El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-10-21
FIRST AMERICAN NAVY.
Established One Hundred Years ago
This Year.

This Year.
The year 1897 is notable rs the cen
tennial Of what proved to be the per
manent establishment of the United
Sta ties navy.
Daring the revolutionary war nava
forces were eXtemp0rized and gallant
actions were performed
But at the end of the war this navy
or what was left of it, was sold. II
1874 the approp -iation for what was
called the marine depari ment," bu-
reau in the war Office, amounted to bu1
$50, 900.
A change of mind set in in 1874
American v-ssels in the Mediterranean
trade hsd been captured by corsairs
and their crews carried into slavery at
Algiers and other places on the So
called Barhary coast. Co greSS there
fore passed bill March 9th, for the
construction of six frigates, four OF
| fOrty-four guns each aud two OF thirty
| six.
The keels OF three, which afterward
became famous, were laid. but the
work was so IN stopped in prospect of d
p cific ST ttlement. In April, 1896,
congress voted to complete the three
halfbuilt frigases and to sell al unused
| material of perisL able kind.
But, in the following Decemb r, Wash
beginning of permanent navy. ITO
al active external commerce." ga he,
che pro ection Of naval force is in
dispensable.'
Bur the change of mind which began
in 1894 was greatly fastened in 1897
D .ficulties with France became threat
euing. President Adams, imm ediately
on taking office, called Congress to
meet n extra session May 18th.
1, -.
ed was fifty named the United States.
She was the first warship built by the
n At ion after the adoption of the consti-
tuition With her begins the story of
the national navy as apermanent force.
She was built at Philadelphia. then
the seat If government, az a cost of
5000, 1888. Never before or since has the
lau ching of an American vessel been
attended by such multitude, or cele-
brated with such enthusiasm, as the
launching of forty-four-eun frigate
United States, on May 10, 1897.
The other two vessels rapidly follow
ed. The Constellation, thirty-siX-
gun ship, was launched at Baltimore,
September 7tb: the Constitution, of the
same size ard armam Mt as the United
States, at Boston, October 2lst. The
national spirit which put them afloat
was reflected in their names. No other
in battle as this famous three. By
their exploits the national spirit, long
and deeply Inundated by indignities
and outrsges inflicted, and endured
only because OF weakness, was fred
with enthusiasm and invigorated to
honorable self-as$ertion. The Constel-
la ion won the first laurels in her
com bats with the French ships, LIN
surgente, in 1899, and La Vengeance,
in 1900. The United States in taking
the Mace DOMAIN, and the Constitution
in her capture of the Guerrero and the
Java durirg the war OF 1912, SCATTERING
the boast, "Britannia' rules the wave"
produced as profound q sensation
throughout Europe as in A merica.
The subsequent history of the three
famous frigatss which first constituted
our navy in 1897, has been the theme
of familiar song and story. One of
them. the United States, has ceased to
exist. She was broken up by order of
the president in 1sij4. The name of
the wrecked kearsarge has descended
to one Of the new battleships now con-
structing. The Constellation has been
rebuilt once, and is now in service as a
training ship, stationed at Newport.
The Con stitution has teen practically
rebuilt three times.
The year 1897 is memorable in Amer
lean history for the rec ignition which
the Great On Of our navy first gave to
the fact that American interests must
be protected in every part of the world
where American citiz rs are found.