It was not a great war. For the American nation it was not a creditable war. Nevertheless, the naval men, although lacking opportunity for engaging in the kind of battles for which they had been especially trained--although lacking opportunity to meet an enemy afloat--showed in their energy and persistent bravery that they would not lower the standard of efficiency set for them in the War of 1812. [Illustration: The Battle of Vera Cruz.--Night Scene. _From an engraving by Thompson of a drawing by Billings._] CHAPTER XIX EXPEDITION IN AID OF COMMERCE COMMODORE MATTHEW C. PERRY AND THE FIRST AMERICAN TREATY WITH JAPAN--AN EXHIBITION OF POWER AND DIGNITY THAT WON THE RESPECT OF A NATION THAT HAD BEEN JUSTIFIED IN ITS CONTEMPT FOR CIVILIZED GREED--SERVICES OF NAVAL OFFICERS THAT ARE NOT WELL KNOWN AND HAVE NEVER BEEN FULLY APPRECIATED BY THE NATION. Although any historian of the American Navy must be almost exclusively occupied with the deeds of men whose chief business it was to secure and promote the peace of the nation, one chapter of this work must be devoted to achievements which, though bloodless and in no sense spectacular, were of great importance not only to the American people but to the whole world. A most interesting and valuable work might be written on the doings of the American Navy in times of peace. It would be especially valuable, for it would demonstrate beyond question that the Yankee seamen have at the least earned what they have cost during the years when short-sighted legislators have argued that a navy was on the whole a useless expense, or at best a school of preparation for a war not likely to come. The truth is that only one of the navy’s achievements in times of peace has ever been fully appreciated by the American people, and that was the expedition to Japan, in the early fifties, under Captain Matthew Calbraith Perry. This Captain Perry, it is worth noting, was a younger brother of Oliver H. Perry, the hero of Lake Erie. He was made a lieutenant in 1813, but, like many others at that time, did not make a great name simply because he lacked opportunity. He never had a separate command where the qualities that give a naval officer fame might have sway. However, in the Gulf squadron during the war with Mexico, he found some work to do, and he had previously identified himself with the progressive work of the Navy by services in connection with the early use of steam, something of which will be told in the last volume of this work.