Perry's Victory on Lake Erie (Part 4)

There are always men who consider it unpatriotic to tell the truth, if the truth is not very flattering; but, aside from the morality of the case, we never can learn how to produce a certain effect unless we rightly know what the causes were that produced a similar effect in times past. Lake Erie teaches us the advantage of having the odds on our side; Lake Champlain, that, even if they are not, skill can still counteract them. It is amusing to read some of the pamphlets written "in reply" to Cooper's account of this battle, the writers apparently regarding him as a kind of traitor for hinting that the victory was not "Nelsonic," "unsurpassed," etc. The arguments are stereotyped: Perry had nine fewer guns, and also fewer men, than the foe. The last point is the only one respecting which there is any doubt. Taking sick and well together, the Americans unquestionably had the greatest number in crew; but a quarter of them were sick. Even deducting these, they were still, in all probability, more numerous than their foes.. Yet many a much-vaunted victory, both on sea and land, has reflected less credit on the victor than the battle of Lake Erie did on the Americans. And it must always be remembered that a victory, honorably won, if even over a weaker foe, does reflect credit on the nation by whom it is gained.. It is greatly to our credit that we had been enterprising enough to fit out such an effective little flotilla on Lake Erie; and for this Perry deserves the highest praise. (Some of my countrymen will consider this but scant approbation, to which the answer must be that a history is not a panegyric.)