Chapter 58

I am, Sir, your obedient servant, William H. SEWARD.

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_George Peabody to the Secretary of State._ (p. 428)

To the Honorable 64 Queen Street, Cheapside, William H. SEWARD, London, E. C., January 6, 1869. Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, through the United States despatch agent at London, of the case alluded to in your letter of the 7th of October, containing the gold medal, which, pursuant to the resolution of Congress, the President has caused to be prepared for me, together with an engrossed copy of the resolution referred to.

The package arrived in England in November, but owing to my absence from London it was not till the evening of Christmas day that I was enabled to examine its contents in the presence of a circle of my intimate friends.

Of the unsurpassed beauty of the medal, and the excellence of its delicate workmanship, there is but one opinion, and I heartily concur with all who have seen it in appreciating the elegance of its design and the masterly skill of its execution.

Cherishing as I do the warmest affection for my country, it is not possible for me to feel more grateful than I do for this precious memorial of its regard, coming as it does from thirty millions of American citizens, through their representatives in Congress, with the full accord and co-operation of the President.

This medal, together with the rich illuminated transcript of the Congressional resolution, I shall shortly deposit in the Peabody Institution, at the place of my birth, in apartments specially constructed for their safe-keeping, along with other public testimonials with which I have been honored. There I trust it will remain for generations, to attest the generous munificence of the American people in recognizing the efforts, however inadequate, of one of the humblest of their fellow-countrymen to promote the enlightenment and prosperity of his native land.

To you, Sir, individually, I beg to convey the assurance of my profound gratitude for the interest which you have personally manifested on the occasion, and for the cordial manner in which you have consulted my wishes in relation to the transmission of this gracious record of my country's favor.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your humble servant, George PEABODY.

No. 79. (p. 429) PLATE LXXIX.

_March 4, 1869--March 4, 1877._

United States of America. Liberty justice and equality "Let us have peace." [Rx]. On earth peace good will toward men.

PRESIDENT ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT.

[_Eighteenth President of the United States of America._]

Within a wreath of laurel, at the four points of which are shields of the United States of America: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. LIBERTY JUSTICE AND EQUALITY "LET US HAVE PEACE." Bust of President Grant, facing the right; under it, a calumet of peace and a branch of laurel.

Within a circle composed of thirty-six stars: ON EARTH PEACE GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN 1871. The western hemisphere of the globe resting on implements of husbandry, with the Holy Bible above it and rays behind it.

This medal, though not signed, is by Paquet.

No. 80. (p. 430) PLATE LXXX.

_April 14, 1865._

To George F. Robinson. Awarded by the Congress of the United States, March 1, 1871.

GEORGE FOSTER ROBINSON.

[_Heroic Conduct._]

TO GEORGE F. ROBINSON. AWARDED BY THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, MARCH 1. 1871. Bust of Robinson, facing the left; on the coat, four clubs, the badge[124] of the eighteenth army corps, in which he served during the Civil War; above, two crowns, one of laurel and one of oak; on each side, the following: FOR HIS HEROIC CONDUCT ON THE 14. DAY OF APRIL 1865, IN SAVING THE LIFE OF THE HONORABLE WM. H. (_William Henry_) SEWARD THEN SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

[Footnote 124: During the war the campaign badge was of felt, red for the first division, white for the second, and blue for the third. For dress occasions it was of silver, with the color of the division inserted in the badge. The felt badge was worn on the right side of the hat, the silver one as in the plate. By means of the letters, figures, and badge, any one could tell, at a glance, the army corps, division, brigade, regiment, and company, to which a soldier belonged, and the State from which he came.

After the war Congress passed the following resolution:

_Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled_: That all who served as officers, non-commissioned officers, privates, or other enlisted men, in the regular army, volunteer, or militia forces of the United States, during the war of the Rebellion, and have been honorably discharged from the service or remain still in the same, shall be entitled to wear, on occasions of ceremony, the distinctive army badge ordered for or adopted by the army corps or division, respectively, in which they served.

Approved July 25, 1868.]

Secretary Seward lying in his bed, with curtains half drawn; (p. 431) standing at its side, Robinson struggling with Payne, who holds an uplifted dagger in his right hand. G. Y. COFFIN. DES. (_designavit._) PAQUET. F. (_fecit_).

GEORGE FOSTER ROBINSON was born at Hartford, Oxford County, Maine, August 13, 1832. In 1863, he enlisted in the 8th regiment of Maine Volunteers, and was severely wounded at Bermuda Hundred, May 20, 1864. On the night of April 14, 1865, while acting as sick nurse to the Honorable William H. Seward, then secretary of State, at the imminent peril of his life, and at the cost of serious wounds, he saved Mr. Seward from the knife of the assassin Payne. For his heroic conduct on this occasion, Congress voted him five thousand dollars and a gold medal. He was clerk in the Treasury Department, from June, 1865, to August, 1866, when he resigned. He was appointed in December, 1868, to a similar position in the quartermaster-general's office, Washington.

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ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS.

_Resolution of Congress Voting a Medal to George F. Robinson._

_Be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled_: That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, directed to pay to George F. Robinson, late a private in the Eighth Regiment of Maine Volunteers, the sum of five thousand dollars, out of any money in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated.

SECTION 2. _And be it further resolved_, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, directed to cause to be prepared and presented to the said George F. Robinson a gold medal with appropriate devices and inscriptions, commemorative of the heroic conduct of the said Robinson on the fourteenth day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, in saving the life of the Honorable William H. Seward, then secretary of State of the United States, the expense of said medal to be paid out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

Approved March 1st, 1871.

_The Committee on Foreign Affairs, to whom were referred the (p. 432) resolutions of the legislature of the State of Maine, declaring that the heroic conduct of George F. Robinson, late a private in the Eighth Regiment of Maine Volunteers, in saving the life of Secretary Seward from the knife of an assassin, at the imminent peril of his own life, and at the expense of permanent wounds, should receive public recognition by the Congress of the United States, to the end that his noble deeds may be known and remembered by the American People, and that provision may be made for his future welfare such as right and justice demand, and the generous impulse of a grateful people require, respectfully submit the following report:_[125]

[Footnote 125: Reported by Mr. Porter Sheldon, of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.]

That on the 15th day of August, 1863, George F. Robinson enlisted in the Eighth Regiment of Maine Volunteers. On the 20th day of May, 1864, at an attack at Bermuda Hundred, made on General Butler's lines by the rebels, Robinson was wounded very severely in the leg by a canister shot. He was sent to Douglas Hospital in this city, where he lay nearly a year undergoing great suffering from his wound. On the memorable 14th day of April, 1865, although his wound was not then entirely healed, he was detailed from the hospital to act as nurse to Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, who, it will be remembered, was confined to his bed by serious injuries--a broken arm and jaw. At 10 o'clock that night Robinson was on duty in Mr. Seward's room, when the assassin, Payne, sought that room to murder the feeble, wounded, helpless Secretary, in pursuance of the great conspiracy which ended with filling the whole civilized world with horror. The Secretary was sleeping; the room was darkened. Robinson hearing a disturbance in the hall opened the door; a flood of light streamed on him from the hall. On the threshold stood the athletic assassin, a revolver in one hand and a huge bowie knife in the other. He saw against the wall the wounded, crazed Assistant Secretary, with blood pouring from his wound. He caught the gleam of that terrible knife aimed at his throat; instinctively he struck up at the assassin's arm to ward off the knife, partially succeeded, but received the blow upon his head, and was prostrated to the floor. Bounding over him, Payne rushed on to the bed, and commenced wildly striking with the knife at the throat of the Secretary. Already he had cut the flesh off from one cheek to the bone, and the blood gushed in torrents over the pillow. This soldier, just from the hospital, with his wounded leg not yet healed, enfeebled from his year of suffering and pain, just prostrated to the floor by a blow from that terrible knife, springs to his feet, and without one moment's hesitation, without one moment's thought for himself, save, as he swears, the thought that he must die to save the Secretary; without a weapon of any description, with a bravery never surpassed in the annals of any country, he opposed his naked hands, his wounded and enfeebled body, to the terrible knife of the gigantic and desperate murderer. He seized the assassin just as the deadly knife was about to bury itself in the throat of the Secretary, and then commenced an unequal struggle which seemingly can only end in the death of the brave soldier. Having succeeded in dragging Payne from off the bed, he receives over his shoulder two deep wounds down his back, inflicting injuries from which one side of (p. 433) his face and two fingers of one hand are still partially paralyzed. He received two more wounds under his left shoulder blade, which proved nearly fatal, and received blows about the head and face from the revolver. At last Payne, probably becoming alarmed for his own safety should he spend more time in the house, wrenched himself loose and fled, stabbing a messenger from the State Department on his way down stairs. Disregarding his own desperate wounds, the blood from which was filling his shoes, with the help of Mr. Seward's daughter Robinson placed the insensible and mangled form of the Secretary on the bed from which he had fallen, and re-covering the gashed cheek with its flesh, he placed his fingers on the wounded artery from which Mr. Seward's life was fast passing, and with the same coolness, the same utter self-abandonment, he kept his position, though scarcely able to stand, and believing himself fatally wounded, until relieved by the arrival of the Surgeon-General. After the Secretary's wounds were dressed his own were attended to, and he was the same night carried back to the hospital.

On the 17th day of May following Robinson was honorably discharged from the service. Finding himself unable to labor on a farm, by reason of his wounds, he was obliged to sell his little place for some $1,200, and sought employment as a Government clerk. He is now a clerk in the Quartermaster General's Department, at a salary of $1,200 per year, and has no other means of supporting himself, his wife, and boy, except a pension of $8 per month for wounds received on the field of battle. Robinson is a modest man, of excellent character, and a faithful and efficient clerk.

The committee unanimously recommend the passage of the accompanying joint resolution.

No. 81. (p. 434) PLATE LXXXI.

_August 31, 1872._

By Resolution of Congress February 24, 1873.

LOSS OF THE STEAMER METIS.

[_For Courage and Humanity._]

A man standing in a boat, a coil of rope under his left arm, directs oarsmen with his right hand to pull for the wreck of the Metis. One of the men is lifting a woman from the sea into the boat. To the right, in the background, a light-house.

BY RESOLUTION OF CONGRESS FEBRUARY 24, 1873. Within a wreath of Oak: TO[126] FOR COURAGE AND HUMANITY IN THE SAVING OF LIFE FROM THE WRECK OF THE STEAMER METIS ON LONG ISLAND SOUND AUGUST 31, 1872. W. & C. BARBER.

[Footnote 126: Blank space for name.]

CHARLES E. BARBER, son of William Barber, chief engraver to the United States Mint, Philadelphia, was born in London, England, in 1840. He came to America with his parents when very young and studied the fine arts in the city of New York. He engraved for the Government of the United States the Metis and John Horn medals.

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ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS.

_Resolution of Congress Voting Medals to Captain Crandall and others._

_Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled_: That the President of the United States is hereby authorized and requested to cause to be made and presented to each of the following persons such suitable and appropriate medals, as in his judgment shall (p. 435) express the high estimation in which Congress hold the respective merits and services of Captain Jared S. Crandall, Albert Crandall, Daniel F. Larkin, Frank Larkin, Byron Green, John D. Harvey, Courtland Gavitt, Eugene Nash, Edwin Nash and William Nash of the town of Westerly, State of Rhode Island, who so gallantly volunteered to man the life-boat and a fishing boat, and saved the lives of thirty-two persons from the wreck of the steamer "Metis," on the waters of Long Island Sound, on the thirty-first day of August, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.

Approved February 24, 1873.

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_Captain David Ritchie to the Secretary of the Navy._

United States Revenue Steamer Mocassin, To the Honorable Newport, Rhode Island, September 1st, 1872. George S. BOUTWELL, Secretary of the Treasury, Washington, District of Columbia.

Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report of the services rendered by this vessel, her officers and crew to the passengers and crew of the wrecked steamer Metis on the morning of August 30th, 1872.

On the evening of August 29th, while cruising to the westward, weather threatening, ran in for a harbor behind the Stonington breakwater, where we anchored. My glass falling and there being every indication of a storm, I prepared my vessel for it.

At 8 P.M. the gale began, and continued to increase throughout the night from southeast with heavy sea and blinding rain.

At daylight the gale moderated and it stopped raining, the wind hauling by south to westward.

At 9.20 A.M. the first officer of the steamer "Stonington" of the New York and Stonington Line, came alongside, and reported that the steamer "Metis" of the New York and Providence Line, was wrecked off Watch Hill, Rhode Island, the fate of which, together with her one hundred and fifty passengers and crew, was unknown.

I ordered steam as quickly as possible, and at 10.15 A.M. got under way and proceeded to the scene of the disaster, stationing lookouts aloft and upon the house.

I soon descried two boats loaded with helpless men, women and children, near the edge of the surf at Watch Hill Light House, and with great difficulty and danger, on account of the heavy sea, succeeded in getting them on board of the "Mocassin."

I then stood down for the wreck, lowered boats and picked up the living and dead, continuing this sad duty until 3.45 P.M., when night coming on and medical aid being required for those of the rescued who were exhausted, I put the vessel back for Stonington, the nearest port, having no hope of finding any more living persons and seeing no dead bodies remaining afloat. I reached Stonington at 6 P.M. with forty-two rescued persons and (p. 436) seventeen dead bodies which we had recovered from the deep.

Being a stranger in Stonington, I was at a loss to know what I should do with my precious cargo, but at the wharf I met with unexpected aid in the person of Mr. J. P. Bigelow, chief of the Loan Division of the Treasury Department, who, upon my wants being made known to him, procured proper relief, obtaining through Mrs. Bigelow and ladies in the town, clothing and proper care for five women who were rescued in a state of entire nudity. The men rescued were taken charge of by the citizens, who did all in their power to relieve their distress. All the rescued were greatly exhausted, having been in the water several hours.

I take great pleasure in informing the Department of the noble and untiring exertions of 1st Lieutenant Joseph Irish, 2d Lieutenant A. D. Littlefield, Chief Engineer Whittaker, Pilot Joseph Case, Boatswain E. F. R. Denison, and each of the crew in saving life, recovering bodies of the drowned and caring for the sick and wounded.

In the cases of several of the shipwrecked life was apparently extinct, but by the efforts of those on board they were resuscitated. The women were rolled in blankets, and all in our power was done to make them comfortable. Many of the rescued were very weak, and I doubted my ability to get them into port alive.

I was ably seconded in my work of boating by Captain Crandall, light house keeper at Watch Hill, and his noble crew, they having picked up fourteen living and dead.

After the last body had been taken on board a sea caught their boat under this vessel's quarter and split her open.

The boat was the private property of Captain Crandall, who, on beholding her destruction, simply remarked, "She has well paid for herself."

Five of the dead bodies were identified by those saved on board, and when the living women were clothed and brought to identify their friends, a sad scene presented itself, one recognizing a lost husband, another a sister, two men their wives, and one man his two children.

The corpses were all numbered, and together with a description list, were delivered to the authorities of Stonington, a copy of said list being retained on board.

On the morning of the 31st ultimo at daylight, kindly accompanied by J. P. Bigelow, Captain George B. Hull, Superintendent of New York and Providence Steamship Company (one of the rescued), and John McGuire to assist my worn-out officers and men, I again stood for the scene of the wreck and cruised in that vicinity, with lookouts stationed aloft, extending my cruise as far as Block Island. The wind was blowing strong from the northwest and constantly increasing, with a heavy cross sea from the southeast, breaking over and completely covering this vessel.

There being no signs of any bodies floating about, with decks full of water, I stood for Point Judith. Still finding no signs of the wreck, and the sea getting too heavy to lower a boat, I stood for Newport and anchored.

Having found a jewel and pocket-book on board (the property of one of the dead), I turned the same over to Mr. Bigelow, to take them to Stonington for the purpose of identifying corpse marked No. 4.

Trusting that the conduct of the Mocassin, under my command, (p. 437) and the acts of her officers and crew may meet the approval of the Department,

I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, David RITCHIE, _Captain United States Revenue Marine_.

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_Resolution of Congress Voting Thanks to Captain Ritchie._

_Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled_: That the thanks of Congress are due, and are hereby tendered to Captain David Ritchie, commanding the revenue steamer Mocassin, and to the officers and men under his command, for their heroic and humane action in saving the lives of forty-two persons from the wreck of the steamer "Metis" on the waters of Long Island Sound, on the morning of the thirty-first of August, eighteen hundred and seventy-two.

Approved January 24, 1873.

No. 82. (p. 438) PLATE LXXXII.

_1876._

These United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States. [Rx]. In commemoration of the hundredth anniversary, etc.

CENTENNIAL MEDAL.

[_Hundredth Anniversary of American Independence._]

THESE UNITED COLONIES ARE, AND OF RIGHT OUGHT TO BE, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES.[127] A female figure, personifying the United Colonies, is kneeling, with a sword in her right hand, while she points with her left to a constellation of thirteen stars, emblematical of the thirteen original United States. Exergue: 1776.

[Footnote 127: These words occur in the following resolution of the Continental Congress:

IN CONGRESS.

_Resolved_: That the consideration of the first resolution be postponed to Monday, the first day of July next, and in the meanwhile, that no time be lost in case the Congress agree thereto, that a committee be appointed to prepare a declaration to the effect of the said first resolution, which is in these words: "That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."

Monday, June 10th, 1776.]