WORK OF THE AMERICAN NAVY.
It will be noticed that as the war progressed the principal fighting changed from the ocean to the land. Several encounters took place on the sea, but they were mostly unimportant, and did not always result favorably for us. In September, 1814, Captain Samuel C. Reid, in command of the privateer Armstrong, while lying in the harbor of Fayal, one of the Azores, was attacked by a fleet of boats from three British frigates. He fought all through the night, and, although outnumbered twenty to one, made one of the most remarkable defenses in naval annals.
On the 16th of January following, the President was captured by the British ship Endymion. On the 20th of February, while Captain Charles Stewart was cruising off Cape St. Vincent, in the Constitution, with no thought that peace had been declared, he fell in with two British brigs, the Cyane and the Levant. It was a bright moonlight night, and, after a brief engagement, in which Stewart displayed consummate seamanship, he captured both vessels.
But peace had come and was joyfully welcomed everywhere. The war had cost us heavily in men, ships, and property; the New England factories were idle, commerce at a standstill, and the whole country in a deplorable state. But everything now seemed to spring into life under the glad tidings. The shipping in New England was decked with bunting, and, within twenty-four hours after the news arrived, the dockyards rang with the sound of saw and hammer.
WAR WITH ALGIERS.
The Barbary States did not forget their rough treatment at the hands of the United States a few years before. During the war they allowed the British to capture American vessels in their harbors, and sometimes captured them on their own account. In 1812 the Dey of Algiers compelled the American consul to pay him a large sum of money to save himself, family, and a few friends from being carried off into slavery. We were too busily occupied elsewhere to give this barbarian attention, but in March, 1815, war was declared against Algiers, and Commodores Decatur and Bainbridge were sent to the Mediterranean with two squadrons to conduct operations.
They did it to perfection. After capturing several frigates, they approached the city of Algiers and demanded the immediate surrender of every American prisoner, full indemnity for all property destroyed, and the disavowal of all future claims to tribute. The terrified Dey eagerly signed the treaty placed before him on the quarter-deck of Decatur's ship. The Pasha of Tunis was compelled to pay a round sum on account of the American vessels he had allowed the British to capture in his harbor during the war. When he had done this, the Pasha of Tripoli was called upon and forced to make a similar contribution to the United States treasury.
FOUNDING OF THE NATIONAL COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
The negro had long been a disturbing factor in politics, and, in 1816, the National Colonization Society was formed in Princeton, N.J., and immediately reorganized in Washington. Its object was to encourage the emancipation of slaves by obtaining a place for them outside the United States, whither they might emigrate. It was hoped also that by this means the South would be relieved of its free black population. The scheme was so popular that branches of the society were established in almost every State. At first free negroes were sent to Sierra Leone, on the western coast of Africa, under the equator. Later, for a short time, they were taken to Sherbrooke Island, but in 1821 a permanent location was purchased at Cape Mesurado, where, in 1847, the colony declared itself an independent republic under the name of Liberia. Its capital, Monrovia, was named in honor of the President of the United States. The republic still exists, but its functions were destroyed by the war for the Union, which abolished slavery on this continent, and Liberia has never been looked upon with great favor by the colored people of this country.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1816.