The Capitol Dome

7. Rybka, Lake Erie Campaign, p. 88. 8. Rybka, Lake Erie Campaign, p. 86. On this topic see also David Skaggs and William Welsh, "The Battle of Lake Erie: A Narrative," in The War on the Great Lakes: Essays Com- memorating the 175th Anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie (Kent, OH, 1991) and Diane Skvarla and William Kloss, eds., U.S. Senate Catalogue of Fine Art (Washington DC, 2002), pp. 34-37. 9. Quoted in Gerry Altoff, Oliver Hazard Perry and the Battle of Lake Erie (Put-in-Bay, OH, 1990), p. 29. 10. Quoted in "1812: A Nation Emerges" http://npg.si.edu/ exhibit/1812/ (accessed 15 July 2016). 11. S. Putnam Waldo, Tour of James Monroe (Hartford, CT, 1818), p. 233. 12. Christopher McKee, "An Aerial View of Put in Bay: Historians Scrutinize a Campaign," in The War on the Great Lakes, pp. 87-99. 13. http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2013/septemberoctober/ feature/roosevelt-the-revisionist (accessed 10 July 2016). Note Roosevelt's use of the word "almost." Elliott had begun limited engagement with the enemy, albeit from a greater distance, at the time of Perry's arrival at the Niagara. Roosevelt's account of the battle in his Naval War of 1812 was also critical of Perry's actions. Roosevelt felt that too much emphasis had been placed on Perry's battle heroics while his more important contribu- tion to the victory on Lake Erie had been his supervision of the fleet's construction, manning, and equipping. This resulted in the U.S. force's superior firepower that Roosevelt viewed as the most crucial factor in the victory. 14. Tuckerman, Book of the Artists, Comprising Biographi- cal and Critical Sketches of American Artists (New York, 1867), p. 458. We can surmise that by "rank" Tuckerman meant Powell's standing among artists of his day. 15. Putnam's Monthly 3(January 1854):118-119. See also Vivien Green Fryd, Art and Empire: The Politics of Ethnicity in the U.S. Capitol, 1815-1860 (New Haven, CT, 1992), p. 225. 16. On this topic see Irma Jaffe, John Trumbull: Patriot- Artist of the American Revolution (Boston, 1975); Michael Kammen, A Season of Youth: The American Revolution and the Historical Imagination (Ithaca, NY, 1978); Joseph Ellis, After the Revolution: Profiles in Early American Culture (New York, 1979), and more recently, Stephen Murray, John Trumbull: Painter of the American Revolution (2009; reprint, London, 2015). 17. Michael Devine, "The History Paintings of William Henry Powell," Ohio History Journal 89(Winter 1980):68. 18. Devine, "History Paintings," pp. 68-69. 19. U.S. Congress, Joint Resolution 25, 38th Cong., 2nd Sess., 2 March 1865. 20. Skvarla and Kloss, eds., Catalogue of Fine Art, p. 34. 21. "Powell's Picture for the Capitol in Washington," Watson's Art Journal (1 June 1872), quoted in the "Speech of Hon. J.E. Stevenson, of Ohio, in the House of Representatives, March 1, 1873," Appendix to the Congressional Globe, House of Representatives, 42nd Cong., 3rd Sess., pp. 152-153. 22. Charles Lewis, "Powell's 'Perry's Victory on Lake Erie'," U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 51(Aug. 1925):1473. 23. Lewis, "Powell's 'Perry's Victory on Lake Erie'," pp. 1477-79. James Alexander Perry (1801-24) rose to the rank of lieutenant before dying—like his older brother—off the coast of South America, while trying to save a drowning fellow officer. Powell used the face of the commodore's grandson as his model for Midshipman Perry ("Washington Correspon- dence [W.J. Vance]. Perry's Victory," 10 January 1873, Appen- dix to the Congressional Globe, House of Representatives, 42nd Cong., 3rd Sess., p. 153). 24. Quoted in "Return of Mr. Leutze," Bulletin of the Ameri- can Art Union (Sept. 1851), p. 95. 25. Skvarla and Kloss, eds., Catalogue of Fine Art, p. 34. 26. Tuckerman, Book of the Artists, p. 459. Tuckerman was referring to the painting in the Ohio Statehouse, but the depic- tion of Perry is the same in both images. 27. Skvarla and Kloss, eds., Catalogue of Fine Art, p. 36. 28. Although Tuckerman identifies the black oarsman as Perry's manservant Hannibal (Book of the Artists, p. 459), information in the U.S. Senate Catalogue of Fine Art suggests that "his inclusion is more likely to be dictated by the date of the painting—immediately post-Civil War and emancipation— than by the reality of 1813" (pp. 34-35). Another historian points out "it is known that many of Perry's crew were black, but how many cannot be determined because the muster rolls did not list race. The official policy was to limit recruitment to free white males [but] each commander was responsible for recruiting for his own ship . . . what can be said is that black seamen served in all theatres of the war, often with distinction" (Rybka, Lake Erie Campaign, p. 52). 29.Writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date= 2007/03/09 (accessed 18 July 2016). The "ship of state" meta- phor dates to ancient Greece when, in Book IV of The Republic, Plato compares civic governance to command of a naval vessel. 30. "Brady's Photographs: Pictures of the Dead at Antietam," The New York Times, 20 Oct. 1862. 23 THE CAPITOL DOME

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