CH. III.] RESULTS OF ACTION IN CONGRESS. energy of purpose to this single object, has not been a whit more capable of self-preservation."* Just at the close of the session, in March, 1803, the House of Representatives sent a message to the Senate, impeaching John Pickering, judge of the district court for the district of New Hampshire, of high crimes and misdemeanors. The principal charge against him was, that he was habitually intoxicated, and in various other ways unfit for his high position. On the trial, which took place at this session of Congress, the charges were proved, and he was removed from his office. 1803. Articles of impeachment were also ordered by the House to be preferred against Judge Chase, of Maryland, one of the justices of the supreme court of the United States, a man of considerable eloquence and power, and not easily daunted by any attack upon his judicial character and standing. Judge Peters, of the district court of Pennsylvania, was also noted for impeachment by the House, who seemed determined that the judiciary should undergo a thorough examination and purgation, so far as it was possible. A committee was appointed to draw up the articles in proper form, but the whole matter was postponed to the next session, when it was expected that there would be less difficulty in carrying out the designs of the House.† 53 gress adjourned, after a long and active session. Beside the points we have already noted, we may mention, that the salaries of the principal officers of government were increased; additional duties were imposed on imports, 1804. to defray the expenses of naval operations in the Mediterranean; a naturalization law was passed, which required a residence of five years instead of fourteen; and two separate governments were established in the newly acquired territory of Louisiana, to be organized as the president might deem expedient.* During the present 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 the Kaskaskias, (1803,) * The claims connected with the "Yazoo purchase" furnished, at the time, material for controversy and de bate. Mr. Tucker gives an abstract of the arguments oa-both sides of the question, stating that the subject was finally postponed on the 10th of March, after sev eral votes, which showed an almost equal strength of On the 27th of March, 1804, Con- parties, by a vote of fifty-nine to forty-nine.-"Life *Tucker's "Life of Jefferson," vol. ii., p. 159. † See Benton's "Abridgement of the Debates of Congress," vol. iii., pp. 88-125. of Jefferson," vol. ii., p. 162. See also Garland's "Life of John Randolph," vol. i., pp. 66, 199-205. According to this writer, "a more detestable, impudent, and dangerous villainy is not to be found on record." it nearly consolidated the possessions of the United States north of the Ohio, from Lake Erie to the Mississippi. The Piankashaws, having some claim to the country ceded by the Delawares, were quieted by a fair purchase. 1802, and the autumn of 1803, Chaun. Resuming our account of naval affairs, (see p. 21,) we find that, early in 1802, Congress enacted laws which obviated the president's scruples, and fully authorized the capture and condemnation of any Tripolitan vessels that might be found. A relief squadron of five vessels, (Lieutenant Sterret's brave little Enterprise being one of them,) rated in all at a hundred and fifty-two guns, was dispatched under Commodore Morris to the Mediterranean. They left, however, at different dates, the last not before September; but the force in that sea had been increased by the Boston, under the eccentric Captain M'Niel, and by several smaller vessels, which had been got ready, and sent off as rapidly as was possible. The command of the squadron was, in the first instance, offered to Truxtun, and accepted by him, but, a question having arisen about allowing him a captain in the flag-ship, he resigned. "It is said that Commodore Truxtun did not intend to resign his commission in the navy, in 1802, but simply the command of the squadron to which he had been appointed. The construction put upon his commucer, the president seems to have acted nication by the department, however, was opposed to this idea, and he conse: quently retired to private life." Into the particulars in regard to the operations of the American vessels under Commodore Morris, we need not here enter. During the latter part of Mr. Cooper naturally and properly condemns the course pursued on this occasion, and says, that "There can be little question that the act of the executive in this instance, was precipitate and wrong." With the disregard of the feelings of those who have adopted the profession of arms, that civilians are too commonly chargeable withal, and with their incapacity of discerning the difference between removing a country postmaster, or collector of port dues, and dismissing a military or naval offi in a manner far from generous towards Morris, who, whatever errors in judg ment he may have committed, was never charged with want of zeal or courage. "His dismissal from the navy has usually been deemed a high-handed political measure, rather than a military CH. III.] EXPLOITS OF THE NAVY. condemnation." The removal of Truxtun and Morris, with the resignation of Dale, and the death of Barry, reduced the number of captains to nine, the number named in the law for the reduction of the navy. 1803. 55 1804. at an early day, that the Philadelphia should not be suffered to remain in the enemy's hands. Accordingly, Decatur having offered his services, they were accepted for the gallant enterprise of boarding and destroying the ship as Carried on as it had been, this Tri- she lay in the harbor of Tripoli. The politan war promised to be indefinitely Philadelphia had forty guns mounted, protracted; accordingly, a fresh squad- double-shotted, and ready for firing, and ron was dispatched, vessel by vessel, as the whole force by land and sea, bethey were ready for sea, under Commo- longing to the enemy, was in readiness dore Preble. It consisted of the Con- for efficient service; and yet Decatur, stitution, a forty-four gun ship, the old with a little ketch of sixty tons, mountPhiladelphia, which was rated as a ing four small guns, and having a crew thirty-eight, two sixteen-gun brigs, and of seventy-five souls, undertook the capthree twelve-gun schooners, including ture and destruction of the frigate. the gallant little Enterprise. At the After one unsuccessful effort to enter outset of this new stage of the the harbor, in consequence of a severe affair, some trouble and deten-gale, on the evening of the 9th of Febtion arose from the capture of a ves- ruary, Decatur was enabled, on the sel belonging to Morocco; but it was 15th, in his ketch, the Intrepid, happily and promptly adjusted by to test his own and his countryPreble, before he entered the Mediter- men's ability to carry out the gallant ranean, in October, 1803. undertaking on which they had perilled their lives. The cool deliberation, the steady nerve, the unflinching gallantry, the entire success of Decatur and his men, are fully narrated by Mr. Cooper, in his "Naval History," and by Mr. Mackenzie, in his "Life of Decatur." The Philadelphia was set on fire; the brave band of assailants, without loss or injury, abandoned the burning ship; and slowly but exultingly, by the aid of their sweeps, withdrew from the scene of danger and of triumph. "Hull, spars, and rigging, were now enveloped in flames. As the metal of the Philadelphia's guns became heated, they were discharged in succession from both sides, serving as a brilliant salvo Preble and his coadjutors determined, in honor of the victory, and not harm Signalized by some of the most daring and brilliant exploits with which the records of the American navy are adorned, this period of the war was, nevertheless, on the whole, very disastrous. Chasing a Tripolitan vessel within the shoal-waters that protect the harbor of Tripoli, on the 31st of October, the Philadelphia struck upon a reef, and Bainbridge and his whole crew, amounting to three hundred and fifteen souls, were captured. The vessel thus lost to the United States, was subsequently got off the rocks by the enemy, and was moored off Tripoli, about a quarter of a mile from the pasha's castle. less for the Tripolitans, as her starboard battery was fired directly into the town. The town itself, the castles, the minarets of the mosques, and the shipping in the harbor, were all brought into distinct view by the splendor of the conflagration. It served also to reveal to the enemy the cause of their disaster in the little Intrepid, as she slowly withdrew | from the harbor. The shot of the shipping and castle fell thickly around her, throwing up columns of spray, which the brilliant light converted into a new ornament of the scene. Only one shot took effect, and that passed through her topgallant sail. Three hearty American cheers were now given, in mingled triumph and derision. The cables of the Philadelphia having burned off, she drifted on the rocks, near the western entrance of the harbor: and then the whole spectacle, so full of moral sublimity, considering the means by which it had been effected, and of material grandeur, had its appropriate termination in the final catastrophe of her explosion."* Preble, in his official report, did full justice to the gallantry and ability of Decatur, and by general consent, he was rewarded with immediate elevation to the rank of a captain in the navy, and was presented with a splendid sword, as a national testimony to his merit, and as an incentive to noble deeds in others. The administration seems to have become sensible of the importance of increasing the force in the Mediterranean, and it was accordingly determined * Mackenzie's "Life of Stephen Decatur,” p. 79. 1804. to send out reinforcements. During the latter part of the summer of 1804, Preble, five successive times, with the help of some gunboats and bomb vessels, belonging to the king of Naples, attempted the bombardment of the town of Tripoli. The fact that they, as well as some attacks in boats upon the gunboats and shipping in the harbor, and the blockade, failed to secure the end contemplated, seems sufficient to show that the naval armament of the United States was not yet put on such a footing as was proper for a nation, that must of necessity be largely a commercial one.* Although keenly disappointed at the news of his recall before he had been allowed to finish the war with Tripoli, Preble lost none of his zealous activity while waiting for his successor. Early in September of this in September of this year, he tried a new mode of annoyance, which ended more fatally to the Americans than any other attempt in the war. He fitted up the ketch, Intrepid, by which Decatur had achieved his feat against the Philadelphia, as a huge "infernal machine." And manning it with volunteers, Captain Somers being at the head, after taking the best precautions for securing a safe retreat to the crew, sent it into the harbor on the night of the 4th of September. It was watched with the most intense concern; and before * On the 3d of August, in one of these attacks by gunboats, Decatur engaged hand to hand with a Tripolitan officer, and would have been slain but for the noble self-devotion of a young man named Reuben James, who saved Decatur from the fatal blow by interposing his own head at this most critical moment. See Mackenzie's "Life of Decatur,” pp. 89–93. |