The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1842-06-14


AT this point MIR. c. yielded to motion that the
committee rise which prevailing, the COMMITTEES rose
HorsE OF REPRESENTATIVES, May II, 1912
Mr.. CUSHING being entitled to the floor, which he
had yielded the preceding day on motion that the
committee do rise continued his remarks.
He observed that when the committee rose last
evening he was about replying to that portion Of the
argument of the gentleman fIom North Carolina Mr.
McKay) which appertaned to the alleged excess
of the number of persons IN the Navy beyond
what the law authorized the Department to en-
ploy To meet that objection he referred In the
first place to the second section of the act of 1906,
which provides that the President of the United
States may keep in active service, IN time OF peace,
many of the frigates and other armed vessels OF
the United States, in his Judgment the nature OF
the service may require, and to cause the residue
thereof to be laid up in ordinary, convenient ports
and, in the second place. to the second section of the
act of 1913, which provides that the President may
appoint such officers and employ the number of sea-
men which may be necessary for SUCH vessels are
authorized by law to be put in commission. These
provisions Of law were permanent IN their terms
they had never been repealed, so far as he Mr. CO.
could discover, and they must in fact be the law of
the land now otherwise there was no law for the
employment and manning ships in commission. And,
if he understood the gentleman from North Carolina
Alright, that gentleman seemed to admit that there
was no limit to the powers of the President under
these acts, except in the power OF the Senate to
fuse promotions, and in the constructive and implied
limitation be derived nferentially from the annual
estimates of the Department, and the appropriations
for the service of each year made by Congress. In
pursuance of which idea, MIR. Mckay had presented
calculation founded the estimates Of the De-
parment, to show how many men the Department
authorized to employ, and then proceeded to al
ege that by comparison with tabular statement of
the force of the Navy at the beginning of this year,
which had been recently laid before the Senate it
would seem that there on that day an excess in
the service of six hundred men, of all descriptions.
Before proceeding to reply to this objection, Mr..
c. entered into some explanation to the mode
adopted in the United States Of estimating for and
making, appropriations. In England, the practice is
to pass temporary supply bills from time to time in
the of the year. and then, towards the end Of
the year, to pass general law appropriatng the sup
plies thus granted during the session of Parliament
Thus, the acts Of $780, which he held in his hand
there series Of such supply bills, terminating
in general act which enumerated the successive
supply bills of the session, and then proceeded
make appropriation in one bill for the naval, mil
itary "civil and diplomatic and miscellaneous service
of the Government This was, in some respects,
convenient than practice; with the
estimates made up in December for the coming
calendar year, in this way it was of course mpossi
BILE for the Secretary of the Navy to communicate
Congress, beforehand, the number Of men Who might
happen to be in the service at any given future day
the course of the year. If Congress would force
the Navy Department exact estimate of the service
of each year, it would have be done at the end of
the year, and not at the beginning. He should show
hereafter how inconvenient the present practice was
in other respects. He mentioned it with view
to its application to the Of men alleged by Mr.
Mckay.
Mr.. c.. said the answer to this allegation of the
gentleman from North Carolina to be found in
the necessarily uctuatng nature OF the personnel OF
the Navy. The public service required that ships
foreign stations should come home after two three
years service, the crews enlisted for limited
periods besides which, the vessels must return be
repaired and further it not to ibe expected that
the officers were to be exiled by being kept abroad
through life. Now it would not do to bring the TO-
reign ships home from their cruising grounds until
others were ready to relieve them-hence there must,
of necessity, be, at particular moments double
in the service, and at particular times of
men, correlative to which, at other times much less
number of men. For example, the Brandywine, the
ST.. Louis and the Marion, will be relieved,
with amounting to 200 men, who will be dis
charged, and deducted from the number in
vice. Then if the LIST of January, alleged by the
gentleman from North Carolina, there excess
Of 600 men, there would be, deductng these 300 a
deficiency of 600 the LIST of July, and thus the
| average number of men employed during the year
would be kept within the sum designated by the esti-
mates; there is way of avoiding these fluctuations
in the service The greatest mischief would ensue il
proper care not taken to relieve the crews
abroad, the expiration Of their term of service
approaches and the failure to do this, it was
well known in particular instances, had come
near to produce mutiny and the necessity Of these
fluctuations in the service, and the fact that if at
time there are men, there will at another time
be less, constitute complete answer to this objec-
ton of the gentleman from North Carolina.
This consideration illustrated also the necessity OF
| having greater number of officers in the service
| than were in employment at given moment How
were officers abroad to be relieved unless there
| other officers to take their places Gentlemen who
spoke of officers waiting orders reproachfully, as
if those officers necessarily dlers in the service,
to shut their eyes to the facts of the case and
to all the lessons of experience was not true that
there was any such excessive number Of unemployed
officers in the American Navy To show this Mr..
c. referred to the comparative state of the British
Navy. He showed by the Parliamentary estimates
of 1887, emitting higher grades
Total Employed aioat
n.