Referring to the press comments at the time, a very interesting circumstance occurred, which may prove to be well worth the reading, especially as showing that contemporaneous press notices taking only one view of a question are untrustworthy recorders of history. A Bermuda paper, the Royal Gazette, published on the 2d of April a scurrilous and unwarrantable attack, false in its every statement, that impugned the character of Decatur and cast a slur on the name of each one of his officers. The article, in giving the reports of the capture, stated that the President had struck to the Endymion, and that after she had done so Commodore Decatur concealed sixty-eight men in the hold of the President for the purpose of rising on the prize crew and recapturing her. On the appearance of this account Captain Hope of the Endymion immediately sent an officer to Commodore Decatur, disclaiming any participation in the article, and the governor of the island demanded of the editor of the Royal Gazette that he should immediately retract the statement. This the editor, much against his will, did, but inserted a foot-note in large print stating that the retraction was inserted “merely as an act of generosity and a palliative for the irritated feelings of prisoners of war.” He asserted that what he had said at first was correct, and declared that the deception he had referred to was planned and authorized by Commodore Decatur. It is of interest to quote an extract from an official letter sent by the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda to the editor of the Royal Gazette upon the appearance of this second article.
The governor’s secretary writes for his chief as follows:
“The Editor of the Royal Gazette:
“Your publication of Thursday imposes it upon His Excellency the Governor, as a duty to himself, to Captain Hope, and to the British nation, and in common justice to Commodore Decatur, who is not present to defend himself from the aspersions that you have cast upon him, not to admit of such a document standing uncontradicted in a paper published under the immediate authority of His Majesty’s government. His Excellency is thoroughly aware of the great importance of preserving to the utmost extent perfect freedom of discussion and the fullest liberty of the press in every part of the British dominions. Undoubtedly, therefore, nothing could be further from his intentions than the most distant desire to compel a British editor to retract a statement founded on truth; but when a statement is founded on falsehood, His Excellency conceives it to be incumbent on him equally, in duty to the British public and in support of the true character of the British press, to demand that that falsehood, whether directed against friend or foe, should be instantly retracted, or that the paper which thinks fit to disgrace its columns by persevering in error should no longer be distinguished by royal protection.”
Some weeks later, in an issue of March 2d, the following extract attracts attention in a Bermuda journal:
“On Wednesday evening last Mr. Randolph, of the United States Navy, late of the President frigate, in company with some other officers of the ship, attacked the editor of the Royal Gazette in a most violent and unprovoked manner with a stick, while he was walking unarmed. The timely arrival of some British officers prevented his proceeding to further acts of violence, and, the guard shortly after coming up, the officer decamped, and the next morning, we understand, he was hoisted into a boat at the crane from the Market Wharf and absconded. An honorable way, truly, for an officer to quit a place where he had been treated with civility and politeness.”
However, it will not do to leave the subject without quoting from a letter which the Mr. Randolph referred to wrote over his own signature and sent to the editors of the Commercial Advertiser, after his return to New York, in which he observes, after reference to the Bermuda Royal Gazette, the affair of the stick, and the “acts of violence,” as follows:
“As soon as I read the scurrilous remarks in the Royal Gazette of the fifteenth ult., in relation to the capture of the late U. S. frigate President, I walked to the King’s Square with the determination to chastise the editor. I soon fell in with him, and executed my purpose in the most ample and satisfactory manner. There was no American officer in the company except Midshipman Emmett, and Mr. Ward, the editor, was accompanied by Lieutenant Sammon, of the Royal Navy, but by neither of these officers was I interrupted or assisted in the operation.
“Having previously obtained my passports, and being advised that the editor of the Royal Gazette was taking measures to employ the civil authority against me, I left the island the next day for the United States.
“I am, Gentlemen, etc., etc.,”
“R. B. Randolph, Midshipman,
“Late of the U. S. frigate President”
Upon Decatur’s return to the United States he was treated as a hero, and received the usual ovation given to victors when they return to their native land. The President was spoken of by her captors as a model of naval architecture, and her method of construction recommended to British ship-builders.