PUBLISHED MONTHLY, AT FIVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM-THOMAS W. WHITE, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. VOL. VII. RICHMOND, JANUARY, 1841. YOUTH AND OLD AGE. BY SEBA SMITH. Old age came down the steep of years, "Ah, whither dost thou bend thy course?" "Be not deceiv'd," old age replied, "In vain will be thy toiling; I long have chased those beaming joys, Youth rais'd his eyes and look'd ahead; That promiseth delight." With joyous bound, he onward went, THE NEW-YEAR. TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS. NO. 1. springs up between the Editor and Reader, that we have your best wishes in return. Six years we have toiled with unremitting labor-six years we have battled with conflicting circumstances to develop and improve our Literature-to quicken intellectual and moral life-and to present to the public the gold thus wrought, with various degrees of excellence, from our Southern, our American intellect. Those whom we now address, know the value and importance of this labor, and we are not going to expand into an Essay showing why this is a worthy cause, and the promise and inevitable fruition with which it is filled. Neither are we conscious, in pursuing our course, that we have indulged in any low, sectional partialities. It is true, we hold our Messenger as peculiarly the herald of Southern talent. We would have it go abroad, among the tombs and trophies of illustrious men and mighty deeds, and gather contributions that shall enable us to cope with our brethren in literature and science, as we ever have in council and in arms. We have made, and most assuredly, by every consideration of kindred and sympathy, shall make our Journal the medium for the defence and exposition of Southern interests and Southern rights. If, like the knight-errant of old, we have, at times, laid aside the rote and tunic of the troubador and assumed the cuirass and the lance, it is because even before the shrines of our Poetry, our Philosophy, and our Science, stand our Laws, our Institutions and our HOMES. In so much as all this, we have been sectional, and we humbly opine, had we not been so, not only would the proud word that stands first in our title be a mockery and a sound, but we should stand recreant to gratitude and to duty. But aside from these positions, excepting the almost involuntary frailties and partialities of our common nature, we have endeavored to occupy a station, above the discordant strife of sectarism and the heated atmosphere of party, in a region of freer and purer light, and have endeavored to foster generous talent wherever we have found it, and to present to our readers the thoughts of truthful and loving spirits, in whatever section of our one broad land their fountains have gushed. To what shall we liken our position at the present season? Shall we say that upon the narrow isthmus where we stand, we hear the waves of the receding PAST, murmuring their mingled music, that comes like a soft, low chime of bells, laden with all peculiar memories for the soul-while the void, vast FUTURE spreads before us, the light just tinging its misty skirts, but yet quite dreamlike, uncertain and unknown ?-Or, shall we assume for us a more appropriate metaphor, and say, that the volume of the twelve-month gone, lies clasped with a golden clasp, sealed up and finished; while that of the twelve-month to come is just opened to our So much for our labors. Their record is in the view-though what pregnant fates, what hidden past and will testify to what we have said. Our oracles, lie in its uncut, unworn leaves, are myste- retrospection presents not an unmingled view, ries that we cannot yet divine? Or-best of all-and-but we will leave it to another medium to set shall we not?-nay, we will, speak to you, warmly forth our deep and difficult struggles, our serious and honestly, our wishes, our labors, and our hopes. and pressing pecuniary embarrassments. Our PaKind Patrons, then-One and all—we wish you, trons, we will trust, will heed and act upon them. from the heart, A HAPPY NEW-YEAR; and we feel Our Hopes-what shall we say of them? We assured, such is the kindred and sympathy that will speak them briefly. They are unquenched and VOL. VII-1 V. I fain would enter there; Oh! for the dove's swift wing, Where living waters spring;- Clothed in the unstain'd white, OUR NAVY. life-like yet. Our toils, our trials, our perplexities | have not shaken us from our purpose, or quenched our earnest faith. (We will still labor at the building up of our National Literature, as a triumphant, a hopeful labor, although we may never see the cap-stone thereof laid, or hear, as it gushes to the rising sun, the sound of its Memnon-music. Yesthe Messenger shall yet labor at this great work, unwearied, undismayed. We have many, many thanks to bestow. Kind hands, noble hearts, gifted minds have aided us. What shall we say ?" our words are feeble-our hearts are warm;"-what shall we say? Let an eloquence that is not of words, be felt in this our deep and grateful acknowledgment of all we owe to the generosity and the [In presenting to our readers the last of the "Luckytoil of others. Still toil on with us, brethren. Bag," we beg leave to lay before them a few of the thoughts Our's is a noble task. Its reward shall spring up in and reflections, to which these papers have given rise in other generations; what matter?-we have sowed our own mind. That things have got wrong in the Navy, the seed—our children shall enjoy the harvest;-it and that they do require to be set right, none who have read these papers, or who are practically conversant with the will bloom and ripen above our graves! Kind Pa-Navy, will pretend to deny. Upon this point all are trons, generous Contributors, Friends, one and all agreed. No one disputes as to the disease; though there once more, A Happy New-Year. Benedicte! is some difference of opinion as to the manner in which the remedy ought to be applied. And this difference of opinion is entertained principally among the officers themselves. We entreat them for the well-being of a noble, brave, and generous service; by their love of country; and in the name of the gallant dead who fought the Navy into being-to come forward in a spirit of concert and compromise, and tell Benedicte! NO NIGHT THERE. "And there shall be no night there."-Revelations xxii., 5th. their countrymen what is the matter with the Navy, and I. There shall be no more night, No dim and clouded sky, To darken with its shadowing gloom But one eternal day A golden light will shed, For closing evening comes not there II. There shall be no more night, Beside the couch of pain, III. There shall be no more night, No lamp its gleams shall shed IV. Oh! earth in darkness clad! This promise will sustain Amid thy change and blight; what ought to be done to relieve it of its ills. These papers describe the one, and propose the other; and in the opinion of intelligent officers, occupy grounds upon which the whole Navy ought to rally. Their diagnosis has been pronounced correct, and their remedies good, by distin guished members of the corps; and we beseech officers not to suffer the patient to linger and pine away, while they, agreeing as to the efficacy of the remedy proposed, differ only as to the manner and parts upon which it shall be applied. We are aware that efforts at reform and reorganization have been attempted from time to time, by officers assembled. But these efforts have been only partial; and we know that they failed of producing the desired results, because the officers were not agreed among themselves as to what was required for the Navy. All are agreed as to the plan; and differ only as to its details. In the multitude of these, wise men and the legislators of the land have been bewildered; and have been heard to exclaim, "we know not what it is that the Navy does want." Let the officers hold meetings; from the abundance of their experience, let each one add his voice in testimony of the evils of the system; let them in a body agree as to the remedy proposed, and resolve to ask it, as with one voice, at the hands of their country. This people are too fond of their Navy, this Nation too proud of its good 'right arm,' to turn an adder's ear to the petition of a thousand brave and gallant officers entreating for measures of legislation, which in the hour of battle shall save their corps from the mortification of defeat, their country from disaster at sea. Congress will give all, and the Republic will not withhold any thing which the patriotism of such a body of noble spirits can ask. The papers of Harry Bluff only require to be extensively circulated, and attentively read, to bring about the desired reform. They have inspired us with renewed ardor and zeal in the cause of the Navy. Always partial to this branch of the public service, we now throw open our pages to the officers, and invite them to the discussion of its interests. In doing this, we fear not to be drawn into the political vortex of party strife. The Navy, throughout the land have a right to expect from its officers.] Ed. Sou. Lit. Mess. SCRAPS FROM THE LUCKY-BAG OF REORGANIZING THE NAVY. Those who dread new remedies, must abide old evils." Bacon. To MR. T. W. WHITE, like the literature of our pages, belongs to the whole nation; | 1809, the number of men and boys, to be employed its interests are the interests of the country, and not of a in the Navy, was limited to 1425. But the storm party. We desire to see it placed in a condition that is be- which had been so long brewing on the political coming to the dignity, the honor and the interest of a nation like this. Such too, is the position in which we know its horizon, bursting soon after in a war with England, officers desire to see it. And, like the essentials of ancient virtually removed all restrictions of the kind; and oratory, the requisites on their part for obtaining this, are the power to employ was limited only by the numAction! Action!! Action!!! They understand its defects, ber and capacity of the ships to receive. Since and are the best judges of the remedies-and on occasions that time, the force of vessels in commission, their like this, concert of action is what the friends of the Navy number, and the number of men and officers to be employed in the service, have been left entirely to Executive discretion. And, as may be supposed, subsequent history shows that, in the course of policy pursued with regard to the Navy, those entrusted with the management of its affairs have neither been governed by any fixed principles, nor regulated according to any certain laws. But, on the contrary, its condition, as well with regard to materiel as to personnel, has been exceedingly changeful-the number of guns at this time* abroad for the protection of American commerce being Editor of the Southern Literary Messenger. considerably less than five hundred, or but little This number exposes some of the evils and abu-more than one gun for every hundred millions of ses incident to the system by which the Navy is at property they are intended to protect; and nearly present conducted; it proposes a remedy for them, one fourth of these is in one ship. The number and suggests a plan for reorganizing, and putting of officers in service has sometimes waxed, and the Navy on a proper footing. Though addressed sometimes waned, assuming as many phases by the to you, the attention of the Committees on Naval rate of promotion, as there have been individuals Affairs in Congress is invited to it; and each mem-placed at the head of the Navy; for each one has ber of those committees is respectfully requested been free to take his own course, and to pursue his to consider the following remarks and statements to own policy and plans with regard to it. Thus, in be addressed personally and individually to himself. 1825, we find the President recommending to the When the Frigates of 1798 had been built, and Senate for promotion to the rank of Lieutenant legislation had commenced with regard to a Na-seventy-odd Midshipmen, in a single batch, when, vy in time of peace, one of the first enactments during the three preceding years, he had advised of Congress, was to fix by law the maximum but a single appointment into this grade. Indeed, number of men and boys to be employed in the as many, if not more, Lieutenants were added to Naval Service of the United States. In the re- the service in this one year, (and they had served duction, which, in 1801, succeeded the French as Midshipmen in the war of 1812, and are still Lieuwar, the rank of Commander was abolished, and tenants,) than had been made during the ten years the number of Captains, Lieutenants and Midship- that preceded. In 1828, under another President, men was made by statute to consist of one hundred | one hundred and fifteen Midshipmen were appointand fifty-nine of the last, thirty-six of the second, ed. And in 1830, when the appointing power had and twelve of the first. The exigencies of the again passed into other hands, warrants to Midshipservice, during the Tripolitan war, soon convinced men were issued so sparingly, that, when the day the government of the necessity there was for of examination came, it appeared there were only multiplying grades, even in so small a Navy as we five Midshipmen to present themselves, whose apthen had; and the grade of Commander* was re-es-pointments bore the date of this year. In 1835, the tablished. The honors of this new grade served Navy Department issued warrants to seventy-eight both as reward and incentive to the young officers Passed Midshipmen; and, in the two years that folbefore Tripoli. The feats of gallantry there en- lowed, to not one,-notwithstanding that this list acted tell of the noble impulse which was then given had been considerably diminished in the interim by to our youthful Navy. In 1806, the President was promotion, death, and resignations. In 1836, but five authorized to employ as many of the public armed officers received Lieutenant's commissions--and the vessels as he should deem necessary and expe- next year, the Senate were called on to confirm the dient; but the number of officers and men was lim- nomination of forty-nine. By the Register of 1827, ited by law. By the act which gave this authori- it appears that from 1817 to 1825, only one Captain ty, the number of Lieutenants was doubled-one had been appointed in the Navy; whereas, in the was added to the list of Captains--and nine were last mentioned year, nine officers received the comincluded in the list of Commanders. As late as missions of that rank. This list of officers received * Then called Master and Commander. * September, 1840. no accession to its numbers in 1830; in 1832 and the rank of Commander; whereas, in his last '36, but one; and in 1837, TEN. During the years year, he recommended to the Senate the appoint1829 and '30, three, and in the next, fifteen Lieu- ment of five to the former, and ten to the latter. tenants were appointed Commanders. During the During the first and second years of the administrathree years that followed, but one was appointed tion of General Jackson, only three, but in the last, in each year; while in 1837, the number of pro- ten Captains were added to the service; during his motions to the rank of Commander amounted to first year he advocated the appointment of but one twenty. officer to the rank of Commander and not one It is in vain that we may look to the exigencies to that of Lieutenant; whereas, during the last, of the public service for the cause of such unequal he nominated and promoted twenty to the former, rates of promotion, or of such fluctuations in the and fifty to the latter rank. Indeed, Mr. MonNavy. The history of the last twenty or twenty-roe, the year before he retired from office, urged five years does not show that any large fleets have upon the consideration of Congress, by message, been suddenly or unexpectedly fitted out, to call for the necessity of creating higher grades in the such sudden and unequal accessions of numbers, Navy; and recommended that the minimum numfirst to one grade of officers and then to another. ber of officers in the different grades, should be so Neither does the policy of the nation at large, with fixed by law, as to allow every vessel then in regard to the Navy, appear so vacillating and un- the Navy, her due quota. General Jackson, not determined, as to require promotion to be checked long before he retired from the Presidential chair, for years-again to go rapidly on-then stop-and advocated similar measures, and so also, I believe, again move on at such unequal paces. The expla- did Mr. Adams. nation is to be found elsewhere, and the remedy in So far then from having any system in the Navy, a law which shall fix and regulate the number of with regard to appointments and promotions—or officers of each grade in the service. Referring again any established and determinate rules, with regard to statistics-for facts are worth a great deal-those to the number of officers, it appears that all is that are furnished by the Navy Register will show, arbitrary. It is entirely subject to the control that of the three Presidents who have come into of Executive discretion, which, though dependent and gone out of power since the war, each one has to some extent on the will of the Senate, may be given sufficient testimony by his acts, to warrant exercised for good, or for evil. the assertion, that when he came into office he It is to the practical effects of this discretionary thought the Navy, as it then existed, ample for all power, that the service owes its retired list of offithe wants and purposes of the nation. Whereas, cers called Passed Midshipmen and Passed Assisfacts collected from the same source will also show, tant Surgeons. In consequence of appointing that each of the three, assisted by the lights of ex- more Midshipmen than it was afterwards judged perience acquired in the chair of state-neces- expedient to promote, a list of upwards of two sarily involving a more intimate acquaintance with hundred officers has accumulated in the service, the affairs of the Navy, and a more practical who, while they spend years in the prime of life, knowledge of its concerns than he before pos- waiting for their turn in the wayward round of sessed-went out of office, convinced and per- promotion, receive half the pay of Lieutenant, and suaded, that true policy requires this arm of na- are at an annual charge of $150,000 upon the tional defence to be strengthened. In proof of treasury. So long as the President may appoint the first assertion, the number of commissioned officers in the Navy was more than doubled by these three Presidents. And, that each of the three was more in favor of an increase of the Navy when he went out, than he was when he came into office, the following facts will show. During the first seven years of his administration, Mr. Monroe recommended the appointment of but thirty-seven Lieutenants; and during the last year, above seventy-five; during the former period but three Captains, and in the latter, nine; and of the twenty-two Commanders commissioned by him, one third received their appointments in his last year alone.* In the first year of his term, Mr. Adams nominated but one officer for promotion to the rank of Captain, and not a single one to any number of Midshipmen, or nominate to the Senate any number of officers for commissions in the Navy, or at will refuse all such appointments, and withhold all such nominations; so long, it appears to me, Mr. Editor, will the Navy be unstable, and liable to have its proportion of officers sometimes far beyond, and at other times as far below, the true wants and necessities of the service. And for the same reasons, the service itself will fluctuate. One President giving it a motion of increase that will carry it as far above the mark of true economy, as, in the returning vibration, under another President, it will descend below the proper mark of true policy and wisdom. If, without any law on the subject, the Navy may be doubled in the course of three administrations, it may, by the same rule, go on to increase in geometrical progression under the next three, and at the end of the last of their terms, be again double its present |