The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1862-10-02
Gun boats


Nehi Thomas JEFFERSON 10 rise from
the dead and revisit our National Navy
Yards, and see the thousands Of work
men busily employed in building gum
boats, and behold 'hc Monitor and
the Essex, and iheir iron-mailed
sisters moving their black and
queerly shaped bulks along our rivers
and harbors, he would have some grounds
for congratulatng himself on the final
triumph Of scheme of anavl defence
which he urged yehemently again and
again upon Congress during his Presi-
dency, and which after being very inn
perfectly tried, was abandoned as worth
less, and died ont seemingly amid a
storm Of ridicule and inyectiyc. Perhaps
mo- one measure Of his Administration,
;7as more merclcssly ridiculcd than his
gun-boat scheme. II was the laughing
stock and Jest for all the opposition wits
Of the day, for PErEH PoucuriNg and his
violent fraternity. Certainly JEuER-
eoN never dreamed Of such mechanical
genius as the Monitor, the Essex or the
new lron-sidcs, though this is saying
good deal, for JfrFEnsoN's mind was
so fertile ia schemes Of all Sorts poll
ties, mechanism, in religion, in science,
that il is assumin good deal to say that
L.. Il Il la
whether he did or not, lac is certainly en-
titled to the credit Of introducing the
gun boat into our Navy. In his Special
Message to Congress, on February 10th,
1907, ne recommended the construction
Of" land batteries, floating batteries, and
gim-Loatg" for the defence of our coasts
and harbors, which may oppose an enemy
at their entrance and cooperate with
the batteries for his expulsion" He adj
advised the building Of POO boats
which were TO be distributed in the fol-
lowing order;
For the Mississippi and its tributaries
40; to Savannah and Charleston, and the
harbors from St. Mary's TO Curttuck, %
to Chesapeake and its waters 20; TO
Delaware Bay and rivers 10: 70 New
York and waters as far as Cape Cod,
30; to Boston and harbors north, 80.
JEFFERSON evidently cherished his
plan for maritime defence as a hobby.
He had but little use for the navy, So
called, looking on it as too expensive,
cumbrous, and in many respects of some
what doubtful utility. He was for max
ing our shores imprcgnabe and inyul-
ncrablc to the assaults of any naval pow
or, and believed that as pcaceable
republican people, we should seek rather
to avail ourselves Of the means TO repel
than TO hunt up enemies abroad The
gunboat has rcyolutionizcd the navics of
the world. The terrible duel between
the Monitor aud the Mcrlimac shook Eu-
rope with its moral, as well as il shook
our own waters with its physical thun-
dcrs British and French Admirals
looked aghast at these strange. stccl-clad
monsters of the sea, either of which could
have knocked their huge men-of-war TO
atoms in few hours, and then rode
away, with hardly a pcrccpGble dent
in their metallic sides. Quecr-loohing
customers they were, and as dangerous
as they were odd. This thing of fight
ing with a greatness ofiron, armed with
a revolving gun, which pours shot and
shell into your ship whichever way you
sail, while from stem to stern not a man
is visible upon it, neither captain nor pi-
lot, nor sailor nor soldier; why there is
something truly appalling in the bare
thought 1t reminds one of the duel be-
tween two despcradoes, in whish the
combatanis were armed, and locked up
in room as dark as pitch TO do the
work Of death. Prophecy is very n-
certain business, but still who knows but
these gunboats may prove 10 be peace
makers between foreign nations and
America What nation would send its
men.of-war with an army where they
would be welcomed by parcel of unap-
proachablc, mysterious and inyuIucrablc
cheese boxes set ON ralls''