Photius Fisk given name Photius
Anti Flogging Campaign
Photius was back in the United States in 1845 and he was assigned chaplain of the Washington Navy Yard.  He stayed at this post for five years.  He went to Washington because he wanted to lobby members of the government for abolitionist causes.  Prominent Greek American Master Gunner George Marshall was also stationed at the Navy Yard. Photius stayed in the same boarding house as Congressmen Samuel L. Southard. John Quincy Adams and Joshua Reed Giddings were also close friends of Photius and abolitionists.A large majority of chaplains in the U.S. Navy wanted to abolish the practice of flogging. Photius joined the group of chaplains and tirelessly lobbied to abolish the practice. Samuel L. Southard, Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams and Joshua Reed Giddings were all part of the movement to abolish the practice but the bill was defeated many times during his five-year service at the Washington Navy Yard.  The nation was divided on the idea and the media was publishing mixed views on the subject.Around December 21, 1847, the government introduced a bill to officially change Photius Fisk's name to Fisk from Kavasales.  Regrettably, Fisk's close friend former President and abolitionist John Quincy Adams died on February 23, 1848, one day after Washington's birthday.  On May 3, 1848, a bill was passed changing Photius Kavasales to Photius Fisk.  The government finally abolished flogging in the U.S. Navy in 1850.  Six months before the bill was passed Fisk was reassigned to the Frigate Raritan.
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