by Ian W. Toll
“England and Spain”: Edward Church to Secretary of State, September 22, 1793, BW I:44–46.
“to register all actual seamen”: Smelser, Congress Founds the Navy, pp. 29–30.
“a naval force”: Ibid., p. 30.
“By the best information”: Committee report to the House of Representatives, January 20, 1794, ASP, Naval Affairs, vol. 1, p. 5.
The French Revolution had been preceded: Smelser, Congress Founds the Navy, p. 49.
“This thing of a fleet”: Journal of William Maclay, United States Senator from Pennsylvania, pp. 383–84.
Take the case of salt: Smelser, Congress Founds the Navy, p. 49.
“deep as a thunder-growl”: Ferguson, Truxtun of the Constellation, p. 92.
More than a quarter of the nation’s total: See Lippincott, Early Philadelphia, pp. 275–77. Total American exports in 1793 were $26 million—Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, U.S. Census Bureau, Part 2, 1776, series Q 518–23, “Value of Waterborne Imports and Exports,” p. 716.
In 1793, more than 8,000 tons: See Fairburn, Merchant Sail, p. 2759.
“We took each other”: Richard Norton Smith, Patriarch, p. xvii.
“They are not Men of Arms”: Tolles, Meeting House and Counting House, p. 47.
included an address: See Thomas Paine, To the Representatives of the Religious Society of the People called Quakers, at www.classicallibrary.org/paine.
During the Revolution, American shipwrights: Chappelle, American Sailing Ships, pp. 44–49.
“They are superior”: Quoted in Magoun, Constitution and Other Historic Ships, p. 63.
“such frigates”: Joshua Humphreys letter book, 1797–1800 (undated), PHS.
The professional shipwright: Chapelle, American Sailing Navy, pp. 4–5.
“rejected by the unanimous voice”: “Data copied from papers in the Handwriting of Josiah Fox, Navy Constructor, in his old chest, by his granddaughter Sarah C. Fox, concealed in the garret at her home in Ohio.” Josiah Fox Papers; copy in the possession of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.
were “extravagant, and that the ships”: Joshua Humphreys to Secretary of the Navy William Jones, August 20, 1827, PHS.
“who had served his apprenticeship:” “Data copied…”
“Whether the model has”: Secretary of War Knox to John Wharton, May 12, 1794, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC (microfilm collection).
“It is determined of importance”: Humphreys quoted in Grant, Isaac Hull, Captain of Old Ironsides, p. 25.
“a first rate draftsman”: Humphreys quoted in Dorwart and Wolf, The Philadelphia Navy Yard: From the Birth of the U.S. Navy to the Nuclear Age, p. 35.
“I cannot receive hereafter”: Joshua Humphreys to Josiah Fox, July 27, 1797, JH letter book, PHS.
to “be going great lengths”: Ferguson, Truxtun of the Constellation, p. 111.
The master builders in each city received: Circular letter from Henry Knox to the Naval Constructors dated July 1794, ASP, Naval Affairs, vol. 1, p. 7.
“It is impossible he can”: George Washington to Alexander Spotswood, March 15, 1794, in Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799, vol. 33, at http://etext.virgina.edu.
“powerful interest made here”: John Barry to Samuel Nicholson, June 24, 1794, NYHS.
The question of seniority: See Fowler, Jack Tars and Commodores, p. 23.
“no choice of Artificers”: Ferguson, Truxtun of the Constellation, pp. 113–14.
“the most magnificent planted”: Muir quoted in Wood, Live Oaking, p. 6.
“the appearance of a large”: Ibid., pp. 7–10.
A mature tree: Ibid., p. 61.
A nail driven into it: John Lawson, Surveyor-General of North Carolina, in A New Voyage to Carolina (1709) quoted in ibid., p. 10.
“I have received the moulds”: John T. Morgan to Joshua Humphreys, August 30, 1794, JH letter book, PHS.
“sober and Industrious Axe-men”: From a recruiting advertisement reproduced in Wood, Live Oaking, pp. 26–28.
A visitor compared their camp: Fowler, Jack Tars and Commodores, pp. 24–25.
“I have been all but dead”: John T. Morgan to Joshua Humphreys, October 21, 1794, JH letter book, PHS.
In late October, Captain John Barry: Clark, Gallant John Barry, p. 372.
“These moulds frighten me”: John T. Morgan to Joshua Humphreys, October 21, 1794, JH letter book, PHS.
“all but four”: John T. Morgan to John Barry, December 29, 1794, NYHS.
“Your letter and box of oranges”: Joshua Humphreys to John T. Morgan, December 29, 1795, JH letter book, PHS.
“few or no materials of any sort”: War Office report to the House of Representatives, December 29, 1794, ASP, Naval Affairs, vol. 1, p. 6.
The final dimensions: War Office report to the House of Representatives, December 12, 1795, ASP, Naval Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 17–18.
The cost of the treaty: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Part 2, 1976, series Y 335–338, “Summary of Federal Government Finances—Administrative Budget,” p. 1104 ($1 million settlement divided by $7.54 million 1795 budget expenditures).
The president now asked Congress: Message to Congress, March 15, 1796, ASP, Naval Affairs, vol. 1, p. 25.
The carriage, he told Abigail: JA to AA, March 5, 1797, quoted in Peabody, ed., John Adams: A Biography in His Own Words, p. 359.
“as serene and unclouded”: McCullough, John Adams, p. 469.
“Everybody talks of the tears”: JA, March 9, 1797, quoted in Page Smith, John Adams, vol. 2, p. 918.
the “sight of the sun”: JA to AA, March 9, 1797, quoted in Ferling, John Adams: A Life, p. 335.
He had not slept well: JA to AA, March 5, 1797, quoted in Peabody, ed., John Adams: A Biography in His Own Words, p. 359.
“the profligacy of corruption”: Adams, “Inaugural Address,” March 4, 1797, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989.
“My entrance into office”: JA to John Quincy Adams, March 31, 1797, quoted in McCullough, John Adams, p. 476 (emphasis in the original).
“He snatched lightning”: Turgot quoted in Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, p. 145.
“It is a tribute”: Elkins and McKitrick, The Age of Federalism, p. 309.
“every hat was in the air”: Henry Edgeworth De Firmont in The French Revolution as Told by Contemporaries, ed. Higgins, pp. 272–73.
if Louis “was a Traytor”: Elkins and McKitrick, The Age of Federalism, p. 357.
Philadelphians lined up…In Boston: Minnigerode, Jefferson, Friend of France, p. 166.
“the cruel and unjust war”: Elkins and McKitrick, The Age of Federalism, p. 457.
“Upon her coming into sight”: TJ to James Monroe, May 5, 1793, TJP.
On one occasion, thirty-two heads: Schama, Citizens, p. 782.
“Danton, Robespierre, Marak, etc.”: Quoted in McCullough, John Adams, p. 443.
“We might have seen”: Minnigerode, Jefferson, Friend of France, p. 167.
a “monument of venality”: McCullough, John Adams, p. 457.
“the exertions…the Banks”: JM quoted in Ellis, Founding Brothers, p. 138.
“This ball of liberty”: TJ to Tench Coxe, January 1, 1795, TJP.
“The French are no more capable”: JA to Elbridge Gerry, quoted in Ellis, Founding Brothers, pp. 188–89.
“I know well that no man”: TJ to Rutledge, December 27, 1796, WTJ, VII: 93–94.
“The next president of the United States”: TJ quoted in Ellis, Founding Brothers, p. 182.
“It is with great regret”: Joshua Humphreys to Secretary of War, March 26, 1797, JH letter book, PHS.
“pompous carriages, splendid feasts”: Quoted in Rosenfeld, American Aurora, p. 29.
“sesquipedality of belly”: McCullough, John Adams, p. 462.
an
“infamous scoundrel”: Quoted in Rosenfeld, American Aurora, pp. 29–30.
“I was thus standing”: B. F. Bache, Aurora General Advertiser, April 6, 1797, quoted in ibid., p. 5.
“for the purpose of securing”: JH account books, PHS.
“It will be absolutely necessary”: Joshua Humphreys to Secretary of War, May 6, 1797, JH letter book, PHS.
He informed the War Office: Joshua Humphreys to Secretary of War, May (date uncertain), 1797, JH letter book, PHS.
Launching a hull: Guttridge and Smith, The Commodores: The U.S. Navy in the Age of Sail, p. 16.
he found, to his “unspeakable satisfaction”: Ibid.
had “inflicted a wound”: Annals, House of Representatives, 5th Congr., 1st Sess., May 16, 1797.
“Our seacoasts”: Ibid.
“a man divested”: Quoted in McCullough, John Adams, p. 485.
“fed upon pepperpot”: Aurora, May 18, 1797, quoted in Page Smith, John Adams, vol. 2, p. 931.
“His Rotundity”: McCullough, John Adams, p. 485.
“As to going to war with France”: Quoted in DeConde, The Quasi War: The Politics and Diplomacy of the Undeclared War with France, 1797–1801, p. 23.
“they could, therefore, be of little use”: Annals, House of Representatives, June 1797.
“every measure of warlike preparation”: DeConde, The Quasi War, p. 31.
“It is evidence of a mind soured”: JA to Uriah Foster, June 20, 1797, quoted in Dauer, The Adams Federalists, p. 130.
“Men who have been”: TJ quoted in McCullough, John Adams, p. 493.
“consult on the best Method”: War Office to Joshua Humphreys, July 25, 1797, QW I:9.
“it is important to a Nation”: JH letter book, PHS.
“as many hands”: Joshua Humphreys to Thomas Truxtun, June 11, 1797, JH letter book, PHS.
“Wind, weather and tide”: Quoted in Ferguson, Truxtun of the Constellation, p. 130.
“with as much exactness”: An “observer” quoted in ibid., p. 134.
“A Better Launch I never Saw”: Captain Thomas Truxtun to Joshua Humphreys, September 1, 1797, QW I:17.
“Nothing could surpass”: A “Witness” quoted in Ferguson, Truxtun of the Constellation, p. 134.
Eighteenth-century physicians imagined: See Powell, Bring Out Your Dead, and Arnebeck, Destroying Angel: Benjamin Rush, Yellow Fever and the Birth of Modern Medicine, online at http://www.geocities.com/bobarnebeck/fever1793.html.
could be “left at the Buck Tavern”: JH letter book, PHS.
“I was in hopes”: Joshua Humphreys to Timothy Pickering, September 25, 1797, JH letter book, PHS.
“I cannot help feeling”: Joshua Humphreys to Secretary of War, October 4, 1797, JH letter book, PHS.
Not surprisingly, he suggested: Dorwart and Wolf, The Philadelphia Navy Yard, p. 40.
“in the shortest possible time”: Secretary of War to David Stodder, Naval Constructor, October 6, 1797, QW I:18.
“during heavy Squalls”: Secretary of War to Tench Francis, Purveyor, September 18, 1797, QW I:17.
“To find the length of the main mast”: Ferguson, Truxtun of the Constellation, pp. 110–11.
his “worthy friend’s”: Humphreys quoted in ibid., p. 117.
“pride, ambition, avarice”: “President’s Speech,” Annals, 5th Congr., 2nd Sess., November 23, 1797, pp. 630–34.
“When we came to calculate”: Joshua Humphreys to Thomas Truxtun, July 29, 1796, JH letter book, PHS.
Horace Walpole: Walpole and Napoleon quoted in Schama, Citizens, p. 678.
“his passionless, immovable countenance”: Gulian C. Verplanck quoted in Batterberry, On the Town in New York, p. 33.
“I will not disguise”: Bellamy quoted in DeConde, The Quasi War, p. 48.
“struck dumb”: AA quoted in McCullough, John Adams, p. 497.
“like the shock”: Quoted in Rosenfeld, American Aurora, p. 72.
“The President…has chosen”: Jefferson, Anas, WTJ, I, p. 345, quoted in ibid., p. 73.
“the case of Humphreys”: Callender quoted in ibid., p. 145.
“To John Adams”: Quoted in Ellis, Founding Brothers, p. 190.
would “exhibit to the world”: Smelser, Congress Founds, p. 143.
“branded with the usual”: January 11, 1798, quoted in Adams, The Life of Albert Gallatin, p. 189.
“a commerce can be protected”: Annals, pp. 2823–32, quoted in Sprout and Sprout, Rise of American Seapower, p. 45.
to “increase their power”: Quoted in McCullough, John Adams, p. 499.
“The question of war”: TJ to JM, March 29, 1798, TJP.
“repair with all due Speed”: Secretary of War to Captain Thomas Truxtun, March 16, 1798, QW I:16.
“Does any man”: Ferguson, Truxtun of the Constellation, p. 103.
“Without officers, what can be”: Captain Thomas Truxtun to Secretary of War James McHenry, 1797, quoted in McKee, A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession: The Creation of the U.S. Naval Officer Corps, 1794–1815, p. 153.
“If the dunces who are”: Quoted in ibid., p. 169.
“five feet six Inches”: Secretary of War to Captain Thomas Truxtun, March 16, 1798, QW I:16.
A sailor could be paid: Captain Thomas Truxtun to Lieutenant John Rodgers, April 1798, QW I:49–50.
“It being important”: Recruiting instructions from the Secretary of the Navy, September 11, 1798, QW I:388–89.
“Every expence attending”: Captain Thomas Truxtun to Lieutenant John Rodgers, April 1798, QW I:49–50.
she “ran ahead of everything”: Quoted in Smelser, Congress Founds, p. 144.
“incommodes in her present Station”: March 31, 1798, QW I:49.
“the Decks, topsides”: Secretary of War to Joshua Humphreys, March 23, 1798, QW I:45.
Barry was overseeing: Captain John Barry to Secretary McHenry, May 26, 1796, NYHS.
“Her hair escaped”: Griffin, Commodore John Barry, “The Father of the American Navy”: The Records of His Services for Our Country, p. 112.
“in the least suspected”: Captain John Barry to Secretary McHenry, September 20, 1796, NYHS.
“against the inveterate”: Secretary of State Pickering to Robert Liston, British Ambassador, June 22, 1798, QWI:129–30.
“the brave and hardy seamen”: Recruiting poster, May 12, 1798, QW I:73.
“a rough, blustering”: Stephen Higginson to Secretary of War, June 6, 1798, QW I:106.
“Till there is some system”: T. Williams to Secretary of State Timothy Pickering, May 31, 1798, QW I:97 (emphasis in the original).
“there ought to be some allowance”: Barry quoted in Palmer, Stoddert’s War, p. 7.
urged him “to deliberate”: President George Washington to Secretary of War, July 13, 1796, BW I:165–66.
“roared like a hundred bulls”: Smelser, Congress Founds, p. 137.
“These hundred staunch”: Philadelphia United States Recorder, May 3, 1798, quoted in ibid.
Gilbert Fox sang: McCullough, John Adams, p. 500.
“created some alarm”: April 12, 1798, quoted in Rosenfeld, American Aurora, p. 83.
“COCKADEROPHOBIA” and “violently plucks”: DeConde, The Quasi War, pp. 82–83.
The ranks of the Blues: Rosenfeld, American Aurora, p. 153.
“This city”: AA to John Quincy Adams, McCullough, John Adams, p. 504.
“To arms, then”: Smelser, Congress Founds, p. 161.
one such “Band of Brothers”: Aurora General Advertiser, May 9, 1798, quoted in Rosenfeld, American Aurora, p. 114.
“Friendships were dissolved”: Deborah Logan quoted in ibid., p. 81.
“dogged and watched”: Jefferson quoted in Adams, The Life of Albert Gallatin, p. 31.
“Your country, my boys”: Quoted in Rosenfeld, American Aurora, pp. 201, 80.
“false, scandalous and malicious”: Quoted in McCullough, John Adams, p. 505.
“the good citizens”: Quoted in Rosenfeld, American Aurora, p. 1
88.
produced “such a shock”: TJ to JM, April 6, 1798, TJP.
“All, therefore”: TJ to JM, April 12, 1798, ibid.
“Perhaps it is a universal”: JM to TJ, May 13, 1798, in Rakove, ed., James Madison: Writings, p. 588.
“blowing a violent Hurricane”: Captain Thomas Truxtun’s Journal, July 4, 1798, QW I:163–64.
“the Sea running very Cross”: Captain Thomas Truxtun’s Journal, July 5, 1798, QW I:169.
Truxtun gave the order: Captain Thomas Truxtun’s Journal, July 5–7, 1798, QW I:169, 172, 180.
“every Article”: Captain Thomas Truxtun to Mr. Morgan, June 19, 1798, QW I:124–25.
“Whenever a Sail”: Captain Thomas Truxtun to the Sea Lieutenants and Master, Constellation, June 27, 1798, QW I:144.
She was to hunt: Secretary of War to Captain Thomas Truxtun, May 30, 1798, QW I:92–93.
“a tremendous Water Spout”: Captain Thomas Truxtun’s Journal, August 5, 1798, QW I:274.
“a Flood of Rain”: Captain Thomas Truxtun’s Journal, August 6, 1798, QW I:276.
“behaved exceeding ill”: Captain Thomas Truxtun’s Journal, August 15, 1798, QW I:300.
Arriving in Philadelphia on June 12: Palmer, Stoddert’s War, pp. 233–41.
He asked Congress for authorization: Secretary of the Navy to Secretary of the Treasury, July 31, 1798, QW I:261–62.
to “buy the whole”: Secretary of the Navy to Tench Francis, Purveyor, August 25, 1798, QW I:338–39.
“How come the Bread & Fish”: Secretary of the Navy to Tench Francis, Purveyor, September 22, 1798, QW I:438.
Different techniques, styles, and design: See Dorwart and Wolf, The Philadelphia Navy Yard, p. 37.
“It is the opinion”: Joshua Humphreys to Forman Cheesman, July 8, 1799, JH letter book, PHS.
“No ship ever went to Sea”: Captain John Barry to Joshua Humphreys, July 22, 1798, QW, I:232.
The sailing master, James Morris: James Morris to Joshua Humphreys, July 23, 1798, QW, I:233.
“Three or four months’ full allowance”: Quoted in Palmer, Stoddert’s War, p. 29.
He told Stoddert not to believe: Captain Thomas Truxtun to Secretary of the Navy, August 16, 1798, QW I:300–02.
“It is the opinion”: Joshua Humphreys to Forman Cheesman, July 8, 1799, JH letter book, PHS.
Truxtun lectured the Baltimore: Captain Thomas Truxtun to Jeremiah Yellott, Navy Agent, October 26, 1798, QW I:563–64.