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CHAPTER If the authorities of France were serious in their professions of a desire for peace, there was a very plain and 1798. effectual way to show it, the repeal, namely, of the obnoxious decrees by which the commercial rights of America had been so seriously invaded; the putting a stop to further depredations; and the making restitution for the injuries already inflicted. To a suggestion of Logan's that the Directory had regarded the American government and the envoys as disposed to hostilities, Washington asked, what better evidence could be given in refutation of such an opinion than the long-suffering of our government under the outrageous conduct of France, and the dispatching thither three gentlemen of unquestionable worth, with ample powers to reconcile all difficulties, even though it might require great sacrifices on our part? Did the Directory look upon us as worms not even allowed to turn when trod upon? It was evident to all the world that we had borne and forborne beyond what even common respect for ourselves permitted. Logan stated that the Directory had taken off the embargo, and were making restitution of property, and he mentioned one instance of it. To which Washington answered that taking off the embargo or keeping it on was of very little consequence, as there were but very few of our vessels in France. The self-appointed Quaker envoy then began to magnify the power of France and the danger of the United States if they persisted in holding a hostile attitude, to which Washington rejoined that we were driven into these measures in self-defense, and that he hoped the spirit of the country never would suffer injuries to be inflicted with impunity by any nation under the sun-a sentiment to which Logan so far responded as to state that he had told Citizen Merlin that, if the United States were invaded by France, they would

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unite to a man to oppose the invaders. So ended this CHAPTER conversation, which is given at length, not only as remarkably illustrating the characters of the speakers, but 1798. as exhibiting in a striking light the views of the parties to which they respectively belonged. What Washington had said was in every Federalist's mouth, while the more moderate of the opposition talked like Logan.

Not discouraged by these rebuffs, Logan waited soon after upon the president, who arrived about this time at Philadelphia, and upon whom, as it would seem, his visit was not altogether without impression. As well on his return from Braintree as in going thither, the president had been received at New York and elsewhere on the road with great enthusiasm. It was even proposed to celebrate his birth-day, which occurred about this time; but this does not seem to have been done. The opposition, indeed, were quite enough vexed at the keeping up of the custom of celebrating Washington's birth-day; though Jefferson, with his usual sanguine view of things, found consolation in the proof thus afforded, as he thought, that it was the general's, not the president's birth-day, which the people had celebrated.

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The news of the capture of Bonaparte's fleet in the battle of the Nile was received in America with open joy on the part of the Federalists-first of English victories so welcomed for a quarter of a century—and with ill-concealed vexation on the part of the opposition. The Federal papers chronicled with triumph the bringing in from time to time of captured French cruisers. Already there were at sea, of American public armed vessels, besides the three frigates, twelve sloops of war of from twenty-eight to twenty-four guns, and eight armed cutters. The entrances of the American harbors were no longer safe cruising ground for picaroon vessels, nom

CHAPTER inally French privateers, but very often little better than XIII pirates. Not content with driving them from the coast, 1798. the American squadron had pursued them to the West

Indies, where a serious check was already given to the depredations, so long committed without resistance, on American commerce. Orders had been issued by the British naval commander on the West India station to treat the American ships of war with all courtesy ; but even at this important and interesting moment it was impossible to put a complete check upon that insuffer able insolence of British naval officers which had already bred so much ill blood between the two nations, and was destined to breed more. While cruising off the Havana -the commerce of which, since the late alliance between France and Spain, had been opened for the first time, as well as that of Vera Cruz and other Spanish-American ports, to other than Spanish vessels-the commander of a British squadron of heavy ships had the impertinence to Nov. 18. intercept and detain a part of a convoy of American merchantmen sailing to that port under escort of the sloop of war Baltimore; and even to send on board that vessel and to take out five or six of her crew, under claim that they were British subjects. This affair, which became Dec. 29. presently the occasion of a motion in Congress, caused the issue of an order by the Navy Department that no commander of any American ship of war should ever allow his ship to be searched or detained, or any of her men to be taken from her, under any pretense whatever; but to resist to the uttermost, and if overpowered by superior force, to strike his flag and yield up vessel as well as men, but never men without the vessel. Representations on this subject were immediately made to the British government, by whom the outrage was promptly disavowed; but that could not prevent the ill effects

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which such an occurrence could not but produce upon CHAPTER minds as sensitive to British as they were callous to French insults.

The commander of the Baltimore had submitted to a force which did not admit of the idea of resistance. Captain Tingley, in the Ganges sloop of war, while cruising in the same seas, being inquired of by a boat from a British frigate whether he had among his men any British subjects, returned for answer that the American flag was a sufficient protection to any man in his ship—an answer with which the captain of the frigate judged it prudent to be content.

The two points whence the French privateers had chiefly issued were the island of Guadaloupe and the coasts of French St. Domingo. The English, after vainly struggling for several years to obtain possession of the latter colony, had at last judged it expedient, in hopes of thus detaching it from France, to resign the French part of the island into the hands of the blacks, by whom it had been so long and so bravely defended. There was a large and well-organized black army under Toussaint, a man as distinguished for civil as for military talents, remarkable, though born and bred a slave, for an equity, moderation, and justice, exhibited toward blacks and whites alike, of which the French Revolutionary annals afford but very few examples. Finding it impossible to conquer the island, and perceiving that the actual control of things was in Toussaint's hands, the English had entered into negotiations with him, and had withdrawn their troops with an understanding that he should assume the government and keep the island neutral during the war. Toussaint, on his part, had compelled Hedonville, the commissioner of the Directory, to depart with his few white troops. The mulattoes in the southern

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CHAPTER district of the colony, under Rigaud, were indeed disXIII. posed to maintain their connection with France; but 1798. that chief was obliged to submit to the superior genius and power of Toussaint.

This expulsion of the French

led to a great diminution in the number of privateers issuing from the ports of that island; and Toussaint, desiring to renew commercial intercourse with America, sent an agent to the United States for that purpose.

The American naval force was divided into four squadrons; one of nine vessels, under Commodore Barry, the senior officer of the navy, cruised to the eastward, as far south as Tobago; a second of five vessels, under Commodore Truxton, had its rendezvous at St. Kitt's, its business being to watch the island of Guadaloupe; two smaller squadrons guarded, the one the passage between Cuba and St. Domingo, the other the neighborhood of the Havana, whence a number of privateers were accustomed to issue under French colors. Each of these squadrons captured several French privateers. merchants had eagerly availed themselves of the permission to arm; and by an official return at the end of the year, it appeared that, besides the public ships, there were commissioned not less than 365 private armed vessels, mounting together 2733 guns, and manned by 6874 seamen. This armament was chiefly for defense, the commissions, whether in the case of public or private vessels, authorizing only the capture of armed ships.

The

The French corvette which had been captured by Decatur, being refitted as the Retaliation, had been placed under the command of Bainbridge. While cruising off Nov. 20. the island of Guadaloupe, she fell into the hands of two French frigates, which came unexpectedly upon her, and was carried into that island. On board one of these frigates was Desforneaux, appointed to supersede Victor

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