It is a matter of interest to note that Perry was advocating an expedition to peacefully open the ports of Japan to American commerce, when so wise a statesman as Webster viewed the matter with indifference, for that was not the only occasion in the history of the country when the people might well have given a quick ear to the advice of naval officers in the matter of the nation’s foreign policy. As a matter of fact, the officers of the Navy, with their knowledge of the world and their sturdy patriotism, are the safest and in every way the best judges of what the foreign policy of the nation should be.
The Mississippi in a Cyclone on Her Japan Cruise.
From a wood-cut in Perry’s “Narrative” of this trip.
The advance upon Japan was slow. President Jackson sent a man to the East in 1831 with that project, among others, in view. In 1845 Commodore Biddle was sent with the big ship-of-the-line Columbus and the Vincennes to negotiate a treaty, but he was hampered by orders “not to do anything to excite” either hostile feelings toward or distrust of the United States, and nothing was accomplished. Another expedition planned in 1851 failed even to reach the Japanese coast because the commander, Captain James Aulick, of the Susquehanna, was recalled, when en route, to face a charge based on a false report regarding his conduct as a gentleman and an officer.
The Mississippi at Jamestown, St. Helena.
From a lithograph in Perry’s “Narrative.”
Finally, on March 24, 1852, Commodore Perry having been appointed to the mission, he sailed from Norfolk in the steamer Mississippi, and after touching at the Madeiras, St. Helena, the Cape of Good Hope, and elsewhere en route he arrived at Hong Kong, on the southeast corner of China, on April 6, 1853. The American squadron on the China station included the steamer Susquehanna and the sailing-ships Saratoga and the Plymouth. These were added to the expedition, with the Susquehanna as flagship, and on July 8th the squadron was in the Bay of Yeddo and at anchor off Uraga.
As it happened, there was a fog on the sea that morning, and no steamship had ever entered the harbor before that day. This combination of circumstances—the sudden appearance of two big ships propelled out of the fog, with two others in tow, by a power they had never seen, made a profound impression on the people. Yet it was not the impression that an ignorant people would have received, for the authorities were expecting the fleet, having heard of it through the Dutch, and they had read about and had seen pictures of steamships and steam-cars as well.