Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-11-03
O. 0 M mauitatG0.
For TIE SENTINEL,

gallantry IN war, but its supposed chivalry and
whether afioat or on shore. Well, then, may
the nation be amazed at the finding of the late
navy board, which has pronounced tuH one
H1d OF those officers as unfit for the positions
they occupied. If that be true-if the delu-
sion in the public mind has been so gross--if
those officers, now in the prime of life, whose
supposed brilliant achievements had extended
the fame and reputation of their country
through all civilized nations, were in fact,
when disrobed of their false drapery, unfit
for Their positions, one thing will be found
true-the country aoiU not be deceioed again.
1t will place no such false estimate on the re-
naming twothirds, and will not be as much
surprised, a year or two hence, at being in
formed one-half Of that remainder are dis
grace instead Of an honor to the navy. Rivals
abroad had described us as braggarts who
traded extensively on small capital. In our
selfcomplacency it produced only smile; but
If this verdict of jury of the vicinage be just,
the imputation is true, and we must feel, if we
do not confess, the humiliation. The loss Of con-
hdence in the galantry, chivalry, gentlemanly
bearing, in the efficiency" of our navy officers,
which this discrimination has produced, may
prove far greater than all its advantages, and
even those who are promoted and seemingly
benefited by it, may find it, like the favor which
Polyphemus desired for Ulysses, in making
him only the last to be deoouyed But,
gentlemen, concur with your eloquent cores
pendent Responsibility" that the Board has
m'sinte,preted the law which conferred no
power to supersede gallant officer, if he had
never avoided duty and when :" in the line of
his duty" if he had always proved himself
efficient" in every sense. 1t was not the in.
tention of the law to constitute an inqusiton
for the trial of officers without proof, without
evidence Of even the dignity of hearsay-per
haps on rumors only, set ahoat covertly and
adroitly for the purpose. Without making any
imputation upon the court beyond misinter-
probation of the law, we know they were but
men, with the frailtles necessarily belonging to
humanity and if they believed it was their
duty under the law to discriminate all who,
for any reason, in their opinion-no matter
how it was formed-ought not to continue in
| the line of promotion, no officer could be safe
before such a tribunal. If, by possibility, with
out the knowledge of the appointing power, a
majority of the board had been fanatical AEo.
litionists, they might have retired, furloughed,
or dropped any officer who happened to be
the owner of a slave; if that majority had
been fanatical sons of temperance, they might
have Disseminated the very best officers in the
service merely because they had been reported
IN private whisper, by brother of tempe
rance, as having on some one occasion, eight
or ten years before, taken an extra glass of
wine, when not on duty and in some private
house. If zealots in religions it imaginable
they had the POWER to degrade an officer
for not conforming to it in faith? No one
knows upon what sort evidence this Board
acted. 1t it should ever appear they were
such devotees of temperance as to have felt it
their duty for the sake of example to others.
to degrade first rate officer, in every respect,
when on duty, merely because he had on some
one or more occasions, lohen not on d,tty,
drank vine or brandy, is it possible the ma
ton will ratlfy such er post .facto injustice
Ii 1t be crime to drink wine at all let it be
proclaimed, and then the offender cannot COM
plain. All will agree, if an officer, when on
duty, disqualihes himself in any way for its
\ discharge, he is amenable for it. But it is vet
to be learned in this country, that heightened
officer Of our navy-brave, intelligent, patri-
otto, and scrupulous to perform aceU every off.
cial act, is not at liberty, when not on duty.
when, for instance, on leave of absence or on
furlough, to indulge as other gentlemen in the
social circle provided it does not 90 to the ex.
tent of habitual inebriation.
Who would consent to be an officer on such
terms? What officer would be safe, if such
rule were, without notice, impartiaHyapplied?
Why not arbitrarily adopt some other frailty OF
our nature, and decree without notice. that
every officer should be degraded "as Inefficient
who had been known Tor reported) to have
taken an oath without its being in some ju.
dicial proceeding2 Ii is against the moral
code, and might for that reason, be deemed by
the board sufficient to declare him "inefiicent.n
So with any other peccadilo in the catalogue
OF human frailties. make these suppositions
to show the law extended only to cases of Gin
efiiciencies" as generally understood, and not
to capricious or fanciful ineficiency.
l have, perhaps in bad taste, dwet more on
this topic, because public rumor has proclaimed
the board did intend to visit It's censure upon
all who offended against their sense of the
proper measure of temperance and in the
general astonishment at the discrimination of
this and that officer, who was thought TO be
equal to any in the service, and almost with.
out fault, the inquiry is made was he ever
Incorporate? Not because such a suspicion
had ever been entertained, but as there must
be some reason, and no other could be i'm.
agined and as rumor had indicated the views
Of the board on that head, the inquiry was ma
turally enough made. So diligent, il is said
were some of the members, as to make in.
quiries in the streets, as to the habits of par
ticular officers, and, in one instance, at least,
the answer was, that if respondent knew any
thing against brother officer, who had no
opportunity Of explanation, he would not be.
tray him. As to the approval Of the Presi.
dent, il is nothing-we all understand that
He bad to approve all or TO annul the whole.
He had no time for examination into indivi-
dual cases. 1t is like his approval Of one-half
of the acts Of Congress on the last night Of the
session. He cannot read even one in twenty
presuming the intention Of Congress to have
been carried out he approved the proceeding
But such is his sense of this papable injury
to the public and to the officers, we see him
re-appointing TO places of the highest trust
and Importance officers who have been retired
as inefficient" although he has no power to
restore them to tie line of promotion