship. But Captain Blythe was 
 so intent on the expected seizure of 
 a prize that he drove on, seemingly 
 without a thought that his surgeon 
 might be needed, as was the desper- 
 ate demand a few hours later. On 
 the next "day a party of armed men, 
 as Allen asserted, came and took 
 them prisoners. They sought to 
 evade arrest by putting themselves 
 under the protection of two men, 
 Sampson and Thomas, agreeing to 
 be taken by them anywhere in the 
 United States. The trick availed 
 nothing, and they were taken away 
 to the same custody in Portland as 
 the vanquished crew. 
 
 III. .\ (ieof-raphical Term Kecon- 
 structe<l 
 
 One mystifying word, surprising- 
 ly uninterpreted, has kept place 
 from then till now in the chief his- 
 tories of that naval action. 
 
 The officers of the Enterprise 
 were strangers to the coast of Maine, 
 except something learned from im- 
 perfect sea charts. In sighting the 
 Boxer they fell directly upon a new- 
 word, — Pemaquid. How Captain 
 Burrows wrote it in the log that 
 morning we cannot assert. Lieuten- 
 ant McCall, a Carolinian, could know 
 little of Maine geography, and how 
 he wrote the new word in his re- 
 port of the engagement, we cannot 
 directly know, but some particulars, 
 even if too minute, in respect to 
 forwarding the report to Washing- 
 ton and giving the exciting intelli- 
 gence to the public will not be amiss. 
 
 The two brigs, the victor and the 
 prize, were brought into the lower 
 harbor at Portland soon after noon, 
 Monday, September Gth, and an- 
 
 chored under the guns of Vort 
 Preble. At the startling cry, boats 
 hastened down, and with their re- 
 turn, reports and rumors from im- 
 patient icrowds at the wharves flew 
 abroad in the agitated city. At once 
 Mr. Samuel Storer, the local navai 
 agent, got the chief facts as best he 
 could and by three o'clock dispatch- 
 ed a messenger by express to Cap- 
 tain — afterwards Commodore — Isaac 
 Hull at Portsmouth, which was by 
 him forwarded to Commodore Bain- 
 bridge at Boston. Mr. Storer, from 
 the mixed stories rife in the streets, 
 understood that the engagement 
 took place between Cape Elizabeth 
 and. Seguin, and so asserted in his 
 dispatch. This first report of the 
 location of the combat was spread 
 abroad by Boston and New York 
 papers. At the time of writing, 
 however, he had seen no one from 
 the ships, which delayed on account 
 of wind and tide, arrived at the city 
 at five o'clock. 
 
 The elating news reached Cap- 
 tin Hull in the evening, and on the 
 next morning he hastened to Port- 
 land. On that forenoon. Tuesday 
 the seventh. Lieutenant McCall 
 wrote out his official report, which 
 Captain Hull at once on arrival dis- 
 patched by the mail, just closing, to 
 the Secretary of the Navy. Also on 
 that day McCall prepared, or assist- 
 ed the editor of the Eastern Argus 
 of the city in writing, a detailed re- 
 port which was printed on the 
 morning of the eighth. It was very 
 unlike the first; introduced entries 
 of the log-book of the Enterprise, 
 and noted the hours and occurrences 
 in them from early morning to the 
 beginning of the action. Boston and 
 •New York papers welcomed the first 
 detailed statement of the naval vic- 
 tory. 
 
 On Tuesday the fourteenth, nine 
 days after the event, the National 
 
SEAMEN OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 7^ 
 
 11 
 
 construction and changed to a brig. 
 She was originally designed for ser- 
 vice against privateers about the 
 West Indies; also had prominent ac- 
 tion in the French and Neapolitan 
 Wars. She is rated by the naval his- 
 torian Maclay, "unusually fast sail- 
 ing," with incidents in her activities 
 in proof. She has been called "the 
 lucky Enterprise," by success in cap- 
 tures and fortunate escapes from 
 peril from larger craft. 
 
 Several lieutenants in command 
 were, first, John Shaw, next Charles 
 Stewart, Andrew Sterrett, Johnson 
 Blakesley, the lamented Wm. Bur- 
 rows, James Renshaw. 
 
 After the Boxer combat she was 
 ordered to the coast of Florida and 
 vicinity and had exciting adventures, 
 — once escaping only by throwing 
 over her guns. For a time she was 
 guardship at Charleston and then 
 ordered south was wrecked in 1823 
 off the coast of Venezuela. 
 
 SECOND PAPER 
 
 SEAMEN OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 I. The Crimes of Impressment 
 
 It is an accepted principle that a 
 nation's sovereignty extends to the 
 property and the persons of its sub- 
 jects. The State may take a man's 
 land, use or destroy his buildings, 
 demand his services, if the public 
 exigency require. Yet just compen- 
 sation must always be made. 
 
 Especially is the principle true in 
 respect to the police powers of a na- 
 tion, to maintain peace or carry on 
 war. The nation must have means 
 and men: if not obtained by ordin- 
 ary process, the sovereign powder can 
 demand and take. 
 
 Yet the State's supremacy has 
 been differently viewed. England, a 
 representative of monarchical 
 
 Europe, drew close lines; born a 
 Briton, always a Briton, and a sub- 
 ject with no legal release. By Eng- 
 lish law, 'Allegiance is perpetual." 
 
 Our new nation which sprang into 
 life with the W^ar of the Revolution, j 
 held that a subject could transfer al- 
 legiance and come under the United 
 States flag and possess all civil 
 rights of the native born. 
 
 When Great Britian w^anted men 
 for her navy, her officers took Brit- 
 ish seamen, and landsmen as well, 
 wherever they could be found. She 
 
 held it her right to take men from 
 merchant ships on the sea or to seize 
 them in seaport towns. The press 
 gang was a notorious institution of 
 her navy. No sailor, no fisherman, 
 away from his vessel for an errand 
 or a ramble on shore was secure. 
 Even young men of other vocations 
 would suddenly disappear and then 
 be reported under forced enlistment 
 on a warship. The navy stood first; 
 other employments must yield men 
 to keep its rolls full. This was 
 government policy. The method aid- 
 ed the growth of dominant sea power 
 by which England claimed to be and 
 was for a time beyond dispute, mis- 
 tress of the ocean. 
 
 But her officers seeking seamen 
 were not careful, did not try to be 
 careful, in large degree had no 
 scruples but a definite purpose to lay 
 hold upon American seamen. They 
 would pick from a ship's crew likely 
 men, declare them British, or often 
 deserters from British ships. Pro- 
 tests, denials, testimony of ship- 
 mates, protection papers declaring 
 nationality, were of no worth, not 
 heeded, declared false. No resist- 
 ance was possible; the hand of pow- 
 er was there: boarding officers 
 "dressed up in a little brief author- 
 
12 
 
 SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND 
 
 ily. " were judges: their decision 
 could not be questioned: the man 
 was ordered over the side to the 
 waiting boat, a forced recruit to the 
 Britisli navy. 
 
 Not every captain was unscrupul- 
 ous, autocratic, but the wholesale 
 seizure proves the rule of action, — 
 take the man first; protests after- 
 wards or referred to the Admiralty. 
 This business termed impressment, 
 though elsewhere than by a nation, 
 plain, bold kidnapping, to which ia 
 modern sporadic cases the word 
 "shanghai" is applied, — long de- 
 spoiled United States vessel's. 
 Indignant outcries through the 
 States, protests and demands of 
 diplomacy, availed little: only a few 
 sailors were restored. 
 
 President Madison's message of 
 June 1, 1S12, upon relations with 
 England, detailed a variety of af- 
 fronts and wrongs endured and re- 
 quiring redress, and was a vigorous 
 precursor of the declaration of war, 
 seventeen days later. On one point 
 he said: 
 
 "British cruisers have been in the] 
 continued practice of violating the 
 American flag on the great highway 
 of nations and of seizing and carry- 
 ing away all persons under it, * * * 
 • under pretence of searching for 
 British subjects: thousands of Amer- 
 ican citizens under the safeguard of 
 public law and of their national fla.:? 
 have been torn from their country 
 * • * * have been dragged on 
 board of ships of war of a foreign 
 nation, exiled to distant climes, to, 
 risk their lives in the battles of their 
 oppressors, and to be the melan- 
 choly instruments of taking away the 
 lives of tiieir own brethren." 
 
 A very tame general statement in 
 comparison with the concrete facts' 
 these following I draw from several 
 histories of authority and also from 
 newspapers of the time. 
 
 In February, 1^11, evidently to e.\- 
 cuse charges, a high member of Par- 
 liament admitted there were 3,300 
 .Americans in the British navy, yet 
 as he urged, only that number in a 
 total of 145,000. But by the end ^{ 
 that year there were lists of 6,2r)7 
 impressed men whose names had 
 been sent to Washington, and it was 
 believed that of sailors scattered over 
 all seas, twice as many were not re- 
 ported as were thus listed, and it 
 was no excessive estimate that 20,- 
 000 were in British ships. Early in 
 the war their Admiralty office 
 acknowledged that 2,54S had refused 
 duty because Americans. In that 
 year the editor of Xiles Register 
 (Baltimore) dared to affirm: "There 
 is not a single British .government 
 ship, be her station at Halifax or 
 Botany Bay, in the Baltic or off Cape 
 Horn, not having on board impressed 
 American seamen." 
 
 English sailors did enter our 
 ships though the number has been 
 greatly exaggerated by their writers. 
 They received more humane treat- 
 ment, had less rigorous service and 
 less fear of pressgangs. Any who 
 were in our few war vessels were 
 made to feel their peril by the king's 
 proclamation, Oct., IS 12, declaring 
 that such subjects serving against 
 England were liable to be tried for 
 liiuh treason. A privateer belonging 
 in Baltimore was captured and tak- 
 en into Nassau. Six men of the crew 
 were seized, put in irons to be car- 
 ried to .Tamaica to be tried by the 
 terms of the kin.i;'s order, because in 
 service in a war-vessel against Eng- 
 land. Yet five were native Ameri- 
 cans, and one an Irishman who had 
 lived in America twenty years. Some 
 were sent to Jamaica for trial. When 
 the fact was known, twelve British 
 prisoners were selected to be hos- 
 tages for their safety. 
 
ENGAGEMENT OF ENTERPRISE AND BOXER 
 
 Intelligencer of Washington pub- 
 lished Tjieutenant McCall's first re- 
 port, which was copied by Niles Reg- 
 ister at Baltimore on the eighteenth 
 and also in New York. It is evident 
 that the Intelligencer obtained the 
 report from the Navy Department, 
 for only to the Secretary had it been 
 transmitted. It is pertinent here 
 to distinguish clearly between the 
 first and second report. 
 
 The latter wrote "Pemaquid" for 
 the first espial of the two vessels. 
 The former published at Washington 
 had "Penguin" bay. Hence between 
 McCall's pen at Portland and the 
 printer's type at Washington a 
 transformation in Maine geography 
 occurred. Handwriting often assists 
 in strange distortion of proper 
 names. The undecipherable names 
 of many public men do them no hon- 
 or. One must believe that the offi- 
 cer had become acquainted with the 
 name during the three days on the 
 coast, without the aid of charts. 
 The word has had variations: its 
 second syllable, properly a, some- 
 times e, has been i and o and even 
 y, and it has formerly a few times 
 been written Pemquid and Pemquit. 
 In ordinary usage now, its second 
 syllable is obscure or lost; only care- 
 ful enunciation saves it. Probably 
 it came to McCall's ear as Pem- 
 quid, and so probably he wrote it. 
 
 Easily the error could grow. 
 Whatever his ordinary penmanship, 
 finely legible or not, McCall could 
 be pardoned that morning, oppressed 
 by such new forced duties, if words 
 or letters lacked nicety. Then 
 also, over an utterly new word a 
 copyist might be puzzled, and if the 
 little pen strokes in m. q and d were 
 dim or imperfect, Pemquid could be 
 read Pen-guin; even a copyist not 
 nicely careful could lose a from Pem- 
 aquid also. If these seem to 
 anyone fanciful conjectures, if the 
 
 explanation be inadequate, yet by 
 whatever hasty pen of McCall, or 
 by whatever mental process or 
 obliquity of eye in copyist or printer, 
 the transformation was effected: a 
 tiew geographical term was born. 
 The chief agency must reasonably 
 'be ascribed to the copyist in Wash- 
 ington, not to the Lieutenant in 
 Portland. From the National In- 
 telligencer's original phrase, "in the 
 bay near Penguin point," various 
 newspapers introduced the word to 
 the public. Penguin Bay or Penguin 
 Point. Several printed the second 
 report also, but no one seems to have 
 noticed the difference. 
 
 Whatever its parentage, the mis- 
 shapen creation sprang into vigorous 
 life: was adopted by writers of 
 merit; has held its place against an 
 opponent and has advanced, it seems 
 unquestioned and unverified, retain- 
 ing its vitality through that century 
 and boldly entering the present. In- 
 to what early periodicals it had ad- 
 mission cannot be stated. The 
 earliest volume treating of naval 
 events which I have discovered was 
 published in Boston in 1816. It has 
 Lieutenant McCall's report complete 
 from date to signature, including 
 "Penguin Point." The same appears 
 in a similar work by William James, 
 London, 1817, also in the work by 
 J. Fenimore Cooper, 1839. Within 
 a score of years past it has found 
 entry as t'enguin Bay or Penguin 
 Point in narrations of the highest 
 rank, by Maclay, Roosevelt, McMas- 
 ter, Spears: also as late as 1910 by 
 W. J. Abbot, and in a late historical 
 essay, whose author's name is lost, 
 and probably in others. 
 
 The original report, it is assumed, 
 went soon to ashes when Washing- 
 ton was burnt. The few newspapers 
 and books earliest in date which had 
 full copies of the original seem to 
 be the only source for later and re- 
 
10 
 
 SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND 
 
 cent studc'iu.s aiul writers. Hence it 
 is believed that these first printed 
 accounts showing by their form that 
 they were the true transcriptions 
 from the document sent to the Sec- 
 retary of the N'avy, were taken with 
 full confidence, an assured basis for 
 the historian. No one had a thought 
 that a flaw could exist in such a 
 fiource. However slight or extensive 
 the acquaintance of these writers 
 with Maine and its history, not a 
 suspicion arose that the unknown 
 name "Penguin" concealed ancient 
 historic — Pemaquid. 
 
 The engagement of the Enterprise 
 and Boxer appears to be one out of 
 only two or three of that war fought 
 in Atlantic waters near the land in 
 sight of anxious people. A gold 
 medal was ordered by Congress for 
 relatives of Captain Burrows; also 
 one for Lieutenant McCall. Yet 
 omnipresent error was at hand and 
 made the date September 4. 
 
 The flag of the Enterprise has 
 been preserved, the same it is be- 
 lieved, carried through the day of 
 combat. It wears the insignia of its 
 honor, — fifty-nine musket ball holes. 
 It is now in the custody of the Maine 
 Historical Society and years ago was 
 exhibited in the society's "Longfel- 
 low House." 
 
 These tales of naval warfare, 
 though stained by repellant blood- 
 shed should not be erased from the 
 pages of history, but satisfaction 
 with results in securing a higher 
 stage of independence previously 
 gained at such cost, must rightly 
 Join with the hope and aim that 
 complete amity without a cloud may 
 continue henceforth. 
 
 IV. The Coui-t-Mni-tial and \ote« 
 
 Respecting affairs on the Enter- 
 prise, the aged seaman asserted a 
 court martial upon a subordinato of- 
 
 licLT, a matter of wlii(.-li 1 liad 
 found no mention by any one of the 
 many writers. 
 
 With no slight pleasure at the last 
 days of printing the preceding pages, 
 I discovered the official report of 
 that court. It corroborates the 
 statement by Capt. Barnes except at 
 one point. It shows that Lieut. Mc- 
 Call preferred charges against the 
 sailing-master, William Harper. The 
 board of inquiry sat at Portsmouth 
 and had Capt. Isaac Hull for presi- 
 dent. No details of evidence are 
 given, only the unanimous judgment 
 of the court, — acquittal. 
 
 Certainly McCall believed he had 
 good reasons and duty to make the 
 charge. That it was dismissed agrees 
 with the view of Capt. Barnes that 
 the unfriendly sentiments of the 
 sailors towards Harper had weight 
 with the court forming its opinion 
 that their evidence was biased and 
 adverse beyond warrant, or a se'. erer 
 penalty would have been inflicted. Iti 
 fact the lighter judgment of the 
 court reached acquittal not cashier- 
 ing. 
 
 On this point, the court's decision, 
 the young seaman was at the time 
 misinformed, or in advanced years 
 his memory was at fault. 
 I A word respecting the contesting 
 brigs. 
 
 j The Boxer after the i)rize sale re- 
 
 j mained in Portland during the year 
 
 j and in LSI 4, when there were fears 
 
 of a British incursion to seize the 
 
 port, she was manned for defence. 
 
 I Next year she was refitted for the 
 
 merchant service. Capt. Barnes told 
 
 of seeing her at Marseilles. Later 
 
 she was sailing from Lisbon to the 
 
 Cape de Verde Islands, and nothing 
 
 further is obtained of her service or 
 
 her ultimate fate. 
 
 The Enterprise built about 1S00 
 sailed in scliooner rig for many 
 years, but before 1812 had some re- 
 
SEAMEN OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 15 
 
 ers fell contumely, insults, petty 
 meanness, brutal treatment by the 
 base, the overbearing, the vengeful 
 of the king's agents. 
 
 From the time of Washington, 
 remonstrances had been made but 
 the evils had widened. A writer 
 termed impressment "barbarous 
 slavery with unparalleled insolence 
 of the captors," and another asserted 
 there existed no modern parallel ex- 
 cept negro-stealing on the coast of 
 Africa. A severe indictment. 
 
 Further illustration of the policy 
 and its execution must be introduced. 
 
 John Allen, a native of Topsham, 
 Maine, and a resident in Wiscasset, 
 a seaman for twenty years and com- 
 mander on Wiscasset vessels, was in 
 May, 1807, impressed but by evidence 
 presented obtained discharge. Again 
 Feb, 1810, he was seized in Liver- 
 pool. That previous discharge, clear 
 and full for evidence, was disregard- 
 ed and taken from him and he was 
 sent to a prison ship, and thence put 
 to duty on several vessels. In the 
 war with France he lost a leg and 
 was sent to the hospital. When the 
 healing process was over, he was 
 told, "go out free from the service." 
 
 Robert Randall of Wiscasset who 
 had served through that war, and 
 James Cotterill of the same place, 
 who had been in the service eleven 
 years, both under impressment, were 
 declared to be invalids and were ac- 
 cordingly discharged. Such men 
 worn out or sick, not further capable 
 of a seaman's duty, were turned out. 
 In April, 1813, the Eastern Argus of 
 Portland completed a list with par- 
 ticulars in each one's case, of thirty- 
 six men of that city under impress- 
 ment abroad, — local instances among 
 the 20,000 estimated victims of im- 
 perial policy. 
 
 I will leave to others properly to 
 characterize by pertinent terms the 
 treatment inflicted on Isaac Clark of 
 
 Randolph, Mass. He had sailed in 
 Salem ships for seven years and in 
 June, 180 9, was seized by a press- 
 gang and put on board of His 
 Majesty's ship Porcupine. The free 
 born American sailor refused to do 
 duty under that flag. Refusing 
 obedience he was put in irons, and 
 on the next morning was given two 
 dozen lashes; the same was con- 
 tinued with starvation diet one 
 weel<: like treatment was endured 
 a second week, — irons and two 
 dozen daily. At the beginning of 
 a third week a heavy chain was put 
 on his neck and attached to a ring- 
 bolt in the deck; no one could 
 speak to him, no one feed him but 
 the quartermaster who gave one 
 biscuit and a pint of water daily: 
 in that desperate plight he was kept 
 nine weeks. Then, however unwise 
 his original refusal while the grip 
 of autocratic power was on him, he 
 found himself worn down, weak- 
 ened, and his life in peril, and so 
 decided not to sacrifice it but to 
 surrender and take up duty, but 
 was only fit for the hospital for a 
 time. Clark was on that ship two 
 and a half years, where were seven 
 other imprisoned men, but never 
 fully recovered; was transferred to 
 a 98 gun ship, and there in hospital 
 through the consul's aid he got dis- 
 charged. 
 
 Other similar accounts, some 
 tales more ghastly yet affirmed on 
 oath, could be introduced, but I for- 
 bear. Let them be, as we can hope, 
 exceptional cases, extreme deeds of 
 violent men. If so, still it must be 
 asserted such methods of control- 
 ing men, such discipline was school- 
 ed into the British Navy. The sys- 
 tem made men having authority, 
 unfeeling, despotic, brutal. Flogg- 
 ing was and long had been the main- 
 stay of discipline, the rigorous 
 stinging hand to enforce obedience. 
 
16 
 
 SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND 
 
 It was the British idta, though not 
 their's alone. Boys schools s^ive evi- 
 dence; "birching" was universal, 
 was a daily affair, was severe for 
 trifling delinquencies; the schools 
 were representative of British 
 homes where the rod began the 
 training. Hence it was a national 
 institution. The array and navy, it 
 was supposed, could not exist with- 
 out it. Cobbett, a forceful writer, 
 both tory and radical, said, "The 
 English are a flog2;ing nation." 
 
 In a captured ship was found a 
 British official report from records 
 of six months of a West India regi- 
 ment of probably 580 men. There 
 were 83 courts-martial — an average 
 of three each week — which ordered 
 2S,950 lashes, and certified reports 
 of 10,809 applied, — as many as 800 
 in the total to one (bad) man. 
 
 A recent historian remarks on the 
 brutalizing effects of flogging upon 
 those who administer it. At first 
 sickened and shrinking as they 
 stand by commanding and counting 
 the strokes and seeing blood and 
 lacerated flesh, but at length hard- 
 ened, finding nothing in their duty 
 uncomfortable and repugnant. 
 
 Some men have been known, it is 
 told, who had positive gratification 
 in directing the skillful swing of the 
 cat and the effect on the cringing 
 culprit. One lieutenant of a cap- 
 tured ship was declared to be a prac- 
 ticed and zealous expert in the 
 shamt^il business which he superin- 
 tende^a man of such brutal in- 
 stinctC as to get actual enjoyment 
 out of the agonizing spectacle, and 
 heightened satisfaction in uphoUling 
 naval discipline when It was his duty 
 to order "tlie flogging of a sailor i 
 round the fleet," — the victim taken 
 in a launch to each ship in succes- 
 sion, the crew piped to the side and 
 the rigging to see the lash well laid 
 on at each installment of the pen- 
 
 alty wiiiln tlu* surgeon .stands b\ to 
 watch the limit of the wretched fel- 
 low's endurance. 
 
 It was real gratification to this 
 lieutenant to order out boys to apply 
 the cutting lash to a boy at fault, as 
 if it would be a proper hardening 
 part of naval training. Abundant 
 details are in histories, and are 
 woven into sea fiction from actual 
 incidents so that English literature 
 declares the degrading nature and 
 often extreme severity of methods of 
 discipline in the British navy. 
 
 Xot England alone: the United 
 States must share the reprehension. 
 Our government toolv over old world 
 practices into her navy, but never ad- 
 ministered, I will believe, in such 
 criminal extremes. In fact law re- 
 stricted punishment to 12 or 20 
 lashes. However, it is a gratification 
 that higher ideals have been attained 
 as advances in civilization are teach- 
 ing more clearly what is due human- 
 ity everywhere, and thereby that 
 hideous curse has been driven from 
 the navy in both nations, in ours in 
 1850 and by English law only in 
 1881. 
 
 If no longer the brutalizing shame 
 can exist in our ships, one may in- 
 quire if forms of i)unisbment have 
 not been substituted deserving repre- 
 hension. I recall a long ago conver- 
 sation with a Bath business man, 
 who incidentally referring to former 
 sea experience in command, casually 
 mentioned some methods of enforc- 
 ing his authority not agreeable to 
 sensitive ears. 
 
 Other repelling, even harrowing 
 tales of the former days in the mer- 
 chant fleet can perhaps be told by 
 the ft'W remaining aged seamen, mas- 
 ters or men of our tall ships, now 
 nearly swept from all seas. Friends 
 of seamen believe that weighty dis- 
 abilities, shaming evils still bear 
 severely on many a common sailor 
 
SEAMEN OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 13 
 
 The pressgangs made criminal as- 
 sault upon the man, upon his lib- 
 erty, causing" the resounding war- 
 cry: "Sailors' Rights:" but the policy 
 was adverse to the merchant fleet by 
 reducing crews so that not enough 
 were left to navigate the ships. 1 
 noticed report of one vessel captured 
 because short-handed. 
 
 A careful estimate warranted th-3 
 assertion by a writer: "In the years 
 180 2 to 1812, the number of im- 
 pressed American seamen in British 
 ships was seldom less than the total 
 enlisted force of the U. S. navy." 
 Hence Great Britian gathered in as 
 many of our seamen and held and 
 trained them to use against us in ad- 
 dition to her great force, as we had 
 in all for any conflict with her. 
 
 When declaration of war became 
 l\nown on British warships, many 
 impressed men declined the service 
 which would force them to fight 
 against their own countrymen. They 
 refused duty and offered themselves 
 to be prisoners of war, and werf^ 
 held as prisoners, except when brutal 
 treatment, irons, flogging, hunger, 
 overcame their purpose and drove 
 them back to work. It was estimat- 
 ed that in the first year of the war 
 2,000 Americans were discharged 
 from the enemy's ships for refusing 
 to serve and were consigned to 
 prison-ships or to Dartmoor. 
 
 For two generations that name 
 was a word of terror, a symbol of 
 suffering, a spot blasted by deeds of 
 execrable inhumanity and oppres- 
 sion. This inland prison 18 miles 
 from Plymouth first held Frencli 
 prisoners from the wars with Na- 
 poleon, but later received Americans, 
 chiefly those taken from our ves- 
 sels of war and tlie many privateers. 
 A young seaman of Woolwich after- 
 wards Capt. David G. Stinson of Ne- 
 quasset tested . the quality of Dart- 
 
 moor treatment till by crafty and 
 perilous expedients he escaped. 
 
 The naval seaports, Chatham and 
 Plymouth, were prison stations. One 
 prisoner learned there were held at 
 Chatham harbor in January, 1813, 
 7,000 Frenchmen and 1,2 00 Ameri- 
 cans; of the latter 700 were im- 
 pressed men sent from various men- 
 of-war to those prison-ships. 
 
 On this side of the Atlantic was 
 another spot of evil repute by wicked 
 treatment, Melville Island near Hali- 
 fax, about 500 feet in diameter, a 
 few feet above tide-level. The first 
 year of the war brought into it 
 nearly 1,30 men, a large part cap- 
 tured from Yanlvee privateers: 950 
 were crowded on the two floors of 
 the house, 130x40 feet in size; the 
 remainder on a ship moored nearby. 
 To a complaint by sufferers of pre- 
 vailing disease and deaths frequent, 
 the hardened British agent angrily 
 replied, "Then die and be damned; 
 the king has 150 acres to bury in." 
 
 Capt. Jeduthan Upton, Jr., oi: 
 Salem had sailed from Portland in 
 the private-armed brig Hunter, and 
 unlucky by capture was consigned 
 to a Chatham ship. Returned on a 
 cartel he brought from the San An- 
 tonio on which he had been held, a 
 list of 12G men out of 177 who had 
 been impressed. Their names, for- 
 mer ships, particulars of treatment 
 were published in a Salem newspa- 
 per. Their native States extended 
 from Maine to Carolina; length of 
 service after impressment was for 
 many, two, three, and four years, for 
 several 13, 15, even IS years. One 
 of them narrated what had occurred 
 in his case. I copy, though with 
 some abridgment. 
 
 John Nichols of Durham, Maine, 
 first mate of the ship Franklin, 
 sailed from Portland and arrived at 
 Liverpool, February 2, ISO 9. On 
 that very day returning from his 
 
14 
 
 SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND 
 
 boarding-house to the ship he was, 
 seized by a pressgang and held at ' 
 their headquarters one night. Next 
 morning he told the lieutenant of 
 the gang, his name, ship, position as 
 mate, and gave his protection for ex- 
 amination. His captain and super- 
 cargo coming to him were denied 
 admittance. He asked the return of 
 his protection; the lieutenant replied 
 with profane insolence and tore the 
 document to pieces. He was sent to 
 the guardship. and after a weelx, lo 
 another at Plymouth; a month lator 
 lie was sent on board the 7 4 gun ship, 
 Aboul<ir: served 3 years, 14 days. 
 His father obtained and sent a new 
 protection, which was withheld. 
 .\fter war began he determined to 
 give himself up prisoner at whatever 
 cost. Oct. 26, 1812, he went to the 
 captain and refused further duty. The 
 captain declared him an Englishman; 
 if he would not do duty he would 
 flog him; was put in irons 24 hours; 
 then had 12 lashes on his bare back; 
 still refused duty; would die first; 
 again in irons 24 hours, then 12 
 lashes; same repeated till 4 days and 
 4 8 lashes in all; then allowed to be 
 prisoner at large; in December was 
 sent to Chatham prison-ship: hi-.3 
 clothes refused with insult; for all 
 his service he got £14. 
 
 Withholding wages due impressed 
 infn or payment of petty sums seemed 
 to be approved policy in rases of 
 men sent away from vessels to pris- 
 ons. One seaman, a cai:)tain, — had 
 his bedding taken, and his money 
 also by order of the (ommandant. 
 Another had his shirt stripped off 
 his back. But such infamous mean- 
 iHss must not be charged on all of- 
 ticers. but on many vicious, greedy 
 men who believed no complaints 
 could be made or would have any 
 force against them. In Dec-ember 
 IS] 2, the brig Rai)id of Portland 
 
 came in from Boston and told of two 
 captains just arrived there whose 
 vessels had been taken by the Maid- 
 stone and the Sparrow, and they had 
 been sent to that noisome Melville 
 prison. Their sea chests were 
 searched and their quadrants and 
 other articles taken, yet with .prom- 
 ises to return. When they were 
 leaving to go on board the cartel to 
 be exchanged, on their request for 
 their property they were told no 
 nautical instruments would be given 
 up to privateers. On such a pretext 
 they were robbed. 
 
 II. Iiiipi-essnient and FloRsing 
 
 There may be whispered or harsh 
 chidings for me, that I am going 
 back a hundred years to search out 
 and portray evil deeds and barbarity. 
 However grievous and repellant, 
 they were realities in that war peri- 
 od, belong in its history and can 
 not for my purpose be omitted. 
 They were facts of the war woven 
 into its sources and its prosecution. 
 Their shame and reprehension are 
 the greater for they weie England's 
 offences by her officers not other- 
 wise ordered and controlled: they 
 were in large degree results of her 
 policy administered by reckless or 
 cruel men: they made part of the 
 history of the war, subordinate in- 
 deed but infused into all its opera- 
 ions, and here separately treated 
 make emphatic disclosure of abhor- 
 rent usages now abandoned. But I 
 vould allow to no reader the Impres- 
 sion that all officers were alike un- 
 just and brutal. 
 
 Britain's pride has been humbled 
 by the War of the Revolution. Ill 
 will survived, festering into irrita- 
 tions and readiness to strike back. 
 ri)on impressed sailors and prison- 
 
NAVAL COMBAT OF FRIGATES 
 
 17 
 
 which the humane are striving to 
 remove, so tliat in such a mode of 
 life laden with privations at the best, 
 the lowest sailor may be regarded as 
 a man, — as one among them half a 
 
 century ago asserted they had not 
 been, and that to all shall be as- 
 sured not only full justice but all 
 that makes for comfort and well- 
 being at sea or in port. 
 
 THIRD PAPER 
 
 NAVAL COMBAT OF FRIGATES 
 
 The United States and The Macedonian, October 25, 1812 
 
 I. The Ships; The Commanders; The 
 Action 
 
 Few are the chapters, indeed the 
 pages of world history, which have 
 not some lines or sentences respect- 
 ing war. Armed conflict continuous- 
 ly, with its allies woe and death, 
 wrecking human happiness and every 
 interest, proclaims what man has 
 been by greedy ambition or revenge, 
 Those stained pages cry out to all 
 who think of human welfare for mul- 
 tiplied unceasing activity to ensure 
 that no more of the same can be 
 written and that present endeavors 
 and agencies in the opening of this 
 century shall succeed before its close 
 in securing universal peace. 
 
 Xor should hope and striving be 
 in the least weakened though Europe j 
 is now writhing in terror and bloody 
 horrors of a shocking, criminal war. ! 
 
 To the two great English speaking 
 nations it is gratification and honor 
 that they now stand fraternally to- 
 gether in the closing hours of a hun- 
 dred years of peace and are bound 
 by mutual pledges for its continu- 
 ance. 
 
 Therefore an unkindly act, some 
 one may deem ii, now to turn back 
 to pages of truthful records and re- 
 call years when the two nations were 
 not friends but were in armed con- 
 flict. Nevertheless I find reasons to 
 look back just over the edge of this 
 century of peace and to use a brief 
 
 I recital of another naval battle to il- 
 I lustrate by pitiful facts, the woes, 
 the wicked injustice inflicted upon 
 impressed American seamen. 
 
 .^our months after President Mad- 
 ison's declaration of war, and ten 
 months preceeding the engagement 
 of the Enterprise and Boxer, dis- 
 cussed in a former paper, occurred 
 the fierce combat of two representa- 
 tive warships, the British Macedo- 
 nian and the young nation's United 
 States. 
 
 The Macedonian was regarded "the 
 finest frigate of the British navy." 
 She was new, but two years old, and 
 ft few months previously had been 
 overhauled in Plymouth dock. She 
 carried 49 guns and on this cruise 
 h9'l 301 men. In two years' service, 
 four officers had held the command, 
 all strict disciplinarians, and as the 
 crew felt, each captain applied the 
 iron hand more rigorously than his 
 predecessor, as was asserted to be 
 the fact with the latest, John Sur- 
 nam Garden. Hence, the Mace- 
 donian was believed to be in the 
 highest state of efficiency and the 
 best manned vessel in that navy. 
 
 The United States bearing her 
 nation's name and to defend its 
 rights, was one of the best frigates 
 of her class. Though out of dock 
 lacking fresh fitting, for two years, 
 she was in fine condition, well equip- 
 ped and fully manned, carrying 54 
 
18 
 
 SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND 
 
 of Stephen Decatur, a name emi- 
 nent in our naval annals, an officer 
 highly trained and skillful, a true 
 seaman, vigilant and efficient. 
 
 In the first months of the new con- 
 flict which arrayed these kindred 
 Anglo-Saxon peoples against each 
 other, it was destined that these 
 ships-of-war should meet and engage 
 in the destructive work for which 
 they had been constructed and com- 
 missioned. 
 
 When they did meet upon the 
 ocean, when their commanders each 
 on his own quarterdeck, sought to 
 make the other's acquaintance by 
 forcible measures, and when they 
 met face to face on the cai)tor's ship, 
 it was not their first meeting: an 
 earlier social interview had been en- 
 joyed the previous winter when Capt. 
 Garden was entertained by Capt. De- 
 catur on his ship at Norfolk. 
 
 The strained relations of the two 
 governments were well understood 
 and everywhere discussed with fears 
 or assertions that war must come, 
 and it was natural that the disturbed 
 situation would come up in the con- 
 versation of the two commanders 
 which might have a more serious im- 
 port to these men, sin:e Ihey must 
 feel that they would be foemen in 
 such a conflict. The visitor viewing 
 Decatur's ship offered apparently 
 very sincere compliments on its ap- 
 pearance, the manly qualities and 
 discipline of the crew, ami further 
 without rudeness or incivility gave 
 free expression to his opinions on 
 American ships and their crews, and 
 though a stern commander was no 
 less a gentleman in private relations, 
 and now in a polite wa.\ yet with a 
 tone of British superiority remarked 
 to Capt. Decatur, "Your sht;)s are 
 pood enough: you are a clever set of 
 fellows: but wliat practice have you 
 
 bad'.' Ay, that's the rub." Then with 
 characteristic English self-confidence 
 and evident depreciation of all 
 things American, Carden further re- 
 marked to his host at the table, — if 
 ' in that possible war already discussed 
 they two and their ships should 
 meet "What must be the result. " It 
 is told by his biographer, that 
 Decatur with emphasis and a manly 
 spirit made reply "In that case my 
 flag will never come down while 
 there is a hull beneath for it to wave 
 from." 
 
 Neither commander Tiad then a 
 thought that war was so near at 
 hand. In it, however, Carden had 
 further and the best opportunities 
 to form opinions of Decatur's ship 
 iind men and their practice also. 
 
 Hostilities at once followed the 
 leclaration of war, and only four 
 months elapsed before this notable 
 naval combat. Capt. Decatur sailed 
 from Boston, Oct. S, IS 12. His 
 cruise took him southeast toward the 
 coast of Africa and on the 2r)th the 
 United States and the Macedonian, 
 armed representatives of their na- 
 Uons. met for the grim, fierc*^ duty 
 assigned them. They were west of the 
 "anary Islands in lat. 29, and 
 Ion. 29:30. Description of the ac- 
 tion is not desirable and the distress- 
 ing or horrible details should have 
 no place here, only a few statements. 
 
 The British captain held the 
 .veather-gage but made a mistake 
 nanly by belief as the vessels drew 
 ogother that his anlasionist was the 
 Tssex whose armament he knew: and 
 hercfore, using bis supposed advan- 
 age, trusted to his long range guns. 
 t may have been the f;ital mistake, 
 for the approaching foe. the United 
 States, carried long range guns also 
 and men behind the guns, so that be- 
 fore Carden could bring the Mace- 
 donian into closer action she had 
 
NAVAL COMBAT OF FRIGATES 
 
 19 
 
 sustained severe injuries and the 
 rest of the game went against him. 
 
 In 90 minutes — some accounts 
 reckon more — the Macedonian's fire 
 ceased; mizzen-mast had gone: fore 
 and main topmasts also: mainmast 
 cut and weakened: foreyard cut to 
 pieces, much of the riggrng likewise; 
 many guns disabled; boats shot to 
 pieces; the best frigate of the Brit- 
 ish navy — by Garden's official report, 
 "a perfect wreck, unmanageable as 
 a log:" — his antagonist seeming 
 slightly harmed bearing down upon 
 him, able to rake him at pleasure; 
 surrender, or to be shot to pieces the 
 only alternative; reluctantly his flag 
 came down. 
 
 The United States had lost one 
 topmast; had rigging somewhat cut 
 and other minor injuries, but so lit- 
 tle harmed that a short time would 
 have put her in complete trim for 
 another action. 
 
 On the Macedonian, more than 
 masts and guns, the wreckage of 
 men was awful; the boarding of- 
 ficer declared 'the scene "distressing 
 to humanity." Particulars are prop- 
 erly denied. The dead were 3G, the 
 wounded C8, many of them mortally. 
 On the victor ship, five were killed, 
 seven wounded, twelve in all. Sur- 
 prise, almost consternation prevaded 
 England as the defeat of "a crack 
 frigate" added to previous losses, 
 furnished startling evidence to the 
 qualities and force of American ships 
 and sailors. From whatever point 
 of view one conclusion could not be 
 avoided, — superior gunnery had 
 turned the contest against the Eng- 
 lish ship. Still the lieutenant testi- 
 fied affirming the high state of dis- 
 cipline and the constant exercise of 
 the men at the guns. Rapid fire by 
 the United States proved the pro- 
 ficiency of the gunners, and the 
 ship's sides at times seemed sheeted 
 vitli flames so that the Macedonian's 
 
 crew believed for a moment that 
 their guns had set their foe on fire 
 and gave a lusty cheer. The accur- 
 acy also of the rapid firing had pro5f 
 '.n the masts and rigging and partic- 
 ularly that in the Macedonian's sides 
 one hundred holes were bored by 
 shot, and in her adversary only 
 three. 
 
 The United States was a larger 
 vessel, carried five more guns, and 
 many more men, but the damage to 
 the ships and the losses in men were 
 out of all proportion to the differ- 
 ence in equipment. 
 
 A high historical authority weigh- 
 ing causes of the result, finds on one 
 3ide a brave and skillful crew ably 
 commanded; on the other, a brave 
 but unskilled crew and an incompe- 
 ent commander. 
 
 Captain Stephen Decatur received 
 an applauding and spirited ovation 
 in New York when by delays of the 
 winter season in passing through 
 Hell Gate, he only on January 1, 
 reached the city with the victor ves- 
 sel. 
 
 II. An Impressed Seaman of Wool- 
 wich, Me., a Woful Victim 
 
 The tragedy of war on the high 
 seas, narrated in the pre/ious part 
 of this paper, included a minor act, 
 shameful or grievous to the separate 
 persons concerned. 
 
 When the Macedonian sailed from 
 England the declaration oi war was 
 not known, but there was general 
 expectancy intensified by frequent 
 exciting rumors. The crew, w^hat- 
 ever their wishes or fighting inclina- 
 tions, did not know that the actual 
 conflict had begun till they were 
 summoned to take part in it. When 
 the strange vessel was sighted all 
 oyes were turned to it and with in- 
 creased excitement as the ship in 
 full sail was bearing directly upon 
 
20 
 
 SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND 
 
 them, — each sailor saying to his 
 mate, what is she, — what nation, — 
 is she French.- -will there be a 
 fight? 
 
 In the Macedonian's crew had been 
 eight impressed American seamen. 
 Previously one had been accident- 
 ally drowned. These Americans had 
 heard the disquieting reports before 
 sailing and had become well con- 
 vinced of the high probability of war 
 and had discussed the injustice 
 which would involve them in it. Dis- 
 turbing fears were deepened at the 
 view of the unl^nown ship. What she 
 might i)rove to be, if able to tell that 
 the threatened war had begun, or if 
 bringing to the British ship and to 
 them, actual war was a matter of 
 weighty or fateful import in the 
 hour of waiting while the stranger I °f w^'"- ^'^^ ^'^^e left to tell the de- 
 ship drew nigh. When at length her P'orable story in New London, when 
 flags flung out aloft revealed the I ^^^ United States and her prize ar- 
 red, white and blue, they were sure j '■'^^'■' December 9. Two of the 
 it was a challenge of the expected thirty-six dead on the Macedonian 
 
 Plainly there was no escape. The 
 pitiless iron hand of discipline with 
 autocratic power held them. Those 
 men must stand at their posts of 
 duty. No release; no hiding; mid- 
 shipmen were stationed at various 
 gangways with strict orders to shoot 
 any who sought to slip away from 
 their quarters. Cruel necessity drove 
 the dismayed Americans to their 
 several stations to meet demands of 
 abhorred duty. 
 
 The combat came on and its 
 carnage: within an hour that brave 
 seaman who dared such a request 
 was dead on the bloody deck. That 
 man was John Card of Woolwich. 
 
 Another, .lolin Wallis, shared the 
 same tragic fate. Botli had there in 
 the ocean the hasty ignoble burial 
 
 war, and when soon the command 
 rang along the declis, — clear for ac- 
 tion — those seven men knew they 
 wti^ called to fight against their 
 country. A moment of serious con- 
 cern, pregnant with momentous 
 I onsequen es, not simply of personal 
 peril n the fi.'jht, what any seaman 
 could feel, but to manly duty and 
 lienor. With quick matured decis- 
 ion, one of them, called by a young 
 shipmate, "as brave a seaman as 
 ever trod a pl^nk," — went aft to the 
 cnptaln, for himself and in behalf 
 of his males, and made request that 
 they migiit Le relieved from the 
 hour's duty of floihting against their 
 counirMiM'n Capt. Carden savage- 
 
 were Americans forced into the Brit- 
 ish navy, enslaved under her heinous 
 system and victims in her war. 
 A shipmate of John Card, himself 
 English-born, subsequently wrote his 
 opinion. — that act of angry denial 
 by Captain Carden wae more dis- 
 graceful to him than to lose his ship. 
 Indeed so rancorous was 13ritish sen- 
 timent at the time, that probably few 
 commanders would liave done other- 
 wise. 
 
 The Portland privateer Hunter 
 was unluckily soon captured by the 
 sloop-of-war Peacock, which carried 
 away most of tlie Hunter's crew, 
 nrisoners of war. In a few days the 
 U. S. ship Hornet — what suggestive 
 
 ly ordered h ni back to his station, ; names for an ocean duel, — assailed 
 with an o.itli declaring he would the Peacock and by a fiercely vigor- 
 shoot liim if such a request were ous fight of only fourteen minutes, 
 made agriin. However much honor i forced surrender in a sinking condi- 
 and love of country had Impelled the tion. In lad the Peacock so quick- 
 petilion to their coniniander, it had ly sanli as to carry down part of her 
 failed, v. as contemptuously rejected. I craw and two of the boarding party. 
 
NAVAL COMBAT OF FRIGATES 
 
 21 
 
 On the Peacock were two impressed 
 men who before the combat requested 
 to be allowed to go below and be 
 prisoners with the men of the Hun- 
 ter. It was denied and they were 
 forced to duty. One was killed in 
 the action. 
 
 The Mecedonlan instance was cir- 
 cumstantial and made definite by full 
 records and therefore obtained Avider 
 notice. Among the papers of the 
 captured frigate were the muster- 
 rolls of the crew, the several entries 
 respecting each man. For the eight 
 impressed men, the records were 
 copied and set forth in tabular form 
 and can be found in some of the 
 newspajpers then eagerly exploiting 
 the notable victory. The entries for 
 the Woolwich seaman stand thus: 
 (Date of Entry) (Impressed) 
 
 April 13, IS 11 North Star 
 
 (Name) (Rated) (D.D.) 
 
 John Card Able Seaman ? 
 
 (Age) (Nation) 
 
 27 American 
 
 Responding to the request for in- 
 formation, a brother sent a state- 
 ment to the Boston Patriot, which 
 was published in March, 1813. 
 
 << * * * J j^Q^ inform you that 
 my brother John Card of Woolwich 
 in the District of Maine, was pressed 
 on board His Majesty's frigate Mace- 
 donian, June IG, 1810, from the 
 ship Mount Hope of Wiscasset, and 
 was killed on the Macedonian in 
 battle with the United States, Cap- 
 tain Decatur. 
 
 "A disconsolate wife and jhild 
 are in mourning and sorrow for the 
 loss of husband and parent on whom 
 they were dependent. 
 
 "JOSEPH CARD." 
 
 It appears that Card sailed from 
 Maine in a vessel of Wiscasset, 
 whose fine harbor, a half dozen 
 miles from his home made it a sea- 
 port then of large importance, and 
 somewhere on the voyage he was im- 
 
 pressed by the British North Star, 
 and on that ship or transferred to an- 
 other he was retained till the fol- 
 lowing April, when he was entered 
 on the Macedonian. 
 
 His ship mate, John W-^llis, who 
 was likewise killed had l;een im- 
 pressed by the ship Tritf^n, ?'nd was 
 entered on the Macedou'sn in Febru- 
 ary, 1810. He was 24 years of age, 
 but I have learned no more of him. 
 The name Wallis, — now us'.'aily Wal- 
 lace, — was then borne by numerous 
 inhabitants of Phippcburgr. and it is 
 very possible that he had belonged in 
 that town. 
 
 John Card was the son of Daniel, 
 a son of Winchester Card who mi- 
 grated from York to WoolT^'i'^h v^ry 
 early in the settlement, and was the 
 progenitor of numerous families, 
 some of which are still residents. 
 People of the town and many in Bath 
 knew Henry A. Card of NpT'a=set, 
 who died four years ago, a lifelong 
 resident on the original Card firm. 
 His father, Thomas, was a cousin to 
 the impressed seaman. John Card 
 was born in March, 1783, and at 
 death was twenty-nine years and 
 nearly eight months of age. He mar- 
 ried Elizabeth Reed. A little daugh- 
 ter, Eunice, three years old, was left 
 to the bereaved mother. 
 
 One such bereavement in a Kenne- 
 bec town would be esteemed Insig- 
 nificant but it must be rep'^esentative 
 of many when wives an;l mothers 
 mourned their lost. If in 1812 there 
 were 6257 impressed men registered 
 at Washington, and a reasonable be- 
 lief that twice as many were unre- 
 ported in British ships abroad and 
 though some thousands were later 
 sent from the decks to prison-ships, 
 many must have lost their lives "in all 
 the encounters at sea. 
 
 If John Surnam Carden was a 
 stern commander, a rigorous marti- 
 net of the quarterdeck, his severity 
 
77 
 
 SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND 
 
 was aided by his lieutenant. David 
 Hope. One side of this officer's 
 character appeared when the chag- 
 rined Garden in desperate plight pro- 
 posed surrender; the lieutenant re- 
 sisted and urged to fight on to the 
 last shot and to sinlv, a reckless offi- 
 cer who answering a base sentiment 
 of war would carry down :'.0 men to 
 a needless death rather than to ad- 
 mit defeat, so heartless as properly 
 to be put into the human bulldog 
 class. His galling treatment of his 
 men provoked ill-will, and when in 
 the fight a junior officer fell dead, it 
 is told that not one in the crew but 
 wished the shot had struck David j 
 Hope. 
 
 He likewise was the unnamed offi- 
 cer in a former paper — the grin- 
 ning superintendent of the flogging I 
 shrouds who got fiendish enjoyment, 
 from the swing of the knotted cat. 
 It was Hope who stood by to direct 
 upon the back of a petty thief, 
 though intentional theft had been 
 vainly denied, the 220 lashes till the 
 surgeon called a halt and when the 
 victim had partly recovered, it was 
 this very Garden who called him 
 from the hospital to receive the re- 
 maining 80 lashes of ' the ordered 
 SOU, and then sent the poor fellow 
 to a year in prison to bear the last 
 jot of the wicked sentence. 
 
 Fnder such officers — should I bo 
 allowed to call them tyrants of the 
 British navy?— did .John Gard of 
 Woolwich serve eighteen months, 
 performing the duty of "able sea- 
 man." Whatever insolence he may 
 have suffered, what hardships fas- 
 tened on him by a tyrant's contempt 
 he endured, yet bearing characteris- 
 tics of the Card family as we will 
 l)eIieTe. he was always a true seaman 
 and under compulsion of injustice 
 was obedient to duty. Other similar 
 years were probably before him. — 
 thirteen, eighteen, some impressed. 
 
 men were held — when in unwilling 
 war against his countrymen, sud- 
 denly he obtained full discharge. 
 
 Ml. Ileview and Suininary 
 
 Two instances of active operations 
 on the sea during the conflict of the 
 United States with England have 
 Deen reviewed. Xo full narration of 
 incidents seemed desirable: no need 
 to rewrite details of naval strategy, 
 oroadsides, shot-raked decks, com- 
 parative honors to victors or van- 
 quished. 
 
 Still existing accounts invited ex- 
 amination or allowed enlargement by 
 details or new materials to assure 
 clearness or precision. Also the en- 
 gagements had close relations with 
 other matters of history; were grim 
 products of former conditions or re- 
 flected public aims and policy. 
 
 Such reasons selected them for 
 consideration, not simply because 
 they were notable events of the war, 
 or should be esteemed brilliant vic- 
 tories, as if any action could be right- 
 ly called brilliant which was neces- 
 sarily joined with the wrecking of 
 human life. 
 
 some iwo score years ago the name 
 of .lohn Card and his fate were en- 
 tered in my notebooks. l)ut reasons 
 why he was on a British ship and 
 what the manner of his death couli 
 not be conveniently investigated till 
 within a year. His story whatever is 
 known has been given. He in his death 
 under compulsory service to a for- 
 eign and hostile nation, and others 
 similarly fated were bloody accusers 
 of a pernicious ^policy. 
 
 More than merely the man. one 
 seaman of Nequasset." though many 
 similar victims induced studious re- 
 gard: their environment, the enmesh- 
 ing net of irresponsible power, the 
 thrall of real slavery in which they 
 were forced to live and some to meet 
 
NAVAL COMBAT OF FRIGATES 
 
 2S 
 
 death, those decades of the nation's 
 history signalized by irritating in- 
 justice and frequent inhumanity 
 were impelling facts seeming to de- 
 mand treatment and public presenta- 
 tion so as to offer instruction to any 
 uninformed, especially the young of 
 this opening century. 
 
 In narrowed and local view, 
 around John Card of Woolwich, one 
 might feel, revolved all those dishon- 
 orable deeds persistently continued 
 against remonstrance for forty yeara, 
 which exasperated the people and 
 held chief place among the causes 
 which drove the United States into 
 war. If the characterization has 
 been severe, the facts were knavish 
 and abhorrent. 
 
 Later information adds two in- 
 stances of Woolwich men. Samuel 
 Reed, Jr., a well known shipmaster, 
 active in the first half of the last 
 century was seized, evidently by a 
 pressgang, in Liverpool. His protec- 
 tion was so well certified that it was 
 respected and he was released. 
 
 John Curtis, 3rd, it is told, was 
 impressed, but of the date and time 
 of service or release I obtain noth- 
 ing. He was less than twenty years 
 of age and died at St. Thomas in 
 1817. 
 
 Two encounters have been re- 
 viewed of the young nation's war- 
 ships with its foe, both eminent for 
 success, naval actions renowned in 
 history, conferring prestige on its 
 weak navy, on its commanders and 
 men. However heartening and ap- 
 plauded, they must not be allowed to 
 obscure other instances of defeat ani 
 stinging disaster. No lists on either 
 side, the numbers of the fortunate 
 or the calamitous can be permitted 
 here. 
 
 At the opening of the war Great 
 Britain had in the various class<>s. 
 1048 war vessels in all seas. The 
 United States had 20 carrying 12 to 
 
 4 4 guns, .\et of the beggarly number 
 by a shaming government policy, 
 three were unfit for the open sea. In 
 comparison the men were 151,572 to 
 5,025, and the guns 27,800 to 442. 
 On this side of the Atlantic from 
 Halifax to the West Indies, England 
 had seven times the armament of the 
 United States. 
 
 It seemed daring or reckless to 
 enter on war with such disparity of 
 force, though military operations on 
 the northern border supported an ap- 
 pearance of equality and the hope of 
 success, but in result were more dis- 
 a.ppointing than propitious. In a lit- 
 tle time exploits on the high seas 
 served to prove to American sailors 
 that ship against ship they would not 
 fear to render good acco\int of them- 
 selves. So early as August in the 
 first year, the brilliant fight of the 
 Constitution with the Guerriere gave 
 them self-confidence in place of 
 shrinking. Of that action, two hours 
 at the outmost and but thirty minutes 
 of close fighting until the British 
 vessel became a dismasted defence- 
 less hulk, a writer remarked, — "A 
 small affair among the world's bat- 
 tles, only a half-hour, but in that one 
 half-hour the United States rose to 
 the rank of a first class world power." 
 
 The weak navy wonderfully grew, 
 and in three years was nearly four- 
 fold its original strength. But also 
 privateers made a telling score for 
 the cause. About 250 had license 
 and almost swept British merchant- 
 men from the sea. An estimate num- 
 bers 1600 of them captured by both 
 classes of armed craft. A careful 
 and thorough study of the whole war 
 by an esteemed author estimates the 
 entire loss by ocean cruisers, for the 
 Americans, 5984 tons and 2 78 guns, 
 for the British 8451 tons and 351 
 guns: also asserting there can be no 
 question which side obtained the 
 greatest credit, and never had a na- 
 
24 
 
 SECOND WAR WITH ENCLAND 
 
 tion gainud so much honor by a few 
 single-ship duels. By the same 
 author's estimate the damage on the 
 whole inflicted on each other was 
 not very unequal but clearly the bal- 
 ance was in favor of the United 
 States. 
 
 Nevertheless when the terms of the 
 treaty were determined late in De- 
 cember, the London Times with a 
 very bitter taste in its mouth made 
 a doleful confession, "We have re- 
 tired from the combat with stripes 
 bleeding on our back. Scarcely an 
 American ship which has not to 
 boast victory over the British flag. 
 Scarcely one British ship in thirty to 
 forty, that has beaten an American. 
 We retire from the conflict when the 
 balance of defeat is so heavy against 
 us." At the time of such a dis- 
 consolate utterance, four more not- 
 able victories by American ships had 
 not been reported in Ix)ndon. 
 
 The little American navy starte 1 
 out with a dozen and a half fighting 
 craft and in two years achieved more 
 than England's bulky force. But the 
 land forces gained little honor on the 
 v/hole and their campaigning was 
 little above failure, mainly saved 
 from disgrace by the apijlauded suc- 
 cess at Plattsburg and the final dra- 
 matic battle of Xew Orleans. Even 
 that could not have been entered on 
 the credit side if swift steamships 
 or telegraph had existed for news of 
 the treaty was then hastening over 
 the ocean. 
 
 It Is believed that the ruinous ac- 
 tivity of privateers upon England's 
 commerce greatly hastened her readi- 
 ness to make peace. The actual ad- 
 vantage to either nation. England's 
 losses excepted, and our own as well. 
 
 was too slight to call off the game, 
 but the people on both sides were 
 tired of the conflict and were anx- 
 ious to have it ended on any fair 
 terms. One historian regards the 
 treaty as little more than a mutual 
 agreement to stop the war. Neither 
 gained what had been boldly avowed 
 at the outset would and must be se- 
 cured. Demands at first made by 
 each were withdrawn. No territory 
 was yielded, several important mat- 
 ters and wide differences were put 
 over to a future time. 
 
 On the part of the United States 
 its commissioners discerned in early 
 negotiations that one chief conten- 
 tion, impressment, could not be 
 pushed to its full relinquishment 
 'without imperiling the treaty, and it 
 was therefore politic and wise to yield 
 it, and it was dropped, while there 
 was a belief gained by exchange of 
 opinions, reaching virtuallv to an un- 
 derstanding, that because of new 
 conditions evidently arising the prac- 
 tice would cease. It did at once dis- 
 appear for British belittling tending 
 to frequent contempt had changed 
 to wholesome respect, which extend- 
 ed further since "the nations began 
 to realize that America was a rising 
 giant and demanded their respect." 
 England's monopoly of the sea was 
 broken: our seamen gained full 
 sense of indei)endence and the nation 
 most fully by a real separation. 
 
 If friendship, that plant of slow 
 growth, was not at once assured, a 
 century has .proved its secure hold 
 with mutual aims and sympathy fos- 
 tering existing peace between the two 
 people, prophetic of the times when 
 in all the world wars shall be no 
 more. 
 
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