Chapter XXXVI: Works That Follow (1)

THE momentum of Perry’s long and active life left a force which, a generation after his death, is yet unspent. He rests from his labors, but his works do follow him. His thoughts have been wrought towards completion by others.

The opening of Japan to foreign commerce and residence, and ultimately to full international intercourse, occupied his brain until the day of his death. His interest did not flag for a moment. What we see in New Japan to-day is more the result of the influence of Matthew Perry and the presence of Townsend Harris, than of the fear of British armaments in China. English writers have copied, even as late as 1883,[51] the statement of Captain Sherard Osborn[52] and the _London Times_,[53] that “as soon as the Tientsin Treaty was arranged, the American commodore [Tatnall] rushed off to Japan to take advantage of the consternation certain to be created by the first news of recent events in the Peiho. It was smartly imagined.” We propose to give a plain story of the facts.

Townsend Harris the United States Consul at Ningpo, China, was appointed July 31st, 1855, by President Pierce, Consul-General to Japan. No more fortunate selection could have been made. By experience and travel, thoroughly acquainted with human nature and especially the oriental and semi-civilized phases of it, Mr. Harris possessed the “dauntless courage, patience, courtesy, gentleness, firmness and incorruptible honesty” needed to deal with just such _yakunin_ or men of political business, as the corrupt and decaying dynasty of Yedo usurpers naturally produced. Further, he had a kindly feeling towards the Japanese people. Best of all, he was armed with the warnings, advice and suggestions of Perry, whom he had earnestly consulted.

Ordered, September 8th, 1855, by President Pierce to follow up Captain Edmund Robert’s work and make a treaty with Siam, Mr. Harris after concluding his business, boarded the _San Jacinto_ at Pulo Pinang, and arrived in Shimoda harbor, August 22d, 1856. The propeller steamer was brought to safe anchorage by a native pilot who bore a commission printed on “The Japan Expedition Press,” and signed by Commodore Perry. The stars and stripes were hoisted to the peak of the flag-staff raised by the _San Jacinto’s_ carpenters on the afternoon of September 3d. Then in his quiet quarters at Kakisaki, or Oyster Point, Mr. Harris, following out Perry’s plan of diplomatic campaign, won alone and unaided, after fourteen months of perseverance, a magnificent victory. Lest these statements seem inaccurate we reprint Mr. Harris’ letter in full.

U. S. CONSULATE GENERAL, SIMODA,
_October 27, 1857_.

MY DEAR COMMODORE PERRY,—Your kind favor of December 28th 1856,
did not come to hand until the 20th inst., as I was fourteen
months at this place without receiving any letters or
information from the United States. The U. S. sloop of war
_Portsmouth_ touched here on the 8th of last month, but she did
not bring me any letters; her stay here was very short, just
enough to enable me to finish my official letter; had time
permitted I would have written to you by her.

I am much obliged to you for your good advice; it was both sound
and well-timed advice, and I have found every one of your
opinions, as to the course the Japanese would pursue with me,
prove true to the letter.

Early last March I made a convention with the Japanese which,
among other provisions, secured the right of permanent residence
to Americans at Simoda and Hakodadi, admits a Consul at
Hakodadi, opens Nagasaki, settled the currency question, and the
dollar now passes for 4670 cash instead of 1600, and lastly
admits the enterritoriality of all Americans in Japan. It was a
subject of deep regret to me that I was not able to send this
convention to the State Department until quite six months after
it had been agreed on.

In October 1856, I wrote to the Council of State at Yedo that I
was the bearer of a friendly letter from the President of the
United States addressed to the Emperor of Japan, and that I had
some important matter to communicate which greatly concerned the
honor and welfare of Japan. I desire the Council to give orders
for my proper reception on the road from this to Yedo, and to
inform me when those arrangements were completed. For full ten
months the Japanese used every possible expedient to get me to
deliver the letter at Simoda, and to make my communications to
the Governors of this place. I steadily refused to do either,
and at last they have yielded and I shall start for Yedo some
time next month. I am to have an audience of the Emperor, and at
that time I am to deliver the letter.

I am satisfied that no commercial treaty can be made by
negotiations carried on any where but at Yedo, unless the
negotiator is backed up by a powerful fleet.

I hope when at Yedo to convince the government that it is
impossible for them to continue their present system of
non-intercourse, and that it will be for their honor and
interest to yield to argument rather than force.

I do not expect to accomplish all that I desire on this
occasion, but it will be a great step in the way of direct
negotiations with the Council of the State, and the beginning of
a train of enlightenment of the Japanese that will sooner or
later lead them to desire to open the country freely to
intercourse with foreign nations.

I have just obtained a copy of your “Expedition to Japan and the
China Seas,” and have read it with intense interest. I hope it
is no vanity in me to say that no one _at present_ can so well
appreciate and do justice to your work as I can.

You seem at once and almost intuitively to have adopted the best
of all courses with the Japanese. I am sure no other course
would have resulted so well. I have seen quite a number of
Japanese who saw you when you were at Simoda and they all made
eager inquiries after you. M—— Y—— is at Simoda, and has not
forgotten the art of lying.

Please present my respectful compliments to Mrs. Perry and to
the other members of your family, and believe

Yours most sincerely,
TOWNSEND HARRIS.

As Perry predicted, the Japanese yielded to Mr. Harris who, a few days after he had sent the letter given above, went to Yedo, and had audience of the Shō-gun Iyésada. He afterwards saw the ministers of state, and presented his demands. These were: Unrestricted trade between Japanese and American merchants in all things except bullion and grain, the closing of Shimoda and the opening of Kanagawa and Ozaka, the residence in Yedo of an American minister, the sending of an embassy to America, and a treaty to be ratified in detail by the government of Japan.

Professor Hayashi was first sent to Kiōto, to obtain the Mikado’s consent. As he had negotiated the first treaty it was thought that with his experience, scholarly ability and eminent character, he would be certain to win success, if anyone could. Despite his presence and entreaties, the imperial signature and pen-seal were not given; and Hotta, a daimiō, was then despatched on the same mission. The delay caused by the opposition of the conservative element at the imperial capital was so prolonged, that Mr. Harris threatened if an answer was not soon forthcoming, to go to Kiōto himself and arrange matters.

The American envoy was getting his eyes opened. He began to see that the throne and emperor were in Kiōto, the camp and lieutenant at Yedo. The “Tycoon”—despite all the pomp and fuss and circumlocution and lying sham—was an underling. Only the Mikado was supreme. Quietly living in Yedo, Mr. Harris bided his time. Hotta returned from his fruitless mission to Kiōto late in April 1858; but meanwhile Ii, a man of vigor and courage, though perhaps somewhat unscrupulous, was made Tairō or regent, and virtual ruler in Yedo. With him Mr. Harris renewed his advances, and before leaving Yedo, in April 1858, secured a treaty granting in substance all the American’s demands. This instrument was to be signed and executed September 1st, 1858. Ii hoped by that time to obtain the imperial consent. A sub-treaty, secret, but signed by the premier Ii and Mr. Harris, binding them to the execution of the main treaty on the day of its date, was also made, and copies were held by both parties.[54] This diplomacy was accomplished by Mr. Harris, when he had been for many months without news from the outside world, and knew nothing of the British campaign in China.

Meanwhile Flag-Officer Josiah Tatnall, under order of the United States Navy Department, was on his way to Japan, to bring letters and dispatches to the American Consul-general, was ignorant of Mr. Harris’ visit to Yedo, or his new projects for treaty-making. On the _Powhatan_ he left Shanghai July 5th, joining the _Mississippi_ at Nagasaki five days later. Here the death of Commodore Perry was announced, the Japanese receiving the news with expressions of sincere regret. The Treaty at Tientsin had been signed June 26, but Tatnall, innocent of the notions of later manufacture, so diligently ascribed to him of rushing “off to Japan to take advantage of the consternation certain to be created by the first news of recent events in the Peiho,” . . . was so far oblivious of any further intentions on the part of Mr. Harris of making another treaty with Japan, that he lingered in the lovely harbor until the 21st of July. In the _Powhatan_ he cast anchor in Shimoda harbor, on the 25th, the _Mississippi_ having arrived two days before. On the 27th, taking Mr. Harris on board the _Powhatan_, Tatnall steamed up to Kanagawa, visiting also Yokohama, where Perry’s old treaty-house was still standing. Meeting Ii on the 29th, negotiations were re-opened. In Commodore Tatnall’s presence, the main treaty was dated July 29th (instead of September 1st) and to this the premier Ii affixed his signature, and pen-seal. By this treaty Yokohama was to be opened to foreign trade and residence July 1st of the following year, 1859, and an embassy was to be sent to visit the United States. The Commodore and Consul-general returned to Shimoda August 1st. Mr. Harris then took a voyage of recreation to China.

On the 30th of June 1859, the consulate of the United States was removed from Shimoda to Kanagawa, where the American flag was raised at the consulate July 1st. The Legation of the United States was established in Yedo July 7, 1859. Amid dense crowds of people, and a party of twenty-three[55] Americans, Mr. Harris was escorted to his quarters in a temple.

The regent Ii carried on affairs in Yedo with a high hand, not only signing treaties without the Mikado’s assent, but by imprisoning, exiling, and ordering to decapitation at the blood-pit, his political opposers. Among those who committed _hara-kiri_ or suffered death, were Yoshida Shoin, and Hashimoto Sanai. The daimiōs of Mito, Owari, and Echizen,[56] were ordered to resign in favor of their sons and go into private life. “All classes now held their breath and looked on in silent affright.” On the 13th of February 1860, the embassy, consisting of seventy-one persons left Yokohama in the _Powhatan_ to the United States, arriving in Washington May 14, 1860. The English copy of the Perry treaty had been burned in Yedo in 1858, and one of their objects was to obtain a fresh transcript. The writer’s first sight and impression of the Japanese was obtained, when these cultivated and dignified strangers visited Philadelphia, where they received the startling news of the assassination in Yedo, March 23d, of their chief Ii, by Mito _rō-nins_.

The signing of treaties without the Mikado’s consent was an act of political suicide on the part of the Yedo government. Not only did “the swaggering prime minister” Ii, become at once the victim of assassin’s swords, but all over the country fanatical patriots, cutting the cord of loyalty to feudal lords, became “wave-men” or _rō-nin_. They raised the cry, “Honor the Mikado, and expel the barbarian.” Then began that series of acts of violence—the murder of foreigners and the burning of legations, which foreigners then found so hard to understand, but which is now seen to be a logical sequence of preceding events. These amateur assassins and incendiaries were but zealous patriots who hoped to deal a death-blow at the Yedo usurpation by embroiling it in war with foreigners. More than one officer prominent in the Meiji era has boasted[57] of his part in the plots and alarms which preceded the fall of the dual system and the reinstatement of the Mikado’s supremacy. To this the writer can bear witness.

Meanwhile the ministers of the Bakafu were “like men who have lost their lanterns on a dark night.” Their lives were worth less than a brass _tem-pō_. Amid the tottering framework of government, they yet strove manfully to keep their treaty engagements. “No men on earth could have acted more honorably.”[58] All the foreign ministers struck their flags, and retired to Yokohama, except Mr. Harris. He, despite the assassination, January 14, 1861, of Mr. Heusken his interpreter, maintained his ground in solitude. English and French battalions were landed at Yokohama, and kept camp there for over twelve years. On the 21st of January, 1862, another embassy was despatched to Europe and the United States. Their purpose was to obtain postponement of treaty provisions in regard to the opening of more ports. In New York, they paid their respects to the widow of Commodore Perry, meeting also his children and grandchildren.

Plots and counterplots in Kiōto and Yedo, action and reaction in and between the camp and the throne went on, until, on the 3rd of January, 1868, two days after the opening of Hiogo and Ozaka to trade, the coalition of daimiōs hostile to the Bakafu or Tycoon’s, government, obtained possession of the Mikado’s palace and person. The imperial brocade banner of chastisement was then unfurled, and the “Tycoon” and all who followed him stamped as _chō-téki_ traitors—the most awful name in Japanese history. One of the first acts of the new government, signalizing the new era of Meiji, was to affix the imperial seal to the treaties, and grant audience to the foreign envoys. In the civil war, lasting nearly two years, the skill of the southern clansmen, backed by American rifles and the iron-clad ram, _Stonewall_, secured victory. Yedo was made the _Kiō_ or national capital, with the prefix of Tō (east), and thenceforward, the camp and the throne were united in Tōkiō, the Mikado’s dwelling place.

All power in the empire having been consolidated in the Mikado’s person in Tōkiō, one of the first results was the assertion of his rule over its outlying portions, especially Yezo, Ogasawara and Riu Kiu islands, the resources of Yezo and the Kuriles included in the term Hokkaido or Northern sea-circuit were developed by colonists, and by a commission aided by Americans eminent in science and skill. Sappōro is the capital city, and Hakodaté the chief port. The thirty-seven islands of Riu Kiu, with their one hundred and sixty thousand inhabitants are organized as the Okinawa Ken, one of the prefects of the empire. The deserted palace-enclosure of Shuri, to which in 1853, Perry marched, with his brass bands marines and field-pieces, to return the visit of the regent, is now occupied by battalion of the Mikado’s infantry. The dwellings of the king and his little court now lie in mildew and ruin,[59] while the former ruler is a smartly decorated marquis of the empire. Despite China’s claim[60] to Riu Kiu, Japan has never relaxed her grasp on this her ancient domain.[61] Variously styled “the Southern Islands,” “Long Rope” (Okinawa), “Sleeping Dragon,” “Pendant Tassels,” the “Country which observes Propriety,” or the “Eternal Land” of Japanese mythology, and probably some day to be a renowned winter health-resort, Riu Kiu, whether destined to be the bone of contention and cause of war between the rival great nations claiming it, or to sleep in perpetual afternoon, has ceased to be a political entity. No one will probably ever follow Perry in making a treaty with the once tiny “Kingdom.”

The Ogasawara (Bonin) islands were formally occupied by the civil and military officers of the Mikado in 1875, and the people of various nationalities dwell peaceably under the sun-flag. An American lady-missionary and a passenger in the steamer _San Pablo_, Mrs. Anna Viele of Albany, spent from January 14th to 31st, 1855, at the Bonin Islands. She found of Savory’s large family three sons and three daughters living. The old flag of stars and stripes given to Savory by Commodore Perry is still in possession of his widow, and is held in great reverence by his children and grandchildren, all of whom profess allegiance to the United States. The boys, as soon as of age, go to Yokohama and are registered in the American consulate. One of the sons bears the name of Matthew Savory, so named by the Commodore himself when there. A grandson having been born a few days before the arrival of the _San Pablo_, Mrs. Viele was invited to name him. She did so, and Grover Cleveland Savory received as a gift a photograph of the President of the United States. Trees planted by the hand of the Commodore still bear luscious fruit. Though the cattle were long ago “lifted” by passing whalers, the goats are amazingly abundant.[62] The island of Hachijō (Fatsizio,) to which, between the years 1597 and 1886, sixteen hundred and six persons, many of them court ladies, nobles, and gentlemen from Kiōto and Yedo, were banished, is also under beneficent rule. The new penal code of Japan, based on the ideas of christendom, has substituted correctional labor,[63]—even with the effect of flooding America and Europe with cheap and gaudy trumpery made by convicts under prison contracts,—and Hachijō ceases to stand, in revised maps and charts, as the “place of exile for the grandees of Japan.”

Ancient traditions, vigorously revived in 1874 claimed that Corea was in the same relation to Japan as Yedo or Riu Kiu; or, if not an integral portion of Dai Nihon, Corea was a tributary vassal. A party claiming to represent the “unconquerable spirit of Old Japan,” (Yamatō damashii,) to reverence the Mikado, and to cherish the sword as the living soul of the samurai, demanded in 1875, the invasion of Corea. The question divided the cabinet after the return of the chief members of it from their tour around the world in 1875, and resulted in a rebellion crushed only after the expenditure of much blood and treasure. It was finally determined not to invade but to “open” Corea, even as Japan had been opened to diplomacy and commerce by the United States. Only twelve years after Perry’s second visit to the bay of Yedo, and in the same month, a Japanese squadron of five vessels and eight hundred men under General Kuroda appeared in the Han river, about as far below the Corean capital as Uraga is from Tōkiō. In the details of procedure, and movement of ships, boats and men, the imitation of Perry’s policy was close and transparent.[64] Patience, skill and tact, won a “brain-victory,” and a treaty of friendship, trade, and commerce, was signed February 27th, 1876. The penultimate hermit nation had led the last member of the family into the world’s market-place. In this also, Perry’s work followed him.

Two years after this event, a company of Japanese merchants in Yokohama, assembled together of their own accord; and, in their own way celebrated with speech, song and toast, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the arrival of Commodore Perry and the apparation of the “Black ships” at Uraga. The general tenor of the thought of the evening was that the American squadron had proved to Japan, despite occasional and temporary reverses, an argosy of treasures for the perpetual benefit of the nation.

The object-lesson in modern civilization, given by Perry on the sward at Yokohama, is now illustrated on a national scale. Under divine Providence, with unique opportunity, Japan began renascence at a time of the highest development of forces, spiritual mental, material. With Christianity, modern thought, electricity, steam, and the printing-press, the Mikado comes to his empire “at such a time as this.” Since the era of Meiji, or Enlightened Peace, was ushered in, January 26, 1858, the Mikado Mutsŭhito, the 123d sovereign of the imperial line, born twenty-one days before Perry sailed in the _Mississippi_ for Japan, has abolished the feudal system, emancipated four-fifths of his subjects from feudal vassalage and made them possessors of the soil, disarmed a feudal soldiery numbering probably six hundred thousand men trained to arms, reorganized the order of society, established and equipped an army forty thousand strong, and a navy superior in ships and equipments to that of the United States, assured the freedom of conscience, introduced the telegraph, railway, steam-navigation, general postal and saving, and free compulsory public educational systems;[65] declared the equality of all men before the law, promised limitation of the imperial prerogative, and the establishment of a national parliament in A. D. 1890.

All this looks like a miracle. “Can a nation be born at once,” a land in one day?

The story of the inward preparation of Nippon for its wondrous flowering in our day, of the development of national force, begun a century before Perry was born, which, with outward impact made not collision, but the unexpected resultant,—New Japan, deserves a volume from the historian, and an epic from the poet. We have touched upon the subject elsewhere.[66] Suffice it to say that the Dutch, so long maligned by writers of hostile faith and jealous nationality, to whom Perry in his book fails to do justice, bore an honorable and intelligent part in it.[67] Even Perry, Harris and the Americans constitute but one of many trains of influences contributing to the grand result. Perry himself died before that confluence of the streams of tendency, now so clearly visible, had been fully revealed to view. The prayers of Christians, the yearning of humanity, the pressure of commerce, the ambition of diplomacy, from the outside; the longing of patriots, the researches of scholars, the popularization of knowledge, the revival of the indigenous Shintō religion, the awakening of reverence for the Mikado’s person, the heated hatred almost to flame of the Yedo usurpation, the eagerness of students for western science, the fertilizing results of Dutch culture, from the inside; were all tributaries, which Providence made to rise, kept in check, and let loose to meet in flood at the elect moment.

Meanwhile, Japan groans under the yoke imposed upon her by the Treaty Powers in the days of her ignorance. “Extra-territorialty” is her curse. The selfishness and greed of strong nations infringe her just and sovereign rights as an independent nation. In the light of twenty-eight years of experience, treaty-revision is a necessity of righteousness and should be initiated by the United States.[68] This was the verdict of Townsend Harris, as declared to the writer, in 1874. This is the written record of the English and American missionaries in their manifesto of April 28th, 1884 at the Ozaka Conference.[69] Were Matthew Perry to speak from his grave, his voice would protest against oppression by treaty, and in favor of righteous treatment of Japan, in the spirit of the treaty made and signed by him; to wit:

“There shall be a perfect, permanent, and universal peace, and a sincere and cordial amity, between the United States of America on the one part, and the Empire of Japan on the other, and between their people, respectively, without exception of persons or places.”

-----

[51] Young Japan, J. R. Black.

[52] A Cruise in Japan waters, and Japan fragments.

[53] November 1st, 1859.

[54] Commodore Tatnall told this to Gideon Nye. See Mr. Nye’s letter, January 31st, 1859, to the Hong Kong _Times_; reprinted in pamphlet form Macao, March 22, 1864.

[55] See their names, and dates of the _Mississippi’s_ movements, in “A Cruise in the U. S. S. Frigate Mississippi,” July 1857 to February 1860, by W. F. Gragg, Boston, 1860.

[56] It was in the educational service of this baron and his son, that the writer went to Japan and lived in Echizen. The Mikado’s Empire, pp. 308, 426-434, 532-536.

[57] Episodes in a Life of Adventure, p. 163, by Laurence Oliphant, 1887.

[58] Townsend Harris’s words to the writer, October 9th, 1874.

[59] Cruise of the Marquesas, London, 1886.

[60] The story of the Riu Kiu (Loo Choo) complication by F. Brinkley, in _The Chrysanthemum_, Yokohama, 1883. Audi Alteram Partem, by D. B. McCartee Esq. M. D.

[61] Asiatic Soc. of Japan. Transactions Vol. I, p. 1; Vol. IV. p. 66.

[62] Asiatic Society of Japan, Transactions Vol. IV, p. 3.

[63] Asiatic Society and Japan Transactions, Vol. VI, part III, pp. 435-478.

[64] Corea, the Hermit Nation, p. 423.

[65] Hon. John A. Bingham to Mr. Evarts, U. S. Foreign Relations, 1880.

[66] The Recent Revolutions in Japan, chapter XXVIII in The Mikado’s Empire, and pamphlet The Rutgers Graduates in Japan, New Brunswick N. J. 1886.

[67] Transactions, Asiatic Society of Japan, Vol. V. p. 207.

[68] Japanese Treaty Revision by Prof. J. K. Newton, _Bibliotheca Sacra_, January 1887.

[69] Published in _The Independent_, N. Y.

A P P E N D I C E S

I.
AUTHORITIES.

WRITINGS OF M. C. PERRY.

_Autograph._

DIARY, REMARKS, ETC. (on board the United States frigate
_President_, Commodore Rodgers), made by M. C. Perry. [From
March 19, 1811, to July 25, 1813].

LETTERS of M. C. Perry to his superior officers, and to the
United States Navy Department, in the United States Navy
Archives, Washington D. C.; in all, about two thousand. These
are bound up with others, in volumes lettered on the back
=Officers' Letters=, MASTER COMMANDANTS’ LETTERS,
=Captains' Letters=. As commodore of a squadron, M.
C. Perry’s autograph letters and papers relating to his cruises
are bound in separate volumes and lettered: =Squadron,
Coast of Africa, under Commodore M. C. Perry, April 10 1843, to
April 29 1845=, [1 volume, folio]; =Home Squadron,
Commodore M. C. Perry’s Cruise= [2 volumes, folio, on THE
MEXICAN WAR]; =East India, China and Japan Squadron,
Commodore M. C. Perry=, Volume I, December 1852 to
December 31 1853; Volume II, January 1854 to May 1855 [2
volumes, folio].

LETTERS to naval officers, scientific men, and personal friends.

_Printed._

Unsigned articles in _The Naval Magazine_, Brooklyn, N. Y.

=Future Commercial Relations with Japan and Lew
Chew.=

=The Expediency of Extending Further Encouragement to
American Commerce in the East.=

ENLARGEMENT OF GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE, Pamphlet, New York, 1856.

=Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the
China Seas and Japan.= 3 volumes, folio. Washington, 1856.
1 volume, folio. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1857.

The Perry family Bible, dates of births, marriages and deaths.

Scrap books, kept at various periods of M. C. Perry’s life by
the children and relatives of M. C. Perry.

JAPANESE AUTHORITIES.

_Kinsé Shiriaku_ (Short History of Recent Times, 1853–1869, by
Yamaguchi Uji, Tokio, 1871 translated by Ernest Satow, Yokohama,
1873).

_Genji Yumé Monogatari_ (Dream Story of Genji, inside history of
Japan from 1850 to 1864), translated by Ernest Satow in _Japan
Mail_, 1874.

_Kinsé Kibun_ (Youth’s History of Japan, from Perry’s arrival, 3
volumes, illustrated, Tokio, 1874).

_Hoku-é O Setsu Roku_, Official Record of Intercourse with the
American Barbarians (made by the “Tycoon’s” officers, during
negotiations with Perry in 1854; manuscript copied from the
Department of State, Tokio, 1884).

_A Chronicle_ of the Chief Events in Japanese history from 1844
to 1863, translated by Ernest Satow; in _Japan Mail_, 1873.

Japanese poems, street songs, legends, notes taken by the writer
during conversations with people, officers, and students,
chiefly eyewitnesses to events referred to.

The other authorities quoted, are referred to in the text and
footnotes, or mentioned in the preface.

II.
ORIGIN OF THE PERRY NAME AND FAMILY.

IN answer to an inquiry, Hext M. Perry, Esq., M.D., of
Philadelphia, Pa., who is preparing a genealogy of the Perry
family, has kindly furnished the following epitome:—

DEAR SIR,—I have no doubt of our name being of
Scandinavian origin. The Perrys were from Normandy, the
original name being Perier which has in course been
reduced to its present—and for many hundred years past
in England and America—Perry. A market town in
Normandy, France, is our old Perry name—Periers. The
name doubtlessly originated from the fruit, Pear, French
_Poire_; or, the fruit took its name from the family
which is perhaps more likely. At any rate _Poire_ is
easily modulated into Perer, Perier, Periere, etc., and
so across the Channel to England, with William the
Conqueror, in 1086, it soon ripens into our name Perry.
Perry is a delightful fermented beverage in England made
from pears—a sort of pear cider.

“Perry” identifies by its arms with “Perers.” The family
of Perry was seated in Devon County, England, in 1370.

That of “Perier” was of Perieres in Bretagne (Brittany,
France), and descended from Budic, Count of Cornuailles,
A. D. 900, whose younger son Perion gave name to
Perieres, Bretagne. A branch came to England, 1066, and
Matilda de Perer was mother to Hugo Parcarius who lived
in time of Henry I. The name continually recurs in all
parts of England, and thence the _Perrys_, Earls of
Limerick. There was also a Norman family of Pears
intermarried with Shakespere which bore different arms
“Perrie” for Perry—“Pirrie,” for Perry.

“PERRIER.”

Odo, Robert, Ralph, Hugh, &c., de Periers, Normandy
1180-95. Robert de _Pereres_, England, 1198.

It appears that the family Saxby, Shakkesby, Saxesby,
Sakespee, Sakespage or Shakespeare was a branch of that
of De Perers, and this appears to be confirmed by the
armorial. The arms of one branch of Perire or Perers
were: Argent, a bend sable (charged with three pears for
difference). Those of Shakespeare were:—Argent, a bend
sable (charged with a spear for difference). As before
stated, the family of Perere came from Periers near
Evreux, Normandy, where it remained in the 15th century.
Hugo de Periers possessed estate in Warwick 1156;
Geoffrey de Periers held fief in Stafford, 1165, and
Adam de Periers in Cambridge. Sir Richard de Perers was
M. P. for Leicester 1311, Herts 1316-24, and Viscount of
Essex and Herts in 1325.

Courteously Yours,
HEXT M. PERRY.

III.
THE NAME CALBRAITH.

IT is interesting to inquire whether the family of Calbraith is
still in existence. An examination of the directory of the city
of Philadelphia during the years 1882, 1883, 1884 recalls no
name of Calbraith, and but one of Calbreath, though fifty-two of
Galbraith are down in the lists. The spelling of the name with a
C is exceedingly rare, the name Galbraith, however, is common in
North Ireland and in Scotland. Arthur, the father of our late
president of the same name, in his “Derivation of Family Names,”
says it is composed of two Gaelic words _Gall_ and _Bhreatan_;
that is “strange Breton,” or “Low Country Breton.” The
Galbraiths in the Gaelic are called Breatannich, or Clanna
Breatannich, that is “the Britons,” or “the children of
Britons,” and were once reckoned a great clan in Scotland,
according to the following lines:—

“Galbraiths from the Red Tower,
Noblest of Scottish surnames.”

The Falla dhearg, or Red Tower was probably Dumbarton, that is
the Dun Bhreatan, or stronghold of the Britons, whence it is
said the Galbraiths came.

Of one of the unlucky bearers of the name Galbraith, a private
of our army in Mexico, Longfellow has written in his poem of
“Dennis Galbraith.” In his “History of Japan,” Mr. Francis
Ottiwell Adams, an English author, naturally falls into the
habit of writing Matthew G. Perry. The Rev. Calbraith B. Perry
of Baltimore, nephew of Matthew C. Perry, suggests that the
initial letter of the name is merely the softening of the Scotch
G.

IV.
THE FAMILY OF M. C. PERRY.

OF MATTHEW C. PERRY, born in Newport, April 10, 1794, and JANE
SLIDELL born in New York, February 29, 1797, who were married in
New York, October 24, 1814, there were born four sons and six
daughters:—

JOHN SLIDELL PERRY, died March 24, 1817.
SARAH PERRY (Mrs. Robert S. Rodgers.)
JANE HAZARD PERRY (Mrs. John Hone) died December 24, 1882.
MATTHEW CALBRAITH PERRY, Jr., died November 16, 1873.
SUSAN MURGATROYDE PERRY, died August 15, 1825.
OLIVER HAZARD PERRY, died November 17, 1870.
WILLIAM FREDERICK PERRY, died March 18, 1884.
CAROLINE SLIDELL PERRY, (Mrs. August Belmont.)
ISABELLA BOLTON PERRY, (Mrs. George Tiffany.)
ANNA RODGERS PERRY, died March 9, 1838.

MATTHEW C. PERRY died in New York, March 4, 1858; his wife, who
was his devoted companion and helper, =Jane Slidell
Perry=, survived him twenty years, and died in Newport, R.
I., June 14, 1879, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. George
Tiffany. A pension of fifty dollars per month was granted to
her, by Act of Congress, from the date of her husband’s death.

Of the Commodore’s children, who grew to adult life, Sarah was
married to Col. Robert S. Rodgers (brother of the late
Rear-Admiral John Rodgers, U. S. N.), at the Commandant’s house,
Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N. Y., December 15, 1841, and now lives
near Havre de Grace, Maryland.

Jane Hazard was married to John Hone, Esq., of New York, at the
Commandant’s house, Brooklyn Navy Yard, October 20, 1841.

Matthew Calbraith married Miss Harriet Taylor of Brooklyn, April
26, 1853. He entered the United States Navy as Midshipman, June
1, 1835, was appointed Lieutenant April 3, 1848, and later
Captain. He was placed on the retired list April 4, 1867.

Oliver Hazard Perry, an officer in the United States Marine
Corps, was appointed Lieutenant February 25, 1841; was in the
Mexican war, and resigned July 23, 1849; was appointed United
States Consul at Hong Kong. He died in London May 17, 1870. He
was unmarried.

William Frederick Perry, died unmarried.

Caroline Slidell Perry was married, in New York, to the Hon.
August Belmont, late Minister of the United States to the
Netherlands, November 7, 1849.

Isabella Bolton Perry married Mr. George Tiffany in New York,
August 17, 1864.

V.
OFFICIAL DETAIL OF M. C. PERRY, UNITED STATES NAVY.

(Furnished by the Chief Clerk United States Navy Department, 1883.)

MATTHEW C. PERRY was appointed a Midshipman in the United States
Navy, January 16th, 1809; March 16th, 1809, ordered to the naval
station, New York; May 11th, 1809, furloughed for the merchant
service; October 12th, 1810, ordered to the _President_;
February 22d, 1813, appointed Acting Lieutenant; July 24th,
1813, appointed Lieutenant; November 16th, 1813, ordered to New
London; December 20th, 1815, granted six month’s furlough;
September 22d, 1817, ordered to the navy yard, New York; June
8th, 1821, ordered to command the _Shark_; July 29th, 1823,
ordered to the receiving ship at New York; July 26th, 1824,
ordered to the _North Carolina_; March 21st, 1826, promoted to
Master Commandant; August 17th, 1827, ordered to the naval
rendezvous at Boston; September 2d, 1828, granted leave of
absence; April 22d, 1830, ordered to command the _Concord_;
December 10th, 1832, detached and granted three months’ leave;
January 7th, 1833, ordered to the navy yard, New York; February
9th, 1837, promoted to Captain; March 15th, 1837, detached from
the navy yard, New York; August 29th, 1837, ordered to command
the _Fulton_; March the 2d, 1840, ordered to the steamer
building at New York to give general superintendence over the
gun-practice; June 12th, 1841, ordered to command the navy yard,
New York; February 20th, 1843, ordered to hold himself in
readiness for command of the African squadron; May 1st, 1845,
detached and granted leave; December 27th, 1845, ordered to
examine merchant steamers at New York; January 6th, 1846,
ordered to examine docks at New York—examination finished
February 4th, 1846; May 18th, 1846, ordered to examine steamers
at New York; 21st July, 1846, ordered to report at Department;
August 20th, 1846, ordered to command the _Mississippi_; March
4th, 1847, ordered to command the Home Squadron; November 20th,
1848, detached from command of Home Squadron, and ordered as
General Superintendent of ocean mail-steamers; November 3d,
1849, ordered to report at the Department; January 22d, 1852,
given preparatory orders to command the East India Squadron; 3d
March, 1852, detached as Superintendent of ocean mail-steamers;
March 24th, 1852, ordered to command the East India Squadron;
January 12th, 1855, reported his arrival at New York; June 20th,
1855, ordered to Washington as a Member of Efficiency Board
under Act of Congress, February 28th, 1855; September 13th,
1855, Board dissolved; December 30th, 1857, detached from
special duty and wait orders.

He died at New York City, N. Y., on the 4th of March, 1858.

VI.
THE NAVAL APPRENTICESHIP SYSTEM.

MATTHEW C. PERRY may be called the founder of the apprenticeship
system in the United States Navy, however much the present
improved methods may differ from his own. He was the first
officer to attempt a systematic improvement on the hap-hazard
and costly method of recruiting formerly in vogue. Under the old
plan, one-fourth the men and boys picked up at random became
invalided or were discharged as unfit. It took four month’s work
at five recruiting stations to get a crew for the “_North
Carolina_.” The daily average of recruits at five stations, New
York, Philadelphia, Boston, Norfolk and Baltimore, was but
seven, at the utmost, and could not be increased without
bounties. Perry’s experience at recruiting stations prompted him
to a thorough study of the subject, and attempt at reform. He
addressed the Department on this theme as early as 1823. In a
letter of eleven pages, dated January 25, 1824, a model of
clearness and strength, he elaborated his idea of providing
crews for men-of-war by naval apprentices properly educated. He
proposed that a thousand apprentices be engaged yearly, saving
in expense of pay (from $792,000 to $462,000) the sum of
$330,000. He suggested withholding the ration of spirits for the
first two years of indenture, so that a further saving of
$43,800, and total saving $373,800, would be secured.

In this paper he treats the problem of the great difficulty,
delay and expense of obtaining men for our naval service, which
becomes greater in time of hostilities. This was shown in the
war of 1812 when large bounties were offered. The sea-faring
population of the United States had not increased since 1810.
Whereas there had been in 1810, 71,238 seamen, there were in
1821 only 64,948. In case of another war, the merchant ships
should not be suffered to rot in port as in 1812, but ought to
pursue their usual voyages. Hence merchant ships would want
sailors, and when there was considered the number wanted for
that popular branch of speculation—privateering, he feared that
few would be left for the public service, unless exorbitant pay
and bounties were given as inducements for enlisting. Owing to
the decay of the New England carrying trade, and the fisheries,
the sources for sea-faring men had dried up; and it was easier
to get ships than men. Even in New York a sloop’s crew was
unobtainable in less than twenty days. If this were so, how hard
would it be to equip a fleet!

The remedy proposed was to receive boys as apprentices to serve
until of age and to be educated and clothed by the government.
Such a system would be a blessing to society. It would reform
bad and idle boys, and create in a numerous class of men
attachment to the naval service, besides raising up warrant and
petty officers of native birth. These at present were mostly
foreigners. Boys shipped only for two years; they then got
discharged and perhaps went roaming on distant voyages all over
the earth, losing the _discipline_ they had acquired. There was
no difficulty to get boys in New York. The city alone could
supply five hundred annually, and the city corporations would
assist the plan. “Experience proves that these lads do well. The
very spirit which prompts them to youthful indiscretion gives
them a zest for the daring and adventurous life to which they
are called in our ships of war.”

With characteristic tenacity, he returned to the subject in a
letter to the Department, January 10 1835, giving the results of
further studies. One half of all the men enlisted for the navy
came from the New York rendezvous. From April 2d, 1828 to
October 14, 1834, there were enlisted 17 petty officers, 2,335
seamen, 1,174 ordinary seamen, 842 landsmen and 414 boys, a
total of 4,782, or 19 a week. Nearly ten months were necessary
to get 750 men, the crew of a line-of-battle ship, twenty weeks
to furnish a frigate with 380 men, and eight weeks to enlist 150
men for a sloop of war.

Perry noticed another glaring defect in the system, and wrote
September 25, 1841, concerning frauds on the government, by men
enlisting in the navy getting advance pay and then deserting.
Parents connived at enlistment, and often got off “minors” by
habeas corpus writs, and the government thus lost both the
recruit and the advance money. The same trouble had been found
in the British navy. Native-born men enlisted, got advance pay,
and then claimed alien birth. Perry consulted with the district
attorney as to how to stop this practice.

While on the _Fulton_, Perry returned to his idea of perfecting
the apprenticeship system first suggested by him. He asked
permission to have his letters of 1823 and 1824 copied for him
by Dr. Du Barry, that he have authority to increase the
complement of the _Fulton_ as vacancies should occur, and to
employ as many as the vessel would accommodate. His requests
were finally granted. The law of Congress passed in March or
April 1847, authorizing the apprenticeship system, was the
result of his persistent presentation of his own plan elaborated
in 1824.

Seventeen indentured apprentices were received, and a daily
school on board the _Fulton_ was instituted, in which the lads
who proved apt to learn were taught the English branches,
seamanship, war exercises, and partially the operations of the
steam engine. After one year’s experience, Perry wrote July 8th,
1839, reporting that the boys already performed all the duties
of many men. They gave less trouble and were more to be depended
upon. While the utmost vigilance of officers was required to
prevent desertions of sailors on account of the near allurements
of the great city, the boys with a greater attachment were more
to be trusted.

As only one-fifth of the sailors in the navy were native
Americans, Perry took intense pride in the enterprise of rearing
up men for the national service, in whom patriotism would be
natural, inherited and heartfelt. He cheerfully met all the
difficulties in the way—such as parents claiming their boys on
various pretexts, and the law-suits which followed. To the boys
themselves, Perry was as kind as he was exacting. He believed in
tempting boys in the sense of proving them with responsibility
enough to make men of them. Sufficient shore liberty was given,
and once in a while, even the joys of the circus were allowed
them.

He proposed to man one of the new national vessels with a crew
of his trained apprentices, and under picked officers to send
them on a long cruise to demonstrate the success of his system.
When the brig _Somers_ was launched April 16, 1842, the time
seemed ripe, and he obtained permission of the Department to
carry out his plan. The vessel had been built, and the boys had
been trained under his own eye. After a conference with
Secretary Upshur in September, it was arranged she should make a
trip to Sierra Leone and back, occupying ninety days, traversing
seven thousand miles, and visiting the ports or colonies of four
great nations. A few days afterwards the _Somers_ sailed away,
full of happy hearts beating with joyful anticipations, yet
destined to make the most painful record of any vessel in the
American navy.

On this sad subject, either to state facts or give an opinion,
we have nothing to say. The real or imaginary mutiny and its
consequences did much to injure and finally destroy the
apprenticeship system as founded by Perry. Other reasons for
failure lay in the fact that boys of good family expected by
enlistment to become line and staff officers. Disappointed in
their groundless hopes, they deserted or wanted to be
discharged. Failing in this, they sought release by civil
process.

By the system of 1863, the same failure resulted. In 1872
“training ships,” as we now understand the term, were put in
use. On June 20, 1874, the Marine School Bill was passed which
created the present admirable system, which has little or no
organic connection with any other system previously in vogue. It
is now possible, with the Annapolis Naval Academy and the
School-ship system, to provide abundantly both officers and
sailors for the military marine of the United States. In any
history of the naval-apprenticeship system of the United States
navy, despite the claims made by others, or the many names
associated with its origin or development, the name of Matthew
Perry must not be lost sight of as prime mover.

VII.
DUELLING.

MATTHEW PERRY never fought a duel, or acted as a second, though
duelling was part of the established code of honor among naval
men of his school and age, and provocation was not lacking. On
his return from the cruise in the _North Carolina_, an
unpleasant episode occurred, growing out of idle gossip and the
malignant jealousy felt towards an officer of superior parts by
inferiors unable to understand one so intensely earnest as
Matthew Perry. The manner in which Perry dealt with the man and
the matter strengthens the claim we have made for him as an
educator of the United States Navy. The conversation at a dinner
party in Philadelphia filtered into the ear of a certain
lieutenant in Washington, who reported that Captain M—— had
spoken of Matthew Perry as “a d——d rascal.” Perry at once took
measures to ferret out the anonymous slanderer. He first learned
from Captain M—— the total falsity of the report, and then
demanded from the disseminator of the scandal the name of his
informant, which was refused. Thereupon Perry wrote to the
Secretary of the Navy, pleading the general injury to the
service from calumnies and unfounded reports. The Secretary
wrote to the offending lieutenant to tell the truth. The latter
pleaded the “privacy of his room,” “sacred confidence among
gentlemen,” and declined to give the name of the person
“understood” to have made the offensive remark to him. The
Secretary, Hon. Samuel L. Southard, in a letter which is a model
of terse English, read the offender a lecture on the unmanly
folly of dabbling in idle gossip, and laid down the principle of
holding the disseminator of reports responsible for the truth of
statements made on the authority of another. The triangular and
voluminous correspondence from Boston, Washington and Norfolk,
from November 15th 1827, to April 1828, may be read in the
United States Navy Archives. Perry demanded a court-martial, if
necessary, to clear himself from unjust suspicion. It was not
needful. His tenacity and perseverance conquered. The gossipper
begged permission to withdraw his remark, and then crawled into
oblivion.

In this paper war, extending over several months, the officer
whose victories both in peace and war were many, scored points
in behalf of truth and good morals, of the discipline and order
of the Navy, and of the advance of civilization. Heretofore, the
custom of duelling had largely prevailed in the corps, and to
this savage tribunal of arbitration a thousand petty questions
of personal honor had been brought. Yet despite all arguments in
favor of the bloody code, which believers in or admirers of its
supposed benefits may fabricate in its favor, the fact remains
that it served but an insignificant purpose. Its direct
influence was slight in repressing those petty personal
differences which, belonging to human nature, have such
congenial soil in a crowded ship. Duelling was a cure but no
preventative, the killing being as frequent as the curing.

Matthew Perry might have challenged the lieutenant, and, like
scores of his brother officers, appealed to the savage code; but
having long pondered upon and frequently witnessed the slight
benefit accruing from the costly sacrifice of life and limb from
duelling, he aimed to cut out from the life of the service the
whole system, root and branch, and to substitute the more rigid
test of personal responsibility. In choosing the slower and, in
old naval eyes, more inglorious method of correspondence, and
appeal to considerate judgment of his peers in court, he
exhibited more moral courage, showed his true character and
motive, and lifted higher the splendid standard of the American
Navy. To the formation of that _esprit_ of discipline which all
now concede to be “the life of the service,” Perry, in this
episode nobly contributed. He made the pen mightier than the
sword.

Despite his clear record on this subject, made thus early, he
came very near being made the victim of a political quarrel, and
a reformer’s zeal. Readers of the works of John Quincy Adams may
get an impression unjust to Captain Matthew Perry, because of
the Resolution of Inquiry, December 3d, 1838, “into the conduct
of Andrew Stevenson (United States Minister to Great Britain,
and J. Q. Adams’s political enemy) in his controversy with
Daniel O. Connell, as well as the participation of Captain Perry
in that affair.”[70] To make a long story short, Mr. Adams, in
his political zeal to injure an enemy and moral purpose to
abolish “the detestable custom of private war,” struck the wrong
man. All the information on which Mr. Adams based his inquiry
was contained, as he confessed, in “those published letters of
James Hamilton of South Carolina;” whereas, Mr. Hamilton
regretted and publicly apologized for writing the principal
letter which gave rise to the other two.[71] The whole
controversy is not without interest, and humor of both the Irish
and American sort. It is possible that Perry never knew till he
found his name dragged into Congress, what use of his name had
been made by Hamilton. So far as manifested in his official
record,[72] Matthew Perry’s example, influence and energetic
action were totally opposed to duelling. In his African cruises,
and at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, we find him earnestly laboring to
root out of existence a practice at war with Christian
civilization.

How well he and like-minded men succeeded, is now known to
all—except an occasional hot head in which passion outruns
information. It is perfectly safe for a person seeking either
notoriety or satisfaction to challenge a naval officer of the
United States to fight a duel. One familiar with the “Laws for
the better government of the Navy” need have no fears of the
result. Neither government nor individuals now consider “a
single person entitled to a whole war.”

-----

[70] J. Q. Adams’ _Works_, Vol. X, p. 48; and _Journal_ of same
year.

[71] _Niles Register_, Vol. LV, (from September, 1838 to March,
1839, pp. 61, 62, 104, 105, 132, 133, 258.)

[72] Letters. U. S. Navy Archives, August, 10th, 1841; February,
1845.

VIII.
MEMORIALS IN ART OF M. C. PERRY.

Portraits.

By William Sidney Mount in 1835, when M. C. Perry was forty
years old, now in possession of one of the Commodore’s children.

One at the time of his marriage.

One painted from a photograph by Brady, about 1864.

One at the Brooklyn Naval Lyceum.

One at the Annapolis Naval Academy, by J. R. Irving.

A painting from a daguerreotype was made in Japan by a Japanese
artist.

Photographs.

Of these, there are several taken from life, from one of which
the frontispiece of this volume has been made.

Engravings.

In _Harper’s Magazine_ for March, 1856, from a photograph by
Brady of New York, in an illustrated article on “Commodore
Perry’s Expedition to Japan,” by Robert Tomes, Esq., M.D.

In a London illustrated paper, about 1853.

In Gleason’s Pictorial, Boston, of August 5th, 1854.

In Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper of Saturday March 13,
1858.

Other prints in newspapers and lithographs of the face or bust
of M. C. Perry were made during his lifetime.

Bust and Statue.

A bust in marble of M. C. Perry, in sailor garb by E. D. Palmer,
of Albany N. Y., was made in 1859, and is now in possession of
the Commodore’s daughter, Mrs. August Belmont of New York.

In Touro Park, Newport, R. I., the city of his birth, about
fifty yards east of the “old round tower” is a bronze statue of
M. C. Perry, on a pedestal of Quincy granite. The extreme height
is sixteen feet, the statue being eight, and the pedestal eight
feet in height. The face, modelled partly from photographs and
partly from Palmer’s bust, is considered a good likeness. The
effect of the figure is grand, and the position easy and
natural. The model was designed by John Quincy Adams Ward of New
York, and the pedestal by Richard M. Hunt. On the latter are
four excellent bas-reliefs in bronze, representing prominent
events in M. C. Perry’s life.