PREPARATIONS FOR JAPAN. AN INTERNATIONAL EPISODE.
THE charts used in the Japan expedition came mostly from Holland, and
cost our government thirty thousand dollars. Perry does not seem to have
been aware that Captain Mercator Cooper of Sag Harbor, Long Island, had
brought home fairly good Japanese charts of the Bay of Yedo, more
accurate probably than any which he was able to purchase. Captain
Beechey of the B. M. S. _Blossom_, had surveyed carefully the seas
around Riu Kiu. The large coast-line map of Japan, in four sheets, made
on modern scientific principles by a wealthy Japanese who had expended
his fortune and suffered imprisonment for his work, which was published
posthumously, was not then accessible.
Intelligent Japanese have been eager to know, and more than one has
asked the writer: “How did Perry get his knowledge of our country and
people?” We answer that he made diligent study of books and men. He had
asked for permission to purchase all necessary books at a reasonable
price. Von Siebold’s colossal work was a mine of information from which
European book-makers were beginning to quarry, as they had long done
from Engelbert Kaempfer, but the importer’s price of Von Siebold’s
_Archiv_ was $503. The interest excited in England by the expedition
caused the publication in London of a cheap reprint of Kaempfer.
By setting in motion the machinery of the librarians and book-collectors
in New York and London, Perry was able to secure a library on the
subject. He speedily and thoroughly mastered their contents.
So far from Japan being a _terra incognita_ in literature, it had been
even then more written about than Turkey. Few far Eastern Asiatic
nations have reason to be proud of so voluminous and polyglot a European
library concerning themselves as the Japanese. On the subject about
which information was as defective as it was most needed, was the
political situation of modern Japan and the true relation of the
“Tycoon” to the Mikado.
Earnestly desirous of impressing the Japanese with American resources
and inventions, the Commodore on March 27th, 1851, had notified the
Department of his intention to obtain specimens of every sort of
mechanical products, arms and machinery, with statistical and other
volumes illustrating the advance of the useful arts. In addition to
this, he notified manufacturers of his wish to obtain samples of every
description. Armed with letters from his friends, the Appletons of New
York, he visited Albany, Boston, New Bedford and Providence to obtain
what he desired, and to inquire into personal details and statistics of
the American whalers engaged in Japanese and Chinese waters. An
unexpectedly great interest was arising from all quarters concerning
Japan and the expedition thither. All with whom he had interviews were
enthusiastic and liberal in aiding him. At New Bedford he learned that
American capital to the amount of seventeen millions was invested in the
whaling industry in the seas of Japan and China. Thousands of our
sailors manned the ships thus employed.
This was before the days of petroleum and the electric light. It
explained also why American shipwrecked sailors were so often found in
Japan. There were reciprocal additions to the populations on both sides
of the Pacific. While the Kuro Shiwo, or Black Current, was sweeping
Japanese junks out to sea and lining the west coast of North America
with wrecks and waifs, the rocky shores of the Sunrise Kingdom were
liberally strewn with castaways, to whom the American flag was the sign
of home.
The cause of this remarkable development of American enterprise in
distant seas lay in the liberal policy of Russia toward our people. Our
first treaty of 1824 declared the navigation and fisheries of the
Pacific free to both nations. The second convention of 1838, signed by
James Buchanan and Count Nesselrode, guaranteed to citizens of the
United States freedom to enter all ports, places and rivers on the
Alaskan coast under Russian protection. Already the northern Pacific was
virtually an American possession.
There was great eagerness on the part of scientific men and learned
societies to be represented in the proposed expedition. Much pressure
was brought to bear upon the Commodore to organize a corps of experts in
the sciences, or to allow favored individual civilians to enter the
fleet. Perry firmly declined all such offers.
He proposed to duplicate none of his predecessor’s blunders, nor to
imperil his personal reputation or the success of a costly expedition by
the presence of landsmen of any sort on board. He sent his son to China
at his own private expense. The expedition was saved the previous
tribulations of Aulick, or the later afflictions of De Long in the
_Jeannette_.
As illustrating the variety of subordinate matters to be looked into, he
was instructed to inquire concerning the product of sulphur, and about
weights and measures. The Norris Brothers of Philadelphia furnished the
little locomotive and rails to be laid down in Japan. These, with a
thousand other details were carefully studied by the Commodore.
Indeed it may be truly said that Perry’s thorough grasp of details
before he left the United States made him already master of the
situation. He knew just what to do, and how to do it. The Japanese did
not. He appreciated the advantage of having sailor, engineer,
diplomatist and captain in one man, and that man himself. Not so with
Rodgers in Corea, in 1871.
If Perry, after his appointment as special envoy of the United States to
Japan, had trusted entirely to his official superiors, he would probably
never have obtained his fleet or won a treaty. Four months after
receiving his appointment, the Whig convention met in Baltimore, June
the 16th. When it adjourned, on June 22nd, the ticket nominated was
“Scott and Graham.” Thenceforth, Secretary Graham took little or no
practical interest in Japan or Perry. The Commodore’s first and hardest
task was to conquer lethargy at home. One instance of his foresight is
seen in his care for a sure supply of coal, without which side-wheel
steamers, almost the only ones then in the navy, were worse than
useless. He directed Messrs. Howland and Aspinwall to send out two coal
ships, one to the Cape of Good Hope and the other to Mauritius. These
floating depots were afterwards of the greatest service to the advance
and following steamers, _Mississippi_, _Powhatan_ and _Alleghany_.
A lively episode in international politics occurred in July, 1852, which
Perry was called upon to settle. New England was convulsed over the
seizure of American fishing vessels by British cruisers. Congress being
still in session, the opposition were not slow to denounce the
Administration.
Mr. Fillmore invited Mr. John P. Kennedy of “Swallow Barn” literary fame
to succeed Mr. Graham as Secretary of the Navy. Mr. Kennedy took his
seat in the cabinet July 24th. The excitement over the fishery question
was then at fever heat. Mutterings of war were already heard in the
newspapers. Employment for the Mexican veterans seemed promising.
The cabinet decided that the new secretary should give the law, and that
Perry should execute it. Mr. Kennedy, who wisely saw Perry first,
proceeded to draft the letter. On the night of July 28th his studies
resulted in a brilliant state paper, which occupies seven folio pages in
the Book of Confidential Letters, and he then retired to rest. Naturally
his maiden effort in diplomacy tried his nerves. His broken sleep was
disturbed with dreams of codfish and the shades of Lord Aberdeen till
morning.
Once more summoning to his aid his old sea-racer the _Mississippi_,
Captain McCluney, Perry left New York July 31st, 1852, stopping at
Eastport, Maine, to get fresh information. There was much irritation
felt by British residents at the alleged depredations of American
fishermen, who, instead of buying their ice, bait, fuel and other
supplies, were sometimes tempted to make raids on the shores of the
islands. One excited person wrote to the admiral of the fleet:
“For God’s sake send a man-of-war here, for the Americans are masters of
the place—one hundred sail are now lying in the harbor. They have
stolen my fire-wood and burnt it on the beach.” They had also set fire
to the woods and committed other spoliations. Collisions with the
British cruisers were imminent, and acts easily leading to war were
feared by the cabinet.
Perry proceeded to Halifax. He traversed the coast of Cape Breton
Island, around Magdalen, and along the north shore of Prince Edward’s
Island, visiting the resorts of the Yankee fishermen, and passing large
fleets of our vessels. He found by experience, and was satisfied, that
there had been repeated infractions of treaty, for which seven seizures
had been made by British cruisers then in command of Admiral Seymour.
The question, at this issue, concerning the rights of Americans fishing
in Canadian waters, was one of geographical science rather than of
diplomacy. It rested upon the answer given to this, “What are bays?” The
last convention between the two countries had been made in 1818, when
the United States renounced her right to fish within three miles of any
of the coasts, bays and harbors of Canada. Only after a number of
American vessels had been seized and prosecuted in the court at Halifax,
was this treaty made. Including those captured for violating the
convention of 1818, the number was sixty in all. The British said to
Perry that the Americans had no right to take fish within three marine
miles of the shore of a British province, or within three miles of a
line drawn from headland to headland across bays. Canadians in American
bottoms were especially expert in evading this law.
Perry found the American fishermen were intelligent and understood the
treaty, but he thought that the Canadian government was too severe upon
them. About 2500 vessels and 27,500 men from our ports took part in the
hazardous occupation, “thus furnishing,” said the Commodore, “a nursery
for seamen, of inestimable advantage to the maritime interests of the
nation.” Added to the force employed in whaling in the North Atlantic,
there were thirty thousand men, mostly native Americans, whose business
was with salt-water fish and mammals. At one point he saw a fleet of
five hundred sail of mackerel fishers.
This diplomatic voyage revealed both the dangers and pathos of the
sailor-fisherman’s life. No class of men engaged in any industry are
subjected to such sufferings, privations and perils. Their own name for
the fishing grounds is “The Graveyard.”
The commercial and naval success of this country is largely the result
of the enterprise and seamanship shown in the whaling fisheries. These
nurseries of the American navy had enabled the United States in two wars
to achieve on the seas so many triumphs over Great Britain. By the same
agencies, Perry hoped to see his country become the greatest commercial
rival of Great Britain. This could be done by looking to the quality of
the common sailor, and maintaining the standard of 1812. For such
reasons, if for no others, the fisheries should be encouraged.
Perry came to adjust amicably the respective rights of both British and
American seamen. He warned his countrymen against encroaching upon the
limits prescribed by the convention of 1818, but at the same time he
would protect American vessels from visitation or interference at points
left in doubt. His mission had a happy consummation. The wholesome
effect of the _Mississippi’s_ visit paved the way for the reciprocity
treaty between Canada and the United States, negotiated at Washington
soon after by Sir Ambrose Shea, and signed June 5th, 1854. The entrance
of Mr. Kennedy in the cabinet was thus made both successful and
brilliant by Commodore Perry. The “hiatus secretary” bridged the gulf of
war with the firm arch of peace. The reciprocity treaty lasted twelve
years, when the irrepressible root of bitterness again sprouted. Despite
diplomacy, correspondence, treaties, and Joint High Commissions, still,
at this writing, in 1887, it vexes the peace of two nations. The axe is
not yet laid at the root of the trouble.
John P. Kennedy, another of the able literary men who have filled the
chair of secretary of the navy, was an ardent advocate of exploration
and peaceful diplomacy. He was heartily in favor of the Japan
expedition. Perry trusted in him so fully that, at last, tired of
innumerable delays, having made profound study of the problem and
elaborated details of preparation, he determined on his return from
Newfoundland, September 15th, to sail in a few weeks in the
_Mississippi_, relying upon the Secretary’s word that other vessels
would be hurried forward with despatch.
Repairing to Washington, the Commodore had long and earnest interviews
with the Secretaries of the State and Navy. Things were now beginning to
assume an air of readiness, yet his instructions, from the State
department, had not yet been prepared. Mr. Webster at this time was only
nominally holding office in the vain hope of recovery to health after a
fall from his horse. Perry, seeing his condition, and fearing further
delays, asked of Mr. Webster, through General James Watson Webb,
permission to write his own instructions.
We must tell the story in General Webb’s own words as found in _The New
York Courier and Inquirer_, and as we heard them reiterated by him in a
personal interview shortly before his death:—
“In the last of those interviews when we were desired by Perry to urge
certain matters which he thought should be embraced in his instructions,
Mr. Webster, with that wisdom and foresight and knowledge, for which he
was so eminently the superior of ordinary men, remarked as follows:
‘The success of this expedition depends solely upon whether it is in the
hands of the right man. It originated with him, and he of all others
knows best how it is to be successfully carried into effect. And if this
be so, he is the proper person to draft his instructions. Let him go to
work, therefore, and prepare instructions for himself, let them be very
brief, and if they do not contain some very exceptionable matter, he may
rest assured they will not be changed. It is so important that if the
expedition sail it should be successful, and to ensure success its
commander should not be trammeled with superfluous or minute
instructions.’ We reported accordingly, and thereupon Commodore Perry,
as we can vouch, for we were present, prepared the original draft of his
instructions under which he sailed for Japan.”
Mr. Webster’s successor and intimate personal friend, Edward Everett,
simply carried out the wishes of his predecessor and made no alteration
in the instructions to Perry. He, however, indited a new letter to the
“Emperor,” which is only an expansion of the Websterian original.
Everett’s “effort” differed from Daniel Webster’s letter, very much as
the orator’s elaboration on a certain battle-field differed from
Lincoln’s simple speech. At Gettysburg the one had the lamp, the other
had immortality in it.
The Japan document was superbly engrossed and enclosed in a gold box
which cost one thousand dollars.
The _Princeton_, a new screw sloop-of-war had been promised to him many
months before, but the autumn was well advanced before her hull, empty
of machinery and towed to New York, was visible. Captain Sydney Smith
Lee was to command her. In the _Mississippi_, Perry towed her to
Baltimore. Then began another of those exasperating stages of suspense
and delay to which naval men are called, and to endure which seems to be
the special cross of the profession. Waiting until November, as eagerly
as a blockader waits for an expected prize from port, he wrote to his
old comrade, Joshua R. Sands:—
“I am desirous of having you again under my command, and always
have been, but until now no good opportunity has occurred
consistently with promises I had made to Buchanan, Lee, and
Adams.
“The _Macedonian_ and _Alleghany_ will soon have commanders
appointed to them. For myself I would prefer the _Alleghany_, as
from her being a steamer she will have a better chance for
distinction, and I want a dasher like yourself in her.
“Rather than have inconvenient delay on account of men, I would
prefer that you take an over-proportion of young American
landsmen who would in a very short time become more effective
men in a steamer than middle-aged seamen of questionable
constitutions.”
Commander Sands was eventually unable to go with Perry to Japan; but
afterwards, in his eighty-ninth year the Rear-Admiral, then the oldest
living officer of the navy, in a long letter to the writer gleefully
calls attention to Perry’s trust in young American landsmen. The
_Princeton_ was finally extricated, and with the _Mississippi_ moved
down the Chesapeake. Before leaving Annapolis, a grand farewell
reception was held on the flag-ship’s spacious deck. The President, Mr.
Fillmore, Secretary Kennedy, and a brilliant throng of people bade the
Commodore and officers farewell.
The _Mississippi_ and the _Princeton_ then steamed down the bay
together, when the discovery was made of the entire unfitness of the
screw steamer to make the voyage. Her machinery failed utterly, and at
Norfolk, the _Powhatan_, which had just arrived from the West Indies,
was substituted in her place. The precedent of building only the best
steamers, on the best models, and of the best materials, set by Perry in
the _Mississippi_ and _Missouri_, had not been followed, and
disappointment was the result. The _Princeton_ never did get to sea. She
was a miserable failure in every respect, and was finally sent to
Philadelphia to end her days as a receiving-ship.
On the evening before the day the Commodore left to go on board his ship
then lying at Hampton Roads, a banquet was tendered him by a club of
gentlemen who then occupied a house on G street, west of the War
Department, now much modernized and used as the office of the Signal
corps.
There were present at this banquet, as invited guests, Commodore M. C.
Perry, Lieutenant John Contee, and a few other officers of the
Commodore’s staff, Edward Everett, Hon. John P. Kennedy—“Horseshoe
Robinson,” the “hiatus Secretary” of the navy—Col. W. W. Seaton, the
Hon. Alexander H. H. Stuart, Mr. Badger, senator from North Carolina,
John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, Jefferson Davis, the Honorables Beverly
Tucker, Phillip T. Ellicot, Theodore Kane, Johnson, Addison, and Horace
Capron afterwards general of cavalry, and Commissioner of Agriculture at
Washington, and in the service of the Mikado’s government from 1871 to
1874, making in all a party of about twenty-four. The dinner was served
by Wormley, the famous colored caterer.
General Capron says in a letter dated September 13th, 1883:
“I can only state the impressions made upon my mind by that
gathering, and the clear and well-defined plans of the
Commodore’s proposed operations which were brought out in
response to the various queries. It was apparent that all
present were well convinced that the Commodore fully
comprehended the difficulties and the delicate character of the
work before him. . . . I am bound to say that to my mind it is
clear that no power but that of the Almighty Disposer of all
things could have guided our rulers in the selection of a man
for this most important work.”
Perry’s written instructions were to fulfil the unexecuted orders given
to Commodore Aulick, to assist as far as possible the American minister
in China in prosecuting the claims of Americans upon the government of
Pekin, to explore the coasts, make pictures and obtain all possible
hydrographic and other information concerning the countries to be
visited. No letters were to be written from the ships of the squadron to
the newspapers, and all journals kept by officers or men were to be the
property of the navy Department. The Secretary, in his final letter,
said:—
“In prosecuting the objects of your mission to Japan you are
invested with large discretionary powers, and you are authorized
to employ dispatch vessels, interpreters, Kroomen, or natives,
and all other means which you may deem necessary to enable you
to bring about the desired results.
“Tendering you my best wishes for a successful cruise, and a
safe return to your country and friends for yourself, officers
and companies of your ships,
“I am, etc.,
“JOHN P. KENNEDY.”
From its origin, the nature of the mission was “essentially executive,”
and therefore pacific, as the President had no power to declare war. Yet
the show of force was relied on as more likely, than anything else, to
weigh with the Japanese. Perry believed in the policy of Commodore
Patterson at Naples in 1832, where the pockets of recalcitrant debtors
were influenced through sight and the imagination.
The British felt a keen and jealous interest in the expedition. _The
Times_, which usually reflects the average Briton’s opinion as
faithfully as a burnished mirror the charms of a Japanese damsel,
said:—“It was to be doubted whether the Emperor of Japan would receive
Commodore Perry with most indignation or most contempt.” Japanese
treachery was feared, and while one editorial oracle most seriously
declared that “the Americans must not leave their wooden walls,” Punch
insisted that “Perry must open the Japanese ports, even if he has to
open his own.” Sydney Smith had said, “I am for bombarding all the
exclusive Asiatics, who shut up the earth and will not let me walk
civilly through it, doing no harm and paying for all I want.” The ideal
of a wooer of the Japanese Thornrose, according to another, was that no
blustering bully or roaring Commodore would succeed. “Our embassador
should be one who, with the winning manner of a Jesuit, unites the
simplicity of soul and straightforwardness of a Stoic.”
Providence timed the sailing of the American Expedition and the advent
of the ruler of New Japan so that they should occur well nigh
simultaneously. The first circumnavigation of the globe by a steam war
vessel of the United States began when Matthew Perry left Norfolk,
November 24th, 1852 three weeks after the birth in Kiōto of Mutsŭhito,
the 123d, and now reigning Mikado of “Everlasting Great Japan.”
Perry had remained long enough to learn the result of the national
election, and the choice of his old friend Franklin Pierce to the
Presidency. Tired of delay, he sailed with the _Mississippi_ alone. At
Funchal the Commodore made official calls in the fashionable conveyance
of the place, a sled drawn by oxen, and laid in supplies of beef and
coal. The incidents on the way out, and of the stops made at Madeira,
St. Helena, Cape Town, Mauritius, Ceylon and Singapore, have been
described by himself, in his official narrative, and by his critic J. W.
Spalding,[25] a clerk on the flag-ship. Anchor was cast off Hong Kong on
the 6th of April, where the _Plymouth_, _Saratoga_, and _Supply_, were
met. The next day was devoted to the burning of powder in salutes, and
to the exchange of courtesies. Shanghai was reached May 4th. Here,
Bayard Taylor, the “landscape painter in words,” joined the expedition
as master’s mate. The Commodore’s flag was transferred to the
_Susquehanna_ on the 17th.
[Illustration: PERRY MAKING OFFICIAL CALLS IN FUNCHAL.]
The low, level and monotonous and uninteresting shores of China were
left behind on the 23d, and on the 26th, the bold, variegated and rocky
outlines of Riu Kiu rose into view. An impressive reception, with full
military and musical honors, was given on the third, to the regent and
his staff on the _Susquehanna_. The climax of all was the interview in
the cabin. In lone dignity, the Commodore gave the Japanese the first
taste of the mystery-play in which they had thus far so excelled, and in
which they were now to be outdone. Perry could equal in pomp and dignity
either Mikado or Shō-gun when he chose. He notified the grand old
gentleman that, during the following week, he would pay a visit to the
palace at Shuri. Despite all objections and excuses, the Commodore
persisted, as his whole diplomatic policy was to be firm, take no steps
backward, and stick to the truth in everything. His open frankness
helped by its first blows to shatter down that system of lying,
deception, and espionage, under which the national character had decayed
during the rule of the Tokugawas.
On the 9th of June, with the _Susquehanna_ having the _Saratoga_ in tow,
the Commodore set out northwards for a visit to the Ogasawara or Bonin
islands, first explored by the Japanese in 1675, and variously visited
and named by European navigators. Captain Reuben Coffin of Nantucket, in
the ship _Transit_, from Bristol, owned by Fisher, Kidd and Fisher,
landed on the southern or “mother” island September 12th, in 1824,
fixing also its position and giving it his name. British and Russian
captains followed his example, and also nailed inscribed sheets of
copper sheathing to trees in token of claims made. “Under the auspices
of the Union Jack” a motley colony of twenty persons of five
nationalities settled Peel island, one of the group, in 1830. Perry
found eight whites, cultivating nearly one hundred acres of land, who
sold fresh supplies to whalers. The head of the community was Nathanael
Savory of Massachusetts. Perry left cattle, sheep, and goods, seeds and
supplies and an American flag. He arrived at Napa again June 23d, and
the 2d of July, 1853, the expedition left for the Bay of Yedo. Many and
unforeseen delays had hindered the Commodore, and now that he was at the
doors of the empire, how different was fulfilment from promise! Over and
over again “an imposing squadron” of twelve vessels had been promised
him, and now he had but two steamers and two sloops. Uncertain when the
other vessels might appear, he determined to begin with the force in
hand. The _Supply_ left behind, and the _Caprice_ sent back to Shanghai,
he had but the _Mississippi_, _Susquehanna_, _Plymouth_ and _Saratoga_.
The promontory of Idzu loomed into view on the hazy morning of the 7th,
and Rock island—now crowned by a lighthouse, and connected by telephone
with the shore and with Yokohama, but then bare—was passed. Cape Sagami
was reached at noon, and at 3 o’clock the ships had begun to get within
range of the forts that crowned or ridged the headlands of the
promontory. The weather cleared and the cone of Fuji, in a blaze of
glory, rose peerless to the skies.
Cautiously the ships rounded the cape, when from one of the forts there
rose in the air a rocket-signal. “Japanese day fire-works” are now
common enough at Coney Island. Made of gunpowder and wolf dung, they are
fired out of upright bamboo-bound howitzers made of stout tree trunks.
The “shell” exploded high in air forming a cloud of floating dust. The
black picture stained the sky for several minutes. It was a signal to
the army lying in the ravines, and a notice, repeated at intervals, to
the court at Yedo. The expected Perry had “sailed into the Sea of Sagami
and into Japanese history.”
In the afternoon, the first steamers ever seen in Japanese waters,
dropped anchor off Uraga. As previously ordered, by diagram of the
Commodore, the ships formed a line broadside to the shore. The ports
were opened, and the loaded guns run out. Every precaution was taken to
guard against surprise from boats, by fire-junks, or whatever native
ingenuity should devise against the big “black ships.”
The first signal made from the flag-ship was this, “Have no
communication with the shore, have none from the shore.” The night
passed quietly and without alarms. Only the boom of the temple bells,
the glare of the camp-fires, and the dancing of lantern lights told of
life on the near land. This is the view from the American decks. Let us
now picture the scene from the shore, as native eyes saw it.
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[25] The Japan Expedition, New York, 1855