1807

 

JAMES WILKERSON becomes enmeshed in an investigation into an alleged plot, led by Aaron Burr, to create a new nation in the Mississippi Valley. James Monroe, had previously been offered a military post under General Wilkerson, but correctly responded that he would “sooner be shot.”

 

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NEW JERSEY alters its laws, which had for more than three decades, allowed women to vote. In 1776, the new state had decreed that all “inhabitants” could vote as long as “they” could prove they had property worth more than 50 pounds. In 1797, a new law regarding voters used the phrase, “he or she.” Most married women gave over all their property to their spouses, and so lost the right to vote, but in 1800, one Jersey lawmaker was clear. “Our constitution gives this right to maids and widows, white and black,” he said.

 

So, did women exercise their right in any large numbers? Records were unclear; and researchers went to work to try to find out. Eighteen old voter rolls were found, nine of which showed that women did want to vote when they could. One poll list from Somerset County, in 1801, seemed to show that 46 of 343 voters were female. The sample was large enough to make a point. Out of 2,695 documented votes on the rolls, the names of around 208 women appeared.

 

Then, as now, there were wild claims of voter fraud. The New York Times explains:

 

There were charges of rampant fraud and corruption, as newspapers filled with tales of elections thrown into chaos by incompetent and easily manipulated “petticoat electors,” to say nothing of men who put on dresses to vote five, six, seven times. …

 

More than one election brought complaints of men rounding up carriage-loads of dubiously eligible women and bringing them to the polls, to help push their candidate over the top. In 1802, a candidate claimed that he lost a legislative race by a single vote only because a married woman and an enslaved woman had illegally cast ballots.

 

Finally, in 1806, came a bitterly fought election in Essex County to decide where a new courthouse would be built. Nearly 14,000 votes were cast – more than the number of eligible voters. …

 

And so in 1807, New Jersey – which also had no racial restrictions in voting at the time – passed a law explicitly limiting the franchise to white men.

 

The property qualification, however, was dropped, making all white males, for the first time, eligible to vote.

 

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June 22: Off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia, the British frigate Leopard intercepts the U.S. warship Chesapeake. The British captain,

 

demanded the surrender of several seamen serving on the Chesapeake, whom he claimed to be deserters from the British service. When this demand was not acceded to, the Leopard, at a distance of a hundred and fifty or two hundred feet, poured her whole broadside into the American vessel. The Chesapeake was unprepared for action. She received three broadsides without being able to answer in kind, and then struck her flag and surrendered. Three men were killed and eighteen wounded. The alleged deserters were taken aboard the Leopard. Three of them were Americans, one of the three being a negro. (56/273)

 

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VAN LOON writes,

 

Jefferson and his ministers knew that both France and England were in desperate need of American grain. Therefore, in December of 1807, they ordered all American vessels to remain at home until further notice and sent word to London and Paris that not another bushel of American grain or bale of American cotton would be forwarded to Europe until these two governments had promised to behave themselves and leave the American traders alone. (124/285-286)

 

As for impressment, Van Loon notes that many men were reluctant to serve on British warships, but the King required sailors.

 

Hence the pleasant habit of His Majesty’s tipstaffs of emptying the prisons and of raiding saloons and respectable beer-gardens and dragging the occupants to the nearest war vessel to become jolly tars and lead the life of galley slaves until the reestablishment of peace.

 

Needless to point out that these pickpockets and footpads (not to mention perfectly peaceful tailors and clerks who had gone out for a bit of air and a mug of ale) did not make ideal sailors.

 

Conditions aboard were unhealthy and before these reluctant sailors ever learned their new business, they “were apt to be dead from an enemy’s bullet or from one of those forms of disease which the jailbirds carried to the fleet and which turned so many ships into floating hospitals.”

 

He continues, “Hence the practice of waiting for all returning commercial vessels and depriving them of the greater part of their crew.” The next step was to insist that likely young fellows on foreign ships were actually British subjects and “enlist” their services, “with the help of irons and chains.” (124/287)

 

NOTE TO TEACHERS: I think it would work to ask students to put themselves in the place of any of these impressed sailors. I never thought of that when I was teaching; but it should work.

 

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June 22: The British ship Leopard of 50 guns stops the American frigate Chesapeake “which was fresh from the wharf and had not even got her guns in position.” Opening fire without warning, the enemy killed and wounded 21 American sailors, and four more were arrested as “deserters.” The Leopard then joined the English squadron which was taking in a fresh supply of water off Norfolk, Virginia. (124/289)

 

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“None seemed willing to trust the evidence of their own senses.”

 

ROBERT FULTON, having given up painting and taken up engineering, builds the first successful steamboat. “The hull of his vessel he constructed in America. The engine, however, he ordered from the firm of Boulton & Watt in Birmingham in England. The Clermont was a huge success “and in less than a year had grown too small for the number of passengers who wished to go from New York to Albany in the fabulously short time of thirty-six hours.” (124/345)

 

(Fulton himself says it was 32 hours.)

 

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The following selection is from Charles Coffin. 

One of the boys who used to visit William Henry’s shop and see him make guns was Robert Fulton, who was born in Little Britain, Pennsylvania, near Lancaster, and who used to set water-wheels whirling in the pasture brooks. He saw the model of the little steamboat which Mr. Henry constructed. He met Thomas Paine at Mr. Henry’s, and many other prominent men, and saw upon the walls of Mr. Henry’s parlor pictures painted by Benjamin West, whom Mr. Henry had befriended, who had traveled in Europe, and had become a famous painter.

 

While looking at the pictures Robert Fulton forgot his mill-wheels, and resolved to become an artist. He went to England, and studied painting under Mr. West’s instruction. He saw the steam-engines constructed by Watt and Boulton, and all his love for machinery came back to him. He gave up painting and became an engineer, went to Paris, and made experiment with torpedoes for blowing up warships. He built a steamboat sixty-six feet long, launched it on the Seine; but the bottom dropped out, and the engine went to the bottom of the river.

 

Fulton returned to the United States. The grand idea had taken possession of him that steam could be used in navigation. Robert Livingston, Chancellor of New York, believed that it could be done. He lived at Clermont, on the Hudson. Together they built a boat 133 feet long, 18 wide, and 9 feet deep, and named it the Clermont. People laughed at them; predicted its failure. When all was ready they invited their friends on board. Fulton let on the steam, but the boat did not move.

 

“I told you it would not work,” said one of the party.

 

“Wait,” said Fulton.

 

He fixed the machinery, and the boat moved away from the shore, and up the Hudson. The country people knew not what to make of it.

 

“The devil is on his way up-river with a sawmill in a boat!” shouted a Dutchman to his wife.

 

In thirty-two hours the Clermont was at Albany, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, and returned to New York in thirty hours.

 

This was what the New York Evening Post said, October 2, 1807: “Mr. Fulton’s new-invented steamboat, which is fitted up in a neat style for passengers, and is intended to run from New York to Albany as a packet, left here this morning, with ninety passengers, against a strong head-wind. Notwithstanding which, it was judged she moved at the rate of six miles an hour.”

 

Fulton had succeeded where John Fitch, James Rumsey, and Samuel Morey had failed. It was the beginning of a new era in navigation. (72/140-141)

 

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Excerpts from Makers of the Nation, Fanny E. Coe, 1914: 

From a mere child, Fulton had shown himself the born inventor. He loved to spend hours in the ships and at the forges watching the men at work. One day he came to school very late. “Where have you been?” asked the master. “I have been making myself a lead pencil. It is the best I have ever had.” And Robert handed his teacher a pencil which he had hammered out of sheet metal. It was indeed an excellent pencil; the lad had not overestimated it.

 

Robert used to go fishing with a chum a few years older than himself. The boys used a flat-bottomed boat which they moved with long poles. This labor was very fatiguing. Robert invented paddle wheels which, when attached to the boat, made it move very easily. After this, the fishing trips were all play and no work.

 

Robert Fulton was very skillful in drawing and painting. He was in doubt as to which he should be, a portrait painter or an inventor.

 

When he was twenty-one, Fulton went to England. There he sought out the well-known American painter, Benjamin West. He studied painting under West, but he also turned his attention to inventions. He made some important devices that have to do with canals, and he also invented the torpedo and the torpedo boat.

 

Skipping ahead, we pick up with the launch of the Clermont: 

We will let Fulton himself tell of their departure. “The moment arrived in which the word was to be given for the boat to move. My friends were in groups on the deck. There was anxiety mixed with fear among them. They were silent, sad, and wary. I read in their looks nothing but disaster, and almost repented of my efforts. The signal was given, and the boat moved on a short distance and then stopped and became immovable. To the silence of the preceding moment, now succeeded murmurs of discontent, and agitations, and whispers, and shrugs. I could hear distinctly repeated: “I told you it was so; it is a foolish scheme; I wish we were out of it.’

 

“I elevated myself upon a platform and addressed the assembly. I stated that I knew not what was the matter, but if they would be quiet and indulge me for half an hour, I would either go on or abandon the voyage for that time. This short respite was conceded without objection. I went below and examined the machinery, and discovered that the cause was a slight maladjustment of some of the works. In a short time it was obviated. The boat was soon put in motion. She continued to move on. All were still incredulous. None seemed willing to trust the evidence of their own senses.”

 

As the Clermont pushed on steadily mile after mile upstream, the guests grew happier and more confident. The fresh air, the wonderful scenery, the delightfully rapid motion made the day one never to be forgotten…

 

[Soon the passengers broke into song.]

 

The boatmen in their little craft upon the river and the farmers on the shore were filled with amazement as the Clermont passed. She burned very soft wood, so that much smoke and flame poured from her smokestack. When some of the sailors and boatmen saw “this queer-looking sail-less thing” gaining upon them in spite of contrary wind and tide, they actually abandoned their vessels and took to the woods in fright.

 

The speed of the little vessel quite satisfied Fulton and Livingston. Here is Fulton’s report on the first trip:

 

“My steamboat voyage to Albany and back has turned out rather more favorably than I had calculated. The distance from New York to Albany is one hundred and fifty miles. I ran it up in thirty-two hours, and down in thirty. I had a light breeze against me all the way, both going and coming, and the voyage has been performed wholly by the power of the steam engine. I overtook many sloops and schooners, beating to the windward, and parted with them as if they had been at anchor. The power of propelling boats by steam is now fully proved.” Thus the Clermont won the New York monopoly for the partners.