But valuable as were these gains, they were, perhaps, together of less importance than was the effect of the deeds of the naval heroes upon the people of the new republic. In the war of the Revolution we had, indeed, won liberty, but we still dragged the slave-chains of colonists. Without having known what it was to be freemen we had established a government of and by the people and we found ourselves in unfamiliar quarters. We had placed ourselves, so to speak, on the quarterdeck without having mastered the art of navigation, and while quartered in the cabin, we had the manners of the forecastle and smelled of bilgewater. Our new uniforms did not fit us well, but there was no form of training that could so quickly swell the muscles until they would fill the garments of liberty as a righteous foreign war. The war with the Barbary pirates was of all wars most righteous. It stirred the indignation of the most sluggish patriot to read of the deeds of these black hounds of the sea, while the signal valor of those who fought under the American flag leavened the spirit of the whole nation. As the stories of the deeds of those who fought afloat for liberty had prepared the way for manning the new fleet which aggression compelled us to build, so the stories of the deeds of the heroes of the new navy nerved the nation for the conflict that was already at hand. Small as were the numbers of the crews who carried the flag overseas in this epoch, it is safe to say that they, and they alone, strengthened the heart of the people until it was possible to resist the shock of 1812. CHAPTER XVI WHY WE FOUGHT IN 1812 A STIRRING TALE OF THE OUTRAGES PERPETRATED ON AMERICAN CITIZENS BY THE PRESS-GANGS OF THE BRITISH NAVY--HORRORS OF LIFE ON SHIPS WHERE THE OFFICERS FOUND PLEASURE IN THE USE OF THE CAT--DOOMED TO SLAVERY FOR LIFE--IMPRESSED FROM THE _BALTIMORE_--A BRITISH SEAMAN’S JOKE AND ITS GHASTLY RESULT--THE BRITISH ADMIRALTY’S WAY OF DEALING WITH DELIBERATE MURDER IN AMERICAN WATERS--ASSAULT OF THE _LEOPARD_ ON THE _CHESAPEAKE_ TO COMPEL AMERICAN SEAMEN TO RETURN TO THE SLAVERY THEY HAD ESCAPED--BUILDING HARBOR-DEFENCE BOATS TO PROTECT AMERICAN SEAMEN FROM OUTRAGE ON THE HIGH SEAS--OTHER GOOD REASONS FOR GOING TO WAR.