STEPHEN DECATUR.

Stephen Decatur, a celebrated American naval officer, was born January 5, 1779, on the eastern shore of Maryland, whither his parents had retired while the British were in Philadelphia. He entered the American navy in March, 1798, and was soon promoted to the rank of first lieutenant. While at Syracuse, attached to the squadron of commodore Preble, he was first informed of the fate of the American frigate Philadelphia, which, in pursuing a Tripolitan corsair, ran on a rock about four and a half miles from Tripoli, and was taken by the Tripolitans, and towed into the harbor. Lieutenant Decatur conceived the project of attempting her recapture or destruction. He selected, for this purpose, a ketch, and manned her with 70 volunteers. February 16, 1804, at 7 o’clock at night, he entered the harbor of Tripoli, boarded the frigate, though she had all her guns mounted and charged, and was lying within half-gun shot of the bashaw’s castle and of his principal battery. Two Tripolitan cruisers were lying within two cables’ length, on the starboard quarter and several gun-boats within half-gun-shot on the starboard bow, and all the batteries upon the shore were opened upon the assailants. Decatur set fire to the frigate, and continued alongside until her destruction was certain. For this exploit, the American congress voted him thanks and a sword, and the president immediately sent him a captaincy. The next spring, it being resolved to make an attack upon Tripoli, commodore Preble equipped six gun-boats and two bombards, formed them into two divisions, and gave the command of one of them to captain Decatur. The enemy’s gun-boats were moored along the mouth of the harbor, under the batteries, and within musket-shot. Captain Decatur determined to board the enemy’s eastern division, consisting of nine. He boarded in his own boat, and carried two of the enemy’s boats in succession. When he boarded the second boat, he immediately attacked her commander, who was his superior in size and strength, and, his sword being broken, he seized the Turk, when a violent scuffle ensued. The Turk threw him, and drew a dirk for the purpose of stabbing him, when Decatur, having a small pistol in his right pocket, took hold of it, and, turning it as well as he could, so as to take effect upon his antagonist, cocked it, fired through his pocket, and killed him. When Commodore Preble was superseded in the command of the squadron, he gave the frigate Constitution to Decatur, who was afterwards removed to the Congress, and returned home in her when peace was concluded with Tripoli. He succeeded commodore Barron in the command of the Chesapeake, after the attack made upon her by the British man-of-war Leopard. He was afterwards transferred to the frigate United States. In the war between Great Britain and the United States, while commanding the frigate United States, he fell in, Oct. 25, 1812, with the Macedonian, mounting 49 carriage-guns, one of the finest of the British vessels of her class, and captured her after an engagement of an hour and a half. When captain Carden, the commander of the Macedonian, tendered him his sword, he observed that he could not think of taking the sword of an officer who had defended his ship so gallantly, but should be happy to take him by the hand. In a letter written five days after the capture, he says, “I need not tell you that I have done every thing in my power to soothe and console captain Carden; for, really, one half the pleasure of this little victory is destroyed in witnessing the mortification of a brave man, who deserved success quite as much as we did who obtained it.” In January, 1814, commodore Decatur, in the United States, with his prize the Macedonian, then equipped as an American frigate, was blockaded at New London by a British squadron greatly superior in force. A challenge which he sent to the commander of the British squadron, sir Thomas Hardy, offering to meet two of the British frigates with his two ships, was declined. In January, 1815, he attempted to set sail from New York, which was blockaded by four British ships; but the frigate under his command, the President, was injured in passing the bar, and was captured by the whole squadron, after having maintained a running fight of two hours and a half with one of the frigates, the Endymion, which was dismantled and silenced. After the conclusion of peace, he was restored to his country, in 1815. The conduct of the Barbary powers, and of Algiers in particular, having been insulting to the United States, on the ratification of peace with Great Britain, war was declared against Algiers, and a squadron was fitted out, under the command of commodore Decatur, for the purpose of obtaining redress. In the spring of 1815, he set sail, and, June 17, off cape de Gatt, captured an Algerine frigate, after a running fight of 25 minutes, in which the famous admiral Rais Hammida, who had long been the terror of the Mediterranean sea, fell. The American squadron arrived at Algiers June 28. In less than 48 hours, Decatur terrified the regency into his own terms, which were, mainly, that no tribute should ever be required, by Algiers, from the United States of America; that all Americans in slavery should be given up without ransom; that compensation should be made for American property seized; that all citizens of the United States, taken in war, should be treated as prisoners of war are by other nations, and not as slaves, but held subject to an exchange without ransom. After concluding this treaty, he proceeded to Tunis, where he obtained indemnity for the outrages exercised or permitted by the bashaw. Thence he went to Tripoli, where he made a similar demand with like success, and procured the release of 10 captives, Danes and Neapolitans. He arrived at the United States Nov. 12, 1815, was subsequently appointed one of the board of navy commissioners, and was residing at Washington, in that capacity, when he was killed in a duel with commodore Barron, March 22, 1820, occasioned by his animadversions on the conduct of the latter. Courage, sagacity, energy, self-possession, and a high sense of honor, were the characteristic traits of Decatur. From his boyhood, he was remarkable for the qualities which presage eminence in naval warfare. He enjoyed the sea as his element. He possessed an active, muscular frame, a quick and penetrating eye, and a bold, adventurous and ambitious spirit.

COMMODORE ISAAC HULL.

Commodore Isaac Hull, was born in Connecticut, March 9th 1775. His father was an officer in the American army during the whole of the revolutionary war, and was detained for a long time a prisoner in the Jersey prison-ship. Commodore Hull’s passion for the sea was very early displayed, and became stronger as he grew up. With the hope of diverting his attention to other pursuits, he was sent by his friends to his uncle, General William Hull, at Boston, where he went to school. The object desired, however, not having been accomplished, they consented to his making a voyage. This proved a disastrous one; the vessel in which he sailed being wrecked on the coast of Ireland. He nevertheless returned home fortified in his resolution of leading the life of a seaman, which his family no longer opposed. At the age of 19, he already commanded a ship to London. On the passage of a bill by Congress for the increase of the navy, he made application for a lieutenantcy in the U. S. service, and devoted himself assiduously, while awaiting the decision of the government in his case, to the studies necessary for the naval profession. He was commissioned as a lieutenant on the 9th of March 1798, the day on which he completed his 23d year. He was ordered to the frigate Constitution, then preparing for sea at Boston. For a period of about four years, he was occupied in cruising on the West India station, for the protection of American merchantmen going to or returning from the Windward Islands. In 1808, he distinguished himself by cutting out of the harbor of Port Platte, in the island of Hayti, the French letter of marque, the Sandwich; an enterprise executed with great gallantry and spirit, and without any loss to the assailants. On the return of the Constitution to Boston, Lieutenant Hull was directed to superintend the repairs of the ship; but before this service was completed, he was ordered to proceed as first lieutenant of the frigate Adams to the Mediterranean. He subsequently commanded the schooner Enterprise of 12 guns, and rendered in her effectual aid to Captain Rodgers in the John Adams, in capturing a large corsair before the harbor of Tripoli. The next vessel that he was appointed to command was the Argus of 16 guns, which was in 1804; in which year, also, he was promoted to the rank of a master-commandant. He was made a captain in 1806. In the Argus, he cruised for some time off the coast of Morocco to watch the movements of corsairs in the ports of that state; and after rejoining Commodore Preble’s squadron off Tripoli, he was ordered to the Bay of Naples, and charged with the protection of American property in the event of the French gaining possession of that city. The next office intrusted to him was the conveying, on board of his vessel, of General Eaton and his officers to Alexandria, in Egypt. He at length returned to the United States, after an absence of four years and three months, and was immediately ordered to superintend the construction of gun-boats, in pursuance of the system adopted during the administration of President Jefferson. He was successively appointed to the command of the Norfolk Navy-Yard, and gun-boats on that station; to the command of the frigate Chesapeake; to that of the Constitution, in which vessel he conveyed to France, Mr. Barlow, the American minister to Napoleon; and to that of the navy-yard and gun-boats in the harbor of New York. At the commencement of the war of 1812, Captain Hull was appointed once more to command the Constitution frigate. He sailed in her from Annapolis on the 12th of July; and in the course of a few days an opportunity was afforded him of exhibiting a specimen of skillful seamanship and naval manœuvring, of so extraordinary a nature as to excite the admiration even of the enemy. After a chase of nearly three days, and as many nights, he succeeded in effecting his escape from a British squadron consisting of the Africa 64 gun-ship, 4 frigates and a brig. On the 19th of the following month, he had the good fortune to encounter the Guerriere, one of the frigates of this squadron, single-handed. There is, perhaps, no instance on record of a greater execution having been performed by an equal force, and in an equal time, in naval warfare, than was done by the Constitution on the present occasion. Although there was an interval of about two hours between the firing of the first and the last shot, the battle was really won in a fourth part of that time. Of the Americans 14 only, of the British 79, were killed or wounded; and while the Constitution was so little injured as to be ready to engage another frigate immediately afterwards, had she been called upon to do so, the Guerriere was completely dismasted, and reduced to a mere wreck. On his return into port, Captain Hull gave up the command of the Constitution, ‘with a feeling,’ to use the words of Mr. Cooper, ‘that was highly creditable to him, in order to allow others an equal chance to distinguish themselves; there being unfortunately many more captains than vessels in the navy at that trying moment.’ He was then appointed to the command of the navy-yard at Boston, and about a year afterwards was transferred to that at Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, where he remained until he was selected to be one of the first Navy Commissioners. After holding this office for a few months only, he accepted once more the command of the Boston station, and remained there eight years. At the expiration of this time, he was sent, in the frigate United States, to command the American squadron in the Pacific Ocean. Returning home in three or four years, he was ordered to the command of the Washington Navy-Yard. There he spent seven years, and, having obtained leave of absence, went to Europe with his family, and continued abroad two years. Upon his return, he was employed on various courts-martial, and other duties, for about 12 months. He was then appointed to the command of the line-of-battle-ship Ohio, and of the Mediterranean squadron; which cruise lasted nearly three years. Commodore Hull, finding his health to have become seriously impaired by the unremitted and arduous duties which he had been called upon to perform, asked for, and had granted to him, an unconditional leave of absence from the naval service. He established himself in the city of Philadelphia in the month of October 1842. And he died here on the 13th of February 1843. He was ever exemplary in the performance of his private, as of his public duties; and the modesty, amiability, and courtesy, of his intercourse with others, as strikingly characterized him as did his self-possession and intrepidity in danger.

OLIVER HAZARD PERRY.

Oliver Hazard Perry, a distinguished American naval officer, was born at Newport, Rhode Island, in August, 1785. His father was an officer in the United States navy, and he was early destined to follow his father’s profession. In 1798, he entered the service as a midshipman on board the sloop of war General Greene, then commanded by his father; and, when that vessel went out of commission, he was transferred to a squadron destined to the Mediterranean. He served during the Tripolitan war, and, though debarred, by his extreme youth, from an opportunity of distinguishing himself, he acquired, by his conduct, the regard and favor of his superior officers, and the friendship and esteem of his associates. Continuing sedulously attentive to his profession, he rose with sure and regular steps. In 1810, he was attached, as lieutenant-commandant, to the squadron of commodore Rodgers, at New London, and employed in cruising in the sound, to enforce the embargo act. In the following spring, he had the misfortune to be wrecked on Watch Hill reef, opposite Stonington, in consequence of having become enveloped in a thick mist, which prevented all possibility of ascertaining his course. By his intrepidity and coolness, however, he succeeded, in a great measure, in saving the guns and property, and got off all his crew. He was examined before a court of inquiry, at his own request, in relation to the loss, and not merely acquitted of all blame, but highly applauded for his conduct. He also received a very complimentary letter, on the occasion, from the secretary of the navy, Mr. Hamilton. Soon after this event, he returned to Newport, where he married the daughter of doctor Mason.

In the beginning of 1812, he was promoted to the rank of master and commander, and ordered to the command of the flotilla of gun-boats stationed at the harbor of New York. After remaining there a year, he grew tired of the irksome and inglorious nature of this service, and solicited to be removed to another of a more active kind. His request was complied with; and, as he had mentioned the lakes, he was ordered to repair to Sacket’s Harbor, lake Ontario, with a body of mariners, to reinforce commodore Chauncey. Such was his popularity amongst the sailors under his command, that, as soon as the order was known, almost all of them volunteered to accompany him. The rivers being completely frozen at the time, he was obliged, at the head of a large number of chosen seamen, to perform the journey by land, which he safely accomplished. Not long after his arrival at Sacket’s Harbor, commodore Chauncey detached him to take command of the squadron on lake Erie, and superintend the building of additional vessels. He immediately applied to increase his armament, and, with extraordinary exertions, two brigs, of twenty guns each were soon launched at Erie, the American port on the lake. When he found himself in a condition to cope with the British force on the same waters, although the latter were still superior in men and guns, he sought the contest, and, on the morning of the 10th of September, 1813, he achieved the victory which has given his name a permanent place in the history of his country. The details of this famous action, the manner in which it was brought to a fortunate issue by the intrepidity of the commander, in exposing himself in a small boat, for the purpose of shifting his flag from a vessel no longer tenable to one in which he could continue the fight, and in which he did continue it until the enemy’s pennant was lowered, are matters of history familiar to all. The merit of Perry is greatly enhanced by the reflection, that, whilst no victory was ever more decidedly the result of the skill and valor of the commander, this was the first action of any kind he had ever seen. The moderation and courtesy which he displayed towards the enemy, after the termination of the contest, were worthy of the gallantry by which it was gained, and caused the British commander, who had lost the battle by no fault of his, to say that ‘the conduct of Perry towards the captive officers and men, was sufficient of itself to immortalize him.’ In testimony of his merit, Perry was promoted to the rank of captain, received the thanks of congress and a medal, and the like marks of honor from the senate of Pennsylvania.

After the evacuation of Malden by the enemy, Perry acted as a volunteer aid to general Harrison, in his pursuit of the British, and was present at the battle of Moraviantown, October 5. At the time of the invasion of Maryland and Virginia, he commanded a body of seamen and mariners on the Potomac. He was afterwards appointed to command the Java frigate, built at Baltimore, and, on the conclusion of peace with England, sailed, in 1815, in the squadron under commodore Decatur, despatched to the Mediterranean to settle affairs between the United States and Algiers. While in that sea, some difference arose between him and Mr. Heath, commandant of marines on board his ship. This produced a courtmartial, by which both were subjected to a private reprimand from commodore Chauncey; but the affair did not terminate until a hostile meeting had taken place. The duel was fought in New Jersey, opposite to New York, in the summer of 1818. Neither party was injured, Heath having missed his aim, and Perry having fired in the air. In June, 1819, commodore Perry sailed from Chesapeake in the United States ship John Adams, for the West Indies and a cruise, with sealed orders, and was subsequently joined by other vessels, the whole under his command. His term of service, however, was near its end. In August, 1820, he was attacked by the yellow fever, and, after a few days’ illness, expired on the twenty-third of the same month, just as the vessel in which he was entered Port Spain, Trinidad. He was buried the next day with due honor; and in his own country every tribute of respect was paid to his memory. Congress made a liberal provision for the maintenance and education of his family.

JOHN MARSHALL.

John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States, was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, on the 24th of September 1755. He was the son of Colonel Thomas Marshall, a planter of a moderate fortune, who afterwards served with distinction in the American army, during the war of the Revolution; and he was the eldest of 15 children. Colonel Marshall had removed with his family to a place called ‘The Hollow’ in the mountains east of the Blue Ridge, and, from the want of schools in that neighborhood, became of necessity the first instructor of his son. Being a man of vigorous intellect, though of a comparatively limited education, he succeeded in efficiently training the opening faculties of the latter, and imbuing him with a taste for literature. At the age of 14, young Marshall was placed under the charge of a Mr. Campbell, a respectable clergyman, at the distance of 100 miles from home, and remained with him a year; and he then pursued his classical studies for another year, under the direction of a Scottish gentleman who resided in his father’s family, and had lately become the pastor of the parish to which he belonged. This was all the formal instruction which he received at this period of his life, as he was never at any college. On the breaking out of the revolutionary war, Mr. Marshall embraced with ardor the cause of his country, and was engaged in the action at the Great Bridge, where Lord Dunmore was defeated by the provincial militia. He was appointed a lieutenant in the continental army in July 1776, and promoted to the rank of a captain in May 1777. He was present at the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth, and continued to serve with distinction until the time of enlistment of the troops with which he served had expired, when he returned to Virginia. An interval of 9 or 10 months was now occupied by him in prosecuting the study of the law, which he had already previously entered upon. Having been admitted to the bar, he again joined the army in October 1780, and served under the orders of Baron Steuben, in the defense of Virginia from the invasion of a British force commanded by General Arnold. But before the renewed invasion of the State in the following year, there being more officers than was required by the Virginia line, he resigned his commission; and, on the reöpening of the courts of law after the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, he commenced the practice of his profession, in which he rose rapidly to distinction. In the course of the year 1782, Mr. Marshall was chosen first a member of the Legislature, and then of the Executive Council. On his resignation of the last-mentioned office in 1784, he was, though residing at the time in Richmond, elected a member of the Legislature from his native county of Fauquier; and in 1787, he represented the county of Henrico in the same body. We next find him, as one of the delegates to the convention of Virginia which met in June 1788 for the ratification of the constitution of the United States, ably defending against its adversaries the provisions of this instrument,—​especially those relating to the powers of taxation, over the militia, and of the judiciary, granted by it to the general government. He was elected a member of the Legislature from the city of Richmond in 1789, 1790 and 1791. He declined a reëlection in 1792, and from this period until 1795, was occupied uninterruptedly in the practice of his profession. His friends were, however, unwilling in a season of great political excitement,—​it was just after the conclusion of ‘Jay’s treaty,’—​that he should remain abstracted from any participation in public affairs; and they, accordingly, elected him once more to the Legislature; where, if he did not succeed in preventing the adoption of resolutions approving of the votes of the senators from Virginia, against the ratification of the treaty, on the ground of its inexpediency,—​to him at least it was in a great measure owing that they did not touch the constitutional objection, and that they disclaimed all intention to censure the motives of the President of the United States (General Washington) in ratifying it. The extraordinary ability displayed at this time by Mr. Marshall obtained for him a conspicuous position in every part of the country, and he came to be regarded as a proper person to fill the highest political offices. Accordingly, he was offered successively the appointments of attorney-general of the United States, and minister to France, (on the recall of Mr. Monroe, in 1796,) both of which he declined. He continued in the Legislature of Virginia, where, however, he participated in the discussions only on important questions of general policy, his attention being for the most part given to his professional business, which had now become very extensive and lucrative. On his refusal to accept of the embassy to France, General Pinckney was appointed in his stead. But the French government (the Directory) having refused to receive the latter, Mr. Adams, who was then the president, deemed it proper to make a last effort to preserve peace with France, by sending a special mission to that country. For this purpose, Mr. Marshall, in conjunction with General Pinckney and Mr. Gerry, was selected; and in the then existing critical posture of our foreign relations, he did not feel himself at liberty, as before, to decline the appointment tendered to him. The mission was unsuccessful, the American envoys not having been even received as such. Their letters, addressed to Talleyrand, the French minister of foreign affairs, are attributed to the pen of Mr. Marshall, and have been applauded as admirable specimens of diplomacy. In the summer of 1798, Mr. Marshall returned to the United States; in 1799, at the urgent request of General Washington, he became a candidate and was elected to Congress; and in 1800, he was appointed secretary of war, and then secretary of state. During the short period that he was in Congress, it is needless to say that he ranked among the ablest of that body, and on all constitutional questions above every other member. ‘When he discussed them,’ remarks Mr. Binney, in his Eulogy of Mr. Marshall, ‘he exhausted them; nothing more remained to be said, and the impression of his argument effaced that of every one else.’ The speech which he delivered on the surrender of the person of Jonathan Robbins, on the requisition of the British minister in this country, under a clause of the treaty with Great Britain, upon a charge of murder committed on board a British frigate,—​which speech is believed to be the only one that he ever revised,—​is thus characterized by the same gentleman: ‘It has all the merits, and nearly all the weight, of a judicial sentence. It is throughout inspired by the purest reason, and the most copious and accurate learning. It separates the executive from the judicial power by a line so distinct, and a discrimination so wise, that all can perceive and approve it. It demonstrated that the surrender was an act of political power which belonged to the executive; and by excluding all such power from the grant of the constitution to the judiciary, it prepared a pillow of repose for that department, where the success of the opposite argument would have planted thorns.’ It may be mentioned that, during his term of service in Congress, he voted for the repeal of the obnoxious section of the act commonly known by the name of the ‘Sedition Law,’ and evinced his superiority to mere considerations of party, by thus voting in opposition to all the members with whose political opinions his own generally corresponded. On the 31st of January 1800, Mr. Marshall became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, an office which he filled with the highest honor to himself, and with the greatest advantage to his country, for upwards of 36 years. ‘The decision of the Supreme Court of the United States,’ we again quote the words of Mr. Binney, ‘have raised the renown of the country, not less than they have confirmed the constitution. In all parts of the world, its judgments are spoken of with respect. Its adjudications of prize law are a code for all future time. Upon commercial law it has brought us nearly to one system, befitting the probity and interest of a great commercial nation. Over its whole path, learning and intelligence and integrity have shed their combined lustre.’ Judge Marshall was a member of the convention which met in the year 1829, for revising the constitution of Virginia. He spoke with much power on both of the great questions which divided and agitated the parties composing that body, namely, the basis of representation and the tenure of judicial office; and while he contributed, by the sound sense and moderation of his views in reference to the former, to produce a compromise between the extreme opinions entertained concerning it, he was in no ordinary degree instrumental in causing the tenure of good behavior, for the judges of the Superior Courts, to be adopted in the proposed constitution, guarded ‘by a clause against the construction which had in one instance prevailed, that the repeal of the law establishing the court, and by a mere majority, should dissolve the tenure, and discharge the judge upon the world.’ Having been for some months in feeble health, he visited Philadelphia that he might have the benefit of the most skillful medical aid, and died in that city, on the 6th of July 1835. Judge Marshall published his ‘Life of Washington’ in 1805, in 5 volumes. It was greatly improved and compressed into 2 volumes, in a second edition which appeared in 1832. The first volume of the original work was published in a separate form in 1824, under the title of ‘The History of the American Colonies.’