NEW BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT
American History / Military Studies
Commodore
Robert F. Stockton
1795–1866
Protean Man for a Protean Nation
R. John Brockmann
6 x 9” Hardcover
Level: College & Faculty
640 pages August 2009
US$144.99 / £85.99
ISBN: 9781604976304
Description
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brockmann, R. John.
Commodore Robert F. Stockton, 1795- 1866
: protean man for a protean nation / R. John
Brockmann.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60497-630-4 (alk. paper)
1. Stockton, Robert Field, 1795-1866. 2. United
States. Navy--Officers--Biography. 3. United
States. Congress. Senate--Biography. 4. California--History--1846-1850. 5. New Jersey--History-1775-1865. 6. Legislators--New Jersey--Biography. I. Title.
E403.1.S8B76 2009
328.73’073--dc22
[B]
2009023339
To follow the life of Commodore Robert Field Stockton is to find oneself in the
middle of nearly every important event occurring between the War of 1812 and
the Civil War, and to discover their deeply paradoxical elements. Stockton was a
protean man in his politics, his beliefs, his activities, and his passions, as hinted at
in this newspaper editorial of December 1847: Commodore Stockton is a “peace
maker,” and a war maker—he can block the game in railroad stocks, or block
ports—can speak with trumpets, or speak with tongues—can make laws and administer them—can govern armies or fleets, and occasionally, when a missionary is sick he can take his place, and preach a Christian discourse, as he did in
the Sandwich Islands. (“Gold Pen,” National Era 1 (51) (Dec 23, 1847), p. 1.)
Stockton was indeed a commodore—the highest naval rank at the time—and had
quite a number of significant naval achievements, from the War of 1812 and the
Barbary War to chasing pirates in the Caribbean in the 1820s and his conquest
of California in 1847. Yet he was constantly disobeying or exceeding orders so
that he became known as the Navy’s “problem child.” Stockton’s role as “peace
maker” may have referred to his attempt to create the largest naval cannon in the
world in 1843. This was the same cannon that during a demonstration to President
Tyler’s cabinet backfired and killed half the cabinet. “Peace maker” could also refer to Stockton’s leadership in the 1860-1861 peace movement, the National Peace
Conference, which attempted to forestall the Civil War. Stockton was also a war
maker who personally offered to underwrite a war between Texas and Mexico in
1845 and who, after becoming the first naval officer to be elected to the Senate
(1851), advocated US military intervention worldwide to support indigenous wars
of liberation.
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NEW BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT
Commodore Robert F. Stockton, 1795–1866
Description (continued)
Table of Contents
Stockton first made his reputation as “Fighting Bob” in the
defense of Baltimore in the War of 1812, and, on his first naval command, he founded Liberia for freed slaves. Yet he also
owned slaves on his sugar plantation in Georgia, and later probably used “rented” slave labor his in Virginia gold mines. As a
naval officer, he chased pirates with the West Indies Squadron
and may have been responsible for the death of Jean Lafitte; yet
he acted like a pirate himself in ruthlessly protecting his Joint
Companies’ monopoly of railroad and canal traffic across New
Jersey. Stockton achieved nautical design prominence by bringing John Ericsson to America to create the first steam-powered,
propeller-driven warship and the most powerful cannon in the
world. (Ericsson later designed USS Monitor in the Civil War.)
However, in demonstrating his cannon to high government officials, the cannon backfired killing nearly half of President
Tyler’s cabinet. From Congress and the President, Stockton
brought the invitation of annexation to Texas, but then he tried
to initiate a war between Texas and Mexico that he would clandestinely underwrite with profits from his transportation monopoly. He sailed to California arriving at the start of the Mexican-American war so that he was the commander-in-chief of all
US forces, and joined with John C. Fremont and his filibusters
to take California for the United States—yet he never had specific orders to take California.
List of Figures
Introduction
Upon his return, he became the first naval officer to become
a U. S. Senator, and then he sought the nomination for president twice: once on the 1852 Democratic Party ticket almost
nosing out Franklin Pierce and once on the American Party or
Know-Nothing ticket. His nomination from the nativist American Party is particularly ironic because he has been instrumental
twelve years earlier in suppressing nativist riots in Philadelphia.
In 1861, on the eve of the Civil War, New Jersey sent him as a
member of a delegation to the Peace Conference in Washington
that attempted to avert the Civil War. However at the peace
conference, Stockton threatened to beat up a member who opposed his policies. Stockton eventually retired from public life
to the New Jersey seashore where he founded the community of
Sea Girt, and sat idle during the Civil War. He died in 1867 just
after witnessing the expulsion of his son who had attempted to
succeed him in the U. S. Senate.
Historians of the Early Republic and antebellum naval operations will discover hitherto unknown or unappreciated materials
and texts in the protean odyssey of this unsung American hero.
Chapter 1:
Educating Stockton
Chapter 2:
Stockton’s First Acts of “Creative
Disobedience” in Command:
1820–1822
Stockton’s Climb to Power:
1822–1843
Chapter 3:
Chapter 4:
Stockton’s Technology Duel, 1844
Chapter 5:
Jumping the Gun, 1844–1845
Chapter 6:
Stockton’s Conquest of California:
1846–1848
Chapter 7:
Receiving Stockton Home from the
War: Censure or Celebration?
November 1847–February 1848
Chapter 8:
Duels for the Survival of the Joint
Company Monopoly: 1848–1849
Chapter 9:
Duels As a U.S. Senator and First
Run for Presidential Nomination:
1851–1853
Chapter 10:
Railroad and Steamboat Disasters,
1855–1856
Chapter 11:
Reaching for Presidency: 1856
Chapter 12:
The Gauntlet Begins to Slip:
1857–1861
Chapter 13:
The Final Chapter—Go Down
Dueling: 1862–1866
Appendix: Essential Stockton Documents
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
R. John Brockmann holds a BA from Georgetown, an
MA from the University of Chicago, and a DA from the
University of Michigan. He is a member of the faculty
in the Concentration in Business and Technical Communication and is the coordinator for the post-graduate certificate program in this area at the University of
Delaware.
20 Northpointe Parkway, Suite 188, Amherst, New York 14228
www.cambriapress.com
T (716)568-7828 F (716)608-1489 E [email protected]
An innovative, independent, non-subsidy publisher of academic research