American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-05-22


ceedng thousand, rs cents &C. Any person wishing
served for three months after the above date need
only pay his quarters POSTAGE and send us gold dollar
and silver quarter In small letter-postage paid D,
course rE
NAvAL.-INsUBoRDINAT IN THE MEp1TER-
RANEAN. The National Iaielligencer of this
morning contains the following extract from a
letter published in the Philadelphia Ledger,
dated ON board the United States ship Inde-
pendence, and giving some news from the Med
iterranean Squadron. 1t is dated BAY of Ma
pies, February 18TH
1.-The squadron are all at anchor in This
place; officers and crew all we'll We cama hero
on the 9th OF October, and have been Wing here
since. | am sorry to say that things @o On
badly in this squadron since the abolition Of
corporal punishment. Thefts drunkenness
and desertion, or what is termed taking French
leave, that is, leaving the ship for a few days
without permission are much more frequent
than common, and the officers notwithstanding
the greatest exertion, cannot preserve even toll
cradle discipline; and, until Congress adopt
more efficient mode of punishment than mere
confinement, those scamps mostly landsmen
and boys) will continue to laugh at all order
for what is thirty or sixty days in a prison room
in irons to such men, many of them Boosting of
having served five and six years in State pri-
son! There are at present thirty of those fell
lows confined in this ship, of which fourteen
are for stealing their shipmates' clothes and
carrying them on shore to sell for rum"
Well then, we suppose the restoration Of
"corporeal punishment" or fogging, is impe-
ratively called for Nothing else will do among
"scamps" who have "served five or six
years in State prison. and who steal their
shipmates' clothes and sell them for rum
These are the nations bulwarks - freemen
who fight the battles of their country upon
the billowy ocean republicans who make
the laws by which they are to be governed,
and whose mission is to prove exemplars
to the rest of mankind, and to cheer and
succor the oppressed of every land in their
efforts to obtain the freedom we enjoy! Why
did not the correspondent write his name in
roman capitals for the worlds admiration and
applause? Does the fire of holy ambition not
burn within his breast? Would the plaudits of
his countrymen not fall like music upon his ears?
The g cats" must be restored in the American
navy, or it will be destroyed! Down with it,
then; every ship sink to the depths of the sea,
and let the briny wave roll over every gilded
button until it's oxide alone remains! Sails and
stack-pipes, schooners, sloops and frigates,
pai1ans and peace makers, sabres, swords and
cutlasses, epaulettes and tarpaulins-let them
all go down, down, down, rather than that an
American shall henceforth be degraded by
single blow, whether at the command Of o little
julep-drinking biscuit-nibbler, or the most noble
old Commodore in the service! 'Take heed
what fhor doeet for fbs n, on lie a Roman old
the centurion to the chief captain who would
have scourged st. Paul: "And the captain an
swered, With great sum obtained this free
dom; and Paul said, But | was free-born. y
Even in Imperial Rome, the man who was free
born could not be thus degraded; and yet in
the navy of republican America, we are told,
discipline cannot be otherwise enforced
No, no the thing is Inhibited and out of
warrant" and we take no steps backward in
these times. The men now in the service were
received when scourging was in practice, and
many Of them bargained for and expected it.
They are the men who would submit to it, and
who, therefore, cannot be influenced and re-
strained by motives superior to craven and
coward fear. Vast numbers Of them are not
Americans either, but the refugees from many
climes The writer no doubt describes them
truly. But the thought seems never to have
occurred to him that this class of men and the
degrading administration of the lash are in
separable.
If we can only be defended on land or sea by
"scamps" and thieves, and men who can cover
beneath the lash, then let us remain defence
less and unprotected for ever and ever!
1t is estimated that every gun we float upon
the ocean costs us fifteen thousand dollars a
year; and that the average cost of line-of-
battle ship is $780, and its expenses in ac-
tive service half q million year These are
heavy expenses, and should be sufficient to
maintain complement of such men as can be
induced to comply with the acquisitions of duty
without degrading their Offices to the perform
ance of that to which the world points when it
would describe the lowest degradation of hui
man slavery.
THE NEXT PREsIDENcY.-The Cincinnati Ga
zette says: Senator DOUGLAS, of Illinois, has o
pretty strong hold on the affections Of Demo
cratic "young America" He is seriously