Six Frigates
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“Whereas many Seamen”: Quoted in Adams, HUSJ, p. 930.
Monday, June 22, dawned: For details of the account that follows, and all quotations, see Tucker and Reuter, Injured Honor: The Chesapeake-Leopard Affair, pp. 1–12.
and “clearing Ship for Sea”: Log of U.S. frigate Chesapeake, NW1812 I:27–28.
“Sir, I consider the Frigate” and Humphreys’s reply: Messages exchanged between the Chesapeake and the Leopard, June 22, 1807, from Mariners’ Museum Web site at http://www.mariner.org/usnavy.
At 8:00 a.m.: Log of U.S. frigate Chesapeake, NW1812 I:27–28.
“feeling of a true”: Adams, HUSJ, p. 946.
Stephen Decatur and Samuel Barron: See Tucker and Reuter, Injured Honor, pp. 99–100.
“Oh! that some one”: Lieutenant William Allen to General William Allen, June 24, 1807, quoted in ibid., pp. 100–1 (emphasis in the original).
“highly laudable”: Ibid., p. 101.
“You must be perfectly”: Quoted in Adams, HUSJ, p. 946.
Jefferson had been preparing: Ibid., pp. 965.
all British naval vessels: TJ, July 2, 1807, Proclamation and Draft on Armed Vessels, TJP.
“who, having broke”: TJ to JM, August 18, 1807, TJP.
“Our commerce”: Albert Gallatin to Hanna Gallatin, July 10, 1807, in Adams, The Life of Albert Gallatin, pp. 357–59.
“Nor do I know”: Albert Gallatin to Joseph H. Nicholson, July 17, 1807, in ibid., pp. 361–62.
“one subject of considerable”: Albert Gallatin to Hanna Gallatin, July 10, 1807, in ibid., p. 357.
“the British commanders”: TJ to Henry Dearborn, July 7, 1807, TJP.
“burning the first Powder”: Quoted in Dunne and Leiner, “An ‘Appearance of Menace’: The Royal Navy’s Incursion into New York Bay, September 1807,” Log of Mystic Seaport 44(4) (1993):86–92.
“manifestly pacific”: TJ to Henry Dearborn, July 13, 1807, and TJ to Governor of Virginia, July 27, 1807, September 7, 1807, all in TJP.
Recriminations flew: See Tucker and Reuter, Injured Honor, pp. 140–44.
“a ship without honor”: Beach, The United States Navy, p. 69.
“A formal disavowal”: Secretary of State Madison to James Monroe, American Minister to the Court of St. James’s, July 6, 1807, in James Madison Writings, ed. Rakove, pp. 673–79.
“a creature of royal”: Adams, HUSJ, p. 966.
Early in September: See ibid., pp. 970–73.
“striking at the very vitals”: Morning Post, August 6, 1807, quoted in ibid., p. 957.
“If the Government”: The Times quoted in Tucker and Reuter, Injured Honor, p. 125.
“composed of the ship owners”: James Monroe to JM, August 4, 1807, ASP, Foreign Affairs, vol. 3, p. 186.
to “assure you that”: Lord Canning to James Monroe, August 3, 1807, ASP, Foreign Affairs, vol. 3, p. 188.
had “existed in their fullest”: Lord Canning to James Monroe, September 23, 1807, ASP, Foreign Affairs, vol. 3, p. 199.
were “for the present”: Ibid.
to “seize upon”: ASP, Foreign Affairs, vol. 3, pp. 25–26.
For the first time: Adams, HUSJ, p. 1031.
“the ruins of a castle”: Foster, “Notes on the United States,” p. 78.
Fissures within the Republican ranks: Annals, House of Representatives, 9th Congr., 2nd Sess., pp. 387–88, 389–90, also quoted in Adams, HUSJ, p. 844.
“reluctant to vote”: Annals, House of Representatives, November 1807, 10th Congr., 1st Sess., pp. 823–24.
“The Constitution is to remain”: WTJ, I: 330.
“will authorize a complete”: TJ to William H. Cabell, November 1, 1807, TJP.
Secretary Smith asked Congress: Secretary Smith to Samuel Mitchell, November 8, 1807, Annals, 10th Congr., 1st Sess., pp. 31–32.
“I observe among”: John Quincy Adams, Memoirs, November 17, 1807, entry.
“To conquer”: Louis-Marie Turreau to Talleyrand, July 9, 1805, quoted in Adams, HUSJ, p. 661.
for any “foreign port or place”: Knox, A History of the United States Navy, pp. 171–72.
“have bidden agriculture”: TJ to Albert Gallatin, May 6, 1808, quoted in Adams, HUSJ, p. 1100.
to “take the chance”: TJ to Benjamin Smith, May 20, 1808, TJP.
Much of the enforcement: See Cunningham, The Process of Government Under Jefferson, p. 119.
“uncommonly dull”: Captain Stephen Decatur to Secretary Smith, September 6, 1808, NA # RG 45, Captains’ Letters.
to “seize the Boats”: Secretary of the Navy Smith to Lieutenant Samuel Elbert, May 2, 1808, NW1812 I:35–36.
“The port indeed”: Lambert’s Travels, quoted in Albion and Pope, Sea Lanes in Wartime, p. 95.
“O-grab-me”: Hickey, The War of 1812, p. 21.
“a season of uncommon”: Quoted in Cunningham, The Process of Government Under Jefferson, pp. 310–14.
“Go, wretch”: Bryant quoted in Lippincott, Early Philadelphia, p. 138.
“arbitrary powers”: Hickey, The War of 1812, p. 20.
“special permission” and the quotes that follow: Albert Gallatin to TJ, July 19, 1808, TJ to Albert Gallatin, August 11, 1808, TJ to Albert Gallatin, November 13, 1808, and TJ to Levi Lincoln, November 13, 1808, all quoted in Adams, HUSJ, pp. 1104–7.
“the United States have preferred”: Napoleon quoted in ibid., p. 22.
“The late Jeffersonian”: Hickey, The War of 1812, p. 21.
“[I]f it were possible”: Lord Canning to William Pinkney, September 23, 1808, ASP, Foreign Relations, vol. 3, pp. 231–32.
An estimated ten thousand: National Intelligencer, March 5, 1809.
“the sovereign people”: Margaret Bayard Smith to Susan B Smith, March 1809, in The First Forty Years of Washington Society in the Family Letters of Margaret Bayard Smith, p. 58.
“dressed in a full suit”: Brant, James Madison: The President, 1809–1812, p. 13.
“but a withered”: James Madison online biography at http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/jm4.html.
“extremely pale”: Margaret Bayard Smith to Susan B. Smith, March 1809, in The First Forty Years of Washington Society, p. 58.
“could not be heard”: John Quincy Adams, Memoirs, March 4, 1809, entry.
“the most brilliant”: Quoted in Brant, James Madison: The President, 1809–1812, p. 13.
“The crowd”: John Quincy Adams, Memoirs, March 4, 1809, entry.
“from this situation”…and the quotes that follow: Margaret Bayard Smith to Susan B. Smith, March 1809, in The First Forty Years of Washington Society, pp. 58–64.
“Nature intended”: TJ to du Pont de Nemours, March 2, 1809, WTJ, XII:259.
“Mr. Madison is”: Beaujour to Champagny, January 25, 1809, quoted in Brant, James Madison: The President, 1809–1812, p. 20.
“mere whipping”: William Crawford quoted in Brown, The Republic in Peril: 1812, p. 48.
“a loss of”: Annals, 1808–09, p. 556, quoted in Adams, HUSJ, p. 1185.
deploy “all the frigates”: Quoted in Symonds, Navalists and Anti-Navalists, pp. 137–44.
“the Republican cause”: Adams, The Life of Albert Gallatin, p. 387.
to “defend the gunboats”: Annals, 1808–09, p. 1185.
“You may rest assured”: William Bainbridge to D. Porter quoted in McKee, A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession, p. 9.
After an eight-day passage: Henry Gilliam to William Jones, September 23, 1809, “Letters of Henry Gilliam, 1809–1817,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 38 (March 1954): 56–66.
“as fast a sailing Ship”: Bainbridge quoted in Long, Ready to Hazard: A Biography of Commodore William Bainbridge, 1774–1833, p. 116.
“a most furious”: Henry Gilliam to William Jones, December 29, 1809, “Letters of Henry Gilliam, 1809–1817,” p. 52.
“I am growing old”: William Bainbridge to David Porter, January 29, 1810, from USS President off Charlestown, SC, NYHS.
“he would never surren
der”: Henry Gilliam to William Jones, July 28, 1809, “Letters of Henry Gilliam, 1809–1817,” p. 49.
“You, like every other”: Hamilton quoted in Commodore John Rodgers to Captain Isaac Hull, June 19, 1810, NW1812 I:39–40.
“you may expect”: Henry Gilliam to William Jones, June 25, 1810; “Letters of Henry Gilliam, 1809–1817,” p. 54.
“ten waggon loads”: Quoted in Martin, A Most Fortunate Ship: A Narrative History of Old Ironsides, p. 91.
“bunches of grapes”: Ibid.
“While we can procrastinate”: Annals, 1808–09, p. 657, quoted in Adams, HUSJ, p. 1187.
the nation’s registered tonnage: ASP, Commerce and Navigation, vol. 1, p. 897.
“I will only”: Albert Gallatin to…. Montgomery, July 27, 1809, quoted in HUSM, p. 79.
“the late confiscations”: Quoted in ibid., p. 205.
“In North America”: The Naval Chronicle: The Contemporary Record of the Royal Navy at War, vol. V: 1811–1815, p. 7.
“although her appearance”…and the quotes that follow: Commodore John Rodgers to Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton, May 23, 1811, NW1812 I:44–49.
Secretary Hamilton’s response: Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton to Commodore ohn Rodgers, May 28, 1811, NW1812 I:49–50.
One stated that the action: Testimony of William Burket, Halifax, June 22, 1811, in The Naval Chronicle, vol. V, pp. 31–35. See also London Courier reprinted in Niles’ Register, I:39, and London Gazette reprinted in Niles’ Register, I:38.
“Will any man”: Niles’ Register, I:38 (emphasis in the original). This quotation corrects an erroneously interposed “or” and “to” in the original.
“Never did the American Congress”: Quoted in Hickey, The War of 1812, p. 29.
“war on our lawful commerce”: ASP, Foreign Relations, vol. 1, pp. 78–80.
“the practice of forcing”: Adams, HUSM, p. 388.
“Do not let us”: Quoted in Hickey, The War of 1812, p. 32.
“We must now oppose”: Quoted in Adams, HUSM, p. 393.
“If we submit”: Quoted in Hickey, The War of 1812, p. 26.
“We shall drive”: Quoted in Adams, HUSM, p. 392.
a resolution was passed: Hickey, The War of 1812, p. 33.
who asked the House: Editorial note, NW1812 I:50–52.
Holding the floor…and the discussion that follows: Annals, House of Representatives, 12th Congr., 1st Sess., pp. 803–25, 871–72.
“If you had a field”: Josiah Quincy quoted in Hickey, The War of 1812, p. 34.
“a class of society”: Quoted in Symonds, Navalists and Anti-Navalists, p. 156.
The anti-navalists’ argument: See Annals, House of Representatives, 12th Congr., 1st Sess., pp. 825–26.
a war mobilization would require: ASP, Finance, vol. 2, pp. 523–24.
Cheves’s naval program: Secretary of the Navy Hamilton to Langdon Cheves, Chairman of Naval Committee, House of Representatives, December 3, 1811, NW1812 I:53–56.
Freight costs leapt: Hickey, The War of 1812, p. 40.
“France has done nothing”: President James Madison to TJ, May 25, 1812, Madison: Writings, ed. Rakove, p. 684.
“Go to war”: Quoted in Adams, HUSM, p. 440.
“It is a war”: Congressman Randolph’s anti-war speech, Friday, May 29, 1812, quoted in Niles’ Register.
“this wild spirit of war”: “Providence Resolutions,” April 7, 1812, NW1812 I:69.
“It is evident”: Boston Centinel quoted in Niles’ Register, May 30, 1812, NW1812 II: 207.
“to attack”: Dudley, Splintering the Wooden Wall: The British Blockade of the United States, 1812–1815, pp. 64–65.
a “series of acts”: President James Madison, “War Message to Congress,” June 1, 1812, in Writings, ed. Rakove, pp. 685–92.
“in a manner worthy”: Richard Rush to Benjamin Rush, June 20, 1812, in Adams, HUSM, p. 452.
“Many nations”: Ibid., p. 439.
“it had become impossible”: JM to John Nicholas. April 2, 1813, in Writings, ed. Rakove, pp. 696–97.
The army had seven thousand: Brown, Republic in Peril, pp. 102–3.
America’s seagoing navy: NW1812 I:179–82, See also Dudley, Splintering the Wooden Wall, pp. 38–40.
“I lament”: JA to TJ, June 28, 1812, in Cappon, ed., The Adams-Jefferson Letters, II:308–10.
“the proud preeminence”: Evening Star (London), reprinted in New York National Advocate, December 16, 1812.
“infinite regret and mortification”: Bainbridge quoted in Long, Ready to Hazard, p. 130.
“It is victories”: Charles Stewart to New York Courier and Enquirer, October 10, 1845, reprinted in United States Nautical Magazine (November 1845). Stewart’s aging memory mistook the chronology; he recalled the meeting as occurring on June 21, after the declaration of war. See Brant, James Madison, Commander-in-Chief, 1812–1836, pp. 38–39.
“will enable our little navy”: Secretary Hamilton to Captain John Rodgers, May 21, 1812, NW1812 I:118–19.
Rodgers, apologizing: Captain John Rodgers to Secretary Hamilton, June 3, 1812, NW1812 I:119–22.
Decatur proposed: Captain Stephen Decatur to Secretary Hamilton, June 8, 1812, NW1812 I:122–24.
Disagreements within Madison’s cabinet: See Brant, James Madison, Commander-in-Chief, p. 37.
“to cripple & reduce”: Captain John Rodgers to Secretary Hamilton, June 19, 1812, NW1812 I:138 (emphasis in original).
“ought to have been sent”: Brant, James Madison, Commander-in-Chief, p. 37.
“afford to our returning commerce”: Secretary Hamilton to Captain Rodgers, June 22, 1812, NW1812 I:148–49.
sighted a “large Sail”: Captain John Rodgers’ Journal, USS President, June 23, 1812, NW1812 I:154–57.
At eleven, the President cleared: Ibid.
The President having gradually closed: “An account of the proceedings of his majesty’s ship Belvidera, Richard Byron, Esq. captain, 23d day of June, 1812,” in the appendices of William James, Naval Occurrences of the War of 1812: A Full and Correct Account of the Naval War Between Great Britain and the United States of America, 1812–1815.
But at 4:30 p.m.: Captain John Rodgers’ Journal, June 23, 1812, NW1812 I:154–57.
The wounded Rodgers: Ibid.
At sundown: “An account of the proceedings of his majesty’s ship Belvidera,” in James, Naval Occurrences of the War of 1812, appendices.
Tingey…told the Navy Office: Commodore Thomas Tingey to Secretary Hamilton, July 9, 1812, NW1812 I:188–89.
“rather short and thick-set”: Drake, Historic Mansions, p. 31.
“bottom better”: Martin, A Most Fortunate Ship: A Narrative History of Old Ironsides, pp. 99–101.
From the moment the new hands: Smith, Naval Scenes in the Last War, pp. 22–23.
“[T]he Crew you will readily”: Captain Isaac Hull to Secretary Hamilton, July 2, 1812, NW1812 I:160–61.
“use the utmost dispatch”: Secretary Hamilton to Hull, June 18, 1812, NW1812 I:135–36.
“you will be guided”: Quoted in Martin, A Most Fortunate Ship, pp. 103–4.
“to stand very well”: Ibid., p. 104.
“apparently Ships of War”: Captain Isaac Hull to Secretary Hamilton, July 21, 1812, NW1812 I:161.
At 10:00 p.m., Hull judged: Ibid., I:161.
“clustered around him”: Smith, Naval Scenes in the Last War, p. 25.
“every man on board”: Evans, “Journal Kept on Board the United States Frigate Constitution, 1812,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 19 (1895), No. 1, p. 154.
He was assigned: Smith, Naval Scenes in the Last War, p. 25.
The Constitution wallowed: Captain Isaac Hull to Secretary Hamilton, July 21, 1812, NW1812, I:162.
“entirely becalmed”: Morris, Autobiography, p. 52.
“I stood within”: Smith, Naval Scenes in the Last War, p. 26.
“came up very fast”: Captain Isaac Hull to Secretary Hamilton, Ju
ly 21, 1812, NW1812, I:162.
“it was supposed”: Morris, Autobiography, p. 52.
an “inexpressible anxiety”: Evans, “Journal Kept on Board the United States Frigate Constitution, 1812,” No. 1, p. 156.
“pregnant with”: Henry Gilliam to William Jones, September 7, 1812, “Letters of Henry Gilliam, 1809–1817,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 38 (March 1954): 60.
“we resolved to save”: Smith, Naval Scenes in The Last War, pp. 26–27.
“all the spare rigging”: Ibid., p. 27.
“we began to gain”: Captain Isaac Hull to Secretary Hamilton, July 21, 1812, NW1812, I:162.
“to enliven our men”: Morris, Autobiography, p. 53.
fell into “the midst of the group”: Evans, “Journal Kept on Board the United States Frigate Constitution, 1812,” No. 1, p. 154n.
suspended “to the spars”: Morris, Autobiography, p. 53.
the men worked the chain pumps: Evans, “Journal Kept on Board the United States Frigate Constitution, 1812,” No. 1, p. 154.
This raised the Constitution: Captain Isaac Hull to Secretary Hamilton, July 21, 1812, NW1812 I:163.
the officers and seamen: Martin, A Most Fortunate Ship, p. 108.
Constitution and her pursuers: Captain Isaac Hull to Secretary Hamilton, July 21, 1812, NW1812 I:163.
“tolerably steady”: Morris, Autobiography, p. 53.
“Our hopes began”: Ibid., p. 54.
the handling of the American frigate: Master Commandant Oliver Perry to Secretary Hamilton, July 26, 1812, NW1812 I:200.
“the advantages to be”: Morris, Autobiography, p. 55.
“very romantic”: Evans, “Journal Kept on Board the United States Frigate Constitution, 1812,” No. 1, p. 158.
to “work night and day”: Captain Isaac Hull to Secretary Hamilton, July 28, 1812, NW1812 I:206–7.
Hull went ashore: Evans, “Journal Kept on Board the United States Frigate Constitution, 1812,” No. 1, p. 159.
“Captain Hull”: Niles’ Register, vol. 2, p. 381.
“plenty of sermons”: Evans, “Journal Kept on Board the United States Frigate Constitution, 1812,” No. 1, p. 161.
“Should I proceed”: Captain Isaac Hull to Secretary Hamilton, July 28, 1812, NW1812 I:206–7.
he took some spare moments: McKee, A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession, p. 471.