Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-03-14

A Naval Captain Replies to Elk.
Senator ingalls,
On the Subject of Our Strength
on the High Sea.

The Conditions Under Which a Large
Naval Force Was Created in 1861
Vastly Different from Those Which
Exist -Day-Then Our Merchantmen
Are They?
WASHINGTON, March 14-Senator In
gals recent essay in Truth respecting
the uselessness of a navy to the United
| States, has been severely criticised in
many quarters, and now Capt Richard
w. Meade, an eminent naval officer in
this city, gives him a scoring, in which
he holds that Ingalls, must be regarded
by right-thinking men as either a
demagogue or an ignoramus.
Capt. Reade says: His assertion that
between 1861 and 1865 the United States
created large naval force is unden ably
true; but ex-senator ingalls,. of all men,
ought TO know that the conditions of
1861 and those of 1891 are vastly differ
ent, In 1870 61 the sails of American
| commerce whitened every sea; the lner-
chant steam fleet of the country was sec
ond only to that of Great Britain and
when war sounded hundreds of mer-
/
militia flocked to the eservice of thenavy.
while every available vessel in the mer-
chant marine was pressed into use The
south, not having any maritime strength
whatever, was utterly unable to break
the blockade, and with all its energy
and undenisble pluck could not put
ahCat more than six cruisers. Yet what
those six cruisers did in the way of dam
age to us Mr., ingalls, explains when he
himself mentions the fact that Great
Britain compromised on 5000 COO in
payment of the scot
"What are the conditions to-day"
asks Capt Rcade "Where are the thips
engaged in commerce upon which the
United stat could reckon in the event
of war with a foreign nation possessing
q navy? The world has moved, and
the ships that made good cruisers and
blockaders in lS6l-G5 would be as utter
ly useless against the foreign foe to-day
as Columbus ship of discovery. En-
gland alone has seventy battle-ships and
some 4C0 cruising yes els of all types.
These ships can fgh-. Have we any
thing to oppose to themI The purpose
Of a navy Icing defense and attack,
what is the use of q navy that cannot
fight Some say that England will not
attack us. This may be true Her in
terest in our welfare may be even great
er than we seem to feel ourselve3. That
brilliant young meteor in literature
Rudyard Kipling, says that the United
States is q chartered libertine, and that
England will do nothing no mat er
what the United States may do. Indeed,
/ think myself that the confscation of
English property in the United States
1 h., ,l,- nt sNlf Il, 4
have a ainst the indemnities levied on
our seapor,a b, England's feet. But
will some other power regard us thus:
Will it not rather lie as Kipling says,
cash or crasl'?
Mr.. ingalls, intimates that we don't
want any navy, and that no one will at
tack us. He might as well say that be-
cause the people of Washington axe, as
a rule, well behaved, we need no police
force 1t will be necessary to maintain
a police until the millenniau era arrives.
and the fact that other nations are pre-
pared, while we are defenseless is sutfi-
cient reason for our building proper
navy to maintain or rights, and our
honor if asSailed.
cit suits Mr.. ingalls, to sneer at Eng
lands power, but It is very certain at
all events that she fully protects her
citizens, which ! regret to- say this
country does not always do Only the
other day revolution broke out in
Chill, and long before any other power
could get a ship to the scene of the con
quest England had a squadron under
Admiral Hotham off the coast We
have no reason to lore England, and
much that Nh Ingalls, says of her
treachery to us in the late civil war is
true But as power there has been
none equal or approaching to her since
Rome was ruled by the first of the
Caesars