Funding the Wilkes Expedition, Which Played a Major Role in the Development of Science in the United States

The funding request “was presented yesterday to the Secretary of the Navy, and accepted by him.”

 

It was an era of American exploration, one that led to the Mexican War and the westward expansion to the Pacific Ocean. One of the foremost manifestations of this was the famed United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842, which was an exploring and surveying expedition to the Pacific and Antarctic Oceans and surrounding lands. President John Quincy Adams initiated the idea and requested funding of Congress in 1828, however, Congress would not implement funding until eight years later. In May 1836, the oceanic exploration voyage was finally authorized by Congress and created by President Andrew Jackson. Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes was placed in command of the 7-ship exploration. From 1838 to 1842 Wilkes and his expedition explored and surveyed the Antarctic Ocean and along the Antarctic barrier, where he reported land at a number of points in the region subsequently known as Wilkes Land. He visited islands in the Pacific, including Hawaii, Australia, and Tahiti, explored the West Coast of what is now the United States, including California and Oregon, then recrossed the Pacific and reached New York in June 1842, having sailed completely around the world. He was advanced to the rank of commander in 1843. From 1844 to 1861 he prepared reports of his expedition.

The expedition is sometimes called the “U.S. Ex. Ex.” for short, or the “Wilkes Expedition”. It played a major role in the development of 19th-century science in the U.S., particularly in the growth of the American scientific establishment and in the then-young field of oceanography. Many of the species and other items found by the exploration helped form the basis of collections at the new Smithsonian Institution.

Though funding for the exploration was authorized by Congress, the details of paying for it were more complex. Banks advanced the funds to Wilkes, but to be reimbursed the Secretary of the Navy had to approve the bank’s disbursements. To speed up the reimbursements, at least one bank in particular determined to use its representative in Congress – in this case John Quincy Adams, who as president had first advocated the expedition. It involved a bill of exchange – or a check – made out to Wilkes for his expedition by the Navy Department, with the funds laid out by the Old Colony Bank in Massachusetts, Schuyler Sampson, president, and ultimately payable by the government to that bank. Sampson then endorsed the bill to Adams’s order to get it collected, and the Navy Secretary approved the disbursement.

Autograph letter signed, Washington, July 7, 1841, to Schuyler Sampson, bank president and Collector of the Port of Plymouth, Mass. “The bill of exchange for 1500 dollars, drawn in favor of Charles Wilkes, Esq. commanding the U.S. exploring expedition, upon the Secretary of the Navy and payable at 30 days sight, and enclosed payable to your order, and by you to mine, enclosed in your letter of the 29th ult. was presented yesterday to the Secretary of the Navy, and accepted by him. He inquired in what manner it was desired it should be paid at its term, and I told him you had suggested a draft upon the Receiver General at Boston. I shall pay due attention to this at the proper time.”

This is the first time we have ever seen a letter or document relating to the Wilkes Expedition, which played a key role in the development of science in the United States. That it involves Adams – first proponent of the idea – is all the better. Public records disclose no other.

As for Wilkes, the Civil War brought him even more fame. When Wilkes, now an admiral, learned that James M. Mason and John Slidell, two Confederate commissioners to Britain and France, were bound for England on a British ship the Trent, he ordered the steam frigate USS San Jacinto to stop them. On November 8, 1861, San Jacinto met Trent and fired two shots across its bow, forcing the ship to stop. A party from San Jacinto led by its captain then boarded Trent and arrested Mason and Slidell. Wilkes was officially thanked by Congress “for his brave, adroit and patriotic conduct”, but the British saw the affair as a violation of their neutrality. This almost led to war between the U.S. and Britain, but cooler heads on both sides prevailed, the Confederate diplomats were released to continue on their trip to Britain, and conflict was averted.