Uoyage of the Frigate Qongress, 1823
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Uoyage of the Frigate Qongress, 1823 dawn on June 8, 1823, the United States Frigate Congress lay in readiness to quit her Delaware moorings off Wilmington A- and sail down the river. A steamboat edged alongside to permit a number of passengers to board her—ministers to two foreign countries and their suites. Then, at 5 A.M., the ship unmoored, top- gallant and royal yards were crossed, the boats were hoisted in and soon she was under way favored by a breeze from the north. Nor- mally her commander would have felt legitimate pride at this mo- ment as his beautiful ship, royals and studding sails set, stood for the open seas.1 But Captain James Biddle could take little pride in his vessel on this voyage. His sense of propriety and of the traditions of the service was wounded. The son of a former sea captain and a nephew of Captain Nicholas Biddle of Revolutionary fame, he was an officer of meticulous custom and taste.2 Joining the Navy in 1800 as a mid- shipman, his career had been an interesting and distinguished one: for nineteen months he had been a prisoner in Tripoli following the capture of the 'Philadelphia; during the War of 1812 he had led the Wasp's boarding party which took the Frolic, and had later, when commanding the Hornet> won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his capture of the Tenguin. Several years after the war he was sent to the Columbia River to take possession of Oregon Territory. Dur- ing his subsequent career he was to sign a commercial treaty with Turkey and the first treaty between the United States and China; to serve as governor of the Naval Asylum at Philadelphia, as com- modore of the West India station and of the East Indian Squadron, and as commander of naval forces on the Pacific Coast during the Mexican War. Despite years of foreign service, Biddle found time to preside as the first president of The Philadelphia Club, and to achieve a scholar's reputation as a widely read man. 1 Log of the Congress, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP). 2 James Biddle (1783-1848) was a son of Charles Biddle, Vice-President of Pennsylvania under Benjamin Franklin, and was a brother of Nicholas Biddle, the banker. 170 1951 VOYAGE OF THE FRIGATE CONGRESS I7I In April of 1823 Captain Biddle sailed the Congress into Hampton Roads to complete a successful cruise in the West Indies. There he learned that he was to take Caesar Augustus Rodney, newly ap- pointed Minister to Argentina, and his family to Buenos Aires, and Hugh Nelson, Minister to Spain, to Cadiz. "I have official informa- tion that nine Miss Rodneys are coming on board. This alone is sufficient to prejudice me against the minister to Buenos Ayres, for it is not genteel nor reputable in any man to have nine unmarried daughters." So wrote the bachelor captain on May 16 in humorous mood to his good friend General Thomas Cadwalader while awaiting a favorable wind to sail for Wilmington.3 It was later stated that Rodney's friends had attempted to dis- suade the Minister from going with Biddle, for they feared differ- ences would arise between the two. Their reasons for this suggestion, y according to fh(iles Weekly %egistery were that "Captain Biddle was a very precise 'particular' man, attentive to the smallest matters of etiquette on board of his ship: that Mr. Rodney knew nothing about etiquette, and could not understand it—and that his frank and friendly disposition, with the exceeding fondness that he had for his family, would continually interfere with Captain Biddle's ideas of propriety in the regulation and government of his ship, on a long and interesting voyage. And, indeed, to one who has been accustomed to have a whole cabin to himself•, the ingress of a man and his wife and eleven children all with equal right to possess it, could not be very pleasant. This may be said without disrespect to Capt. Biddle, who is reported to be a very excellent officer, (and we know that he is a brave one)—fond of keeping things about him in a way that could not be expected to exist with such a family on board."4 Rodney, a man of great popularity in Delaware, chose to disregard the warning. Our first minister plenipotentiary to the Argentine Republic, he had enjoyed a nearly continuous career in public service since 1796. During this twenty-seven-year period, Rodney had served in both houses of the Delaware legislature, in the Congress and Senate of the United States, had been Attorney General for both Jefferson and Madison, and in 1817 had served as a member of a 3 James Biddle to Thomas Cadwalader, Hampton Roads, May 16, 1823, Cadwalader Collection, HSP. 4 Niks9 Weekly Register, XXV, 321 (Jan. 24, 1824). 172 NICHOLAS B. WAINWRIGHT April special commission to South America. It was unfortunate that he accepted the post of minister to a distant country in 1822, for from the day that the Congress sailed out of Delaware Bay, Rodney had but one more year to live.5 It was also unfortunate, as far as his relations with Captain Biddle were concerned, that Rodney found it necessary to take with him an unusual amount of baggage. "In consequence therefore of all this furniture being on board, my pride has been severely mortified at the unsightly appearance of every part of the ship and at the ridicule produced by it to the service in the eyes of Foreign Officers," Biddle complained.6 In addition to some articles loaded at Norfolk, the following property of Rodney's was taken aboard the Congress at Wilmington: 1 new Carriage with Harness 17 Tables 1 old Phaeton with Harness 11 Bureaus 1 old Cart with Harness 1 Secretary and Book case (old) 1 Plough 8 Pine board book cases (old) 2 Churns for making butter 1 Set Pine board shelves (old) (old) 1 large Walnut Desk (old) 1 Patent washing machine (old) 1 Piano Forte (old) 1 Wooden Horse for drying 1 large Mirror Cloths (old) 1 large easy chair (old) 2 Hampers contents unknown 107 Chairs 47 of them old 4 Casks contents unknown 1 Sofa 3 Quarter Casks wine 2 Settees 1 Quarter Cask Vinegar 1 Fancy stool 1 large Crate supposed to be 2 foot Stools Crockery ware 11 Bedsteads (old) 1 large Tierce of Kitchen uten- 3 Pine Cotts sils 6 Sacking bottoms (old) 2 large quilting frames (old) 2 Bed cords (old) 1 large Chest 1 Cradle (old) 26 Trunks 2 Setts of Testers (old) 1 Side Board 10 Beds (old) 5 Rodney was born in 1772 and died on June 10, 1824. 6 "Statement of Capt. Biddle respecting Mr. Rodney" (not in Biddle's hand), Cadwalader Collection, HSP. A copy of this file is among the James Biddle papers owned by Charles J. Biddle. 1951 VOYAGE OF THE FRIGATE CONGRESS 173 4 Mattress' (old) 2 Kitchen tin Roasters 1 Ship with ordnance 3 Tubs jars containing Pickles 4 dogs. 5 Goats 7 Baskets of different sizes 1 mans Saddle (old) 5 Waiters (old) 1 mans Saddle (new) 1 Tea Canister 1 Female Saddle (old) 1 Tea Chest empty 86 Boxes Contents of most of 1 Demijohn them unknown 2 Oil Cloths (old) 54 barrels Contents of most of 1 old Carpet them unknown 1 Hearth rug (old) 16 Kegs contents unknown 3 pair of Tongs (old) 2 Jars contents unknown 3 pair of Andirons (old) 1 Role Blankets (old) 3 Shovels (old) 1 Bundle Bedquilts (old) 3 Shafing dishes (old) 2 Mahogany Candle Stands, 1 Iron pot (old) old 1 Chopping knife 8 washing tubs old 1 Frying pan (old) 4 wash stands (old) 1 Wine cooler (old) 4 Pails (old) 1 Coffee mill broken 3 Horse Buckets (old) 1 Fish Kettle (old) 5 Crickets & Arm Chairs for 1 Knife tray (old) children (old) 2 drip Stones 1 Seal Press 2 small Bags of Stores Mortified as Biddle was by the appearance of all this luggage, his feelings were in for an additional series of shocks. From Gibraltar, the first port of call on the cruise, word had come to Philadelphia and Wilmington of complaints which Rodney had made against him. In December the excitement produced by such accounts was greatly enhanced when additional grievances were received by way of Rio, where the Minister left the Congress. Rodney's popularity at home may be gauged by the reaction in Wilmington where, on January 3, 1824, Captain Biddle was burnt in effigy.7 A few days later the Senate and House of Representatives of 7 "The burning of Captain Biddle in effigy was the act of a few mischievous boys, most cer- tainly no respectable man in Wilmington can be named who would say such an act was con- templated. ." American Watchman, Jan. 30, 1824. This and other quotations from Dela- ware newspapers were kindly furnished me by Miss Gertrude Brinckl6 of the Historical Society of Delaware. 174 NICHOLAS B. WAIN WRIGHT April Delaware unanimously adopted a resolution calling for an investiga- tion of Biddle's conduct, noting: "The General Assembly of the State of Delaware have learned that Caesar A. Rodney, a distinguished citizen of this state who was recently appointed by the President of the United States minister plenipotentiary to the Republic of Buenos Ayres and for whose accommodation and that of his family and effects, the U. S. frigate Congress was especially appropriated, after a series of studied insult and contumely on the part of the Com- mander, Captain James Biddle during the voyage, has been com- pelled by the conduct of the commander to leave the ship with his family at the Port of Rio Janeiro, twelve hundred miles distant from the port of his destination.