How History Unfolds on Paper: Important Americana from the Eric C. Caren Collection, Part X

Washington, D.C., January 15, 1807. Single vellum sheet, 17 1/2 x 14 1/2 in. (444 x 368 mm). Partially-printed military commission, signed by President Thomas Jefferson, appointing Oliver H(azard). Perry a lieutenant in the United States Navy; counter-signed by Secretary of the Navy Robert Smith. Engraved vignette at top and bottom, original paper seal intact at bottom. Creasing from old folds, very small holes at same at top.

Six years before the stunning victory against the British at Lake Erie that would make him a national hero, 21-year-old Oliver Hazard Perry (1785–1819) is appointed a lieutenant in the United States Navy by President Thomas Jefferson, Perry's first official promotion in the service.

Perry's naval career began on April 7, 1799. Influenced by his father, the 13-year-old joined the Navy as a midshipman and sailed under his father's command aboard the USS General Greene. During this service, in 1800, Perry saw his first combat, off the coast of Haiti, at the time still embroiled in its struggle for independence, and where the General Greene assisted the revolutionary Toussaint Louverture in the blockade of Jacmel.

Despite the subsequent downsizing of the Navy following the end of the Quasi-War and the election of Thomas Jefferson, Perry was retained in the ranks. He went on to serve on the USS Adams under Captain Hugh Campbell, within a squadron commanded by Commodore Richard Morris, during the First Barbary War. Sailing to the Mediterranean in 1802, the Adams participated in the blockade off Gibraltar. It was during this period that Perry became an acting lieutenant, marking his first serious duty. He returned to the United States in 1803 and was dispatched to the Mediterranean again in 1804, this time aboard the USS Constellation. His service continued on several other vessels, including the USS Nautilus (where he served as first lieutenant), the USS Constitution, and the USS Essex (as second lieutenant under Commodore John Rodgers).

The year 1807 proved consequential for both Perry's professional and personal life. It was then that he met his future wife, Elizabeth Champlin Mason, whom he would married in 1811. Professionally, he was given the present commission from Jefferson in January, and received the document in April. As noted by historian Alfred Fenton, "For five years he had waited for this official document...which would allow him to show the public at large he was a qualified lieutenant." Beyond validation, the commission secured his place in the line of junior officers awaiting commands. Of the five years he had served as an acting lieutenant, one was spent on shore and the rest on the "monotonous work in the Mediterranean," but "now perhaps he would be considered for more important things..." (Fenton, p. 162). Later that year, Secretary of the Navy Robert Smith directed Perry to oversee the construction of a gunboat flotilla in Newport and Westerly, Rhode Island, to enforce the Jefferson Embargo Act. While this was his first significant command, Perry reportedly found the assignment displeasing.

These events unfolded against the backdrop of the June 22, 1807, attack on the USS Chesapeake by the British ship Leopard, an incident in which four American sailors were killed and 17 injured. Upon hearing of the engagement, Perry is reported to have said, "This means war." The confrontation served as an early catalyst for the War of 1812, a conflict in which Perry would distinguish himself as an American hero by leading the decisive victory at the Battle of Lake Erie.

A fine and early document, never before offered at auction, marking the rise of one of the Navy's most lionized commanders. It stands as arguably one of the most important naval commissions still in private hands.