Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1830-11-23

f,oenfy-one; and in 1880, tuenty.t,po %
| Ihe Mishipmen employed in 1925 were 237: ip
in 1880. $40. " ,0-' 'i'' INV
Inc present Secretary wishes to give employment to
our naval force, and make it efficient Hi. mind il not
probably formed on 30 magnificent scale that of Mr.
Southland.
He will not. probably send ships to hun, for new
countries through holes in the ocean, but employ them
in defending orr commerce and our country ON the
outside Of this terrestrial ball
He will not, probably, promote the building of no.
BILE seventy tours and ffgates that they may lay and
rot on the spot where they put into the water and
hire hands to plant in Florida, that succes
sor, hundred hence, NAV have inc live oak tim
Der to waste i'm the same way
! He will not, probably, leave the ships already built
exposed to the sun which opens all their seams aud
the rains which then pour through them from top
bottom, that they may rapidly decay, and lave him the
pleasure OF spending the peoples money by millions 10
building ones!
The damage incurred by our noble naval structures
laying In our ports through sheer neglect is incred-
ble.-The Ohio ship Of the liue launched at New
York several years ago. She has been to sea-
and II would now require about HUNDRED AND FIF-
TY THOUSAND DOLLARS 10 make her good she
was when che was put into the water! To repair all
our ships in similar condition, would require MIL
LION.
To build ships merely that they may rot in our ports
doubtless appears TO the plain mind Of present See
rotary, not enlightened by Mr.. Souhard's gnificent
views, not only like wasting money but timber also
He thinks IL better to the timber aud the money
too than to throw both into the sea and plant to
raise more oaks. He is therefore, collecting timber
seasoning it, and putting under cover, where il may
ne preserved almost a century When we need a
large Navy, ships then be built as fast as they
be manned.
The present Secretary does not probably wish TO di.
mnish the number of ships ami officers in active
vice.-But he thinks there IL little good de rived
from rottng ships and idle In utter Iileness the
virtue' OF officers will little better than ships
in dock. Both will become rotten, and when another
day OF trial comes naval glories will suffer sad
eclipse. But LEI us keep UP small Navy OF sound
ships, aud active corps OF Inelige officers. dis.
tingushed for their morals for their pario ism
! 4 " ha hav Nav .lI,ipo
around these which the world will find TO be invnci.
bic.
Mr. Southland thinks il derogaory in a Secretary TO
attend to such iit,e things" az the ''Petty dvta OF
his office and has utter mpr for petty savings
We have had in Office too much OF that gre Atness
which scars above the details OF business. The uni
verse is made of atoms, aud what would be lite fate
its great Governor did not provide for III
tom The ocean il made OF drops, and what would be-
come OF IL, were a principle introduced by which il
could be annhilated by drops. The revenues of the
United States made up Of cents.-Whit will be-
come of them il proiigaliiy, waste, fraud and corrup
ton, are permitted to consume them by cents by dol
lars. by by hundreds, and by thousands A bad
principle which wastes cent leads to the of
uillions.
Butthe little things to which Mr.. s. allndes are OF
cents lie left hi. roll 100 Midshipmen y no. he
nusthave be put upon pay Had the pre-
sent Secretary followed his example, M would have
gwen them all pay and kept he number, II is the
dispensing with shout 100 useless officers and saving
of about $50 600 which Mr.. Southland calls little
| thing
Doubtless he thought it beneath his eulnrged mind
to examine so far into petty details" check his
friend watkins in his depredations the Treasury
To pay Alien & Leonard 900 for nothing, was
a "little thing"
To allow Amos Buney 40 or $50, 900, or Illegal and
hctit ious claims, ltte thing; and to have re-
nsed TO make him advance OF $50 600 while ne W as
600 in debt, would have required attention ia
the petty details' OF the law, which was rot to be
expected in go great man.
In this IN lnner, the waste OF two or three hundred
thousand dollars IL passed over petty details and
sc little thing J" But Mr.. Southland has condescended
to notice of these "ie ,hngs!" with what face car
he decline TO notice the rep We defy him to the tasl
OF explaining the of Watkins, Allen & Leonard
Binney, Hay, any others in Black List" con
nected with the Department which he administered
by passing over Seventeen and taking the eigh
fee does he not virtually plead guilty the former
Does he NJ, admit, that they ptibe OF ex
panation! Does he not admit that there is not an
ror in the detail, OF which he take advap,age,-
~ hrns'ingan tempt at expliuation relative the
Mi lshipmen into the Journal he has abandoned IN,
position of naughty silence assigned to him by the In
tellgencer. Even his friends longer Reuse hi
silence on other points involving deeply, as thew Ger
tany do, his reputation asa faithful officer, if not a.
an honest man.
The present secretary shrnks from no peftv de
tails with the hope OF appearing great by ne elect O
duty, nor does he look upon the purity, in
du'iry, and efhcieOcy OF those under his charg
az q" little things" II is his ambition preserve ou
ships 10 make ample provision for increase of tbei
number, to give employment to officer, to inroduc
strict principles into the fiscal OF the NAVY Il
enforce a rigid accountability, TO incucate honor hon
esty, and truth, in every department. of the Nava
service. Ii he snail thus be able TO make the NAVY
not less IN Vulnerable force but efficient in ever,
branch, with annual saw of half million he viii
be content with the rrputa ton acquired by attention
to e" little things" without aspiring to the ablity'
claimed by his predecessor, which il evinced only b
numberltsj frauds and abuses committed through Iii
agency, II lot with his connivance
THOMAS JEFFERSOW
The last number of the Edinburgh Review contains
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