they were doomed to the same disappointment. In every instance they were overpowered by the superior activity, strength, and resolution of our officers and men. Some of these personal conflicts seem to partake more of the apocryphal legends of romance than of authentic history. The capitals of the Barbary States contained the representatives of all the great powers of Europe, and their men-of-war and merchant-vessels were looking with the deepest interest on this struggle against piracy and plunder. Through them the knowledge of these rencounters was spread over all Europe, exciting not only admiration of the chivalrous bearing of our officers and seamen, but astonishment that a nation then almost unheard of should have the boldness to defy a power to which the nations of the old world, great and small, were paying tribute.

The narrative of the war with Tripoli would not be complete without a brief sketch of a movement by land under General Eaton, our consul at Tunis. After his dismission, he returned to the United States, and endeavored to engage the government in the cause of Hamet, the elder brother of Yusuf, the reigning Bashaw of Tripoli. Hamet had been deposed, driven out of the regency, and taken refuge in Egypt. It was the opinion of Eaton, that, if he should go back, aided by a respectable force, the people of Tripoli would rise against the usurper and restore the legitimate sovereign, and that this would be the most effectual mode of terminating the war and insuring friendly treatment in the future. The government, without committing itself fully to the scheme, appointed Eaton Navy Agent of the United States for the Barbary powers, and he sailed in June, 1803. He was commended to the commander of the squadron, and a coöperation with Hamet Bashaw was suggested. Eaton repaired to Egypt, found the deposed Bashaw, organized a force of five hundred men, one hundred of whom were Christians recruited in Egypt, and only nine of whom were Americans. With this force he commenced his march across the desert

of Barca, from the neighborhood of Alexandria, on the 5th of March, 1805, and arrived at Derne, the capital of one of the finest provinces of Tripoli, on the 25th of April. The passage of the desert was accomplished after incredible hardships and difficulties. The Arabs, who constituted four fifths of his force, frequently mutinied, and as the only resource Eaton surrounded himself and his provisions with his Christian followers, and reduced them to obedience by the fear of starvation. By his energy and decision he at length reached his destination, and attacking the city with his slender and exhausted force, five hundred men against four or five thousand, he carried it, and for several weeks defended himself against repeated attacks. His protégé, Hamet, did not prove to be a man of energy or resource, nor did the people of the province manifest a general disposition to take up arms in his behalf against the usurper. The movement, however, gave great uneasiness to the latter, and he renewed his efforts to make peace, which was finally concluded between him and Mr. Lear, the American commissioner, who had been sent out as consul-general for the Barbary States, with authority to treat with Tripoli. The treaty was signed on the 4th of June, 1805. Captives were ransomed on both sides at a fixed price, and the Bashaw, having the largest number, received $60,000 for the difference. All tribute and the enslavement of captives were abolished; and for the first time since the reign of the Emperor Charles the Fifth the organized system of piracy practised by the States of Barbary was discountenanced and disowned. In every other instance friendly arrangements with these outlaws were perpetuated by the payment of tribute. So strong was the impression of our successes on the public mind of Europe, that the Pope is said to have declared that the United States had done more for the cause of humanity than all the rest of Christendom.

A few years later, Algiers and Tunis availed themselves of the war in which we were engaged with Great Britain,

to renew their schemes of pillage against us; but at its close, in 1815, a naval force was sent out under Decatur, who imposed on both those regencies the terms prescribed to Tripoli ten years before. In the mean time the old system of tribute was enforced against the nations of Europe, until Great Britain, shamed by our example, sent Lord Exmouth the following year on that expedition against Algiers, in which he immortalized himself by his gallantry, and the whole Barbary system of piracy and tribute was abolished forever. The "London Annual Register" for that year thus mildly confesses the truth: The spirited exertions of the United States," in the last year, to enforce redress for the injuries they had sustained, were calculated to excite invidious comparisons with respect to this country; and either a feeling of glory or some unexplained motives at length inspired a resolution in the British government to engage in earnest in that task which the general expectation seems to assign to it."

After the abolition of the system of plunder, by which the States of Barbary were supported, they sank rapidly into poverty and significance. Tunis has become one of the most wretched of communities the abode of unmitigated squalor

and misery. Tripoli is somewhat more elevated in the social scale. Algiers has fallen under the dominion of France, and to the farthest limit of the Upper Atlas the country is gradually rising from its abasement under the auspices of its new masters. The empire of Morocco is invaded by the armies of Spain. The same races, which were struggling four centuries ago for the dominion of Andalusia and Grenada, are now fighting for the mastery on the plains of Barbary. In the fifteenth century the Saracen, in sullen despondence, but facing his adversary and contending at every step, retired from Spain before the new-born chivalry by which he was defied and overthrown. In the nineteenth he will fall under the resistless power of European improvement. When the wave of modern civilization shall have passed

over the fabled Atlantis, overwhelming its barbarism, restoring its neglected fields to their pristine luxuriance and glory, and embellishing it again with the treasures of art, it will become one of the most attractive regions of the earth, and will dispute with Italy the possession of the multitudes who flee from the icy blasts of northern winters in quest of southern flowers and sunshine.

And finally, gentlemen, if the history of the Barbary States for the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries shall be impartially written, our children's children shall read with swelling hearts, that, when all Christendom was submitting, in ignominious subserviency, to predatory attacks on its commerce and its subjects, a distant people, who had just fought their way through adversity and peril to independence, -feeble in numbers, but strong in courage and the sense of right, sent their little fleet 5000 miles across the Atlantic to vindicate the cause of justice and humanity, -that they did not hesitate to beard the African tiger in his den, while the surrounding nations of the old world were crouching before him, — and that, while the tricolor of France, the cross of Saint George, the proud ensign of the Mistress of the Ocean, and even the sacred standard of the Vatican, bearing on its folds the keys of Saint Peter, could only float on the waters of the Mediterranean by sufferance of the piratical children of the Prophet, the star-spangled banner was sent out from the Western hemisphere to defy them, and was boldly upreared in the presence of subservient nations, the sole emblem of the freedom of the seas.

THE REBELLION IN LOUISIANA.

Letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, in response to a resolution of the House calling for information as to whether duties on imports continue to be collected in the ports of entry in certain Southern States, &c.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, February 21, 1861. SIR: On the 11th instant the following resolution was adopted by the House of Representatives:

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury be requested to inform this House whether the duties on imports continue to be collected in the ports of entry established by law in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida; and whether any hindrances exist to the law of entry and clearing of vessels therein. Also, the present condition of the light-houses, beacons, and buoys, in the said harbors and adjacent waters. Also, what measures, if any, have been taken to secure the revenue-vessels in the service of the department from seizure, or to recover possession of such as have been seized. Also, what measures have been adopted for the security of the public moneys in the hands of depositaries in the aforesaid States, and whether they are available to the Treasury. Also, whether the use and control of any of the marine hospitals, permanent or temporary, have been interfered with, and what proceedings have been adopted with reference thereto.

In obedience to the foregoing resolution, I have the honor to submit the following report in relation to the matters of inquiry embraced therein.

I. THE COLLECTION OF DUTIES ON IMPORTS. It is believed that the duties on imports continue to be collected in the ports of entry established by law in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida, and that vessels are entered and cleared in the usual manner. But, so far as this department is advised, the