OLIVERUS H. (_Hazard_) PERRY. PRINCEPS STAGNO ERIENSE. CLASSIM TOTAM CONTUDIT. (_Oliver Hazard Perry, commander-in-chief, destroyed on Lake Erie an entire fleet._) Bust of Captain Perry, in uniform, facing the right. VIAM INVENIT VIRTUS AUT FACIT. (_Valor finds or makes a way._) The United States fleet on Lake Erie, carrying fifty-four guns, and commanded by Captain Perry, stands out to meet the British fleet with sixty-three guns, under Captain Barclay. Exergue: INTER CLASS. AMERI. ET BRIT. DIE X. SEP. MDCCCXIII. (_Inter classim Americanam et Britannicam, die 10 Septembris, 1813: Between the American and British fleets, September 10, 1813._) FÜRST. F. (_fecit_). OLIVER HAZARD PERRY was born in South Kingston, Rhode Island, August 23, 1785. He entered the navy as a midshipman, April 7, 1799, on the sloop-of-war General Greene, then commanded by his father, Captain Christopher Raymond Perry. He served in the Mediterranean during the Tripolitan war, was made lieutenant in 1807, and master-commandant in 1812, when he received a division of gunboats at Newport, Rhode Island. In February, 1813, he was transferred to the command on Lake Erie, where, on September 10, he defeated and captured the entire British squadron under Captain Barclay. For this important victory he received the thanks of Congress and a gold medal, and was promoted to the rank of captain, and as such commanded the Java in the (p. 177) Mediterranean for several years. In March, 1819, he set out with a squadron for the coast of South America, and died of yellow fever at Port Spain, Trinidad, August 23, 1819. The remains of Commodore Perry were transferred, in 1827, by order of the Government, in the United States ship Lexington, to Newport, Rhode Island. His battle-flag on Lake Erie, with the motto "Don't give up the ship!" is preserved in the Naval Academy, at Annapolis. _____ ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS. _Resolutions of Congress Voting Medals to Captains Perry, Elliott, etc._ _Resolved unanimously by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled_: That the thanks of Congress be, and the same are hereby, presented to Captain Oliver Hazard Perry, and through him to the officers, petty officers, seamen, marines, and infantry serving as such, attached to the squadron under his command, for the decisive and glorious victory gained on Lake Erie, on the tenth of September, in the year 1813, over a British squadron of superior force.