“Rather than have inconvenient delay on account of men, I would prefer that you take an over-proportion of young American landsmen who would in a very short time become more effective men in a steamer than middle-aged seamen of questionable constitutions.”
Commander Sands was eventually unable to go with Perry to Japan; but afterwards, in his eighty-ninth year the Rear-Admiral, then the oldest living officer of the navy, in a long letter to the writer gleefully calls attention to Perry’s trust in young American landsmen. The Princeton was finally extricated, and with the Mississippi moved down the Chesapeake. Before leaving Annapolis, a grand farewell reception was held on the flag-ship’s spacious deck. The President, Mr. Fillmore, Secretary Kennedy, and a brilliant throng of people bade the Commodore and officers farewell.
The Mississippi and the Princeton then steamed down the bay together, when the discovery was made of the entire unfitness of the screw steamer to make the voyage. Her machinery failed utterly, and at Norfolk, the Powhatan, which had just arrived from the West Indies, was substituted in her place. The precedent of building only the best steamers, on the best models, and of the best materials, set by Perry in the Mississippi and Missouri, had not been followed, and disappointment was the result. The Princeton never did get to sea. She was a miserable failure in every respect, and was finally sent to Philadelphia to end her days as a receiving-ship.
On the evening before the day the Commodore left to go on board his ship then lying at Hampton Roads, a banquet was tendered him by a club of gentlemen who then occupied a house on G street, west of the War Department, now much modernized and used as the office of the Signal corps.
There were present at this banquet, as invited guests, Commodore M. C. Perry, Lieutenant John Contee, and a few other officers of the Commodore’s staff, Edward Everett, Hon. John P. Kennedy—“Horseshoe Robinson,” the “hiatus Secretary” of the navy—Col. W. W. Seaton, the Hon. Alexander H. H. Stuart, Mr. Badger, senator from North Carolina, John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, Jefferson Davis, the Honorables Beverly Tucker, Phillip T. Ellicot, Theodore Kane, Johnson, Addison, and Horace Capron afterwards general of cavalry, and Commissioner of Agriculture at Washington, and in the service of the Mikado’s government from 1871 to 1874, making in all a party of about twenty-four. The dinner was served by Wormley, the famous colored caterer.
General Capron says in a letter dated September 13th, 1883:
“I can only state the impressions made upon my mind by that gathering, and the clear and well-defined plans of the Commodore’s proposed operations which were brought out in response to the various queries. It was apparent that all present were well convinced that the Commodore fully comprehended the difficulties and the delicate character of the work before him. . . . I am bound to say that to my mind it is clear that no power but that of the Almighty Disposer of all things could have guided our rulers in the selection of a man for this most important work.”
Perry’s written instructions were to fulfil the unexecuted orders given to Commodore Aulick, to assist as far as possible the American minister in China in prosecuting the claims of Americans upon the government of Pekin, to explore the coasts, make pictures and obtain all possible hydrographic and other information concerning the countries to be visited. No letters were to be written from the ships of the squadron to the newspapers, and all journals kept by officers or men were to be the property of the navy Department. The Secretary, in his final letter, said:—
“In prosecuting the objects of your mission to Japan you are invested with large discretionary powers, and you are authorized to employ dispatch vessels, interpreters, Kroomen, or natives, and all other means which you may deem necessary to enable you to bring about the desired results.
“Tendering you my best wishes for a successful cruise, and a safe return to your country and friends for yourself, officers and companies of your ships,