Matthew Calbraith Perry (April 10, 1794 – March 4, 1858) was a United States Navy officer who commanded ships in several wars, including the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War. He led the Perry Expedition that ended Japan's isolationism and signed the Convention of Kanagawa between Japan and the United States in 1854.
Perry was interested in the education of naval officers and assisted in the development of an apprentice system that helped establish the curriculum at the United States Naval Academy. With the advent of the steam engine, he became a leading advocate of modernizing the U.S. Navy and came to be considered "The Father of the Steam Navy" in the United States.
Lineage Matthew Perry was a member of the Perry family, a son of Sarah Wallace (née Alexander) (1768–1830) and Navy Captain Christopher Raymond Perry (1761–1818). He was born April 10, 1794, in Newport, Rhode Island. His siblings included Oliver Hazard Perry, Raymond Henry Jones Perry, Sarah Wallace Perry, Anna Marie Perry (mother of George Washington Rodgers), James Alexander Perry, Nathaniel Hazard Perry, and Jane Tweedy Perry (who married William Butler).
His mother was born in County Down, Ireland and was a descendant of an uncle of William Wallace, the Scottish knight and landowner.Skaggs, David Curtis. "Oliver Hazard Perry: Honor, Courage, and Patriotism in the Early U.S. Navy". US Naval Institute Press, 2006. P. 4 His paternal grandparents were James Freeman Perry, a surgeon, and Mercy Hazard, a descendant of Governor Thomas Prence, a co-founder of Eastham, Massachusetts, who was a political leader in both the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies, and governor of Plymouth; and a descendant of Mayflower passengers, both of whom were signers of the Mayflower Compact, Elder William Brewster, the Pilgrim colonist leader and spiritual elder of the Plymouth Colony, and George Soule, through Susannah Barber Perry.
Naval career
In 1809, around age 15, Perry received a midshipman's warrant in the Navy and was initially assigned to , under the command of his elder brother. He was then assigned to , where he served as an aide to Commodore John Rodgers. President attacked the neutral Royal Navy post ship in the Little Belt affair. Perry continued to serve aboard President during the War of 1812 and was present at her inconclusive engagement with on August 23, 1812.Griffis, 1887 p.40 One of Presidents cannon burst during the engagement, killing and wounding several men including Perry. Perry subsequently transferred to and saw little active service for the rest the war since his ship was blockaded at New London, Connecticut by the British navy.
Following the signing of the Treaty of Ghent which ended the war, Perry served on various vessels in the Mediterranean Sea. Perry served under Commodore William Bainbridge during the Second Barbary War. He then served in African waters aboard USS Cyane during its patrol off Liberia from 1819 to 1820. After that cruise, Perry was sent to suppress piracy and the slave trade in the West Indies.
Opening of Key West
From 1821 to 1825, Perry placed in commission and commanded , a schooner with 12 guns. He was sent to the West Africa Station as part of the Anglo-American blockade of Africa to suppress the Atlantic slave trade.
In 1815, the Spanish governor in Havana deeded the island of Key West to Juan Pablo Salas of St. Augustine in Spanish Florida. After Florida was transferred to the United States, Salas sold Key West to American businessman John W. Simonton for $2,000 in 1821. Simonton lobbied Washington to establish a naval base on Key West, both to take advantage of its strategic location and to bring law and order to the area.
On March 25, 1822, Perry sailed Shark to Key West and planted the U.S. flag, physically claiming the Florida Keys as United States territory. Perry renamed Cayo Hueso "Thompson's Island" for the Secretary of the Navy Smith Thompson and the harbor "Port Rodgers" for the president of the Board of Navy Commissioners. Neither name stuck however.
From 1826 to 1827, Perry acted as fleet captain for Commodore Rodgers. In 1828, Perry returned to Charleston, South Carolina, for shore duty. In 1830, he took command of a sloop-of-war, . During this period, while in port in Russian Kronstadt, Perry was offered a commission in the Imperial Russian Navy, which he declined.
He spent 1833 to 1837 as second officer of the New York Navy Yard, later the Brooklyn Navy Yard, gaining a promotion to captain at the end of this tour.
Father of the Steam Navy
Perry had an ardent interest in and saw the need for naval education, supporting an apprentice system to train new seamen, and helped establish the curriculum for the United States Naval Academy. He was a vocal proponent of modernizing the Navy. Once promoted to captain, he oversaw construction of the Navy's second steam frigate , which he commanded after its completion.
He was called "The Father of the Steam Navy",Sewall, John S. (1905). The Logbook of the Captain's Clerk: Adventures in the China Seas, p. xxxvi. and he organized America's first corps of naval engineers. Perry conducted the first U.S. naval gunnery school while commanding Fulton from 1839 to 1841 off Sandy Hook on the New Jersey coast.
Promotion to commodore In 1841, Perry received the title of commodore, when the Secretary of the Navy appointed him commandant of New York Navy Yard.Griffis, William Elliot. (1887). Matthew Calbraith Perry: A Typical American Naval Officer, pp. 154-155. The United States Navy did not have ranks higher than captain until 1857, so the title of commodore carried considerable importance. Officially, an officer would revert to his permanent rank after the squadron command assignment had ended, although in practice officers who received the title of commodore retained the title for life, as did Perry.
During his tenure in Brooklyn, he lived in Quarters A in Vinegar Hill, a building which still stands today. In 1843, Perry took command of the Africa Squadron, whose duty was to interdict the slave trade under the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, and continued in this endeavor to 1844.
Mexican–American War
In 1845, Commodore David Conner's length of service in command of the Home Squadron had come to an end. However, the coming of the Mexican–American War persuaded the authorities not to change commanders in the face of the war. Perry, who eventually succeeded Conner, was made second-in-command and captained . Perry captured the Mexican city of Frontera, demonstrated against Tabasco, being defeated in San Juan Bautista by Colonel Juan Bautista Traconis in the First Battle of Tabasco, and took part in the capture of Tampico on November 14, 1846.
Perry had to return to Norfolk, Virginia, to make repairs and was there when the amphibious landings at Veracruz took place. His return to the U.S. gave his superiors the chance to give him orders to succeed Commodore Conner in command of the Home Squadron. Perry returned to the fleet, and his ship supported the siege of Veracruz from the sea.Sewell, p. xxxvi.
After the fall of Veracruz, Winfield Scott moved inland, and Perry moved against the remaining Mexican port cities. Perry assembled the Mosquito Fleet and captured Tuxpan in April 1847. In June 1847 he attacked Tabasco personally, leading a 1,173-man landing force ashore and attacking the city of San Juan Bautista from land, defeating the Mexican forces and taking the city.
In 1847, Perry was elected as an honorary member of the New York Society of the Cincinnati in recognition of his achievements during the Mexican War.
Perry Expedition: opening of Japan, 1852–1854
American motivations In 1852, Perry was assigned a mission by American President Millard Fillmore to force the opening of Japanese ports to American trade, through the use of gunboat diplomacy if necessary.J. W. Hall, Japan, p.207. The growing commerce between the United States and China, the presence of American whalers in waters offshore Japan, and the increasing monopolization of potential coaling stations by European powers in Asia were all contributing factors. Shipwrecked foreign sailors were either imprisoned or executed,Blumberg, Rhoda. Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun, HarperCollins, New York, ç1985, p.18Meyer, Milton W. Japan: A Concise History, fourth ed., Bothman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Plymouth, ç2009, p.126Henshall, Kenneth G. A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower, Palgrave MacMillan, New York, ç1999, p.66 and the safe return of such persons was one demand.
The Americans were also driven by concepts of manifest destiny and the desire to impose the benefits of western civilization and the Christian religion on what they perceived as backward Asian nations.W. G. Beasley, The Meiji Restoration, p.88. "The people of America will, in some form or other, extend their dominion and their power, until they shall have brought within their mighty embrace the islands of the great Pacific, and placed the Saxon race upon the eastern shores of Asia," Perry said.James Bradley, "The Imperial Cruise: The Secret History of Empire and War," p. 171 citing Peter Booth Wiley "Yankees in the Land of the Gods," p. 490 The Japanese were forewarned by the Dutch of Perry's voyage but were unwilling to change their 250-year-old policy of national seclusion. There was considerable internal debate in Japan on how best to meet this potential threat to Japan's economic and political sovereignty.
The journey On November 24, 1852, Perry embarked from Norfolk, Virginia, for Japan, in command of the East India Squadron in pursuit of a Japanese trade treaty. He chose the paddle-wheeled steam frigate as his flagship and made port calls at Madeira (December 11–15), Saint Helena (January 10–11), Cape Town (January 24 – February 3), Mauritius (February 18–28), Ceylon (March 10–15), Singapore (March 25–29), Macao and Hong Kong (April 7–28).
In Hong Kong he met with American-born Sinologist Samuel Wells Williams, who provided Chinese language translations of his official letters, and where he rendezvoused with . He continued to Shanghai (May 4–17), where he met with the Dutch-born American diplomat, Anton L. C. Portman, who translated his official letters into the Dutch language, and where he rendezvoused with .
Perry then switched his flag to Susquehanna and made call at Naha on Great Lewchew Island (Ryukyu, now Okinawa) from May 17–26. Ignoring the claims of Satsuma Domain to the islands, he demanded an audience with the Ryukyuan King Shō Tai at Shuri Castle and secured promises that the Ryukyu Kingdom would be open to trade with the United States. Continuing on to the Ogasawara islands in mid-June, Perry met with the local inhabitants and purchased a plot of land.
First visit (1853) Perry reached Uraga at the entrance to Edo Bay in Japan on July 8, 1853. His actions at this crucial juncture were informed by a careful study of Japan's previous contacts with Western ships and what he knew about the Japanese hierarchical culture. As he arrived, Perry ordered his ships to steam past Japanese lines towards the capital of Edo and turn their guns towards the town of Uraga. Perry refused Japanese demands to leave or to proceed to Nagasaki, the only Japanese port open to foreigners.
Perry attempted to intimidate the Japanese by presenting them a white flag and a letter which told them that in case they chose to fight, the Americans would destroy them. He also fired blank shots from his 73 cannon, which he claimed was in celebration of the American Independence Day. Perry's ships were equipped with new Paixhans shell guns, cannons capable of wreaking great explosive destruction with every shell. He also ordered his ship boats to commence survey operations of the coastline and surrounding waters over the objections of local officials.