The New York herald., 1876-09-22
The Navy Department.

campaign at this time is the presence of Mr..
Robson at the head of the navy, and If
Secretary Chandler would induce Presi-
dent Grant to remove Robeson he would
give tho party an immense impetus.
If investigation into the affairs of this
department. has no other effect it serves
to relieve all officers of the navy of any of
the odium brought upon the service by the
Secretary's treachery and mismanagement.
For some months past there has been a gen.
eral feeling in the public mind that there
was a great deal of corruption in the navy,
but the responsibility for this was never
known until the Naval Committee
made its report During the investiga-
tons of Congress all the prominent
officers, from Admiral Porter down, have
been called upon to testify as to
what frauds or Irregularities had come under
their knowledge and who were responsible
for their commission. With that love of
truth and straightforwardnes which charac-
terizes the sailor their evidence was given,
and its Importance can only be known by
careful reading of the committees report
painful state Of affairs in the navy, and that
for this no officer in that service is respon-
sble.
The committee in their report say that,
though the Secretary was not detected in
receiving personally any of the plunder, yet
there was chain of circumstantial evidence
running around all his transactions and nm
indisposition to account for portion Of the
large fortune he had amassed that left but
one impression upon the minds of the COM
mittee. This impression was so strong that
they referred the whole question to the
Judiciary Committee to decide whether or
not articles of impeachment should
be drawn up against the Secretary.
Thus the matter stood when Con-
gress adjourned, and there is but little
doubt that Mr.. Robeson would have been
impeached. tried and convicted if the Naval
Committee could have made their report o
month sooner. AS it was. however, Con-
they had called upon to testify as to the man
agement of the Naval Department to the
tender mercies Of Robson. The democrats
did this because they were in hopes that it
would benefit them in the coming election
the republicans because they were angry
with them for having testified as to Robe
sons mismanagement. Congress had no
sooner adjourned than Mr. Robson, who
had all his plans prepared, put them in
operation and issued an order to the navy
intended to deceive the American people.
He informed the world that he was forced by
necessity to place every officer not
on active duty on furlough pay. There
are three kinds of pay authorized by
Congress for the navy-sea pay, shore
pay and leave of absence pay. There is also
an old law authorizing the Secretary to place
any officer on furlough. This was intended
to reach worthless officers who had not COM
mitted any act that could bring them to
worthless to the service. This law was, not
many years ago, repealed. Since then the
act repeating it has been repealed, and now
it appears that this second act gives it new
existence. At all events this is MI. Robe
sons attitude, and so his order has reduced
four or five hundred gallant officers Of the
service to o position causing them great
distress and calculated to work great
harm to the naval service. No one believes
the Secretary when he says that he ''per-
formed this disagreeable duty to enable him
to conform to- the appropriations of Con-
gress" The appropriation was for Ave mill
ion eight hundred thousand dollars. Last
- 80
thousand dollars. The service this year has
been reduced one thousand men, which
would cost on an average for pay and rations
three hundred and ninety-eight thousand
dollars. This would leave deficiency of
only two hundred and two thousand dol
lars Assuming that this deficiency existed,
there was enough money to last until the
next session of Congress, when it could have
been remedied.
The truth of the case is that Mr. Robeson,
knowing that the true men of the navy testi-
fed against his mismanagement, determined
to wreak his revenge Therefore he las i'm
posed an indigDity upon them. He has
revived an old law devised for the punish
ment Of worthless officers to reduce the pay
of rear admiral to the pay of master or
commander; captain to the pay of an en-
sign commander to little more than mid
shipman; lieutenant to less than mate.
An ensign under this law receives less than
the cadet at the Academy. Even Admiral
Porter, the distinguished head of the navy,
and Vice Admiral Rowan, did not escape
this indignity. President Grant suspended
the order so far as Admiral Porter was con-
cerned, showing that he had not forgotten
the services of his brave comrade at the
siege of vicksburg. This furlough order
has irretrievably damaged the navy. 1t
shows every officer that he is at the mercy of