The frigate _Philadelphia_, while reconnoitering the
harbor, struck on a rock and was captured by the Tripolitans, who made
her officers prisoners of war and her crew slaves.
Lieutenant Decatur, on February 3, 1804, by a stratagem, got alongside
the _Philadelphia_ with seventy-four brave young sailors like himself
and carried the ship by the board after a terrible hand-to-hand
conflict. The Tripolitans were defeated, and the _Philadelphia_ was
burned. The American seamen continued to bombard Tripoli and blockaded
their ports, until the terrified Bashaw made a treaty of peace.
While the Americans were winning laurels on the Mediterranean, the
infant republic was growing in political and moral strength. During Mr.
Jefferson's first term, one State (Ohio) and two Territories (Indiana
and Illinois) had been formed out of the great Northwestern Territory.
Ohio was organized as an independent territory in the year 1800, and in
the fall of 1802, it was admitted into the Union as a State. Long before
the Northwestern Territory had been divided into different territories,
the present limits of Ohio and Kentucky had already become quite
populous. Emigrants like Albert Stevens were pushing out on the frontier
and building up a great commonwealth.
About 1802, there was great excitement in the country west of the
Alleghany Mountains, in consequence of a violation of the treaty made
with Spain in 1795, by the governor of Louisiana in closing the port of
New Orleans against American commerce.
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