“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster,
And treat those two impostors just the same….
If you can keep your head when all about you,
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too; ….
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son! “-Rudyard Kipling
Robert Field Stockton was too opinionated to be a follower.
Politicians continued to disappoint him, and he was not afraid to let them know. John Quincy Adams was the first he spoke publicly about. When Adams appointed what he considered an unqualified man for the New Jersey Federal District Court over his father in 1827, he actively changed sides and supported General Andrew Jackson. He wanted his presidents to respect limited government, states rights and he had a strict view of the constitution. Somewhat ideally, he wanted a principled man of honor and gravitated toward men with military experience.
“When the safety honour and happiness of the country conflict with the success of parties, it has been his doctrine that the claims of patriotism were paramount to those of party.”-Bayard on Stockton
In 1838, Captain Stockton was made XO or executive officer aboard the 74-gun Ohio and spent time in the Mediterranean. At each port , he went to shipyards and spoke to engineers about steam engines. The Stevens’ experience with steam ferries had him first contemplating a steam engine for his canal barges but his mind moved to a great ship of war, one that could be powered by steam and turn on a dime without the wind. A screw propeller caught his eye when he met inventor John Erricson in Liverpool.
When he came back to the States in 1839 as a post captain, Martin Van Buren had won the presidency after Jackson’s two terms. Once again Stockton went about the state giving speeches against Van Buren’s decisions. He was particularly upset about the assaults on New Jersey’s sovereignty, its militia, and the growing federal government. The southern states asserted their own sovereign right to preserve slavery which Robert was entwined in, given his wife Maria’s parents. The Potters lived across from Morven and were staunch advocates for slavery, and used slave labor extensively in their business.
It was particularly jarring to hear a military man so roundly opposing his commander-in-chief. Stockton’s family history, his money, and his command of the room when speaking made him a strong ally and a formidable political enemy.
He made quite the impression at age 44, in his Captain’s uniform with the ‘mutton chops’ alongside his face. They would not be called ‘sideburns’ until Civil War Hero Ambrose Burnside wore them to the extreme later in the century.
Stockton in his prime (public domain)
He then made speeches supporting William Henry Harrison, another military man. Harrison had defeated a confederation of Indian nations led by the Prophet, Tenskwatawa at Tippecanoe Indiana in the runup to the War of 1812.
William Henry Harrison won the 1840 election only to die of pneumonia after refusing to wear a topcoat at his inauguration. VP John Tyler took over immediately with three years and eleven months left in his term. Tyler was immediately pressured by various factions in the party and Stockton defended him. As a nod to Stockton’s efforts, Tyler offered him the Secretary of the Navy. Stockton declined. He insisted his efforts were for country and not position, but he also wanted his screw propeller battleship built. He had proven the concept. Erricson had built a schooner for the canal fitted with a similar engine and propeller in 1838.
Tyler conceded, and Stockton’s assignment was to supervise its design and construction.
His ship, the Princeton, was fit with 12 cannons and two massive ten-ton iron guns, the Oregon forged in England and the Peacemaker made in the USA. The engine and propeller would all sit below water, making them safe from enemy fire. She could stay at sea as long as any sailing ship, and would use the engines only when needed to preserve coal.
Sailing it down the Potomac in 1844, he basked in the glory of seeing his prize come to life.
The first day, he hosted a party for members of the House of Representatives and former President Adams. The ship amazed onlookers as it cut through the ice-filled water with no sails on the rigging, and few men on the decks. Passengers dined on the finest food Stockton’s wealth could provide, and they were amazed at the explosions of the 44 pounds of gunpowder shot out of the massive cannons. A reporter quoted Stockton, “It’s nothing but honest gunpowder gentlemen; it has the strong smell of the Declaration of Independence…It’s the kind of music when negotiations fail.” They sailed to Mount Vernon and turned toward home, loading the Peacemaker with its 230-pound projectile and skimming the ball over the water into the dusk. It was a glorious day of triumph for the Captain.
The next day a similar demonstration was planned for the President and cabinet. He impressed the dignitaries on board with his exhibition of the firepower of the Oregon and the Peacemaker over and over. Late in the afternoon, there was a request for another demonstration in honor of George Washington. He was reluctant, "No more guns today", he said, until he heard the request came from the Secretary of the Navy.
Taking the request as an order, Robert left the party and came above deck, and had the Peacemaker loaded. President Tyler stayed below at a women's lunch of roast fowl, ham, and fine wines brought for the occasion from Philadelphia. There were over 200 women dining, led by 76-year-old Dolley Madison, former First Lady and social leader.
Tyler stayed below out of courtesy to his new fiancée. Tyler's first wife with whom he had eight children had died in the White House two years earlier. He was just approaching the steps when the gun exploded as a result of faulty iron in the muzzle. It killed one of the president's slaves, the Secretary of Navy, the Secretary of State, and three others including the father of Julia Gardiner, the woman who would marry Tyler later that year and give him seven more children. The explosion burned and temporarily blinded Stockton.
Stockton’s enemies pounced on his role as supervisor of the construction of the ship and the modifications he made on the Peacemaker, a longer, less powerful gun. It had only been fired five times in advance of its installation, while the Oregon fired 130 test shots An immediate investigation was called for. The official inquiry cleared Stockton and he was lauded for his quick reaction to the disaster. The blame fell to John Ericsson and the inferior American ironwork.
The Princeton was a ship ahead of its time
Repaired and sent to patrol near Texas, the Princeton dominated the waters of the Gulf of Mexico for the remainder of the Tyler years as Stockton gathered intelligence. He secretly relayed to new president James Polk that the Republic of Texas was willing to join the United States, and that war with Mexico was on the horizon.
Read more: https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1956/september/ericsson-stockton-and-uss-princeton