The title of this book comes from a toast popular with Americans in
the late 1790s--"millions for defense, not a cent for tribute."
Americans were incensed by demands for bribes from French diplomats
and by France's galling seizures of U.S. merchant ships, and as
they teetered toward open war, were disturbed by their country's
lack of warships. Provoked to action, private U.S. citizens decided
to help build a navy. Merchants from Newburyport, Massachusetts,
took the lead by opening a subscription to fund a 20-gun warship to
be built in ninety days, and they persuaded Congress to pass a
statute that gave them government "stock" bearing 6 percent
interest in exchange for their money.
Their example set off a chain reaction down the coast. More than
a thousand subscribers in the port towns pledged money and began to
build nine warships with little government oversight. Among the
subscription ships were the "Philadelphia," later lost on the rocks
at Tripoli; "Essex," the first American warship to round the Cape
of Good Hope; and Boston, which captured the French corvette "Le
Berceau."
This book is the first to explore in depth the subject of
subscribing for warships. Frederick Leiner explains how the idea
materialized, who the subscribers and shipbuilders were, how the
ships were built, and what contributions these ships made to the
Quasi-War against France. Along the way, he also offers significant
insights into the politics of what is arguably the most critical
period in American history.
General
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