Commodore Robert F. Stockton, 1795–1866: Protean Man for a Protean Nation
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Commodore Robert F. Stockton, 1795–1866: Protean Man for a Protea ...

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  • Perry, Levy, and Stockton commanded ships fighting pirates in the West Indian Squadron in the early 1820s.14
  • DuPont was one of Stockton's lieutenants when Stockton was captain of the frigate USS Ohio in 1838, and was his flag captain when he was commodore aboard the USS Congress in 1845.
  • Stockton, Perry, DuPont, and Levy were all involved with the Naval Lyceum in the Brooklyn Navy Yard (a proto-Naval Academy), eagerly pioneering technology and naval reform in the mid-1830s.
  • Stockton and Levy parted company with DuPont and Perry in the 1850s when Stockton and Levy campaigned to abolish the naval discipline of flogging.15
  • Perry and Stockton achieved the highest serving rank in the navy, commodore, after thirty-two years in the service; DuPont took twenty-eight years—four years quicker; and Levy took forty-eight years-sixteen years slower.

    • At nearly every point of naval career coincidence, Stockton made different choices than did DuPont and Perry but, in many instances, made choices similar to those made by Levy. By comparing the decisions at these coinciding points, one can infer some of the intentions behind Stockton's choices.

    He Could Not Be a Common Man

    At the end of his life, Stockton summarized what he thought would be his place in history:

    There is a monitor within my breast which assures me that, whatever may be the views of any of my fellow citizens in relation to me now, however harsh their judgment, however unrelenting and unforgiving their enmity, the time will come when, after my poor remains shall repose beneath the sod of New Jersey with those of my ancestors, that my memory will be cherished with respect, and that my name will stand on the page of New Jersey's history