“Yes; on the 5th of December, 1813, he sailed from Newport on another cruise in the President. He expected to fall in with the British squadron, but with a stiff breeze from the north-northwest he got well to sea without falling in with them. The next day he captured the Cornet, which British cruisers had taken from the Americans; then he sailed southward. In the vicinity of the Barbadoes he took, one after another, three British merchantmen. He ran down into the Caribbean Sea and cruised there unsuccessfully for awhile, but finally captured and sunk a British merchantman, then sailed for the coast of Florida.
“Going northward, he was off Charleston Bar on the 11th of February. He did not enter it, however, but continued on up the coast, chasing and being chased, dashing through a vigilant British blockading squadron off Sandy Hook, and sailed into New York harbor on the evening of the eighteenth.”
“Then New York did him honor, didn’t she, father?” said Grace, sitting near, listening to his story.
“Yes,” replied the captain; “many of the citizens did so, and a dinner was given in compliment to him at Tammany Hall. At that dinner, where most of the notables of the city were present, Rodgers gave this toast: ‘Peace, if it can be obtained without the sacrifice of national honor or the abandonment of maritime rights; otherwise, war until peace shall be secured without the sacrifice of either.’”
“A good toast. I like the sentiment expressed,” said Grace. “I think I have read that a good many gentlemen were present there at the dinner.”
“Yes, more than three hundred; many of them shipmasters,” said the captain. “A toast was given to the commodore, followed by eighteen cheers, and a song that some one had written in his honor that morning was sung.”
“Papa,” said Elsie, “was it right for him to put the name of a British vessel on his, and British uniform on his marines, to deceive the British on the Highflyer so that they would come to him and be taken prisoners?”
“No, daughter, I do not think it was,” replied the captain, “though, no doubt, the motive of all of them was good—to defend their country and countrymen from robbery and oppression. But it is never right to do evil that good may come. My good mother’s teaching was, ‘You should die rather than tell a lie, though it were no more than to deny that two and two make four.’ But, no doubt, Rodgers thought his manœuvres all right and fair; and they certainly inflicted no wrong upon the enemy.”
“Is that all the story about him, papa?” asked Ned.
“Just about,” replied his father. “His good ship, the President, now needed a thorough overhauling, and the Secretary of the Navy offered Commodore Rodgers the command of the Guerriere, the ship which Hull took from Dacres, and which might be made ready for sea much sooner than the President. The commodore went to Philadelphia, where the Guerriere was being put in order, and, finding that she was not so nearly ready as he had supposed, he informed the Secretary that he preferred to retain command of the President. But in the meantime the President had been offered to Decatur. Rodgers courteously allowed that commander to take his choice of vessels, and he chose the President. Now, my dears, I think we may consider our naval studies ended for to-night.”