Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1891-05-21


Capt Caleb BdSsctt 1Dds gazing one morn
ing through his trlISty glass
In the year 1894 Capt. Caleb Bassett, a
navigator of the old sort, was gazing
one morning through his trusty glass at
q very suspicious object on the horizon.
The Yankee skipper was gray with serv-
ice, but his eyes were keen and true, and
the first mate, at his side, was waiting
with unconcealed anxiety for their YER
dict.
Eyes" said the skipper. Its one of
those cursed Frenchmen."
The mate frowned and muttered few
biblical phrases much in use among
sailors then and now.
Crowd sail" said Bassett, land I'll
go below and get my papers ready"
What followed is matter of record.
The American bark Sunbeam, Capt.
Bassett, was overhauled and captured by
a French cruiser, and its cargo of pro-
visions confiscated. The prize was taken
to France, condemned and sold, and the
food distributed among the starving
poor. And Capt. Bassett, who was a
very careful and methodical man, duly
wrote out protest and an itemized
claim for damages, amounting, for ship
and cargo, to $2S,317.SO This, in brief,
was 1.-THE Bassett Chairman heirloom
which is still preserved in the family.
Its name may not be familiar to the
reader; and yet there have been no less
than forty-three reports made to differ
ent congresses on this claim, as one of a
number of similar cases, and without
much doubt there will be many more;
for we all know the power of habit, and
congress can be fairly said to have con-
tracted the habit of favorable report on
the French spoliation claims.
1t has been urged, as one of the Objec-
tons in the way of settling these claims,
that they slept" but no lawyer could
retreat behind such a technical defense
as this with regard to the Bassett claim.
On the contrary, it had been afflicted
with insomnia from birth. The method
ical Capt. Bassett, being very 10th to
lose at one stroke the bulk of his hard
earned competence, took proper legal
advice, made out his case, and duly laid
it before Mr.. Morris, then our minister
at Paris. Mr.. Morris, writing home to
the state department at this time, used
the following plain language: These
captures create great confusion, must
produce much damage to mercantile
men and are a source of. endless and
well founded complaint. Every post
brings me piles of letters about it from
all quarters" One fat package in these
piles came from Capt. Caleb Bassett,
and it was perhaps after reading its con-
tents that the minister added: eff were
to give way to the clamors of the injured
parties ought to make demands very
like declaration of war"
But Mr.. Morris was able to get very
little satisfaction for Capt. Bassett, nor
was Col. James Munroe, who soon after
ward succeeded him, able to do more.
And, in fact, matters yearly grew worse
instead of better, in spite of the efforts
of such men as Pinckney, Marshall and
Gerry, until, after five years of letter
writing-in a shaky, grabbed hand,
disposition-the skipper was hot for war,
and as the original lobbyist for the Bas-
sett claim, went to Philadelphia in 1898,
and was one of many who urged the
government to demand justice of France
at the lannon's mouth.
But calmer and wiser cOunsels pre-
vailed The cannon after all is poor de-
batter. No one was ever convinced by hay
ing his leg shot off or his only son blown
to pieces by a shell. And in this par
ticular case we should have been Obliged
to cope with a master in that stolid,
brutal line of argument-a young Cor
sican adventurer, then at the head of
the French government, who shortly aft
er became very famous for his skill in
disputatiOns of this character.
Now, as a matter of fact, laying aside
national pride for the moment, we did
have. our match game of empire with
Napoleon, and, like everybody else, got
worsted; only he checkmated us with
bishop instead of a castle. For Just as
Caleb Bassett and others were shouting
their loudest for redress, that shrewd
priest Talleyrand moved sidelong out
with a counter charge of national claims
on Us, springing from our neglect to per-
form the duties of friendship, as stipu-
lated in the all important treaty under
which France became our ally in the
war for independence. Talleyrand adj
mitted that we had some plausible
claims on them-they certainly had on
rs; but both nations were "hard up" and
IN trouble-supposew we ''can it square"
And finally we did; by a vote of
twenty-five to four in the senate-each
of the obdurate four receiving a spiteful
letter of thanks from Captain Bassett for
his firm though unavailing opposition.
But though angry and disturbed, the
skipper was not discouraged, for he was
given to understand that our govern
ment had merely bought off France with
these claims, ana would now settle
them promptly and on equitable terms
So Mr.. Timothy Pickering, the secre-
tsry Of state who drew the instructions,
tod the captain, and 50 the same person