The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 5. Various
rates, will make a full exhibit of its policy data annually to the Convention. This standard upon its publication, compelled favorable recognition upon the part of level premium journals.
Thus assessment insurance has gradually placed itself upon a higher and more scientific basis, until it has commended itself to the most intelligent and thoughtful, and in its wonderful growth outstripped its older and less popular rival, until its obligations to the families of the insured exceed those of level premium insurance to the amount of about two thousand millions of dollars.
A Bureau of Insurance has been established under the auspices of the National Organization whose object is to gather and compile statistics relating to all phases of assessment insurance, such as the experience of companies with agents and medical examiners, the comparative cost of carrying various classes of risks and in short, everything in the practical working of the business by the companies comprising its membership, that may furnish data for a more scientific basis, and more satisfactory results in the future.
Many assessment insurance companies are not what they ought to be, but there are those worthy of confidence and patronage, whose managers are making the business a careful study, and bringing to its administration, honesty of purpose and large executive ability.
If the insuring public will learn to discriminate and place their risks in the best assessment companies, remembering that insurance in any good company must cost a reasonable amount, they need have no apprehension as to the result.
THE HERO OF LAKE ERIE
The battle of Lake Erie was fought seventy-two years ago to-day; and we have convened to dedicate to the public and to posterity a statue in memory of the Commander of the American fleet on that occasion,
Oliver Hazard Perry needs no monument of bronze or marble to commemorate his name, or to illustrate his glory. History has taken these into its keeping and will preserve them for posterity, while genius in battle and heroic valor and unfaltering energy in the performance of high duty, receive the homage of the American people.
Wherever the patriotism of the citizen is the only reliance for the defence of the nation, the people owe it to themselves to show their appreciation of the conduct of those persons who have arisen among them that have been public benefactors, and have conferred distinction upon their localities. They owe it to those who may come after them, that they so manifest their gratitude that it will inspire succeeding generations with a due sense of patriotism, and be an incentive to them to rise above narrow and sinister purposes to the plane of exalted virtues, and be stimulated to the performance of great actions.
Citizens of South Kingstown, the town in which he was born,—of Newport, where he was reared, had his home in mature life, and is buried;—together with the State and people at large, who have participated in his glory, have been impelled by this common sense of obligation to undertake the erection of a memorial statue of Commodore Perry, a task, the execution of which was committed to a native artist, and here is the artist's finished work.
The statue is designed to represent Perry, not as he was superintending the cutting down of the forest for the construction of his ships; not as he was meditating the plan of the battle of Lake Erie or the order of its execution; not as he appeared the evening previous to the action advising his subordinate commanders in the words of Nelson, "No captain can do wrong if he places his ship alongside of that of an enemy;" nor as he was opening the battle flag which bore upon its folds the dying words of a gallant captain; not as he was leaving his wrecked ship with the deck strewed with his dead and dying comrades, when by the received cannons of naval warfare the Lawrence and the battle were lost; but as he appeared in that supreme moment of his life, when he had just gained the deck of the Niagara, before he had recovered his knocked-off cap, and while in distinct succession he was giving orders to "Back the main-top-sail," "Brail-up the main-try-sail," "Helm up" "Square the yards," "Bear down on the enemy's line," "Set the top-gallant-sail," "Hoist the signal for close action," orders which infused new enthusiasm into all the American crews; and as pendant answered pendant, from mast-head to mast-head indicating the reception of the order to break the enemy's lines, hearty cheers went up from the entire American force with a fervor that presaged the result of the impending death struggle.
In contemplating this statue, we should consider the circumstances in which Perry was placed, and the events impending when the artist has undertaken to represent him, as well as in the light of Perry's conduct thereafter and the results therefrom, reflected back upon this critical juncture in his career. For the battle of Lake Erie did not create, but illustrated and brought out in bold outline, the real character of the man.
The crews of the American fleet were of a mixed character. Perry sent from Newport one hundred and forty-nine men and three boys in three detachments. Half of one of these detachments was detained by Commodore Chauncey on Lake Ontario; but shortly before the battle Perry received from that officer a considerable accession to his force. Upon his arrival at Lake Erie, Perry found a few men in the service of the Government on the Lake, and the remainder of his men were made up of new recruits, with a contingent taken from the North Western army of men, naturally brave but without experience on ship-board. Perry had arrayed against him skillful officers who had been taught the art of war, and the methods of victory under Nelson. Brave and highly disciplined seamen in whose vocabulary defeat had had no place, with recruits like Perry's taken from the army, and an auxiliary force of Indian sharp-shooters.
The character of a naval engagement is not to be determined alone by the number of men, the tonnage of the ships, or the weight of the metal involved in the conflict. These are elements to be considered, and in the battle of Lake Erie all of these elements were against the American fleet, but the surrounding and attending circumstances, the conduct of the battle, and the results depending upon its issue are the considerations which go to make the place in the minds of succeeding generations which the event is to occupy. History has not had committed to it for preservation the story of the organization of a fleet, and the conduct of a battle the result of which was more dependent upon the genius, knowledge, energy, and courage of a single individual, than was the battle of Lake Erie.
Other commanders have fought in ships completely equipped for service by other hands, but Perry had to construct, equip, arm and man his ships, and in person to take two of them in succession into action; and it may be well questioned whether he is not entitled to as much credit for his intelligent comprehension of the wants of the occasion, his energy, and perseverance in collecting the materials to supply those wants, and in making up his fleet, as for his genius and courage in action.
Perry, in the beginning, was unfortunate in having succeeded an officer who, in the engagement was his subordinate in command, and in anticipating a ranking officer in bringing on the conflict; but the surrounding circumstances and the positive orders of the Secretary of the Navy made his meeting the enemy a necessity.
The outcome of the attempts which had been made by the Government for the defence of this section of the country had not been such as to inspire sanguine hopes of the result of this action.
The Adams, the only vessel the United States had upon the Lake before the construction of Perry's ships, had been captured. General Hull had ignobly surrendered his force to the enemy at the head of the Lake, General Winchester's army had been lost to the Government, and General Van Rensselaer had been defeated at Niagara.
Perry was to act in conjunction with the northwestern army, under General Harrison, then awaiting the result of the battle to be transported across the Lake, in the event of a victory, to operate against the enemy in his own territory.
Perry's earnest appeal to Chauncey for men, backed by the promise that if he got them he would acquire honor and glory both for Chauncey and himself, or he would perish in the attempt, should be considered in connection with his appeal to the same officer to bring the men, and take command of the fleet. Together they show that the first appeal was not the result of an ambitious desire for vain glory; no mere impulse of emotion or passion; but the outcome of a high resolve wrought in the laboratory of a noble soul, born of that deliberate purpose which permeated his subsequent conduct in the action and which is recorded in the bronze before us.
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