The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-05-31
THE MEMORY OF HEROES
Continued from First Page.)

There was in him the Puritan ploou and training of generations of the Con- necticut Yankee He knew the Ian guage of the New England faith, and it was language which stood for stern realities with him. When he resolved to act for God, he ceased to act for self as the first and chief object. It was his first and only surrender. He yielded himself unreservedly to the service of God in obedience to His law. To act for God meant the same thing in ser want of God that it meant for him to act for his country being in it's service, except that the service of God was su- preme, and included as part of 1t eve ny other righteous service. His career as soldier is is splendid example of what it means to act for God in the ser vice of the country.
 One thing which acting for God meant l for him was consistent and persistent public confession of his faith, While he was in subordinate position, and among associates who were free and ready to make light of religion and even to do worse than that, he never | covered up the faith, which he had ac- cepted so deliberately in the very pres enee of the enemy. No man ever knew him very long without Knowing where he stood on that question; and yet he was not offensive either in his plety or in his personal appeals. As superior officer he always took care that reli- gious services were held regularly among his men, and often conducted them himself. It is familiar story 1 hat yxyyi ,, al i,, VI r. | tended church on Sunday, and when the preacher failed to put in an appear ance, Captain Foote took possession of the pulpit and conducted the service himself. An example of man who 1 stands in a public place not only as an official, but as man and a Christian is | we'll worth remembering here.
 | Another thing which the resolution to act for God meant to Admiral Foote was life of clean personal conduct Those habits of intemperance and vice, | those irregularities of conduct which l too often demoralize the men who spend l their lives in such service as this, were not found in this man. It may be counted gratuitous to praise good | man for not being a bad man, but this man always desired the credit which belonged to him, and all the credit he won in the western waters will not l equal that which he won in the face of q lifetime of the severest testing of moral character.
 l It was part of the carrying out of his resolution when he inaugurated the | temperance reform in the navy. At | that time there was a practice of giv- | ing spirit rations to men in the navy, which in later days has been happily discontinued. partly, at least, through l Admiral Foote's influence. It was gen. 1 erally believed to be necessary, and the | grogtub, as much as the flag, was a l part of the ships furnishing. But un- 1 der Foote's command the "Cumber- land" cruised in the Mediterranean for a year without it, and the Perry did | the same for longer period on the | coast of Africa; and this was secured against custom and against the govern ment grant by voluntary consent of all the men, under the influence of the commanding officer. Whenever Foote's men were on shore he knew where to 1 find them and in what condition, and it i is exceedingly doubtful if that could be said of another naval commander of | the old days.
 l To act for God meant that even as a | subordinate officer he should go out of his way to learn the exact truth of the l situation in the Sandwich Islands in 1889, and stand by the oppressed mis- sionaries, and do all in his power to have justice done by them.
 When he had captured a slave trading ship off the coast of Africa with no slaves on board but only the furnish ings which made it's purpose evident to | an experienced eye, and when the cap tain offered him S22,000 to overlook
 those furnishings and let the matter
 drop, his acting for God meant that he
 should not covet the money but rather
 cling to the prize ship. The ship was
 condemned as shaver In the United
 States courts and proved to be one oi
 the worst agents of that awful traffic
 and it's capture so severe and unex-
 pected a blow that there was but little
 more of it ever carried on under the
 American flag.
 And this leads to the mention of one
 other principle which was fundamenta
 in the character of this Christian sol.
 dier, and that was a sublime respect fol
 his country's flag. The slave pirates o
 the west coast of Africa were outlawed
 but traders would sail under the flags
 now ofone nation and now of another
 but most frequently it was the star:
 and stripes, until that emblem hat
 ceased to command respect and British
 men, of war did not hesitate to searcf
 ships even when they were under tha
 flag. The arduous duty therefore fel
 upon Lieutenant Foote, first, to redeem
 the good name of the flag by sweeping
 the Atlantic of every ship which bort
 it falsely or in unlawful trade, and sec
 ond, to command from foreign nations
 the respect which it merited; and thi
 he did by laying down the law to su percilious British commander in sucl
 propositions as these: The flag which
 vessel wears is prima facie though no
 conclusive proof of her nationality
 those who lawfully display the flag O
 the United States should have all thu
 protection it supplies; when cruiseI
 boards vessel under this flag she doe.
 it on her own responsibility. The Brit
 ish officer seemed to catch the idea, ant
 disgrace and insult ceased for our flag
 on the coast of Africa.
 The storming of the Barrier Forts a
 Canton, China, in 1856, is an episode il
 lustrating Foote's policy with referenc,