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Relief of Sarah Perry.

[JANUARY, 1824.

Let us now inquire whether this claim does not come fully within the scope of the principle with which I set out. Does not this lady stand in the light of a benefactress to her country? Did she not nourish, at her bosom, a man who did you a vast and countless service? Did she not instil into his soul those moral elements which fitted him for conquest-that longing after immortality—that shining and transcendent valor-that refined and exalted chivalry, which give an indescribable charm to his whole character?

of a State second to none in its ardent devotion | recurs with all its original force, and may be to a stern, orthodox republican creed. The said to carry a species of moral interest from most propitious circumstance attending this its postponement. impulse from South Carolina was, that the measure was in contemporary accord with the views of a gentleman (Mr. RANDOLPH) now on this floor, who, to an object so patriotic, pure, and grateful, lent the persuasive energy of his eloquence. This gentleman induced the House to adopt a resolution for the appointment of a select committee, to whom was confided the duty of inquiring what provision, comporting with the gratitude of the country, it behooved Congress to make for the family of Commodore Perry. To one, now no more, (my lamented predecessor,) who was a member of this committee, the virtues of whose noble heart were enthusiastically devoted to the subjects of its labors, I am indebted, for a knowledge of the principle by which the committee were governed, in reporting the bill on this subject, on the 28th of February, 1820. This committee, justly regarding the great and eminent services of Commodore Perry, and the indigent situation in which he had left his mother, and immediate family, thought it would not be going beyond the gratitude of the country, and the wants of the individuals to be relieved, that one-half of his full pay and emoluments as a post captain in the Navy of the United States, should be divided between them during certain periods, and on certain contingencies. The very first clause in this bill made a separate and distinct provision for his mother, precisely to the amount of the pecuniary allowance of the bill on your table. When, however, this measure was to be acted upon, some of its friends, from a fear lest the whole bill might be lost in contending for too much, consented to the erasure of this most pious and beautiful feature in the bill; one, the most strongly indicative of the feeling and considerate gratitude of the country. The gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. RANDOLPH,) who was chairman of this committee, yielded to this alteration, more, I have understood, from considerations of policy, than from a conviction of its propriety. [Mr. RANDOLPH here said that he assured the gentleman from South Carolina that he had never yielded this point.] I feel myself strengthened by the declaration of the gentleman, and that I am authorized to say that he has never surrendered his opinion that the mother of your hero has yet an uncancelled claim on your gratitude and justice. I feel that I have a right to appeal to the opinions of this gentleman; for among those who have been distinguished in the parliamentary history of your country, he is the last man who can be accused of ever having advocated a wasteful and unnecessary expenditure of your treasure.

I have preferred, sir, in the narrative I have given you, even the risk of being tediously minute, rather than that a single circumstance should be omitted, calculated to give you a full view of Mrs. Perry's situation. Her claim now

I fear, sir, if these questions are answered coldly, even in the affirmative, amidst the agitation of many topics, odious in their character, and pernicious in their discussion, we have forgotten a part of what we owe to the hero of Lake Erie. Is it an unreasonable trespass upon your time, to ask you to go back with me, for one moment, to that period when the victory of the 10th of September flashed from one end of this Union to the other, with a bright and cheering lustre, chasing back to the regions of eternal night the clouds and darkness which once seemed to have rested on your destiny, and, in the light of its glory, giving new ardor to valor, fresh hopes and confidence to patriotism? There was not a heart, among seven millions of freemen, amidst all the distractions of party, to which it did not bring gladness and exultation: for the victory was perfect in its kind. It was complete, to entire, sweeping and overwhelming subjugation. It gave security to fifteen hundred miles of your frontier, and the blow which went home to the pride of your foe, palsied the uplifted arm of his savage ally, and the tomahawk fell harmless to the earth. Amidst these events, your hero stands forth in high and resplendent relief. But let me not spoil the moral grandeur of a scene which be longs, by the joint destiny of glory and genius, to the pencil of some future artist who shall be worthy of his theme, in feeling, in full force, all its matchless sublimity. Let his canvas, then, breathe with all the animations of life, and glories of art. To him be confided the task of representing your hero in the midst of a carnage unexampled in the annals of modern warfare, carrying victoriously the tactics of Rodney to a dazzling excess, never contemplated by that hardy veteran in the intensity of his valor.

There are, Mr. Chairman, some posthumous claims of gratitudo which survive the individual, and remain on this side of the grave. It is when the object of our gratitude is removed beyond the reach of our kindness, that the just and enlightened instinct of this noblest sentiment of our nature induces us to go forth and seek for those our benefactor loved best, and on them to lavish the tributes of this consecrated obligation. No stone, erected by his country, marks even the spot where the remains of

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Relief of Sarah Perry.

[H. OF R.

our gallant countryman are mouldering into "a he, as the foundation of the remarks I intend to cold clod of the valley; " but this pittance, poor submit, that the principle on which the present as it is, which is asked for his parent, will be application rests, has been already settled in the more consoling to his manes than monumental act passed by a former Congress, making proglories, in which the genius of Chantry and Ca- vision for the wife and children of the lamented nova might contend for mastery. Death has Perry. What was the inducement to the pasnot paid the obligations of gratitude you owe sage of that act? Was it not because the deyour hero. They survive in the person of the ceased hero was endeared to the nation by venerable being who gave him birth. The his eminent services; and because, by his unforce of this truth it is in vain for you to escape. timely death, his wife and his little ones, the It is but a cold and heartless sophistry, which principal sufferers by an affliction which coverattempts to discriminate between the gratitude ed our land with mourning, were deprived of of a country or Government, and that which the means of decent subsistence? Why should becomes an individual. They are obligations the aged and venerable mother of the deceased of equivalent authority, and rest upon the sound-be excluded from the benefit of a similar proness of the same principle.

vision? Was she less deeply affected by the Let us now, sir, inquire, whether the propos- tidings of his death? Who can adequately coned annuity of three hundred dollars to Mrs. ceive the anguish of a mother who mourns for Perry is not fully within that frugality which her first born? Must she be excluded because ought to govern our bounty. Does this sum she was not the object of his tender regard, as allow for any thing more than the absolute sus- well as his wife and his children; or because tenance of life? Do you give, in such an the obligation on his part to maintain her in deamount, one farthing to pride or luxury? Let cency and comfort was less sacred, less imperishme next ask, whether the payment of this sum able? The tie which binds the parent to the is within your ability? On this point I am ad- child, and the child to the parent, as it is the monished into silence by the ridicule which eldest, so it is, also, the latest of human obligawould await such a discussion. Nor will I per- tions. The sentiment which draws a son to a mit you to plead economy, when I see so little virtuous and exemplary mother, to whom he of it employed in matters which have a per- owes an immense debt of gratitude and duty, sonal reference to yourselves, and in objects constitutes one of the noblest and most refined over which we have a direct control. The affections of the human heart. It begins with testimonies of your extravagance are about me. his being-he is nourished by her strengthThe cost of one of those columns which uphold "from lips that he loves" he learns the lessons the dome of this cheerless waste of magnificence, of truth, of wisdom, and sincerity; and by her would provide a fund, the interest of which would plastic hand, whilst his heart is yet soft and ducsupport the parent of our hero during the rem-tile, he is moulded to virtue, to manliness, and nant of her life; and all the expense of the pro- patriotism. Tell me not of the influence of posed annuity would twice over be paid, dur-learning and philosophy; or of the acknowling its utmost duration, from the amount which we annually pay out of the public Treasury for newspapers. Precedents of self-gratification it seems are never dangerous. But, in bestowing a pittance on the mother of your gallant benefactor, there may be something superlatively perilous in the example. Let me not be told that you have already done enough in providing for the widow and children of Commodore Perry. I say, in this you have done nobly; but something yet remains to complete your benefaction, to which you are urged by the strongest claims: for the situation of his mother is equally as exigent, to say the least of it, as that of his wife and children; and the relations of the one to the object of your gratitude, are quite as proximate as those of the other.

Mr. HENRY, of Kentucky, said he did not rise with the hope of emulating the thrilling and persuasive eloquence of the honorable gentleman from South Carolina. He was far, very far from proposing to himself an effort so vain, so unavailing. It would be his endeavor to present to the committee a few plain considerations, proving, as he conceived, that the provision contemplated by this bill was strictly compatible with the established practice and the sound policy of the Government. I shall assume, said

edged authority of paternal example. These are indeed essential: they are capable of doing much. But all these will be insufficient to make any man great, if the proper, the indispensable foundation be not laid in the nursery. I appeal to every honorable gentleman to recollect the infinite benefits he derives from the loveliest, the best, and most virtuous half of our species, and then, to say, if he can, that the picture I have attempted to delineate is exaggerated. We have heard repeated allusions to the brilliant achievements and wonder-working example of the hero of Lake Erie. Has it never occurred to the committee, that to the early training and correct discipline of the venerable lady whose name has been so often mentioned, he was indebted for the infusion of those principles which bore him upwards in the path of life; and finally rendered his own name illustrious, and covered the annals of his country with a flood of glory?

Mr. WICKLIFFE, of Kentucky, being so unfortunate as to differ in opinion from the gentlemen who had addressed the House in favor of this bill, by way of trying the strength of the House on the subject, moved to strike out the enacting clause of the bill, (in effect to reject it.) Mr. W. said he felt, and sensibly felt, the force of the

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Relief of Sarah Perry.

[JANUARY, 1824.

himself, if he lives, shall receive support from the funds of the nation. But, when you once leave this simple and just rule of proceeding, where are you to stop? It may perhaps, in some cases, be admissible to provide a temporary aid for the children of those who die in the field, but the idea that the nation is bound to support the widows, children and mothers of all who die in its service, is chimerical indeed. And yet it comes to this. For, if the mothers of those who die in the Navy are to be maintained, why not of those who die in the Army? If the mothers of officers of high rank, why not of subaltern officers? Nay, why not of the common soldier? He risks his life for the country as much, if not more, than his commander; so that even on the ground of feeling, the reasons for the bill entirely fail. Shall we not feel as much for the poor man as the rich for the humble but patriotic soldier, as for his more elevated companion in arms? Mr. C. said he was in Congress when the bill for the sup port of the wife and children of Commodore

remarks which had been so eloquently made by the gentleman from South Carolina, on the subject, founded on the merits of the hero whose mother was to be benefited by this bill. No one, he said, felt more sensibly than himself the obligations of the principle of gratitude, and on all occasions, as an individual, and in public life, he would acknowledge them; and it was with extreme regret that this individual case should be the first presented to him here, in which he found himself bound to yield to imperious duty the dictates of mere feeling. It was not a belief that the present applicant for the bounty of Congress was undeserving-not a disagreement in the sentiments as to her situation, which had been expressed by the two gentlemen who had spoken, that induced him to make this motion; but the principle that it is dangerous in a republican Government to extend the system of pensioning beyond the extent already recognized by this Government, and acted upon for the last forty years. I ask you, said he, if we begin thus to extend it, where shall we stop? This is a case possessing strong claims upon our sym-Perry passed the House. It was known to all pathy, but it is not the only one of the same who were in the House at that time, that that character. Is the victory of Commodore Perry | bill had been advocated by two of the most disthe only one which has been achieved for our tinguished men that ever sat in Congress-one country? And if we are to go on to pension the of whom, (Mr. LowNDES,) now slumbered in the mothers of our distinguished heroes, the pensions grave-the other was yet a member of the are not less due to the mothers of the honest House. It was to the bursts of resistless elomen who carry knapsacks, than to those of the quence which broke from the lips now still in distinguished individuals who lead them into death, that the passage of that bill was chiefly action. Shall we extend the bounty of the to be attributed; it was passed in a moment of Government to the mothers of men who hold a enthusiasm; the news of the death of Commodistinguished rank in society, and when applica- dore Perry had just reached the House, and tion is made in behalf of others who need it feelings were excited which nothing could conmore, and are perhaps not less deserving, tell trol. But this body ought not to be under the them we can extend our benevolence only to government of mere feeling when about to legis those who died in leading armies or squadrons to late; it must bridle its passions, and give reason battle? Shall I be confined to any section of this opportunity to be heard. Some uniform rule country to point out instances of men who have ought to be established. Already the pension died in service, leaving parents in a humble list of this young country is swelled to more and suffering condition? If we are to adopt than two millions. In fifty years, asked Mr. C the principle of this bill in any case, said Mr. if we proceed as we have done, what will it be W., I should be for going the whole; let us pass He was seriously affected by the precedent it a pension law providing for the support of was now proposed to set. Mrs. Perry might be the widowed mothers of all our deceased he- much distressed, and it was not disputed that roes. I am not for making these distinctions. her son had covered his country with glory. His merit was undisputed; and, he would say, it was unsurpassed, too, by any officer of his own grade. But what then? He could go over a long list of worthies, for whose families no provision had been made. There were, at this hour, hundreds of parents, to whom the country owed much, who were in the same circum stances with Mrs. Perry. One instance had recently been quoted on that floor, the case of Mrs. Denny. The thing was unavoidable. It was one of the fruits, the lamentable but ne cessary fruits of war, in all ages and countries.

Mr. COBB, of Georgia, then rose and said, he feared, after the eloquent appeals that had fallen from gentlemen on the opposite side of the House, that he should be heard with apathy, if not worse; but he could not but think that, in the discussion which the subject had received from the advocates of the bill, too great a range had been allowed to feeling, and not quite enough to cool, dispassionate judgment. In the internal policy of this country, no maxim was more fixed or more important than one which had been well expressed by one of our own statesmen, that an extensive pension list, under a free Republic, was very inexpedient. We have laid down on this subject a principle to which it would be wise to adhere. When a soldier falls in battle, or is disabled by wounds while fighting for the country, his widow, if he dies, or

Mr. McDUFFIE, of South Carolina, next took the floor. He commenced his observations by saying that he should feel deep regret, if, in the discharge of his public duty, as a member of this House he should ever find the dictates of policy incompatible with the sentiments of gratitude

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Relief of Sarah Perry.

[H. OF R.

and maxims of moral justice. But he was grati- | bravely, stands at his post, and obeys orders; fied to believe that that which the heart of every whilst the duties of the officer are of the most upright and honorable man would prompt him arduous character and of the highest national to do, was that which might be sustained, as importance. And when a nation has in its the true policy of a Government, on the cool service high-minded and chivalrous officers, it is principles of reason, and by an appeal to the her soundest policy to set them free from pecusoundest dictates of practical wisdom. The niary anxiety. Mr. McD. said he could see no present measure was an appeal to gratitude, danger in the precedent, in this case. The founded on the principles of expediency. Did services of the son, and the strict and entire dehe not believe that this bill was founded on pendence of the mother, formed a peculiarity considerations of the most enlarged expediency, in the case which prevented that danger. The he would at once abandon the bill as indefen- mother was, in this respect, in the place of one of sible. What, he asked, is the great object of a the children of the officer. To them the country Government, in relation to the military and becomes a father-why should it not become naval service, on which the honor and even the to her as a son? The extension of the pension safety of the country so much depend? With-list, by cases of parents in such circumstances, out bravery, military renown, heroism, what is a nation? A multitude of individuals, little better than a rabble. Without national character, what are we? Can too high inducements be presented for the achievements of valor which serve to elevate, and even constitute that character? Can such achievements be estimated by money? They cannot. It was, therefore, he argued, the dictate of sound policy to pursue such a course as would foster the feelings and deeds upon which the honor and safety of the country depend.

Against these sound and self-evident views of national policy, views that were founded in the nature of man, what were the arguments urged? The danger of the precedent: if we pass this bill, it was said, we must, in justice, allow all similar claims, and where will it stop? To this argument, Mr. McD. said, he had a short answer. Let all claims of equal force with this claim be allowed in their fullest extent. That country, said Mr. McD., cannot be poor, which has many such claims to satisfy, rich, indeed, is that nation whose treasury is in danger of empoverishment by claims like this. The gentleman from Georgia has said, that if we extend aid to the aged parents of our officers, we are also bound to do the same for our common soldiers. I do not, said Mr. McD., admit that position. This claim rests not simply on the fact of Mrs. Perry being the mother of Commodore Perry, but on the additional idea that she stood to him, when living, in the relation of a dependent on him for support: his bounty fed her. When he died, another son assumed the pious task of his fate none of us are ignorant; he magnanimously sacrificed his life in an effort to save his comrade, and with his life her support was cut off. Replying to another part of Mr. COBB's argument, Mr. McD. went on to say, there is a broad distinction between the case of a high-spirited and distinguished officer, and that of a common soldier. The latter has duties of a far inferior kind, and is induced, in most cases, to enter on their performance from mercenary motives-he enters the service for his daily bread. Not so the officer. He chooses the profession for its own sake, and is tempted to the choice by the love of fame. The duties of a common soldier are performed if he fights

was not to be apprehended. The lady contemplated by this bill is far advanced in years-the pension, if granted, cannot long continue-the subject of its bounty must soon sleep in the grave. It was more safe to provide for the parents than for the children of our defenders; their number could never be formidable, nor the duration of their pensions long. He had said that there would be no danger in granting this aid he would add, there would be danger in refusing it.

Mr. A. STEVENSON, of Virginia, next addressed the committee; he had no intention, he said, when he came to the House, of participating in the discussion of this question; the debate had, however, assumed such an interesting character, that he felt himself urged by considerations of duty and feeling to ask the indulgence of the committee for a few moments. Mr. S. said he had not anticipated any serious opposition to the bill; he had hoped it would have passed unanimously, and that the House (besides performing a sacred duty) would have been enabled, by the manner in which the application was met, to have soothed, in some measure, the afflictions and sorrow of this venerable lady for the loss of her gallant son. Ile regretted that the gentlemen from Georgia and Kentucky should have felt it necessary, in the discharge of their duty, to oppose this bill, and that regret was occasioned by the character of their opposition. The committee had been told that the precedent which they were about to set, in passing this bill, was one of alarming and dangerous character! That the policy of the Government demanded its rejection, and that there would be no limit to applications upon our bounty. Mr. S. denied that this would be the case-this was not an application to the bounty of the Government; nor was it an application to the cold-handed charity or generosity of the House. It was an appeal to the justice and gratitude of the nation! for there could not, he said, under Heaven, be a more just claim than that which was presented by a parent under the circumstances of this case. But was the House to be fettered by rules and precedents? For his part, he cared not for precedents. He thought it was only necessary to leave the decision to the justice of

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Relief of Sarah Perry.

(JANUARY, 1824.

the House, and that precedents might be dis- eye to the history of the past war. Do they pensed with. Surely, gentlemen were not forget the difficulties under which it comafraid that precedents for conferring honor and menced, and the disasters which befell us? gratitude on distinguished merit, would become Roused from a long peace of thirty years, most too numerous! Nor did he regard the number of our Revolutionary heroes gone, without offiof applications which might be made. He was cers of experience, without military science or prepared to give relief to all who were entitled military establishments, a dark gloom pervaded to the justice and gratitude of the nation- the Union; it was the American navy (filled with gratitude for services could not be too much ap- our gallant and hardy sons of the ocean) who plauded. The generosity of our national char- first broke the gloom, and raised to its highest acter was dear to the people, and ought to be pitch the enthusiasm of the nation. Do gencherished by their representatives. He would tlemen forget how soon they proved to the eneplace the aged parent, and especially the moth- my that her soldiers were not invincible, nor er, by the side of the widow and the orphan- her wooden walls invulnerable? Even Engand he would do this, not only in relation to land was forced to acknowledge their superiorour gallant officers, but to the humblest man ity, and Europe stood confounded. The battle who should die in the service of the country. of Lake Erie was then hailed as a victory, glo Mr. S. asked what principle of justice, or mo- rious and unparalleled in the history of nations. tive of policy was it that did not operate as In its consequences it was almost unexampled. strongly in the one case as in the other. If the It swept from the enemy the labors of half a object of Government in providing protection century, and destroyed the whole of her naval for the widow and orphan, be to excite in your power upon the Lakes, (which rendered her in gallant defenders a spirit of emulation and that quarter invulnerable,) and enabled her to patriotism, and to stimulate them to deeds of wield, with powerful effect, the arm of the noble and daring character, why might we not ruthless savage. It was Perry who achieved expect the same result, in providing for the this victory; it was his valor which has renhelpless and aged parent? Did gentlemen re- dered Lake Erie a monument of American gloquire that the feelings of the son were to be ry, and made the name of your country respectlost in those of the husband or father? Did able in every quarter of the world. And now, they believe that all the moral considerations when the mother of this gallant chieftain (by of filial attachment and affection, which influ- whom she was supported) comes and demands, ence the heart, and which dignify and adorn from the representatives of that country whom the human character, belonged not to the hero? he has thus honored, bread, we are told to give There was a sacredness, Mr. S. said, in the feel- her a stone. Economy and policy, too, we are ings of a son towards an aged and venerable told, require it, and the people expect it. Sir, mother, which could not be expressed. It is said Mr. S., this is a slander upon the nation. the primeval bond of society, and the sacra- Let those who oppose this bill go back to their ment of our nature. What do you imagine constituents, and tell them what they have would have been the feelings of the gallant done; that they turned from their door, in the Perry, whilst he was bearing your thunder in evening of a long life, the aged and venerable triumph on the mountain wave, if he had sup-mother of the gallant Perry, and doomed her posed that that country for whom he was prepared to offer up his life, would have suffered his aged mother to be thrown upon the cold charity of the world, to beg for a precarious subsistence? What would the nation have said, after the battle of Erie, if the manner in which this application has been met to-day, had been then foretold? Almighty God! is it possible, that in this country, where triumph such pure and liberal principles, and where the character of man has been so exalted, the charge of national injustice and ingratitude is to be sustained? But, Mr. S. said, if he was wrong in placing the parent upon the same footing with the wife; yet, was this not a case which stood upon peculiar grounds, and claimed especially the justice and gratitude of the nation? Who was the applicant? The mother of five sons, Mr. CLAY (the Speaker) said he regretted exwho had devoted their ail to their country, and tremely that the views which he entertained of two of whom had died in its service-the this subject were such as would not allow him mother of one of your noblest and most distin- to accord with the gentlemen who supported guished heroes-a man who exalted your na- the bill. If it were a question merely of feeltional character, by the splendor of his victo-ing, he should probably accompany his assent ries and valor, and added to your arms imper- to it with those eulogiums so eloquently beishable honor! Let gentlemen cast back their stowed upon the Victor of Lake Erie, and so

to the charity of the world; and if their conduct is not reproached, I can only say, that the people whom they represent are wholly unlike the generous and high-minded and honorable freemen whom I have the honor and pleasure to represent on this floor. Sir, said Mr. S., I call upon the House to pause, in the vote they are about to give; I conjure gentlemen, by every motive which can bind them to a correct discharge of duty-for the honor of the nation and its justice, not to reject this application; to let their mistaken notions of cold, calculating policy perish in the blaze of more generous and better feeling, and, by unanimity, afford some comfort and consolation to the wretched parent of this gallant chief, and pour into her agonized bosom the balm of a nation's gratitude.