withering fire. At the height of the battle, Jackson again visited
Dominique You’s battery to see how things were going.
“Ah, we do not make much damage,” You said.
“Why is that?” Jackson demanded.
“The powder!” You replied. “It is not good. The cannon balls, they fall
short.”
Jackson said, “I’ll remedy that!” He ordered an aide to see to it that
the Baratarians received the best ammunition possible. The General was
heard to say later, “Were I ordered to storm the very gates of hell
with Dominique You as my lieutenant, I would have no misgivings as to
the outcome.”
Jean and Pierre Laffite acquitted themselves with honor in the battle
for New Orleans. They and their men were given Presidential pardons,
clearing the slate of past crimes, and for some time after the city
was saved, they were great heroes. They were wined, dined, and cheered
wherever they went.
Perhaps the brothers became bored with respectability. At any rate
they drifted back into piracy. They pulled out of their old haunts and
moved to Galveston to set up operations, and for several years they
carried on business in the slave trade. In 1820, Jean Laffite boarded
his favorite boat, _The Pride_, and sailed away into legend. There
were stories that he died in Yucatan. Some claimed that he carried on
his piracy in the Mediterranean. Still others said that he settled in
France and lived to be an old man. All recorded history of Jean Laffite
ended when he sailed from Galveston. Pierre Laffite was said to have
lived in Louisiana to an old age and to have died a poor man.
The quality and the quantity of piracy subsided along with the fortunes
of the brothers Laffite. But not smuggling. Smuggling was to continue
to plague the Customs Service, and some of the smuggling would make the
Laffites look like amateurs.
5
THE DARK YEARS
Slavery was the issue which exploded into the Civil War in 1861, but
twenty-eight years before the first shot was fired on Fort Sumter, the
nation was on the edge of open war over a dispute involving the Federal
government’s right to force the collection of customs duties.
The spirit of revolt flamed high in South Carolina in 1832–1833. It was
fed, too, by sympathy in Virginia and Georgia and other agricultural
states which bitterly opposed the system of protective tariffs as being
oppressive to the farm states.
Did the central government have the Constitutional right to force the
collection of duties in a state which opposed such collections? No!
said the “Nullifiers,” who favored striking down the Federal tariff
laws. They insisted that any state had the right to withdraw from the
Union if it so desired.
The Nullifiers gained control of the government of South Carolina and
a call was issued for a convention to meet and abolish by formal state
action the collection of duties. There also were loud demands from some
state leaders for mobilization of South Carolina troops to oppose any
Federal intervention. Customs officers, more sympathetic to the state
of South Carolina than to the Union, refused to collect duties. This
convention call was the aftermath of a previous convention at which a
grim resolution was adopted saying in part: “The state looks to her
sons to defend her in whatever form she may proclaim to _Resist_.”
The tariff collection issue became so divisive that reports reached
President Jackson in August and September, 1832, that the loyalty of
army officers in command of Federal troops at Charleston was suspect.
It was reported to Jackson that in event of Federal “aggression”
against South Carolina to enforce tariff collection and oppose
secession, these officers were ready to surrender their troops to the
state rather than fight to protect the Charleston forts. These same
reports said overtures had been made “perhaps not without success” to
switch the allegiance of the naval officer in command at Charleston, in
order to prevent a Federal blockade of the port.
Jackson advised his Secretary of State, Edward Livingston, that “the
Union must be preserved, without blood if this be possible, but it
must be preserved at all hazards and at any price.” He changed the
garrison at Charleston and sent Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott to take over
the command. He warned Secretary of War Lewis Cass that a surprise
attack would be made on the Charleston forts by South Carolina militia
and directed that such an attack must be “repelled with prompt and
exemplary punishment.”
While taking these precautions, Jackson argued that if the doctrine of
nullification of customs duties by the states were ever established,
then every Federal law for raising revenue could be annulled by the
states. He denied the right of secession, declaring that “to say that
any state may at pleasure secede from the Union is to say that the
United States is not a nation.”
The controversial tariff laws had been a national issue long before
Jackson entered the White House in 1828. The major issue in the
Presidential campaign of 1823–1824 revolved around tariffs and the use
of Federal funds for such internal improvements as roads, harbors, and
like projects. The leading candidates for the Presidency that year
were John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, Henry Clay of Kentucky, John Q.
Adams of Massachusetts, William H. Crawford of Georgia, and finally,
Andrew Jackson--with Jackson and Adams emerging as the showdown
antagonists.
Adams won the election when Henry Clay threw his support to the
New Englander. Under the leadership of Clay and Daniel Webster a
high-duty system of tariffs was adopted, which was termed the “Act of
Abominations” by its opponents.
When Jackson entered the White House in 1828 the tariff issue was
still the most important and also the most divisive issue of the day.
In January, 1830, Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina launched
a strong attack in the Senate against the excessively high tariffs.
The young Senator sought a coalition between the West and the South,
the agricultural areas, to oppose the duties favored by the industrial
states.
Hayne’s argument rested on the states’ rights questions which were to
plague the nation for many years to come. Hayne contended that “no evil
was more to be deprecated than the consolidation of this government.”
He argued for the right of any state to set aside “oppressive” Federal
legislation, including tariffs.
Daniel Webster picked up the argument against Hayne. He contended that
“the Constitution is not the creature of the state government. The
very chief end, the main design, for which the whole constitution was
framed and adopted was to establish a government that should not ...
depend on the state opinion and state discretion.” He said it was folly
to support a doctrine of “liberty first and union afterwards,” and he
spoke the famous line: “Liberty and union, now and forever, one and
inseparable.”
By 1832, the South Carolina Nullifiers were openly led by Vice
President Calhoun. The extremists were in control in South Carolina
to push events toward the crisis which forced Jackson to rush back to
Washington from Nashville. The state’s legislature proclaimed that any
effort by Federal authorities to collect the duties after February 1,
1833, would cause South Carolina to secede from the Union.
When news of this proclamation reached Jackson, he ordered seven
revenue cutters and a warship dispatched to Charleston. Maj. Gen.
Winfield Scott set his men to work preparing harbor defenses against
attack from the land. The situation was at the stage where only
recklessness was needed to set off a conflict. At this time Jackson
wrote a friend that “no state or states has the right to secede ...
nullification therefore means insurrection and war; and other states
have a right to put it down....”
Jackson issued a proclamation warning the citizens of South Carolina
not to follow the Nullifiers, whose “object is disunion.” He warned
that “disunion by armed force is treason” and that those who followed
this path must suffer the “dreadful consequences.” The proclamation
spread excitement throughout the country. Many men volunteered for
military duty in case of a conflict. Several state legislatures met to
denounce nullification. But in South Carolina Robert Y. Hayne--who had
resigned from his Senate seat to become governor of the state--issued
his own proclamation in which he vowed to maintain South Carolina’s
sovereignty or else to perish “beneath its ruins.” Hayne called for the
organization of “Mounted Minute Men,” which, he said, would permit him
to place “2,500 of the elite of the whole state upon a given point in
three or four days....”
The only concession held forth by Jackson in this cold war was his
approval of a bill for introduction in the House which would call for
a reduction of tariff rates. His willingness to go along with this
measure did not eliminate the threat of a shooting conflict.
While holding an olive twig of compromise in one hand, Jackson held a
sword in the other. He sent a request to Congress asking authority to
use Federal troops if necessary to collect the customs. Even as the
cheers and curses sounded over this move, Jackson sent a letter to
Gerald R. Poinsett, a Unionist leader in South Carolina, outlining his
plans to use strong measures to enforce Federal authority. No doubt he
intended his letter to reach the hands of the Nullificationists. He
said should Congress fail to act on his request for authority to use
military force, and should South Carolina oppose with armed force the
collection of the customs duties, then “I stand prepared to issue my
proclamation warning them to disperse. Should they fail to comply I
will ... in ten or fifteen days at fartherest have in Charleston ten
to fifteen thousand well organized troops well equipped for the field,
and twenty or thirty thousand more in their interior. I have a tender
of volunteers from every state in the Union. I can if need be, which
God forbid, march 200,000 men in forty days to quell any and every
insurrection that might arise....”
Not only would he take these measures against South Carolina, Jackson
added, but if the governor of Virginia should make any move to prevent
Federal troops from moving through the state against South Carolina
then “I would arrest him....” The President also was prepared to call
on Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee,
Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina to furnish 35,000 troops to carry
out his orders.
Jackson’s request of Congress for authority to use troops in forcing
the collection of customs was immediately called the “Force Bill.”
To the extremists it was known as the “Bloody Bill.” Vice President
John Calhoun said darkly that if the bill should pass then “it will be
resisted at every hazard, even that of death.”
It was at this point that the Great Compromiser, Henry Clay, moved
to seek the solution which would avoid bloodshed and perhaps civil
war. He introduced in the House his own bill to lower tariffs by 20
per cent over a period of ten years. The Clay bill was pushed through
Congress along with the Jackson Force Bill and both were sent to the
President for his signature. Jackson won his demand for authority to
send troops to South Carolina to put down any move toward secession
or nullification of the tariff laws, and he signed the compromise
tariff bill even though it was, in a measure, appeasement of the
Nullificationists. Clay’s tariff bill was a face-saving measure for
South Carolina. The head-on conflict between Federal and state forces
was averted--at least for the time being.
In Jackson’s administration there was one man whose name appears
mostly in the footnotes of that turbulent period, but it is a name
that deserves special mention in this chronicle. The man was Samuel
Swartwout, Collector of Customs in New York City during Jackson’s two
terms in the White House. He rates special mention and a shadowy niche
in American history because he was the first and only man to steal a
million dollars from the Treasury of the United States. In fact, he
stole $1,250,000.
Swartwout was a young man when he plunged into New York politics. He
was a dark-haired, personable man who made himself useful by running
errands for the political bosses until he reached a position of
backroom fixer and schemer with no small amount of influence. He was
the bluff, hearty type who made friends easily. And while he never was
a central figure in the making of history, he was one of those men
whose names continually cropped up in the affairs of the men who did
make history in his time.
Swartwout was a protege and confidante of Aaron Burr during the period
of Burr’s shady adventure in the West when he was accused of treason
in an alleged plot to establish an empire in the southwestern United
States. And when Jackson’s star began to rise as a Presidential
candidate, Swartwout attached himself to the cause of the Tennessean.
Many of Jackson’s friends and followers resented Swartwout’s close
association with Jackson because they regarded him as a doubtful
character smeared by the tar of the Burr affair. But when Jackson
entered the White House in 1828, Swartwout was among the honored guests
at the celebrations.
Jackson’s friends were concerned when it became known that the
New Yorker had easy access to the office of the President and was
seen coming and going as though he were one of Jackson’s intimate
advisers--which he wasn’t. The concern became dismay when rumors spread
that Swartwout had come to town seeking from Jackson the nomination as
Collector of Customs for New York City, a post of no little prestige
and political influence in those days. Jackson’s Secretary of State,
Martin Van Buren, was so upset by the reports that he refused to admit
Swartwout to his office or to enter into correspondence with him.
Jackson must have felt he owed a political debt to Swartwout because
on April 25, 1829, during a recess of Congress, he handed the New
Yorker the political plum he had been seeking. Swartwout continued in
the office until March 29, 1838, with never any public suspicion that
he was involved in thefts of money collected by the Customs House in
New York. Only when the records were checked by his successor was the
discovery made that his accounts were short by $1,250,000.
The scandal which followed broke like a storm over the young Customs
Service. Demands were made in Congress for safeguards to prevent any
such future looting of the Treasury. Enemies of Jackson attacked the
“spoils system” of appointments and centered much of their assault on
Customs.
As for Swartwout, he had foreseen the storm that was to come. He had
bade his friends farewell and boarded a ship for Europe several weeks
before the shortages in his accounts were discovered. He was in France,
safely out of reach of the law, when the scandal broke--and he didn’t
bother to return.
By 1849, the Customs Service spanned the continent. It reached the
coast of California in the person of John Collier, who was appointed
as the first Collector of Customs for San Francisco just as the state
was clearing the way for entry into the Union. Collier reached San
Francisco on November 13, 1849, after a perilous trip across the
country. He arrived at the beginning of the gold rush to find the city
and the customs situation in a state of disorganization and confusion.
Collier was overwhelmed by the amount of business being carried on
in San Francisco, by the number of vessels arriving and leaving the
harbor, by the smuggling which was going on, and by the high prices he
found in the city. He advised Secretary of the Treasury W. M. Meredith
in a long, rambling letter: “I am perfectly astounded at the amount
of business in this office.... The amount of tonnage ... on the 10th
instance in port, was 120,317 tons; of which 87,494 were American, and
32,823 were foreign. Number of vessels in the harbor on that day, 10th
instance, 312, and the whole number of arrivals since the first of
April, 697; of which 401 were American, and 296 foreign. This state of
things, so unexpected, has greatly surprised me....”
He found that Customs clerks were being paid from $1800 to $3000 per
annum but that the salaries were not particularly attractive in a
city gripped by the get-rich-quick fever. Flour was selling for $40
per barrel and pork for $60. Board was $5 a day and a room with a
single bed was $150 a month. Wood was $40 a cord and prices for other
necessities were equally shocking to a man as obviously thrifty as
Collier.
Collier moved into the Old Spanish Custom House to set up shop. It
was a dark and gloomy building. The roof leaked. Some of the doors
were off the hinges. There was no vault in which to place the money he
collected. He confided to the Secretary that “owing to the rates for
rents, I am afraid to lease a building. One for myself, containing four
rooms, two below and two above, without fireplaces, was offered to me
on yesterday at $2400 a month....”
He continued: “To enforce the revenue laws in this district, and to cut
up and prevent smuggling, which has been and is now carried on to a
great extent, it seems to be necessary that an additional cutter should
be sent out or that the _Ewing_, now in this port, should be assigned
to that duty.”
In a later letter to the Secretary, Collier wrote: “... San Francisco
... must become to the nation what New York is to the Atlantic.... It
is impossible to estimate the extent to which her commerce may reach.
It is now large and it will be constantly on the increase. These facts
are stated for the double purpose of putting you in position of what
may be anticipated from duties, and of impressing upon Congress the
necessity of doing something--doing much for California, and that
without delay. The responsibilities that rest upon the Collector, in
the absence of any legal tribunal, any legal adviser, to which he might
resort for redress or advice weigh heavily upon me.”
The troubles experienced by Collier and other early-day collectors
along the borders of the growing nation were soon to be submerged in
the conflict between the states. At the outbreak of the Civil War most
Southern Customs officers simply resigned and accepted appointments to
similar posts in the Confederate government.
President Lincoln ordered a blockade of the South on April 19, 1861.
At that time the United States naval fleet consisted of only 42 ships
carrying some 555 guns. Of this total many were tenders and store ships
and among them were old fashioned sailing ships and frigates. For a
time, business went on as usual in the Southern ports.
Many in the South laughed at the idea of a blockade. One Southerner
in a letter from Charleston, South Carolina, printed in the New York
_Illustrated News_ on June 15, 1861, said:
We are now in the enjoyment of a very pleasant spring, and are now
as quiet as a brood of chicks under the parent’s wing. For all
that, however, our head men are not asleep. Everything is going
nicely. You have heard, no doubt, old Abe has blockaded our port.
A nice blockade indeed. On the second day a British ship, the _A
& A_ ran the gauntlet and got in safe. She leaves in a few days
with a snug freight of $30,000. Today two vessels passed safely in,
both British, I understand. A captain told me that one of them can
carry more cotton than the _A & A_ and that she is engaged at 5¢ a
pound, which will give a freight of $35,000 to $40,000....
Under the guns of Admiral Farragut and the troops of General Butler,
New Orleans remained securely in the hands of the Northern forces,
shutting off this port to the Southern cause. After a short while
Galveston fell to the Union and the flow of cotton and smuggled goods
from this area was sharply reduced.
In England, the Liverpool firm represented by Thomas E. Taylor owned
some fifteen ships which were engaged in blockade running. Among
Taylor’s swiftest and most elusive runners was a steel vessel called
the _Banshee_, one of the first--if not the first--ship built for
the express purpose of evading the Union blockade for the Southern
ports. Nassau, in the Bahamas, was the primary staging point where the
blockade runners fueled and stocked for the run to the American coast.
The blockade had been underway for two years when Taylor brought the
_Banshee_ into Nassau. Workers removed everything aloft except the two
lower masts, and the ship was painted an off shade of white which the
blockade runners had found made their ships almost invisible at night,
even from a distance of only a few yards.
Moving cautiously out of Nassau, the _Banshee_ sailed along the Bahama
shores and then began the run toward Charleston. From a crosstree in
the masts, a lookout was rewarded with a dollar each time he sighted a
sail on the horizon before it was seen from the deck. If someone on the
deck spotted the sail first, then the lookout was fined five dollars.
It was a system that encouraged alertness by the lookouts. As soon as
a ship was sighted, the _Banshee_ turned its stern to the stranger and
waited quietly until the vessel was out of sight.
On the fourth day the _Banshee_ reached the American coast some fifteen
miles north of Cape Fear and the mouth of the Charleston River. When
darkness came she began easing cautiously toward the blockading Union
ships, running as close to the pounding surf as the skipper dared. No
lights were permitted, not even the glow of a lighted cigar. Tarpaulins
covered the engine-room hatchways. And the _Banshee_ was a gray ghost
slipping silently through the water while the men aboard talked only in
whispers. Occasionally the ship stopped for a seaman to take soundings.
Taylor later recalled one tense moment in these words: “... Suddenly
Burruss (the pilot) gripped my arm--‘There is one of them, Mr. Taylor,
on the starboard bow.’... A moment afterwards I could make out a long,
low, black object on our starboard side, lying perfectly still. Would
she see us? That was the question: but no, though we passed within a
hundred yards of her, we were not discovered and I breathed again.
‘Steamer on the port bow,’ and another cruiser was made out close to
us. Still unobserved, we crept quietly along, when all at once a third
cruiser shaped herself out of the gloom straight ahead and steaming
slowly across our bow.
“Burruss was now of the opinion that we must be inside the squadron and
advocated making the land. So ‘ahead slow’ we went again, until the
low-lying coast and the surf line became dimly visible.... It was a big
relief when we suddenly heard Burruss saying, ‘It’s all right, I see
the big hill!’...”
The Big Hill was near the Confederate-held Fort Fisher at the mouth
of the Charleston River. As dawn came, the _Banshee_ was sighted by
the Union blockaders and they moved against her with guns blazing. But
then the _Banshee_ slipped under the protecting guns of Fort Fisher and
safety.
The owners of the _Banshee_ made 700 per cent on their investment
before the ship was captured on her ninth round trip between Nassau and
Charleston.
The blockade runners, British and Confederate, supplied the armies
of Gen. Robert E. Lee with desperately needed arms, clothing and
food supplies in the early years of the war. For a time the blockade
appeared impotent, while Southern privateers harassed the shipping of
the North and captured much booty at sea.
While Lee was winning battles on the land, the Confederates could never
gain mastery of the sea. The Union blockade could not be broken, and
slowly the superior sea forces of the North strangled the commerce
of the South, shutting off her armies from vital sources of supplies
overseas.
Soon after the war began, it became evident to President Lincoln, to
his Cabinet, and to members of Congress that the revenues collected
by the Customs Service were not enough to finance the mounting costs
of the massive conflict. The loss of tariff revenues in the Southern
states, the South’s raids on the shipping of the North, and the
breakdown of normal commerce had reduced Treasury receipts drastically.
The President was forced to seek new sources of revenue.