New-York daily tribune., 1861-02-18
sTREYGTHENlNG THE NAVY.

STRENGTHENING THE NAVY.
A bill has passed the Senate for adding seven
new steamships to our Navy, tue object being to
strengthen that arm Of our national defenses
Senator's from the Western States, who have
heretofore opposed any increase of our naval
force, were among the most vehement advocates
for this measure. IL was never anticipated that
the Navy would be required TO compel obedience
to the laws on the part of our own citizens, the
cutters of the revenue service being deemed all
sufficient for any possible contingencies of that
kind which might happen; but the fragrant rebel
lion Of the Gulf States has opened the eyes Of
the nation to tie important nature of our naval
defen8es. If the integrity of the Union is pre-
served at all it must be done by the Navy. We
have at present but barely ships enough in CON-
mission to meet the ordinary demand of the
service. and it is very clear that if squadron
must be employed for the purpose of blOcksdog
the ports and watching the coasts OF tue Gulf
States, new ships must be built, as well as ships
of a lighter draught of water than the last batch
of steamships. They cannot be built an hour too
soon, and, until they can be got ready for sea,
it viii be necessary to withdraw some ships from
the foreign stations where they can be best
spared. But what we most need to strengthen
our Navy is not 80 much ships az men, and not
80 much men as spirit ofloyalty among the men
and the officers we have already. Unhappily, the
system upon which the Navy has been manned
and Offered for the past forty years, has not
been calculated TO give us either good sailors or
loyal ofIicers and when, in addition TO de.
moralizing system, we have traitorOus aud
inefficient chief of the Department, the result
must inevitably be disgraceful to the nation.
The loyal officers in the service, Of whom We
know there are many iIgstrious examples, must
wipe out the stains which the conduct of some
of their former associates has recently inflicted
upon it.
What the Navy now requires is strengthening
By the infusion of q national spirit among its
officers, and an esprit da corps among what are
technically called "t the men," AS the service is
now organized, but a very small part Of the
of those too many are Of the very lowest
Grade Of society, while the officers have received
their appointments not from any fitness mani
tested by them for the seryice, nor even as
marks of favor from the Government, but as
political fayors, and on sectional considerations
The appointments Of the officers of the Navy are
made neither by the President nor b. the Secre-
tary of the Department, but by Members of Con-
gress. Who of course, select their political
and personal fayorites, and these officers,
as recent events have proved, regard them-
selves, not as owing allegiance to the
Government which sustains them, and which
they take an oath to serve, but to the dis
trct in which they happened to live when
they received their appointment. Thus We
have seen natives of South Carolina deserving
the service to join the rebels of their own State;
and Capt. Armstrong, who pusillanmously gave
up his post to a promscuous mob in Florida,
though q resident citizen of Massachusetts, re-
gretted that his native State of Kentucky had no
navy into which he might enter Feeling them
selves wholly indebted for their appointments IN
the service to local influences, they enter tne
Navy with di:loyal prejudice, which nothing is
afterward to eradicate; and, being dependent
upon length of service and not upon gallantry oi
conduct or loyalty to the fag they are without
an inducement TO eIerton or fidelity A system
more ingeniously devised 10 breed inefficient ana
dsloyal officers could not have been invented; ana
the marvel is that out OF it should nave come
any manly or patriotic officers at all
As to the "men," the case is stu worse; oy
DENYING the crews Of the ships all hope OF pre-
fermept and rendering it impossible that sailor
sbopld ever become an officer, we offer pre-
mipm TO baseness, and virtually exclude from the
Navy every American who has spark OF hon
orabIe ambition in his nature, and make 1t the
receptacle of desperate adyenturers from all
nations. And these are the officers and the
men upon whom the country depends in its hour
of trial to save it from anarchy and destruction
Now, with President who has risen by TIE
Corce of his own maided exertions from the num-
blest rank in life to the most elevated position
An American citizen can occupy, have we not
a RIGHT 10 demand that some different system
,baI be adopted for the manning and oihccrlns
Of our Navy, something more in accordance VIII
our Democratic institutions, that we may be sure
of n spirit Of loyalty among one clas', ana u
uegsonal honsr and integrity among the other
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