Year: 1865

i . F.


From the Richmond Republic.


- w have lately seen some reference made to
Mr.. Mallory, said to haze been Secretary of the
Navy in the Confederate Cabinet, but person
who made so faint an impression upon the public
mind that, when the Confederacy collapsed, he
was remembered as little as the jollyboat that
disappears withthe wreck of a. ship! oWe are
not altogether certain that the Secretary of the
Navy was not a myth. Certainly, if the term


"so-calledn could ever be applied with universal
acceptation to any officer of the Government of
| Mr.. Davis, it undoubtedly belonged to Mr. NAL
| lory. His friends might with entire proprlety
rest his defence upon two grounds: 1st, That


here was no navy. 3D.. That if there was, he
| was no Secretary. To call him the head of
| department would have been a piece of innocent
pleasantly in the days Of disunon, but to NAM
| tain it now is serious joke. We hasten to put
| in a word in his behalf.


A woman who was once iarraigned on charge
| of infanticide or crime that sometimes leads
to it; putin the defence that the child was avery
little one. We beg to enter similar appeal for
Mr. Mallory. He was an amiable gentleman,
sort of handsome figure bead of a man-of-war,
Ibut nothing else. The United States owes him
debt of gratitude for the constitutional love of
ease and the untiring Incidence with which he
rocked himself to sleep on the rolling bilows of
civil strife. It would have been difficult to pick
up a cabin boy in the merchant service who
| could be more dangerous to his employers or
more likely to set the ship on fire by going to
sleep with a lighted candle in his hands. . The
fat boy in the Pickwick Papers was a miracle Of
vigilance and energy to that " so-called, Secre-
| tary.


Mr.. Mallory had speciality, however, which
kept the public from entirely disbelievng his ex-
istence. 1t was strange passion for creating
rams, and then, deliver them, offering them up
as burnt-oferings. He was always building and
always burning rams. He would have been an
admirable Secretary of the Navy. in the inland
| German Principality that Goethe speaks OF,


whose military force consisted of one colonel, six
officers and two priEates. He might have held


the same position with advantage in Prussia
4 down to the acquisition Of her single seaport OF
| Kiel He might even have answered for a Lord
! of the Admiralty in England at a time when it
was the custom to order mdshipman to report
! for duty to a ship that was on the stocks, and
/ which was so long in building that the young


ster generally became an cid man with dozen


children before she was ready for sea. For


drydock department or any other department


Of sawdust character, he would have been the


right man in the right place. In the position


that he actually held he entitled himself to pen


sion from the United States, 1t would be en-
tirely useless, however, for the Government to


release him if they expect him to take the trouble


to walk outof prison. 1t is impossible to dis


lodge him from any place except by his own


favorite process with Confederate TapsTof blow


ing him up. Nothing but the explosion that sent


up the Confederacy could induce him to travel
| from this location Even then, whilst every one
knew that agile masterspirit Of mischief, j. P.


Benjamin, would alight upon his feet every one


knew that Mallory would show the lnertness,


mentioned in a veracious aneedote, of the man


who was SO indolent that some Of his neighborS


attempted to scare him into doing something for


the support Of his family, and consequently put put


him into coffin and told him they would bury


him alive When driving along with the hearse,
a neighbor came out and asked Bhoowas5 dead.


"No one" said the driver, "b but we are going


to bury John Smith alive: he is too.fond of his
etarve ~ Don't bury him alive,1 said the
man mai !; g that would be cruel indeed rather


than do that + IL give him two bushels Of corn"


aIs it shelled ~ said the lazy man, in a very
faint voice from the coffin. "Nosa said the
compassionate one. j" We'll, them ]repled John,
| 60 drive on, boys" f--l q II l+af..s--T