A Book of the United States / Exhibiting its geography, divisions, constitution, and government ... and presenting a view of the republic generally, and of the individual states; together with a condensed history of the land, from its first discovery to the present time. The biography of about two hundred of the leading men: a description of the principal cities and towns; with statistical tables

by Unknown

On the 4th of September, commodore Preble, in order to try new experiments of annoyance, determined to send a fireship into the enemy’s harbor. The Intrepid was fitted out for this service, being filled with powder, shells, and other combustible materials. Captain Somers, who had often been the emulous rival of Decatur in the career of glory, was appointed to conduct her in, having for his associates in the hazardous enterprise lieutenants Wadsworth and Israel, all volunteers. The Argus, Vixen, and Nautilus, were to convey the Intrepid as far as the mouth of the harbor. Captain Somers and lieutenant Wadsworth made choice of two of the fleetest boats in the squadron, manned with picked crews, to bring them out. At eight o’clock in the evening she stood into the harbor with a moderate breeze. Several shot were fired at her from the batteries. She had nearly gained her place of destination when she exploded, without having made any of the signals previously concerted to show that the crew was safe. Night hung over the dreadful catastrophe, and left the whole squadron a prey to the most painful anxiety. The convoy hovered about the harbor until sunrise, when no remains could be discovered either of the Intrepid or her boats. Doubt was turned into certainty, that she had prematurely blown up, as one of the enemy’s gun-boats was observed to be missing, and several others much shattered and damaged.

Commodore Preble, in his account, says, that he was led to believe ‘that those boats were detached from the enemy’s flotilla to intercept the ketch, and without suspecting her to be a fireship, the missing boats had suddenly boarded her, when the gallant Somers and the heroes of his party observing the other three boats surrounding them, and no prospect of escape, determined at once to prefer death, and the destruction of the enemy, to captivity and torturing slavery, put a match to the train leading directly to the magazine, which at once blew the whole into the air, and terminated their existence;’ and he adds, that his ‘conjectures respecting this affair are founded on a resolution which captain Somers and lieutenants Wadsworth and Israel had formed,neither to be taken by the enemy, nor suffer him to get possession of the powder on board the Intrepid.’[144] Soon after these events, commodore Preble gave up the command in the Mediterranean to commodore Barron, and returned to the United States. His eminent services were enthusiastically acknowledged by his admiring fellow-citizens, as well as those of his associates in arms, ‘whose names,’ in the expressive language of congress on the occasion, ‘ought to live in the recollection and affection of a grateful country, and whose conduct ought to be regarded as an example to future generations.’

While the squadron remained before Tripoli other deeds of heroism were performed. William Eaton, who had been a captain in the American army, was, at the commencement of this war, consul at Tunis. He there became acquainted with Hamet Caramauly, whom a younger brother had excluded from the throne of Tripoli. With him he concerted an expedition against the reigning sovereign, and repaired to the United States to obtainpermission and the means to undertake it. Permission was granted, the co-operation of the squadron recommended, and such pecuniary assistance as could be spared was afforded. To raise an army in Egypt, and lead it to attack the usurper in his dominions, was the project which had been concerted. In the beginning of 1805, Eaton met Hamet at Alexandria, and was appointed general of his forces. On the 6th of March, at the head of a respectable body of mounted Arabs, and about seventy Christians, he set out for Tripoli. His route lay across a desert one thousand miles in extent. On his march, he encountered peril, fatigue, and suffering, the description of which would resemble the exaggerations of romance. On the 25th of April, having been fifty days on the march, he arrived before Derne, a Tripolitan city on the Mediterranean, and found in the harbor a part of the American squadron destined to assist him. He learnt also that the usurper, having received notice of his approach, had raised a considerable army, and was then within a day’s march of the city. No time was therefore to be lost.

The next morning he summoned the governor to surrender, who returned for answer, ‘My head or yours.’ The city was assaulted, and after a contest of two hours and a half, possession was gained. The Christians suffered severely, and the general was slightly wounded. Great exertions were immediately made to fortify the city. On the 8th of May it was attacked by the Tripolitan army. Although ten times more numerous than Eaton’s band, the assailants, after persisting four hours in the attempt, were compelled to retire. On the 10th of June another battle was fought, in which the enemy were defeated. The next day the American frigate Constitution arrived in the harbor, which so terrified the Tripolitans that they fled precipitately to the desert. The frigate came, however, to arrest the operations of Eaton in the midst of his brilliant and successful career. Alarmed at his progress, the reigning bashaw had offered terms of peace, which being much more favorable than had before been offered, were accepted by Mr. Lear, the authorized agent of the government. Sixty thousand dollars were given as a ransom for the unfortunate American prisoners, and an engagement was made to withdraw all support from Hamet. The nation, proud of the exploits of Eaton, regretted this diplomatic interference, but the treaty was subsequently ratified by the president and senate.

During the year 1804, the Delaware Indians relinquished to the United States their title to an extensive tract east of the Mississippi, between the Wabash and Ohio, for which they were to receive annuities in animals and implements for agriculture, and in other necessaries. This was an important acquisition, not only for its extent and fertility, but because, by its commanding the Ohio for three hundred miles, and nearly half that distance the Wabash, the produce of the settled country could be safely conveyed down those rivers, and, with the cession recently made by Kaskaskias, it nearly consolidated the possessions of the United States north of the Ohio, from lake Erie to the Mississippi.

Early in the following year Mr. Jefferson was re-elected to fill the president’s chair by the decided majority of sixty-two votes against sixteen,a circumstance which he viewed as an indication of a great decay in the strength of the federal party.[145] George Clinton was also elected vice-president.

During the year 1806, a circumstance occurred which put to the test the attachment of the inhabitants of the southern and western states, as well as the good faith of the American government in her foreign relations. Colonel Burr, whose character and influence had formerly encouraged him in the hope of filling the highest office of his country, subsequently lost the public confidence and fell into obscurity. While unobserved by his fellow-citizens he was by no means inactive; he was employed in purchasing and building boats on the Ohio, and in engaging men to descend that river. His professed intention was to form a settlement on the banks of the Washita, in Louisiana; but the nature of his preparations, and the incautious disclosures of his associates, led to the suspicion that his real object was of a far different character.

‘His conspiracy,’ says president Jefferson, in a letter to the marquis de la Fayette, ‘has been one of the most flagitious of which history will ever furnish an example. He meant to separate the western states from us, to add Mexico to them, place himself at their head, establish what he would deem an energetic government, and thus provide an example and an instrument for the subversion of our freedom. The man who could expect to affect this with American materials must be a fit subject for Bedlam. Nothing has ever so strongly proved the innate force of our form of government as this conspiracy. Burr had probably engaged one thousand men to follow his fortunes, without letting them know his projects, otherwise than by assuring them the government approved of them. The moment a proclamation was issued, undeceiving them, he found himself left with about thirty desperadoes only. The people rose in a mass wherever he was, or was suspected to be, and by their own energy the thing was crushed in one instant, without its having been necessary to employ a man of the military but to take care of their respective stations. His first enterprise was to have been to seize New Orleans, which he supposed would powerfully bridle the upper country, and place him at the door of Mexico. It is with pleasure I inform you that not a single native Creole, and but one American, of those settled there before we received the place, took any part with him. His partisans were the new emigrants from the United States and elsewhere, fugitives from justice or debt, and adventurers and speculators of all descriptions.’ In August, 1807, he was tried before chief-justice Marshall, and the evidence of his guilt not being deemed sufficient he was acquitted. The people, however, very generally believed him guilty.

The American government at this period began to be seriously affected by the contest which was raging in Europe. Under the guidance of the splendid talents of Napoleon the military prowess of France had brought most of the European nations to her feet. America profited from the destruction of the ships and commerce of other nations; being neutral, her vessels carried from port to port the productions of France and the dependent kingdoms; and also to the ports of those kingdoms the manufactures of England: indeed, few ships were found on the ocean except those of the United States and Great Britain. These advantages were, however, too great to be long enjoyed unmolested. American ships carrying to Europe the produce of French colonies were, in the early stage of the war, captured by British cruisers, and condemned by their courts as lawful prizes; and now several European ports under the control of France were by Britishorders in council, dated in May, 1806, declared in a state of blockade, although not invested with a British fleet; and American vessels attempting to enter those ports were also captured and condemned. France and her allies suffered, as well as the United States, from these proceedings; but her vengeance fell not so much upon the belligerent as upon the neutral party. By a decree, used at Berlin in November, 1806, the French emperor declared the British islands in a state of blockade, and of course authorized the capture of all neutral vessels attempting to trade with those islands. From these measures of both nations the commerce of the United States severely suffered, and their merchants loudly demanded of the government redress and protection.

This was not the only grievance to which the contest between the European powers gave rise. Great Britain claimed a right to search for and seize English sailors, even on board neutral vessels while traversing the ocean. In the exercise of this pretended right, citizens of the United States were seized, dragged from their friends, transported to distant parts of the world, compelled to perform the duty of British sailors, and to fight with nations at peace with their own. Against this outrage upon personal liberty and the rights of American citizens, Washington, Adams, and Jefferson had remonstrated in vain. The abuse continued, and every year added to its aggravation. In June, 1807, a circumstance occurred which highly and justly incensed the Americans. The frigate Chesapeake, being ordered on a cruise in the Mediterranean sea, under the command of commodore Barron, sailing from Hampton roads, was come up with by the British ship of war Leopard, one of a squadron then at anchor within the limits of the United States. An officer was sent from the Leopard to the Chesapeake, with a note from the captain respecting some deserters from some of his Britannic majesty’s ships, supposed to be serving as part of the crew of the Chesapeake, and inclosing a copy of an order from vice-admiral Berkeley, requiring and directing the commanders of ships and vessels under his command, in case of meeting with the American frigate at sea, and without the limits of the United States, to show the order to her captain, and to require to search his ship for the deserters from certain ships therein named, and to proceed and search for them; and if a similar demand should be made by the American, he was permitted to search for deserters from their service, according to the customs and usage of civilized nations on terms of amity with each other.