The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-06-13
UNCLE SANS NAVY
Patriot Discourse of Will
lam McAdoo at New
port, R. l., Today.
PROUD, REGNANr AND NVIACIBLE.
Only Internal Strife Will Admit Of
Foreign Domination of the
Union.

Union.
NEWPORT, r. l., June Is, 1S94.-William
McAdoo, Assistant Secretary OF the Navy,
delivered the address Of the day at the COM
mencement exercises of the Naval War Col
lege. He said he had taken the deepest in
terest in the War College from the moment
of its inception and dwelt at some length on
the great practical value of an institution
which is to teach the officers of the navy that
which is the great aim and capstone OF their
profession-the art of naval warfare. The
ingenuity and skill which made and
the genius, which planned the ship,
e~xac5ing questions as by what means it
should be made a most efficient fighting ma
chine: the vast sums of money which are ex-
pended in its construction, are all lost if, in
the crucial moment, those TO whom Its com
mand is given are not equal to the lmpera7
tive demands of the occasion and fail to get
the results which are obtainablef from a pow
erful war engine. Given two equal ships
there would be no hesitation in believing
that that which was commanded by great
ability world certainly defeat that in the
control of mediocrity.
MI. IIc1Aaoo sea-. he had not come to
eulogize the navy of the United States. Its
proud record was a complete answer to It's
bitterest critics. 1t was exceedingly fit, he
continued, that a school for the study, both
theoretically and practically, Of the art OF
naval warfare, should lave been founded
contemporary with the national effort
to rebuild our navy, Moreover,
Mo,.,irr,,o PC n,ronI tho Cumberland and in
turn was beaten off by the Monitor. there
has been no contest on a scale large enough
to give us actual demonstration as to what
has been obtained in actual warfare By
naval progress, nothing could be more tit
than to inaugurate here the most profound
and exacting study OF naval tactics ana
strategy, for it must be confessed that the
sum Of our actual knowledge is as yet
small.
WHAT A NAVAL NATION MUST POSSESS.
A naval nation must be possessed of two
things:-The best modern ships, we'll armed
and equipped, manned and differed; and,
second, the power to reproduce these as
quickly as possible when lost or to add to
their number when desired. The mere pos
session of ships does not of itself make a
nation a naval power. 1t must have the
material, the plant and the skill and abil-
ity to make them when wanted, and the
same is true as regards armor and arma-
menu. ne OAllSo OtdUSo, UuC1 ClOAO, "diN7
it does not possess a great navy in the num-
Der of its ships, has within its limits colossal
plants. both public and private, and great
armies of skilled workmen. led by c~ontrac-
tors, designers and inventors of marked
ability, and it is therefore essentially and
substantially capable of national defence,
and. if need be, of offensive operations. This
is absolutely true of any protracted war, but
right here we are confronted with
the question whether the wars
Of the future will be protracted, or whether
the first well-planned and skilfully-executed
rush may not destroy that which years of
labor and millions of money could not again
| procure: therefore the supreme necessity of
skilful commanders. scholarship, learning
and ability, and, above all, the practical
training and habit of command Of the
officers of the navy will be the de-
termining causes in case OF sudden
and unexpected war, and war is always
sudden and unexpected. While we speak.
the actions of a single citizen of the Republic
might result in such complications as no dip
lomacy could solve, and the hurricane Win
of opinion drive the Republic quickly over
the constitutional barriers into the very act
of offensive and defensive warfare; and
while with us the Executive is restrained by
severe constitutional limitations, and war
cannotbe engaged in without the consent of
Congress, still it is well to remember that in
no country as here does public opinion, when
thoroughly aroused, bring about results with
such lightning rapldlty.
THE PROBLEM.
The naval problem, Mr.. McAdoo said,
concerned us much more deeply so far as
foreign nations are concerned, than does our
military progress on land. 1t was utterly
impossible, he said. that the United States
could ever be successfully invaded even by
an alliance which embraced mora than one
of the great military nations of Europe.
The only hope of military or political domi-
nation from Europe on this continent could
come from a dissolution of the Union as the
result of secession. So long as the Republic
maintained its present imperial territory,
her absolute and unqualified domination
of the great oceans within the temperate
zone of this continent, she stands as against
foreign aggression on her W soil, proud,
regnant and invincible. Our Achilles heel
is at the waters edge. A million men, were
they ever SO brave and well armed, could
not prevent the tremendous and certain de-
struction that would be wrought by the ex-
plosion of a monster shell filled with high
explosives in one Of our cities, fired from the
great gun of a battleship lying safely be-
You'd the range of our nearest fort. Five
hundred men on a battle ship, well handled
by a master of his art, might save from de-
struction that which not a hundred thousand
men on shore could restore.
OUR RELATIONS TO II OUT
MI. McAdoo said that as an additional in
centive to the fact that whatever our wishes
might be-whatever theories may have been
laid down in the passive were driven by in
exorable circumstances into a relationship
towards the whole South American Con-
tinent, which begets for US moral duties and
grave national responsibilities, and from
which there was absolutely NJ escape.
We are not their protector, and we
will never be their invader; but
we do stand towards them in an
attitude of moral guardianship, and as CO.
partner in their development by reason of
the numerous ventures ana enterprises con-
Quoted and owned in those countries by our
citizens. To the grand sum Of our national
wants and responsibilities it is only a short
course of time when we will have the inter
oceanic canal.
In concluding, Mr.. McAdoo trusted and
hoped that his hearers would nave a very
prosperous land highly instructive season,
and took occasion to mention the pride he
felt at the splendid pre-eminence given to
our great naval historian, Captain Mahan.
who was so long connected with this college,
COXEYlTES ON THEIR WAY HOME
The New England division Of Coxey's
arnav marobad down Grand strpat ta fha