aste our country
with fire and sword, and, actually, in various instances, carried their
menaces into execution. It became necessary, for our defense, to resist,
by every practicable method, such a formidable foe.

It was conceived, by a most ingenious and enterprising citizen, that
the power of Steam could be employed to propel a floating battery,
carrying heavy guns, to the destruction of any hostile force that should
hover on the shores, or enter the ports of our Atlantic frontier. The
perfect and admirable success of his project for moving boats containing
travelers and baggage by the same elastic agent, opened the way to its
employment for carrying warriors and the apparatus for fighting.

The plan was submitted to the consideration of the executive of an
enlightened government. Congress, influenced by the most liberal and
patriotic spirit, appropriated money for the experiment, and the Navy
Department, then conducted by the honorable William Jones, appointed
commissioners to superintend the construction of a convenient vessel
under the direction of ROBERT FULTON, the inventor, as engineer, and
Messrs. Adam and Noah Brown, as naval constructors. The enterprise, from
its commencement, and during a considerable part of its preparatory
operations, was aided by the zealous co-operation of Major General
Dearborn, then holding his head-quarters at the city of New York, as the
officer commanding the third military district. The loss of his valuable
counsel in conducting a work which he had maturely considered, and which
he strongly recommended, was the consequence of his removal to another
section of the Union, where his professional talents were specially
required.

The keels of this steam-frigate were laid on the twentieth day of June,
eighteen hundred and fourteen. The strictest blockade the enemy could
enforce interrupted the coasting trade, and greatly enhanced the price
of timber. The vigilance with which he guarded our coast against
intercourse with foreign nations, rendered difficult the importation of
copper and iron. The same impediment attended the supplies of coal
heretofore brought to New York from Richmond and Liverpool. Lead, in
like manner, was procured under additional disadvantages. These attempts
of the enemy to frustrate the design, were vain and impotent. All the
obstacles were surmounted. Scarcity of the necessary woods and metals
were overcome by strenuous exertions; and all the blockading squadro