The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-06-08

We are passing into o new era-an era
which promises to revive and make potent
the policy of the proudest periods Of our
history in compelling respect for the
national flag. Our Washington despatch
yesterday repeating the statement OF Secre-
tary Evarts in relation to the Spanish out
rage on the whaler Ellen Rizpah is in the
same vigorous vein as the new policy
adopted toward Mexico. Mr. Evarts said
that he ''did not intend to allow any out
rage upon our flag and that Spain would be
held responsible for any insult to the
United States" We trust the time Is past
for any further dillydallying on points
which concern the national honor or the
protection which our government owes to
its own citizens.
We have had in our history two periods
OF remarkable remissness and imbecility in
upholding the rights of our flag on the
ocean. The first Of those periods was in the
early part Of the century, during the great
Napoleonic wars. The second began with
our civil war and has extended through four
Presidential terms. During both those
periods there was some extenuation for
pusillanimous course growing out OF circum-
stances. Every reader Of our history recol-
lects the famous gunboat system OF Presi-
dent Jefferson, which did not escape derision
at the time and has always been looked back
upon as the conspicuously weak feature
of his administration. jefferson, who, with
all his ability, was man OF crotchets, had
set his mind resolutely against the creation
of navy, maintaining that If we built ships
OF war they would be captured by England
as soon as they appeared on the ocean and
swell her power of commercial oppression
and annoyance. He thought we should
attempt nothing beyond the defence OF our
coast and harbors by means of gunboats too
small to venture out to sea. This whimsey
of n renowned statesman was foolish mis-
calculation and national disgrace. The
money expended on the gunboats would have
built and equipped several stanch men-of-
war, which would have afforded better pro-
lection to our harbors by meeting the enemy
before he approached and alarming him for
the safety Of his own commerce. The folly
of this system was demonstrated in the
progress of our difficulties with England.
The Embargo, which posterity thinks as ill
judged as the gunboats, was q natural con-
sequence OF Jefferson's opposition to
navy. Having no means of defending our
commerce on the ocean we shut up our own
harbors, inficting upon ourselves all the
injury Of simultaneous blockade of all our
ports
That preposterous policy Of Jefferson
fills some of the most notifying pages Of
our national history. During that period
the American flag gave no protection to
American citizens. Our merchant ships
were stopped and boarded by British
men-of-war and American sailors taken out
by force and impressed into the British
naval service. The national indignation
wa 50 infamed by those outrages that, in
1912, congress declared war against Great
Britain, supported by o strong popular cry
for free trade and sailors rights" The
anti-naval policy OF Jefferson was reversed.
We fitted out small number Of ships Of
war, and in two years that gallant little
navy fought itself into popularity and re-
nown. The brilliant victories it won over
the war ships OF the greatest naval
Power of the world put an end for
that generation and the next to
all question as to the expediency
Of maintaining a navy. It's achievements
were the pride and boast of American citi-
zens. That infant navy eclipsed by action
in one short war the glory ascribed by the
poet to the mariners OF England
Whose flag has bravcd, thousand years,
The battle aud the breeze.
.The meteor flag of England" found q
rival in the Stars and Stripes, and from the
close Of that war no American merchant
ship was boarded by a British man-of-war to
take out and impress American citizens.
From that time forward there was no tame
ness in our government under foreign insult
CT outrage up to the beginning of
the civil war. On the contrary, it
acquired the reputation in all foreign coun-
aggressive. That period abounds in illus
trative instances, from which we will select
one which has not passed out of public
recollection. We refer to the celebrated
Koszta case, which the rapid tide of great
events within the last twenty-five years has
not washed out Of the national memory.
Koszta was not full-fedged American
citizen he had only declared his intention
to become one and had resided less than Two
years in the country. He then visited
Turkey on private business. Having been
rebel, he was seized in Smyrna and confined
on an Austrian vessel-of-war in that port
He claimed the protection of the American
Consul and Captain Ingraham, of the
American sloop-of-war st. Louis, having
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