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 1 
 
 GEORGE BAN CROFT, 
 
 SECRETARY OF THE NAVY, 
 
 i THE 
 
 TRADICER AND EILOGIST 
 
 OF 
 
 ♦ GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 WASHINGTON. 
 1846. 
 
■3%Hz 
 
 TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 It is thought best, as a suitable method of informing the people generally of the 
 character of the present Secretary of the Navy, to republish in pamphlet form 
 three numbers which have appeared in the Baltimore Patriot, addressed to that 
 conspicious functionary. The facts asserted in those papers will be found, upon 
 investigation, to be susceptible of the clearest proof. 
 
 Washington, March 12, 1846. 
 
TO 
 
 GEORGE BANCROFT, 
 
 Secretary of the N'avjj, and '■'■the historian of his country. ^^ 
 
 [No. 1.] 
 Sir: 
 
 . An old co-laborer of yours in the Whig cause designs to address you 
 occasionally upon sundry subjects, which may prove to be of some concern- 
 ment to the public. I need not inform you wbo I am, further than to state 
 that a baker's dozen of years ago you and I were members of Massachusetts 
 whig Conventions, denouncing General Jackson and his Administration as 
 cordially and as ardently as one of your present political friends, who, on a 
 recent solemn occasion exclaimed to you in the presence of many high func- 
 tionaries, '■'•Bancroft, yoiCr a d d humhvgV once predicted that Jack- 
 son's election to the Presidency vrould prove " a curse to the country." 
 
 Ever since the lime I allude to, when we were attendini:;- Whis: conven- 
 tions together,! have remained a Whig: ?/o?^ have not. Do you know that I 
 then had mj^ doubts as to your political honesty? Do you know that I thought 
 your terrible denunciations of the Jackson Administration were of a mechanical 
 nature, with polished exterior but void of heart and s('ul,and made up and 
 dealt forth with ulterior views? Do you know that when I some tiuie since 
 read your Jackson Eulogy, I thouglit it very prettily executed and varnished, 
 but was forcibly reminded that it contained no more heart or soul than did 
 yorn- old denunciations of the same distinguished individual? 
 
 You will recollect that, not long after the promulgation of those denuncia- 
 tions, the cloven foot was exhibited in your vehement aspirations which you 
 could not, or did noi choose to, conceal, to get nominated for (congress by 
 the Whig Con\ention of the District in which you resided ! That Conven- 
 tion knew that you were mjpopular, on account of your ridiculously assumed 
 aristocratic manners, and that your claims to such a nomination were of 
 "no account," and hence you were not nominated. You were deeply offend- 
 ed — you meditated desertion — and you gave out hints of that ilk! The 
 Boston Atlas saw your bent, and without giving you time to desert, fairly 
 lashed you out of the Whig ranks and into those of Locofocoism ! In time you 
 were made Collector of the Port of Boston — and a better party tool Van Bu- 
 renism perhaps never before had found. While Collector you were appoint- 
 ed, by the Secretary of the Treasury, one of the Commissioners to Superin- 
 tend the erection of the new Custom-house at Boston, and expressly informed 
 you that for this service no compensation would be allowed to the Collector. 
 
Your predecessor, Mr. Hensliaw,had neither charged nor received compen- 
 sation for the same service. Nevertheless after the election of Gen. Harri- 
 son to the Presidenc}-, and the appointment of Levi Lincoln as Collector of 
 of Boston, )'ou claimed and finally obtained compensation as Connnissioner, 
 in addition to what you received as Collector. The books of the Treasury 
 Department show this. » 
 
 I come now. Sir, to an examination of sundry points in your course since 
 you have been at the head of the Navy Department. Some of your news- 
 paper friends, who seem to know pretty well when, where and whom to 
 flatter, have been attempting to manufacture credit for you, on the score of 
 economy, for having removed Gen. McNeill from the Brooklyn Establish- 
 ment, whose salary was $;4U0O. liCt us see. Mr. Sanger was placed at the 
 head of the work at a salary of $31)00. But soon after this, at tlie earnest 
 representations of the Van Buren, Wright and Butler clique, that [x politician 
 must be appointed to that station, as the only means of carrying the District, 
 and in obedience to a visit from ex- Congressman Murphy and others, to the 
 sam^purport and for the same object, did 3^ou not order Sanger off to Pensa- 
 cola and appoint Mr. McAlpin, the politician, to the station ? Did not Sanger 
 proceed to Washington and while remaining there, w^as it not ascertained 
 that McAlpin was not competent to superintend the work ? Was not Sanger 
 thereupon sent back to Brooklyn at his former salary of !j^3000, and McAlpin 
 appointed his assistant at a salary of ^2500 ? Call you this economy ? 
 
 Another illustration of your economy, Sir, will be found in the manner in 
 which your eminenl p)'acticalknouiledg'e has caused the steamer Ti'^'a^er Witch 
 to be operated upon. That little craft, as is well known, was built at the Wash- 
 ington yard, of iron, on Hunter's Plan, for a Tank to take water from the Dis- 
 mal Swamp to national vessels going to sea, and to tow vessels from Hampton 
 Roads up^ to the Navy Yard at Norfolk or elsewhere. For this last service she 
 was found to possess adequate power, but drew too much water when ful- 
 ly freighted, to come out of the Canal. This, as you know, or might know, 
 could have been easily remedied by means of a suction-pipe. But no, the De- 
 partment must needs proceed on a more splendid scale of economy! Lieut. 
 Hunter had been a little tinctured with Tylcrisjn ! He nuist be hit, and Capt. 
 Loper, his rival in propellers, nuist be exalted! Thought you not so, Mr, 
 Secretary? At all hazards, the Water Witch \WiX.s doomed to exchange pro- 
 pellers ! An estimate was made, and Capt. Loper thought the thing could be 
 done for ,^9,000. She was sent to Philadephia, where forty feet were added 
 to her length, and a Loper propeller put on her, at an expense of ;I^17,000. 
 Officers were then put on board of her, and she was ordered to Norfolk ! 
 She arrived at that port, and, as you know, the officer in command reported 
 hex uiffit for service ! The officers have been transferred to i\\e Phoenix^ 
 and the Water Witch is laid up ! Oh, Economy ! thy personification is 
 named George Bancroft! 
 
 Sir, shall I allude to your treatment of Dr. Brown, the Chief Clerk of the 
 Department during the first part of your Secretaryship? You wanted 
 another man in his place, and you knew very well how to treat so high-min- 
 ded and sensitive a gentleman, as the readiest means of effecting his resig- 
 nation. He did resign. Yoiu' favorite not being ready for the place, you 
 appointed Mr. Homans Acting Chief Clerk. For this you where laughed 
 at, as Mr. Homans was a Whig! Did you not, after ascertaining this fact, 
 take ^300 from Mr. Homans' salary, and add the same amount to that of 
 
Mr. Ames, who had accideiitally proclaimed publicly that " George Ban- 
 croft was the greatest man extant '\? Did you not decline recognizing or 
 speaking to Dr. Brown ? and in reply to a civil question from him, as to the 
 cause of the change in your bearing, did you not, in your own peculiar man- 
 ner, observe that you had die right to choose your own acquaintances ?) Mr. 
 Homans has a family ; Mr. Ames is a single man. I make mention of these 
 little things because the man 1 address can sometimes stoop to them. 
 
 And now, Sir, I will allude to another matter. It relates to the dismissal 
 and the appointment of a Purser in the Navy. Is there not in Washington 
 a gendeman formerly from die West, who is an applicant for a Purseiship 
 in the Navy, and who is strongly recommended by Western gentlemen? 
 And has not that applicant been j^rojuised the first vacancy that occurred in 
 the Purserships ? And yet, have not you and your present Chief Clerk all die 
 time been willing to set this Western applicant's claims aside, in favor of a 
 citizen of Maine? If not, why did you inform President Polk, when you 
 recently visited him to get the Maine gentleman appointed to the vacancy 
 just created by the abrupt dismissal of Purser Jolin N. Todd, tliat there 
 was no applicant from the West for a Pursership ? And why were this same 
 Western applicant's papers ticice displaced or put out of die way, so that 
 the President might be deceived upon the subject? Is not the President 
 dissatisfied about the matter? If not, why is not the new appointment ofii- 
 cially announced? 
 
 Sir, you are in bad odor! The President is said to suspect you, and the 
 official editor, no doubt, was more in earnest than he now pretends, when 
 he proclaimed that you were a " humbug." 
 
 And now allow me to close this number of the series of papers which I 
 contemplate addressing to you at my leisure, by assuring you that a Locofo- 
 co Senator of the United Slates recently passed through Baltimore, who 
 does not love you by any means. To a friend, that Senator emphaUcally 
 re-marked, that you were not even fit to be a Schoolmaster; that you lacked 
 veracit}- ; that you had told him one or two stories a short lime ago ; and, 
 finally, said he, " Sir, the Navy will suffer very much just so long as Mr. 
 Bancroft is at the head of it. Congress can place no confidence in his pro- 
 jects or suggestions- " 
 
 NORTHAMPTON. 
 
 [ No. 2. ] 
 
 Sir:. After considerable delay, I resume my attentions to you. I make no 
 apology for so doing. You are a public man, at the head of one of the 
 People's most honorable offices, and have essa}- ed to make yourself, if not 
 popular, at least conspicuous. I, therefore, as a freeman, claim the right to 
 scrutinize your acts. You profess to be a modern " democrat," the friend of 
 econoyny and retrenchment in the adminstration of the Government, and of 
 equal rights and fair dealing as between mian and man ! As a Whig, Sir, I 
 shall endeavor to exhibit, in very plain and direct ternis, how well your acts 
 square with your professions ! 
 
 That you are learned man, if not indeed what your friend Marcus Mar- 
 ton avers that C. C. Hazeivell called you, to wit, " a learned monkey ^ " I 
 have no disposition to deny. You have been a hard student. You have been, 
 
and no doubt still are, ambitious to be known to tlie world as a great reader 
 and an author of celebrity. For this^;er ^e I respect you. As nuich as 
 any one, I honor tlie aiistocracy of talent, when bent in an honest direction. 
 
 But, Sir, have your talents been bent in such a direction ? While yet a 
 young man, you sighed to leave the schoolastic shades which encompassed 
 you, and to become a poHtician. You were a Federalist. You turned 
 Whig. Tiien having become soured from what you deemed neglect, you 
 turned towards political anlimasonry ! Next you became a half-and-half 
 Abolitionist and Locofoco. And there, having obtained your reward, in the 
 honors and emoluments of the best office in New England — the Boston Col- 
 lectorship — you have remained, with occasional spasmodic efibrts to shake 
 off your quasi abolitionism ! 
 
 You had commenced writing the history of your country. The com- 
 mencement was highly credital)le. What you wrote concerning the cele- 
 brated Charter of Rhode Island was conceived in wisdom and impartiality, 
 and received the approbation of all candid readers. At the time you penned 
 the passages, it is presumed, you saw no prospective inducements to veer 
 from the high and honorable thoroughfare of truth. But, Sir, the tide in 
 the affairs of "modern democracy" took a sudden turn. The infamous 
 Dorr rebellion heaved itself up from the bottom of iniquity to its surface, 
 and the party to which you had attached yourself made common cause 
 with it. The friends of law and order quoted you and your history, as 
 liocofoco authority for denouncinsr the rebellionists! What followed? In 
 a new edition of your work, you qualified, explained, recanted and took 
 back what you had honestly written, and thereby fortified yourself against 
 all attempts to read you out of your party, for that one honest act of your 
 life! Benjamin F. Butler, who desired so ardendy the stated preaching of 
 the gospel at Sandy Hill, changed his official opinion, as Attorney General 
 of the United States, in regard to the location of the Washington terminus 
 of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, to meet the wishes, and in compliance 
 with the re<juest of General Jackson. You changed your historij of the 
 Rhode Island Charter to conform to the progressive views of the advocates 
 of Dorrisni ! 
 
 Sir, you were, by a curious combination of circumstances, made Secre- 
 tary of the American Navy! And how, in that capacity, have you demean- 
 ed yourself! You had heard, unquestionably, that there were abuses in 
 that right-arm of the national defence, and far be it from me to denounce 
 an honest ambition to olitain public cdat by attempts to correct those abuses I 
 
 But, Sir, how and by whom should such a step be taken? Modestly, by 
 one who had first made himself a complete master of the defects in and the 
 wants of the Navy? Or abruptly, by a verdant gentleman fresh from his 
 books, with but a limited knowledge of human nature, and the most super- 
 ficial acquaintance imaginable with the true character of that Navy? 
 Should love of Patriotism or hatred of Tylerism govern a Secretary in 
 matters of so grave a nature? 
 
 Sir, I shall lake the liberty to allude in this communication, as I allud- 
 ed in the former one. which it gave me pleasure to address to you, to some 
 of your little acts^ by way of burnishers to your character " in the ab- 
 stract." You cannot have forgotten one of the first acts you performed on 
 assuming the high responsibilities of your present station. You found a 
 portrait of John Tyler hanging up in the Secretary's Room of the Navy 
 
Deptirtment. You ordered the Messenger to lake it out, and to put Mr. 
 Van Bineu's in its place. This was done. Tlie splenetic and u)tQ;ratcful 
 act — though Heaven knows John Tyler deserved the treatment he received, 
 but not at tiie hands of .Tames K. Polk and those whom his election exalted 
 — got ihto the newspapers. Mr. Ritchie, of the " Union," called to see you 
 on the subject and to gather materials for a contradiction of the statement! 
 Sir, did you not take the innocent old gentleman into the room of your 
 chief clerk, and, pointing to Tyler's picture, say " there, you see / had it 
 hung up ill the most conspicuous place here^ where there was another pic- 
 ture of Mr. Tyler already! Instead of one portrait, here are two of him!" 
 And is it not the trutli that you never ordered, or directed, Mr. Tyler's por- 
 trait that hung in your room to be placed in that of the chief clerk? Is it 
 woitrue that Mr. Brown, who was then the chief clerk, seeing the said por- 
 trait turned down in the ante-room, where the Messenger had placed it, took 
 the picture, of his oxen volition, and hung it up in the room which he occu- 
 pied ? 
 
 Sir, truth is an element which will bear the man onward and upward who 
 implicitly stands by it. A resort to falsehood, direct or implied — there being 
 no essential difference between the suggcstio falsi and the suppi'essio veri — 
 loses to any uian the confidence of his fellow men. Mr. Ritchie, on a sub- 
 sequent, solemn occasion — or which was designed and planned to be solemn 
 — and when his air, manner and words contrasted shockingly. with the put- 
 on habiliments of mourning all about him, gave you, as you remember, that 
 
 characteristic salutation, '■'■Ah, Bancroft, yoii'r a d d hunibiigP^ He 
 
 may have meant more than his words, at the moment, seemed to imply. 
 You had humbugged him about Tyler's picture, and caused him to parade 
 in his paper a denial of a charge that was true — and you knew it! 
 
 Sir, what next did you do to distinguish yourself as a Secretary of the 
 Navy? You had doubtless heard and read of severities in the service, of 
 abuses, and of suggestions of reform, and no doubt conceived the idea of at 
 once exalting yourself in the annals of fame by a grand attempt to correct 
 those abuses and at the same time to make a display of your newly acquired 
 power ! 
 
 Luckily, or othenvise, the case of Capt. Voorhees presented itself. A 
 Norfolk paper, of your politics, harped severely upon it. The United States 
 Journal, then your eulogist, did (he same. A son of Francis P. Blair, who 
 was an oflicer on board of the Congress, had an interview with you, either 
 by your seeking or his own, and denounced Capt. Voorhees, his command- 
 ing officer, in immeasured terms. You ordered that the Captain should be 
 tried by a Court Martial. You named the officers to compose the Court. 
 The occasion enabled you to give a very lucrative business and some promi- 
 nence to Benj. F. Hallett, of Boston, a turncoat political adventurer, like 
 yourself, who was balancing between the two factions of your party in Mas- 
 sachusetts and coveted at the time by both, which no doubt resulted in bind- 
 ing him most firmly to your fortunes — until he can do better by attaching 
 himself to some one else! You appointed him Judge Advocate. 
 
 The law requires the Department, when it directs an officer to be court- 
 martialed, to make out all the charges and specifications it has against him, 
 and furnish him with a copy of the same. Sir, what was your conduct 
 in this whole business ? You had Capt. Voorhees tried — and the trial was 
 
a long one — upon charges preferred against him for his conduct in (he river 
 La Plata, in disavowing the blockade of Montevideo which Commodore 
 Turner, who commanded the squadron to which the Congress belonged, had 
 recognized. While this trial was going on, did you not send for young 
 Blair, or go to him, knowing that he was vindictive towards Capt. Voorhees, 
 and obtain from him information with a view to have your victim tried by 
 a second Court Martial, which would greatly protract Mr. Hallett's lucrative 
 employment as Judge Advocate, and not materially economise the public 
 expenditures! 
 
 Did you not, while the first court martial was going on, and feeling, for 
 the time, that to try a man twice in this manner would not be law but jjer- 
 secution^^Tp])\y to Mr. Hallett to ask Capt. Voorhees' consent to be tried up- 
 on some chaiges, in relation to taking the Congress to Annapolis before re- 
 pairing to Norfolk, which you knew that Commodores Stewart and Ridgely, 
 on the first court, would have thrown out if offered ? 
 
 Did you not order a second Court Martial, leaving out Commodores 
 Stewart and Ridgely, and naming Commodore Downes as its President, to 
 try Captain Voorhees upon charges within your knowledge before the first 
 court was held ? And why, after you had testified under oath before the 
 second court, as to the time of your knowledge of the various charges against 
 the accused, and Mr. Blair was called upon (o state at ii-Ji.at time he held a 
 particular conversation with you relative to Capt. Voorhees' conduct, why 
 did die Judge Advocate of your appointing so pertinaciously object to the 
 interrogatory and ask if it had been put to elicit from the witness's testimony 
 a contradiction of that which you had previously given? There was some- 
 thing in this matter tliat looked squally for your reputation. It looked as if 
 the Judge Advocate, out of good will for the man who had given him the 
 place he filled, and (he court, out of respect for the head of the Navy, felt 
 bound to screen you! 
 
 Well, sir, the second Court Martial at length got through with its arduous 
 labors, and its judgment was, Uiat Capt. Philip F. Voorhees "6e suspend- 
 ed for the term of eighteen months.-'' The gallant Captain had now 
 been tried a second time, to suit the arbitrary and illegal direction of the 
 Department. He had been tried by his peers who had carefidly examined, 
 during the twenty days the Court was in session, all the charges against him 
 and all the evidence in the case. The verdict was deliberately made up 
 and rendered upon the high honors of the officers who composed the court. 
 ^Severe as it was, for the trifling, insignificant, trumped-up charges against 
 the accused, it should have been final. But you willed that it should be 
 'Otherwise. Like your ancient prototype as drawn by Shakspeare, in die 
 Merchant of Venice, you exclaimed, "/ am Sir Oracle, and when I ope 
 Q7iy lips, let no dog bark /" You complained of the sentence of the court — 
 a court of your own selection, with a President named by yourself and 
 known to be opposed to the accused — and declared that the punishment, 
 awarded to Captain Voorhees by his peers, by old and experienced oflicers 
 ■of the Navy who ouglii to know die laws and discipline in relation thereto, 
 was "inadequate," 
 
 Yes, Sir, you, a mere stripling in knowledge of the naval service, just from 
 your books, and but three months in the Department, had the unblush- 
 ing presumption to dictate to such oflicers in the Navy as Downes, Cas- 
 
SIN, Ballard, Kearney, Storer, Geisinger, McCauley, Stringham 
 and Forrest in the matter of trying and sentencing by Court Martial a 
 Captain in the Navy! One is amazed at your audacity ! Nor does any 
 thing short of amazement follow the painful intelligence, that the Court, in- 
 stead of proudly rebuking your unequalled presumption and condemning 
 your illegal and unprecedented persecution of a gallant officer for a trifling 
 error of judgment, obediently followed your dictation! I say this of that. 
 " Court of Honor " in sorrow. You ordered the court to re-assemble, not 
 at Coleman's, in Washington, wdiere it and the former Court had been held, 
 but on board the North Carolina, at New York, for the purpose of revising 
 its decision. It did re-assemble, and, without passing a shade of rebuke 
 upon the arrogance of power, that would make said Court eat its own de- 
 cision, it recalled its former sentence, which so much displeased you, Sir, 
 and then sentenced Ca])tain Voorhees '■'■to be dismissed fro7ii the Navy of' 
 the United States.''^ As a* sort of salvo, the Court recommended the ac- 
 cused to the mitigating power of the Executive, on account of his past valu- 
 able services to his country, and his integrity of character — and the Presi- 
 dent thereupon changed the sentence to susjjension of duty, without pay 
 or emolument, for five years ! 
 
 Sir, when before has there occurred such a disgraceful and scandalous 
 proceeding? If this concentration and aggrandisement of power in the 
 Executive of the Nation, in the President and Heads of Department, is to 
 go on, what will our boasted freedom from tyranny be worth ! Is this a 
 speciuicn of your vaunted '■'■democracy,'''' Sir, that allows a Head of Depart- 
 ment to select a Court Marshal to try an officer; and then, if the verdict 
 does not happen to suit that self sufficient Head of Department, to order the 
 finding of one that v/ill ? Why go through the solenm mockery of a 
 Court Martial, at ail, if the judgment of the Head of Department that con- 
 venes it, and not that of the Court, is to be finall}' rendered ? 
 
 But to its honor and justice be it spoken, this state of things does not ex- 
 ist in the Military Department of the Government, Allow me to direct 
 your attention Sir, to the case of Lieut. Don Carlos Buell, of the 3d In- 
 fantry. [Senate Documents, 2Sth Con. 1st session, 2 vol.] Mr. Buell was 
 tried by a Court Martial at Jefferson Barracks, in June, 1843, upon a charge 
 of unojficcrlike conduct, in striking a Private with a sword, was found not 
 guilty and honorably acquitted. This decision did not meet the wishes of 
 the Connnanding General, who ordered the Court to re-assemble for the 
 purpose of reconsidering its decision, and to show upon what authority of 
 laio or orders it justifietl the accused in taking from the guard house and 
 striking with his sicord a soldier! The Court did re-assemble, and after 
 a careful re-examination of its proceedings adhered to its former decis- 
 ion. In its defence it said, that the Rules and Articles of War no where 
 gave authority to cmy ojjicer to demand from a Court Martial reasons for its 
 decisions, still less to dictate what its decisions " must be," in any case.. 
 The defence continues : " In the remaiks with which the case of Lieuten- 
 ant Buell is returned for reconsideration to the Court, the Court is required , 
 first, to state the grounds of its decision ; and, secondly, it is informed that 
 ' it must be the duty of the Court ' to pronounce a different one. Such a 
 course seems clearly at variance with the whole intent and meaning of Ar- 
 ticle 72d, above referred to; (requiring the youngest officer of the Court 
 to give his vote first, to protect Courts Martial against the influence of rank 
 
8 
 
 and to secure decisions unbiassed by the fear of displeasing superiors in au- 
 thority) and, indeed, to destroy the very existence of tlie Court as an inde- 
 pendent tribunal, acting under the sacred responsibility of an oath. " 
 
 Strong attempts were made by the Commanding General to induce this 
 Cotut to revise and cbange its sentence — but without success. The blandish- 
 ments of power and the fear of displeasing sujieriors in authority, combined, 
 had no efiect upon the officers composing the Court, who felt that they had 
 done their duty under the sanctity of an oath! 
 
 Sir, this number of the series of papers I design addressing to you is long- 
 er^than I intended it to be. In my next, I shall refer to sundry statements 
 in your Report recently transmitted to Congress, which are not true, and 
 therefore calculated, if not designed, to mislead tlie publice mind. I shall 
 also refer to your wholesale crusade against the old lighting Commodores, 
 who are yet hale and able-bodied, the Pursers, and officers of the Marine 
 Corps, and perhaps hint at some of the reasons, which have impelled you 
 to assume such a position towaids them. The manner, and for what ser- 
 vice, you have retained, or salaried, certain clerks in the Navy Depart- 
 ment, and dismissed certain other clerks, as well as sundry operations in the 
 matter of contracts, will be duly noticed. Meantime a voire saute. 
 
 NORTHAMPTON. 
 
 [ No. 3. ] 
 
 Sir : My inclination prompts and my leisure permits me to again address 
 you. And in the outset of this number you must consent to be once more re- 
 minded of the time when you, as a rabid Whig, denounced the Administration 
 of Andreav JacivSon in stronger terms, perhaps, than I use in denouncing 
 the head of one of the Departments of the present Administration. These 
 old reminiscences may ruffle your equanimity of temper a liule, but what 
 of it? Tliey will serve to show others what you Itcwe been! It is said 
 that yoiu" fiiend, President PolKj when a candidate on the stump for Gfover- 
 nor of Tennessee, used to take 'great delight in exhibiting to his audience 
 a bundle of papers, and exclaiming as he would open them and look witli 
 a terrible grin at his competitor, " Old (Jocumcnts are danger-mis things!'' 
 
 Sir, in an old document called the " Northampton Courier" and dat,ed in 
 October, 1832, you may find an account of the proceedings of a Whig County 
 Convention at Northampton, Massachusetts, at which you and others where 
 appointed delegates to attend the Whig State Convention which was held at 
 Worcester the 11th of October, 1832. The following is an extract from that 
 old document! After giving an account of the first proceedings of the Con- 
 vention, the paper says : 
 
 "Judge Newcomb, the Hon. Isaac C. Bates, and George Bancroft, 
 Esq., gave elocpient and dignified expositions of the rotteness -and corruption 
 of the present (Jackson's) Administration, and of the importance of invio- 
 late laivs arid the pure administration of government.'' 
 
 You attended tlie State Convention aforesaid as a Whig delegate, and 
 was placed on a Committee to draft an Address to the Whigs of Massachu- 
 setts. The Address was drafted, receiving the unanimous sanction of the 
 Committee and of the Convention. A copy of that Address lies before me. 
 
it is a very able aiid a very bitter jxiper against the then existing Adminis- 
 tration. Who drew it up? Will you be kind enough, Sir, to lay your hand 
 upon your heart and in sincerily exclaim, " Thou cans't not say 1 did it!" 
 If you did not actually draw up the AdtUess, you assented to it — you gave 
 it your approbation I 
 
 Sir, I have before me your recent Report upon the condition and affairs 
 of the Navy. It is an off-hand paper; off-hand in style — off-hand in state- 
 ments, whether true or untrue — off-hand in schemes — and off-liand in pre- 
 sumption, in the matter of promoting young officers, who iuay have " friends 
 at court," or may be political favorites, over the heads of older ones, and of 
 placing the gallant old Commodores, who " have done the State some ser- 
 vice," and who are yet hale and vigorous, upon half-pay ! 
 
 Let you have your way. Sir, in advancing what you style '' merit" over 
 " seniority," and how many oificers would find promotion who were not as- " 
 certained to be ultra politicians— Locofocos — brawling friends of the Admin- 
 istration ? Is it not enough that the civil offices of the loliole people should 
 all be given to men of your partij^ but you must carry your Jacobin prin- 
 •ciples so far as to lug the ollicers of the Army and Navy into the same mis- 
 erable condition? Are you not satisfied with the control of that power 
 which manages to give almost all new appointments in the Navy to politi- 
 cal partisans, friends or relatives, but you must seek to break down the rule 
 that respects "seniority," in the matter of promotions, so that you may place 
 those whose political " merit " you may admire, or whose friends you wish 
 to serve, over the heads of older officers, no matter how high their " merit," 
 who may have the misfortune to be without "friends at court," or worse 
 than that, to be Whigs in sentiment ! 
 
 Sir, if your recommendation weie to obtain, what hope of promotion 
 would ever glow in and animate the bosom of an officer, known to enter- 
 tain Whig predelictions? To what a miserable state of sycophancy — ab- 
 ject sycopJiancy and toadyisjn— would such a doctrine lead ! Are you not 
 already nauseated with the manufactured bows, smiles, smirks and praises 
 that constantly salute your eyes and ears from those who are hunting civil 
 offices as rewards for partisan services? Or, upon the principle tl.iat"like 
 begets like," do you esteem a practice which you have observed towards 
 others, in days gone by, commendable in those who now, for a similar ob- 
 ject, observe it towards you? Is your love for the "system" so strong, on 
 account of your success in practising it, that you must needs make an effort 
 to introduce it into the Navy ? Heaven protect the meritorious, independent 
 and high-minded officer, who has " no friends at court, " when such an in- 
 iquitous system shall be introduced into the service ! 
 
 But, Sir, another branch of your falsely styled reform in the' naval service, 
 scarcely less reprehensible than the one just alluded to, is the proposition 
 to put the oldest officers, those whom you style Commodores — though our Re- 
 publican laws confer upon them no such title — upon furlough, or half pay? 
 And you propose this — propose to cut down the salaries of such gallant old 
 officers as Stewart, Downs, Warrington, Jones, Morris, Crane, 
 RiDGELY, Ballard, Shubrick, and the like — as a grand step in economy'} 
 And while saving in this way a few thousands, how large a sum would you 
 squander w^on favorites as agents Or contractors, in matters relating to live 
 oak timber, water rotted hemp, Loper's steam propellers, &c., «fec. ! 
 
 Sir, the services of those old officers, whom yov. wotdd put upon half-pa^^ 
 
10 
 
 are clear to ihe American people. The services they rendered in every battle 
 lliey were engaged in, during tlielast war, to say nothing of what they may do 
 in wars that may yet come upon us, could not be computed in dollars and 
 cents. What would be tlieir full salaries, were they to live to be a century 
 old, in comparison with their glorious services at a time when their country- 
 needed such brave and gallant spirits? And you, Sir, who never saw a battle 
 on ocean or on land, and probably never will see one, would coin those servi- 
 ces by way of saving the half of the salaries of the noble old officers who 
 rendered them ! What sort of patriotism, of national pride and generosity 
 does such cold, calculating, niggardly conduct exhibit? No wonder you 
 are exceedingly unpopular with all brave and generous-minded officers io 
 the Navy ! 
 
 Sir, the man who attempts to play the demagogue before the people, or 
 any particular section of the people, maij bring exposure and ridicule upon 
 himself, if he fails to act his part adroitly. You gave place in your report to 
 the highly important fact that you had appointed Captain Rousseau — " the 
 first Captain ever selected from west of the Alleghany Mountains" for the 
 same service — to the command of a squadron! This announcement, com-- 
 ing before the nation in an annual report from the Secretary of the Navy 
 for the information of Congress, tells on its face the reason why it was made. 
 You desired to gain credit with the rising people of the mighty West! But, 
 Sir, have you not attempted to deceive them? Why did you not inform; 
 them that there are but tieo Captains in the Navy from west of the Alle- 
 ghany Mountains — Rousseau and Armstrong — and that the latter had had 
 the command of a squadron in the Pacific, having succeeded to it on the 
 death of Commodore Dallas ! You will find " honesty the best policy" 
 even in making up an anrnial report. Yes, Sir, and truth also should not 
 be lost sight of, if you would have your report a reliable one ! In your attack 
 on the Marine Corps, in the report referred to, do you not state that " of thi?^- 
 teen Captains, but one is at sea ; and oi forty Lieutenants, about seveii are at 
 sea!" Sir, do you not know that there were at the time two Captains and 
 nineteen Lieutenants of this Corps at sea? Why this attack upon, and why 
 these misstatements in relation to, the Marine Corps ? I ask, Sir, is there no 
 personal feeling in the matter? Has not one of the field officers of the corps 
 crossed your path in the way of some dismissal or appointment? 
 
 Sir, you attack the Pursers in the Navy : allow me to ask if the attack does 
 not grow out of the personal difficulty you have had with Pursers Buchanan 
 and Todd? What was your conduct towards the former gentleman ? Was 
 it respectful? Was it commendable? A jury of his countrymen, at Phila- 
 delphia, passed upon his case and allowed him the amount that he had just- 
 ly claimed. Did this satisfy you? No! it gave you as little pleasure as did 
 the^r*^ verdict of the seco?irf Court Martial which you ordered to ti-y Captain 
 Yoorhees! And what was your bearing towards Purser Buchanan after the 
 jury in question had rendered a verdict in his favor ? Was it gentlemanly 
 or otherwise when you coarsely and rudely informed him that you would 
 take the case up to the Supreme Court ? 
 
 Sir, J will approve of your every laudible endeavor to reform whatever 
 abuses there may exist in the corps of Pursers ; but the work must be done 
 in at least a tolorably decent manner. Petulence, instability and tomfoolery 
 must constitute no part of the operation. Did you not, in October last, pe- 
 iemptorily direct a Purser to have his accounts made out withm sixty days, 
 
11 
 
 • 
 
 and after he had by great industry complied with the mandate and called on 
 you to direct that the Auditor (who had refused to attend to the matter until 
 next Spring) should audit the same, did you not say to him in a petulent, 
 nervous manner, and a sort of cockney, devil-may-care style, " Oh I canH 
 he bothered in this way : I have no control over the Auditor : ctpplij to the 
 Secretary of the Treasury 9^' And is it out of such materials as these, Sir, 
 that you bring before Congress the charge of delay against the Pursers in 
 the Navy, in the matter of settling their accounts? 
 
 Sir, let me draw your attention to some of your arrangements of die clerk- 
 ships in the Navy Department. And to begin, let me ask if you have not 
 for months allowed a person to draw a salary of $100 per month out of the 
 public treasury for services wholly rendered in copying your history, or attend- 
 ing to your private matters? 
 
 What was your course of conduct towards Mr. McBlair, who had been 
 but a short time a clerk, in Commodore Crane's Bureau, in the Navy De- 
 partment? He was a faithful clerk, with a family to provide for, and Com- 
 modore Crane was attached to him, and desired that he should be retained 
 in olhce. But what cared you for the clerk's faithfulness or the wishes of 
 Commodore Crane in regard to him? You wanted his place for apartizan 
 friend, and therefore yon direteil your Chief Clerk to dismiss him, because 
 he entertained Whig predeliction! The Chief Clerk did as he was direct- 
 ed, and dismissed Mr. McBlair the 31st July last. Mr. McBlair directly 
 sought an interview with you, and at last obtained if at your private dwel- 
 ling. In that interview you treated him with such a degree of boorishness 
 and incivility, ejaculating every now and then, while he was respectfully 
 laying his case before you, '■'■Oh I dont want to continue this conversation^'' 
 that he felt compelled to rebuke such " insolence of office" by warning you 
 that a day of retribution would cqmel What step, Sir, did you thereupon 
 take ? The next day you addressed the following official note to Commo- 
 dore Crane : 
 
 "Navy Department, August 1, 1S45. 
 
 Sir : — The conduct of Mr. McBlair, a clerk in your Bureau, was yester- 
 day of so outrageous a character that I am compelled to direct you to dismiss 
 him from the service of the Department. 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 GEORGE BANCROFT." 
 
 Now, Sir, TRUTH is a jewel even in a modern Secretary of the Navy. 
 When you penned this note to Commodore Crane, you knew that you had, 
 the day previous to the conduct of Mr. McBlair to which it refers, directed 
 your Chief Clerk to dismiss him, which duty he performed! You knew 
 that Mr. McBlair's "outrageous conduct," which so much offended your 
 official dignity, was the effect of his dismissal, followed by your supercili- 
 ous manner at the interview referred to, and not the cause of that dismissal! 
 Why then did you attempt, by a manufactured statement void of truth, to 
 impose upon the honest and confiding Commodore? The act was a 
 mean one. 
 
 Sir, what was your conduct in relation to Mr. Ludlow, a clerk in Com- 
 modore Shubrick's Bureau? On the 20th of June you appointed Mr. Lud- 
 low to a permanent clerkship, and forty days thereafter you removed him- — 
 because he entertained Whig predelictions! And when Commodore Shu- 
 brick, incensed at such trilling conduct requested of you the leasous fox the 
 
12 
 
 • 
 
 removal of Mr. Ludlow, did you not inform him that it was the President's 
 and not your work ? Sir, the President declares that he does not interfere 
 at all in the matter of removing' or appointing clerks in the Departments. 
 By your answer to Commodore Shubrick's inquiry, you raise a question of 
 veracity between yourself and the President. Let those settle it who can ! 
 
 One more case. Sir. It is that of Mr. Randall who was a Messenger, with 
 your pledge that he should in a short time have a clerkship, in the Navy 
 Department, as he was a man of respectable ability and character. Instead 
 of promoting him, in compliance with your promise, you preferred ordering 
 him, rather than one of the negro men within your call, to go to a stable 
 and saddle and bridle a horse for you to ride ! He felt the insult, and re- 
 signed his place, 
 
 Another evidence of your love for Tylerism may as well be here recorded. 
 Messrs. Dove and Coburn contracted with your worthy predecessor. Judge 
 Mason, to build a wall around the new Depot of Charts, or Observatory. 
 Owing to some change, subsequendy made in the grade of tlie street, extra 
 "work had to be done by the contractors, Judge Mason gave them an order to 
 do it, with the understanding that said extra work should be paid for at such val- 
 uation as disinterested persons might place upon it. You, Sir, succeeded Judge 
 Mason, and visited the work in question in the full panoply of your official 
 dignity. After examining it cursorily did you not with an exquisite's sneer 
 and simper say, to Mr. Dove, " This is some of Tyler''s patronage ! it 
 must he stopped!^'' Mr. Dove refused to stop the work, unless you gave 
 him a wriUen order to do so— which order you gave, and the work was stop- 
 ped accordingly. But the new Secretary of the Navy, an old hand at turn- 
 ing summersets, soon found occasion to wheel to the right-about— in the 
 way of exhibiting his power and showing Patch's maxim ilhistrated, " that 
 some things can be done as well as others" — and to offer the sum of f 5940 
 to the contractors to resume and finish the work! Did they not accede to 
 the offer, on condition that they should not again be stopped ? Did they 
 not commence, and were they not again stopped by your order, and kept 
 some twenty days doing nothing, with stone masons at ,fi2 per day each on 
 their hands ? Did you not, after the lapse of weeks, again change your mind, 
 and direct the contractors to go on and finish the woilc? Atrd after it was 
 finished, and tire Government charged with the lost time which you caused, 
 so that the bill amounted to o,l)out ,'^1^8000, did you not refuse to pay one 
 dime over tire $5940 which you agreed to give, and let the contractors go 
 on without interruption and finish the work? By this master-stroke of 
 economy^ no doubt you flatter yourself that you have saved the Govern- 
 ment the amount which Mr. Dove felt that he would be obliged to raise, by- 
 mortgaging his ])roperty, in order to pay his workmen! 
 
 Sir, a friend has sent to me a copy of the Boston Coiiricr, a pretended 
 Whig journal, the editor of which has seen fit to make use of some pretty 
 strong langunge against the writer of these mmrbers, for " pouring out 
 columns of wrath" irpon yom- head, and to defend your " literary reputation," 
 which he says is dear to him, "and should be dear to every American." This 
 writer himself happens to have known something of the editor of dre Boston 
 Courier in years by-gone. I remember tire time v/hen he published the Bos- 
 ton Galaxy, and was prosecuted for a libel upon the Rev. John Newland 
 Mafiitt, and convicted! I think your modern friend, Beirjamin F. Hallett, 
 (who, if he cannot obtain the Boston Custom House, may be willing to succeed 
 
13 
 
 Com. Shubrick as the head of one of the Bureaus in your Department,) 
 iielped conduct the prosecution. I remember tiie time when the same ed- 
 itor, professing to belong to the National Repubhcan party in Massachusetts, 
 took great dehght, in the campaign of 1824, in crying down the prospects 
 of Mr. Adams and taunting that gentleman's friends with intimations that 
 General Jackson would be elected ! I remember the time, in 1831-2-3, 
 when he constandy interfered in the Congressional election in the Essex 
 North District of Massachusetts, and opposed the Hon. Caleb Cushing, who 
 belonged to his own paity, with a rancor and venom unparalleled in the annals 
 of party warfare, iintil Mr. Cushing declined being longer a candidate, and, 
 under liis own signature, in the Newhuryport Herald^ gave the editor of the 
 Courier a series of the severest epistolary lashings, perhaps, that were ever 
 inflicted upon the conductor of a newspaper ! And I remember, too, the effect 
 of those lashings! ,1 remember that from that time forward the editor of 
 the Courier had nothing but praise and adulation in his paper about Caleb 
 Cushing ! I remember when the same editor, two or three years back, pro- 
 fessing to be a Whig, did all that he could to induce a very distinguished 
 statesman to go otf from the Whigs, with as many of the party as would 
 follow, in favor of commercial treaties of reciprocity, and other Tylerian ex- 
 periments. That great statesman, however, was too wise to take the leap! 
 But I do not remember when the editor of the Boston Courier ever render- 
 ed service to the political party to which he professed to belong ! Do you^ 
 Sir 9 I am willing that you shoidd have the benefit of such a champion's 
 defence! He admits your political short-comings, but contends that you 
 were obliged to change, in your history, what you had written in favor of 
 the Rhode Island Charter, in ord<^r to prevent " a gross perversion of his- 
 torical and well-known fact." His logic in the matter is beneath notice, 
 and I pass it by. 
 
 Sir, I am not conscious of having assailed your " literary reputation." I 
 believe I admitted your scholarship — that you were emphatically " a man of 
 books," and I gave you credit for the honorable and praiseworthy manner 
 in which you commenced so laborious and responsible a work as that of 
 your history of the United States. But if I now present a specimen of your 
 paucity of ideas, you may thank for it, the champion of your " literary re- 
 putation " who edits the Boston Courier! 
 
 At the close of the 3d volume of your " history" you introduce the early 
 career of Washington as follows. Speaking of the Treaty of Peace be- 
 tween England and France at Aix la Chappelle, you say : 
 
 "At the very time of the Congress of Aix la Chappelle, the woods of 
 Virginia sheltered the youthfid George Washington, the son of a widow, 
 born by the side of the Potomac, beneath the roof of a Westmoreland farmer, 
 almost from infancy his lot had been the lot of an orphan. No academy 
 had welcomed him to its shades, no college crowned him with its honors j 
 to read, to write, to cipher— these had been his degrees in knowledge. 
 
 And now, at sixteen years of age, in quest of an honest maintenance, 
 encountering intolerable toil, — cheered onward by being able to write to 
 a school-boy friend, 'Dear Richard, a doubloon is my constant gain every 
 day and sometimes six pistoles,' ' himself his own cook, having no spit but 
 a forked stick, no plate but a large chip,' roaming over spurs of the AUegha- 
 nies and along the banks of the Shenandoah ; alive to nature, and some^ 
 times ' spending the best of the day in admiring the trees and the richnesg 
 
14 
 
 of the land among skin-clad savages with their scalps and rattles, or un- 
 couth emigrants ' that would never speak English ' rarely sleeping in a bed ; 
 holding a bearskin a splendid couch ; glad of a resting place foi the night 
 upon a little hay, straw or fodder, and often camping in the forests, where 
 the place nearest the fire was a happy luxury ; — this stripling surveyor in 
 the woods, with no companion but his unlettered associates, and no imple- 
 ments of science but his compass and chain, contrasted strangely with the 
 imperial magnificence of the Congress of Aix la Chappelle. And yef God 
 had selected, not Kaunitz, nor Newcastle, not a monarch of the House of 
 Hapsburg, nor of Hanover, but the Virginia stripling, to give an impulse to 
 human alfairs, and as far as events can depend on an individual, had placed 
 the rights and the destinies of countless millions in the keeping of the wi- 
 dow's son." 
 
 This is all very prettily said. Sir. It is full of such poetical garnishing 
 as an experienced prose writer, — never designed for a poet, could put toge- 
 ther, bjj an effort^ with such a noble theme as that of the early career of the 
 great and good Washington, in connection with the stirring times of that 
 memorable period in the history of nations ! But, Sir, after the same style 
 and fashion, in your Oration, delivered in Washington, the 27th of June last, 
 you described the early career of Jackson. I copy from that Oration as 
 ibllows : 
 
 " South Carolina gave a birth-place to Andrew Jackson. On its remote 
 frontier, far up on the forest-clad banks of the Catawba, in a region where 
 the settlers were just beginning to cluster, his eye first saw the light. There 
 his infancy sported in the ancient forests, and his mind was nursed to freedom 
 by their influence. He was the youngest son of an Irish emigrant, of Scottish 
 origin, who, two years after the great war of Frederic of Prussia, fled to 
 America for relief from indigence and oppression. His birth was in 1767, 
 at a time when the people of our land were but a body of dependent colon- 
 ists, scarcely more than two millions in number, scattered along an immense 
 coast, with no army, or navy, or union ; and exposed to the attempts of Eng- 
 land to control America by the aid of military force. His boyhood grew 
 up in the midst of the contest with Great Britain. The first great political 
 truth that reached his heart, was that all men are free and equal ; the first 
 great fact that beamed on his understanding, was his country's independence. 
 
 "The strife, as it increased, came near the shades of his own upland re- 
 sidence. As a boy of thirteen, he witnessed the scenes of horror that accom- 
 pany civil wm' ; and when but a year older, with an elder brother, he should- 
 ,€red his musket, and went forth to strike a blow for his country." 
 
 ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 
 
 " Behold, then, our orphan hero, sternly earnest, consecrated to humanity 
 from childhood by sorrow, having neither father, nor mother, nor sister, nor 
 ■surviving brother, so young and yet so solitary, and therefore bound the 
 more closely to collective man — behold him elect for his lotto go forth and 
 ^assist in laying the foundations of society in the great valley of the Mississippi. 
 
 "At the very time when Washington Vv'as pledging his own and future gene- 
 rations to the support of the popular institutions which were to be the light 
 .of the human race — at the time when the institutions of the Old World were 
 rocking to their centre, and tbe mighty fabric diat had come down from the 
 middle ages was falling in — the adventurous Jackson, in the radiant glory 
 and boundless hope and confident intrepidity of twenty-one, plunged into 
 
15 
 
 the wilderness, crossed tlie grent mountain-barrier that divides the western 
 waters from tlie Atlantic, followed the paths of the early hunters and fugitives, 
 and, not content with the nearer neighborhood to his parent State, went 
 still further and further to the west, till he found his home in the most beau- 
 tiful region on the Cumberland. There, from the first, he was recognised 
 as the great pioneer : under his courage, the coming emigrants were sure to 
 find a shield. " 
 
 Sir, where two subjects of eulogy w^ere so essentially unlike each other, it 
 is difficult to perceive how a man of real genius, addicted at all to original 
 thought, could consent to have a sameness of description, of metaphor, and 
 of deduction, run through all that he laboriously had written of lx)th ! I doubt 
 not, if you were to wnite an enconium upon Mr. Polk, it would be very 
 much in the same strain, with musical variations, as those I have extracted. 
 
 Sir, I once knew a fiddler who could play but one tune, with variations. 
 He played that one, however, very prettily. It sounded well, the first time. 
 The fiddler was a very dandyfied, self-conceited person and seemed to be- 
 heve that he could play any thing in the department of music, for when asked 
 if he could play some tune the interrogator would name, he would reply 
 " oh, certainly," and strike ofi' into the "Soldier's Joy," with variations, that 
 everlasting tune, which he alone could play. 
 
 Submitting the fiddler's case for your study w^hen you next indite an eu- 
 logy, Sir, I close this paper with a recommendation in a language with whicb 
 you are familiar: Saj)ientem pascere barbam. 
 
 NORTHAMPTON, 
 
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