Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-04-21
INCREASE OF THE NAVY.
Speech OF HON. CALEB LYON,
OF NEW YORK,
In The House Of Representatives, March 80, 1854.

Don't give up the ship.'-LAwREScE
In the Committee of the Whole on the state Of
the Union on the bill to authorize the construc-
ton of six frst.class seam-frigates-
Mr.. LYON said:
Mr.. CHAIRMAN: After the able advocacy and
admirable exposition of this measure by my
friend, the gentleman from Virginia, Mr.. Bo-
| COCK, feel great diidence in approaching its
consideration. Having the distinguished hon
or to represent in part the agricultural and
commercial interests Of thousands of the En-
pire State, feeling knowledge of its importance
shall make me its fearless, though humblecham
pion. We live in strange and stirring times. We
live in that era of the world whose sublime pro-
gress was never dreamed of by Plato, whose
widest imaginationrevelled only the modelre-
public Of an Arcadian valley; whose laws were
those of Lycurgus and Scion; and whose great
national improvement was the harbor of The
mistocles, capable only of floating the armed
galleys which protected the liberties OF Athens.
His was a glorious ideality, shadow, a fiction;
ours is the actually, the substance, the fact.
Sir, look around you. You behold aTepublic
'peopled by happy millions, Graded between
two mighty oceans, veined by navigable rivers,
nerved by wondrous railroads, enriched by
-aands more golden than those of Pactolus;
soil exhaustless in fertility, and productions
vieing with the tabled gardens of Hesperides;
while the true patriot discovers a Minerva in
every school-madam, Prometheus in Frank
lin, and Mercury in Morse. The wisdom of
our fathers, lit from above has developed for
us what so long bafaed the alchemists of yore-
the veritable philosophers stone" the pearl
Of great price," selfgoverment Lord b.
lingbroke's highest idea Of human liberty was
that of patriot, whose great aim should be
the happiness Of his people; but the world has
seen its thousand kings, while its patriots have
been like angels visits Aside from theories,
national respect is only won by prompt vindi.
cation of national honor. But what is our
state at the present time? Since the promul-
cation Of the following sentiment by the Chief
Magistrate of the republic in his inaugural,
"that upon every sea and upon every soil
American citizenship is an inviolable panoply
for the security of American rights we find
committed outrages, depredations, and insults
Sir, was this meant to be a flourish of fancy
an empty though brilliant period? Or shall we
not write it in blood, if it need be, upon the es
cutcheon of that nation who dares to violate it,
as sacred principle akin to constitutional lib
erty? Citizens Of the United States have been
imprisoned, their property destroyed, their per-
sons insulted, in almost every country in the
world. The files of the State Department are
grooming with complaints-the cases of Glib
son, in Java, Richmond, in Austria, and also
those of Hamburg, Naples, and Chill, and last,
| though not least, the infamous Black Warrior
outrage in Cuba, with not solitary vessel of
war in readiness to send to resent wanton ag-
| erosion. Is this the security of American
| rights? Cuba should have been taken, sir, and
satisfaction demanded afterwards. Laughter,
and great applause. The remedy lies in a
prompt increase of the navy. The American
| people are tired Of "words, words, words
They want acts, and upon Congress will fall
the censure if the means are not given to the
government to carry out the patriotic declara-
ton Of the Chief Magistrate, in spirit and in
truth. Why, in a time Of actual war, it would
take all the vessels we have to guard the
mouths Of bays and rivers, to prevent the enc
my ascending and burning our towns and de-
Wasting our country. 1t cannot be forgotten
that this city was burnt in the last war. The
government was in state of locomotion, and
the President narrowly escaped being made a
| prisoner. Had few thousands been appro-
priated in time, it would have saved millions,
and we should not have the descendants of
those who lost their all besieging with just
claims Congress for spoliations righteously due
them. Would gentlemen of the committee like
those scenes renewed? Then let them remem-
Der that prevention is better than cure. In
what condition are the vessels we have? Why,
| they have been heightened and widened, narrow
ed and shortened till, with few exceptions, little
Of the original timber is left in them. Many are
| worn out, and ought long ago to have been
broken up. We want new ships, constructed
upon the most improved scale Of naval archi
| lecture. A common argument against the
proposed increase is the expense to be incur.
red the fear of Indebtedness; but these rea.
| sons are not applicable at the present time
| The Secretary of the Treasury is paying to
such persons who had the good fortune to make
investments i'll our stocks twenty-three cents
premium for each dollar invested; and the sur
plus in our Treasury at the present time ex-
ceeds $29,OOO,000. Why, sir, Noah was thought
to have made a bad investment by building the
Ark. [Laughter.] His squadron was a unit,
but with it he defed the deluge that scourged
guilty world. Navies have ever been the
guardians Of trade that potent civilizer of man.
kind Solomon initiated the Phnnicians, his
contemporaries in ship-building, though his
capital, Jerusalem, was sixty miles inland. The
products Of Egypt and the east, protected by
them, made cities of the villages Of Athens,
Rome, and Carthage, and gave vitality during
the middle ages to the republics of Venice,
Genoa, and Amalfi The blue waves of the
Mediterranean ministered to their greatness,
and upon their transparent bosoms have been
fought bloody conflicts, and won the glorious
victories which decided the successive empires
of the world. To Spain her navy, under the
guidance of Columbus, gave continent. The
Vikings and Normans of the north, by their
superior maritime skill, made an easy conquest
of Britain, who in turn, at the Nile and Ira
falgar, gallantly won for herself the undisputed
title Of empress of the seas. This increase
will aid in the promotion of the Gospel among
Mohammedan and heather nations, by pro
tecting the American missionary in his abo-
rious and arduous occupation. Why, by this
lever, nation once cannibals now worship
God. When some poor disciple of Jesus, far
away from his home among the green hills of
New England or the savannas OF the south,
beholds frigate or sloop gliding into port,
how his glad heart palpitates with JOY as he
gathers his little ones around him! See,
=. ~ n doo free.