New-York daily tribune., 1854-03-31
RHETORICAL ROARING.

We have but one Lyon in Congress, but he roars at
no fool of rate proposition came up in Congress
few days ago to add six steamships to our navy.
Lyon proposed to make them twelve. His reas)ns are
given in speech, which any body read who gets it
The following passages extract from the teegraphic
summary:
The sublime idea Of model Republic. expressed in
the philosophy Of Plato, never roamed over such mag
nfcen extent of country a; was peopled by It's millions
Lord Bolingbroke. in later times, never dreamed of
such one where the people govern themselves by the
motive principle OF self government During the four
months Congress has been in session. with the Presi
dents Message and the Report of the Secretary of the
Navy before US, what have seen and heard Citl-
zens of the United States have been imprisoned in al
most every country OF the world. Look at Capt Glib
son in Holland, and Richmond in Hungary. LOOK at
the ou.rHgos in Cuba-not a ship sent IN relef-Cuba
should have been at taken of and satsfac
ton demanded afterward Applause on the floor lie
had spoken OF the Model Republic he wanted TO see its
correspond with its sayings he wanted to see dpo
macy can ed out with vessels of he wanted to see
foreign ports filed with them. An, Sir you don't know
how polite makes nations toward diplomatic repre-
senlsiives. laughter TIE nav IS the SsSaest PRO
uulga;or OF Christianity in the world Look at the mis-
sioney who goes the poor heaen when asloop
or rszee, how his hesrt palptates. lie
would direct ention 70 the East Indies We see Chris
tanity prOgressug With magnificent results the empire
of COniucius is oyerhrown and sovereign yclept, the
Prince of Peace carrying the TO the celestial city
portion Of the Japan squadron has gone to afford pro-
lection in China and every Consul who writes to the DE
parment of State give US ship here in the ports
of the Mediterranean Men come with every tongue
and be could only exclam in the words of Greek poet
Ii nation grasps the trident of Neptune and holds
il frmly-she will rule the empire Of the world.
Mr. Lyon don't 20 quite back to the Deuge in order
to find the waters of argument on which to float his
twelve steamers but he does 90 into that chronology
cal neghborhood We think nobody help being
struck by the copousness of Mr. Lyons views touch
ing this momentous subject of half dozen steamers
We cannot bear to such rhetoric go into oblivion
at its first expression and we have therefore repro
duced the above gems, set in a small frame Of our
own.
Viewing this subject seriously cannot help think
ing that these spasmodic efforts which from time to
time are made to create navy are very absurd. We
must as patton elect to pursue of two courses
Either must keep the military of the govern
ment up to footing. after the fashion of other
powers ready at short notice 70 wage offensive well
as defensive war or must abandon all idea of pro-
tectng ourselves after this fashion, and come down TO
the smallest possible core Of navy and army and
rely upon the universal recognition OF our immense
latent material which can be brought into
play whenever necessity requires to secure from
insult and from harm. Half dozen ships more or
less, might be matter of some consequence to small
European power at this urcture, but 10 US not the
least If We are to remain at peace with the world
We need no such augmentation of our naval force as
this and if We not, want sixty steamers rather
than Elk, even if We propose to thrash power no
greater than Spain Let legislators then quit talk
ing big and fllibustering, and address themselves to
the task Of promoting the great interests of Peace