As gunfire raked the cutter, Farrington ordered his men to lie flat in the boat. He grabbed an oar and maneuvered the craft ashore below the smugglers’ hiding place. Then he and his men leaped ashore and started to move against the smugglers.
They had advanced only a few yards when the attackers fired the blunderbuss artillery piece. Two men fell dead under the hail of lead, and Farrington was badly wounded. Sergeant Johnson rallied the men and succeeded in capturing all but two of the Black Snake’s crew. They were lodged in jail at Burlington, and later the two smugglers who escaped were rounded up.
Cyrus B. Dean, one of the smugglers, was convicted of murder and sentenced to be hanged. A crowd of ten thousand gathered in Burlington to witness the execution, and some historians say that Dean was the first man to die of capital punishment in Vermont. Others of the gang, including Mudgett, were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to prison.
The smuggling did not stop when the United States went to war with Great Britain in 1812. The British army in Canada was willing to pay high prices for cattle and other provisions at that time. The Customs officers were almost helpless in trying to halt the traffic across the border. Huge herds of fat oxen and cattle were driven through the woods to the border and turned over to Canadians. The militia were called out to halt the traffic in cattle, but even the militia were unable to man all the crossing points along the border.
Customs officers seized cattle, horses, provisions of all kinds, merchandise, furs, and other articles from the smugglers. It also was found that some Vermonters were making contracts with the British to supply them with masts and spars for their naval vessels. And it was whispered that a prominent Vermont businessman was the backer of a smuggling gang which was selling materials to the British navy. There were gun battles between Customs men and the smugglers.
The War of 1812 had been underway for two years when Sir George Prevost, Governor General of Canada, wrote to Lord Bathurst in the British Foreign Office reporting that “two-thirds of the army in Canada are at this moment eating beef provided by American contractors, drawn principally from the States of Vermont and New York.”
Secretary of War Armstrong was informed by one of his generals that the only way that intercourse with the enemy could be halted was to line the border with troops—which obviously was impossible. The General reported: “Like herds of buffaloes they pressed through the forest, making paths for themselves. Were it not for these supplies, the British forces in Canada would soon be suffering from famine, or their government be subjected to enormous expense for their maintenance.”
The young Customs Service now had fought gun battles on land and “at sea” in an effort to enforce the law. This was a fight that still would be going on a century and a half later.
4
THE PIRATES OF NEW ORLEANS
On November 24, 1813, most citizens of New Orleans were chuckling over a new proclamation, bearing the signature of Gov. W. C. C. Claiborne, which had been posted on bulletin boards throughout the city. They were not so much amused because the Governor had accused a pirate of attacking a U.S. Customs officer (although this was amusing enough to many), but because Claiborne actually expected someone to take seriously his offer of a $500 reward for the capture of the pirate Jean Laffite.