The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1914-05-01
FOR THE HONOR OF
THE NAVY
Admiral Chadwick Upholds With
Authority the Maligned, Tenn
perate Service.
perate Service

Al the Cuittu ptdtCo navy UNI
Won distinction in two wars,
writes a letter to the New York
Sun in defense of the sobriety Of
his fellow officers, and men un-
der their command. The In
telligencer prints in full his
letter, which is as follows:
To The Editor of The Sun
Sir: l should like to say some
thing on some invidious remarks
in connection with alcoholic
drinks from various people re-
speeding the profession in which
l passed nearly forty-five years.
/ venture to do this as it seems
to be taken for granted by many
Of the public hat naval officers
are a set of drunkards. ! can
say from my long experience and
knowledge Of the navy that
there is no error greater than
naval officers to be an intemper-
ate class Of men. | can affirm
with what | believe to be a rath-
er more extended knowledge
than is usual of men of all class
es that there is no body of men
so abstemious. The idea so
prevalent is traditional only
and dates back to Roderick
Random" That there were
hard drinking men in the earlier
days is undoubtedly true, but so
there were ashore. 1t is we'll
said by Admiral Sir Vesey Ham
llton and John Knox Laughton
in their Introduction to the
"Recollections of James Anthony
Gardner:
1t is of course. Familiarity
known that during the later
years Of the eighteenth century
such drunkenness was almost
more common on shore than "a
float and when more than half
the peerage and the most dis
tinguished statesmen were cha
bitual drunkards" there was,
from the moral point of view,
some excuse for the many of
Gardeners messmates.
Just as the British peerage and
British and American statesmen
Of today are not drunkards,
neither are the officers of the
American and British navies of
today.
There was lately (and this is
my particular reason for writing
this in one Of your contempor-
aries an article, reprinted in its
weekly literary edition, dealing
with this subject and illustrating
events at the beginning of the
civil war, as if the rakimgs of the
worlds merchant service exhibit
ed the character of the man-of-
wars man, even of that period.
The article gives an account of
the trials of the contractor for
one Of the monitors before she
passed out of his hands, and
mentions, the consumption by the
guests Of 'l56 bottles of spirit
uous liquors" the apparent in
ference being that the cOnsum-
ers were naval officers. ! ven
ture to say that there was not a
naval officer aboard excepting
the few ordered as a board TO
attend and report upon the ques-
ton of the vessels acceptance.
That officers upon such duty
should have been guilty of such
misconduct is impossible, Such
statements without explanation
are an insult to the service. The
consumers of these 156 bottles
were civilian guests, not naval
officers, nearly all of whom were
on the blockade. OF such loose
talk is public sentiment made.
There is in American clubs
greatly, and in most enormously
more drinking proportionately
than in any American man-Of-
war; and in the latter it is con-
fined by law of Congress to wine.
and beer, distilled liquors being