An Instance of Dis union Candor. THE WEEK'S RESULT. 439 report, so that no doubts | silenced by Mr. Sherman's attempt to take be cast on the record: the bill from the Committee of the Whole. "This Tariff measure on the In the course of remarks made by Sickles, necessaries of the poor, for the benefit of the iron- (Dem.,) of New York, views were expressed by mongers of Pennsylvania, is the well-known price of that member, strongly antagonistic to the her vote in November. This is your economical party! bill, and to the Republican ways and means One hundred and eight millions of dollars in of raising revenue with which to meet the debt in three months! Your President-elect has, we enormous indebtedness of Mr. Buchanan's hear, arrived this morning in the city. Has he come Administration. His remarks were quite as to restrain your imprudences? Is he in hot haste to personal as those of Garnett, though less ofcheck your reckless extravagance? Or why this night march from Harrisburg? What credit he deserves for its cleverness, and the cunning contrivance fensive in terms. At the evening session of the House, Saturday, speeches were made by Messrs. Gooch, (Rep.,) of Massachusetts; Fenton, (Rep.,) of New York; Haskin, (Rep.,) of New York; Blair, (Rep.,) of Pennsylvania; and Kellogg, by which he has set all the conspirators of Baltimore to be-Lieutenant-General Scott? * It is certain, at least, that you will have to increase the pay of the Lieutenant-General for the signal services that he has performed. You will need a large supply of peacock-feathers for the appropriate adorn. ment of his military dress the reward for his pro found plans and excessive toils in preparing plans of campaign against his native State, and the Southern States generally. Additional secretaries will have to be employed to draw up his bulletins and his' views' on international law, interlarded as they are with rare excerpts from Paley's Moral Philosophy, and with the yet richer display of his extensive political learning, and his command of the tritest quotations from Pope." And much more of the same sort, reckless in its insolence and indecent in its recklessness. The "gentleman from Virginia" was only The Week's Result. The week had proven one of stormy debate, but progress had been made towards placing matters in a better position for the emergencies which seemed impending, and for the reassertion of the dignity of the Government. By the withdrawal of the first time in the history of the party obtained Southern members, the Republicans, for the a working majority. The majority in the Senate was the first in the history of the Government in which the Northern States had a ruling power in that branch. From the organization of the Government up to 1860, the Slave sentiment had had uncontrolled ascendency in the upper House--thus virtually holding the reins of government. That its sway was despotic and ended in disaster is a fact which its strongest partisans will scarcely question. CHAPTER XXXIV. JANUARY REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON THE NAVY. LIST OF THE UNITED STATES NAVAL FORCE, AND ITS DISPOSITION SECRETARY TOUCEY'S COMPLICITY WITH THE ENEMIES RESIGNATIONS. THE • 16тн. OF THE GOVERNMENT. THE MINORITY List of Vessels. THE Report of the Special Committee of Five on the President's Message of January 8th, made to the House February 21st, [see page 431,] was an interesting document, embodying facts of an important nature. It first gaye a list of the entire naval force of the country and its disposition, with a list of commanding officers. The list of the vessels we give, together with their location on the 16th day of January, 1861: “East India Squadron. -Hartford, steam-sloop, cruising on the East India station; John Adams, sloop, cruising on the East India station; Dacotab, sloop, cruising on the East India station; Saginaw, steamer, cruising on the East India station; Vandalia, sloop-of-war, on the way to the station. "Brazil Squadron-Congress, frigate, cruising on the station; Seminole, steam-sloop, cruising on the station; Pulaski, steamer, cruising on the station. "Mediterranean Squadron. — Richmond, steam-sloop, cruising on the station; Susquehanna, steam-sloop, cruising on the station; Iriquois, steam-sloop, cruising on the station. "African Squadron.-Constellation, sloop-of-war, cruising on the coast of Africa; Portsmouth, sloop-of-war, cruising on the coast of Africa; San Jacinto, steam-sloop, cruising on the coa-t of Africa; Mystic, steamer, cruising on the coast of Africa; Sumter, steam sloop, cruising on the coa-t of Africa; Mohican, steam-sloop, cruising on the coast of Africa; Saratoga, sloop-of war, cruising on the coast of Africa. "Home Squadron.-Cumberland, sloop-of war, at Vera Cruz; Powhatan, tam-loop, at Vera Cruz; Pawnee, steam-sloop, at Philadelphia; Brooklyn, steam-sloop, at Hampton Roads; Sabine, frigate, under orders to Pensacola; Macedonia, sloop-of war, on way to Pensacola; St. Louis, sloop-of-war, under orders to Pensacola; Pocahontas, steamsloop, at Vera Cruz; Mohawk, steamer, supposed to be on her station, the coast of Cuba; Crusader, steamer, supposed to be on her station. the coast of Cuba; Wyandotte, steamer, supposed to be on her station, the coast of Cuba. "Store-ships.-Falmouth, sloop-of-war, stationed at Aspinwall; Warren, stationed at Panama; Fredonia, stationed at Valparaiso; Supply, sailed from Pensacola 12th-of January for Vera Cruz; Release, returning from the Mediterra. nean; Relief, at New York. "Special Service.-Niagara, screw-frigate, special service to Japan. "Receiving Ships.-Ohio, ship-of-the-line, Boston; North Carolina, ship-of-the-line, New York; Princeton, steamer, Philadelphia: Alleghany, steamer, Baltimore; Pennsylva nia, ship-of-the-line, Norfolk; Independence, razee, Mare Island, California." There were also in the ports of the United States, dismantled and unfit for immediate service, the following vessels belonging to the Navy: "At Portsmouth, N. H.-Santec, frigate, 50 guns; Dale, slo P, 15 guns; Marion, sloop, 16 guns. "At Boston.-Colorado, steam-frigate, 40 guns; Minnesota, steam-frigate, 40 guns; Mississippi, steamer, 11 guns ; Vermont, ship-of-the-line, 84 guns; Vincennes, sloop, 20 guns; Preble, sloop, 16 guns; Bainbridge, brig, 6 guns "At New York.-Wabash, steam-frigate, 40 guns; Roa. noke, steam-frigate, 40 guns; Potomac, frigate, 50 guns; Brandywine, frigate, 50 guns; Savannah, sloop, 24 guns; Perry, brig, 6 guns. "At Philadelphia.-Pawnee, sloop-of-war, 6 guns; Water Witch, steamer, 3 guus; St. Lawrence, frigate, 50 guns; Jamestown, sloop, 22 guns. "At Washington.-Pensacola, steam-sloop. "At Norfolk.-Merrimac, steam-frigate, 40 guns; Plymouth, sloop, 22 guns; Germantown, sloop, 22 guns; Raritan, frigate, 50 guns; Columbia, frigate, 50 guns; United States, frizate, 50 guns. “At Annapolis.-Constitution, frigate, 50 guns." Of these vessels and their disposition, the Committee then say: Disposition of the Vessels. DISPOSITION OF THE NAVY. 441 Disposition of the Vessels. and in actual service and that which lies in port and is from any cause unavailable in any sudden emergency. From this statement it will appear that the entire naval force available for the defence of the whole Atlantic coast at the time of the appointment of this Committee consisted of the steamer Brooklyn, 25 guns, and the store-ship Relief, 2 guns, while the former was of too great draft to permit her to enter Charleston harbor with safety, except at spring tides, and the latter was under orders to the coast of Africa with stores for the African squadron. Thus the whole Atlantic seaboard has been, to all intents and purposes, without defence during all the period of civil commotion and lawless violence, to which the President has called our attention as of such vast and alarming proportions' as to be beyond his power to check or control. "It further appears that, of the vessels which might have been available for defence or protection in case of any sudden emergency arising at home, now at stations in distant seas, or on their way thi ther, on the 13th of October last, the Richmond left our coast to join the Mediterranean Squadron, and the Vandalia left on the 21st of September to join the East Indian Squadron, and, about the same time, the Saratoga to join the African Squadron, and others to join the Home Squadron, then in the harbor of Vera Cruz, supporting one of the revolutionary governments of Mexico. "The Committee cannot fail to call attention to this extraordinary disposition of the entire naval force of the country, and especially in connection with the present no less extraordinary and critical juncture of political affairs. They cannot call to mind any period in the past history of the country of such profound peace and internal repose as would justify so entire an abandonment of the coast of the country to the chance of fortune. Certainly, since the nation possessed a navy, it has never before sent its entire available force into distant seas, and exposed the immense interests at home, of which it is the special guardian, to the dangers from which, even in times of the utmost quiet, prudence and forecast do always shelter them. But the Committee cannot shut their eyes to the fact that this re markable state of things has occurred at a period in our history without a parallel for internal commotion, lawless violence, and total disregard of the authority of the Constitution and laws, and of the rights of property, public and private a state of things which the President himself, in the Message referred to this Committee, denominated a revolution of such vast and alarming proportions as to place the subject entirely above and beyond Executive control. During this period combinations have Disposition of the Vessels. | been formed for the avowed purpose of overthrowing the Government itself, and have carried forward that purpose in overt acts of violence never before known in the country. The arms of the Government have been seized in arsenals and other places of deposit by lawless mobs, and placed in the hands of those in open rebellion. Fortifications have been taken possession of, navy-yards plundered, and magazines robbed. The guns of the United States upon the battlements of national defences have been turned upon unarmed vessels of the Government, and the flag of the country fired upon by insolent rebels. The revenue service has been outraged, and its vessels treacherously surrendered to those who defied the authorities of the United States, by men holding commissions under the very Government they were betraying. The public moneys in the national mints have been seized, and naval stores plundered. The commerce of the country and the lives of citizens have been put in peril by the wanton and lawless destruction of buoys erected to warn the mariner of sunken rocks; and the lights on the coast have been put out that the darkness and the tempest might be invoked in aid of their resisting the laws. Unarmed and unoffending merchant vessels riding peaceably at anchor in the harbors of the nation, and beneath its own flag, have been seized by insurgent forces in retaliation for obstructions thrown in the way of their revolutionary designs. The law has been defied, the Constitution thrust aside, and the Government itself assaulted. "Nor has this state of lawless violence and total disregard of public and private rights been a sudden outburst of passion or discontent at some new and unexpected measure of governmental policy to which resistance had never been threatened, and could not have been provided against. But it is in fulfilment of schemes long entertained, and frequently threatened, in certain quarters of the Union. Indeed, it is resistance to the law and the Constitution, consequent upon the election of a particular person to the office of Chief Magistrate of the nation. Of all this, those charged with the execution of the laws and the preservation of the public peace had ample notice. It was for many months apparent to all but the blind that the whole current of events was turned in the direction which was to bring to the test the sincerity of the threats thus uttered. A Chief Magistrate of one of the States had, more than two years before, publicly confessed a design on his part, if the like contingency had happened at the general election four years ago, to have made the attempt to overthrow the Government, by seizing the public arms at Harper's Ferry, and marching upon the Capital itself. Disposition of the Resignations in the and which accompanies this report, that, since the election, twenty-nine officers in the navy, citizens of Southern disaffected States, have tendered their When the Legislature of South | the officers in the navy, caused Carolina assembled in Novem- by the political troubles in ber last to discharge the Consti- which the country is now intutional obligations of making the choice of Electors volved, and the course pursued by the Navy Departof President and Vice-President, the Governor of the ment in reference thereto. It will appear, from a State, by special message, recommended that meas-list of resignations' furnished by the Department, ures should be taken to overthrow that Constitution if the choice of the majority did not coincide with her own. In fulfilment of these open threats, overt acts of resistance to the Government by law-resignations to the Secretary, all of which have been less bands of men followed the announcement that the people, according to the requirements of the Constitution, had made choice of a Chief Magistrate for the ensuing four years not the choice of those who had openly avowed resistance if their own preferences should be disregarded by that majority. From that time to the present the public authority has been defied and the public rights disregarded. Yet during all this time that most important arm of the public defence, the entire navy, has been beyond the reach of orders, however great the emergency. To the Committee this disposition of the naval force at this most critical period seems extraordinary. The permitting of vessels to depart for distant seas after these unhappy difficulties had broken out at home; the omission to put in repair and commission ready for orders a single one of the twenty-eight ships dismantled and unfit for service in our own ports, and that, too, whilst $646,639 79 | of the appropriation for repairs in the navy the present year remained unexpended, were, in the opinion of your Committee, grave errors in the administration of the Navy Department, the consequences of which have been manifest in the many acts of lawless violence to which they have called attention. The Committee are of opinion that the Secretary had it in his power, with the present naval force of the country at his command, and without materially impairing the efficiency of the service abroad, at any time after the settled purpose of overthrowing the Government had become manifest, and before that purpose had developed itself in overt acts of violence, to station at anchor within reach of his own orders a force equal to the protection of all the property and all the rights of the Government and the citizen, as well as the flag of the country, from any outrage and insult at any point on the entire Atlantic seaboard. The failure to do this is without justification or excuse." Canvassing the resignations and Mr. Toucey's conduct in the matter, the following emphatic statements and declarations were made: "The attention of the Committee was also drawn to the resignations which have taken place among forthwith, and without inquiry, accepted by him. The circumstances under which these resignations have been received and accepted, and the effect of that acceptance, deserve special notice. That these officers have sought to resign, and relieve themselves from the obligations to the Government imposed by their commissions, because of disaffec tion and a desire to join, and, in many instances, to lead, insurgent forces against that Government, is notorious. One of them, Lieutenant J. R. Hamilton, a citizen of South Carolina, forwarded his res ignation from on board the Wyoming, at Panama, dated December 1, 1860. It did not reach the Department until the 15th of the same month, and, without inquiry into his conduct, his purpose in resigning, his loyalty, or any circumstance connected with so unusual a proceeding at such a time, his resignation was accepted the same day. He immediately, from Charleston, South Carolina, issued a letter addressed to all the officers in the navy from Southern States, urging them to resign, and join in a hostile force against the Government; and that those of them in commission should bring their ves sels into Southern ports and surrender them to the traitors already in arms, taking new commissions under their authority, and then turning their guns upon their own flag. Such conduct is nothing less than treason, and has no parallel since the attempt of Benedict Arnold to deliver over important mili tary posts to the enemies of his country. Had the Secretary declined to accept the resignation thus tendered, this man would have been subject to the trial and punishment of a court-martial, according to the rules which govern the service, and would have met the fate of a traitor. This extraordinary letter was published throughout the United States, After its circulation in the public prints in Washing ton, V. M. Randolph, a captain in the navy, a citizen of Alabama, who had been excused from active ser vice for two or three years, because of alleged illhealth, on the 10th of January, 1861, forwarded from Montgomery, Alabama, his resignation to the Secre tary. Before twelve o'clock, at noon of the 12th, and before his resignation had reached Washington, and while he was still a captain in the navy, he ap peared at the gates of the Pensacola Navy-yard, in RESIGNATIONS IN THE NAVY. 443 Resignations in the Resignations in the Florida, at the head of an in- | martial. From this they have surgent force, and demanded its been relieved by the Secretary surrender. The yard with what- himself. To have done this with ever of force it had, and the United States' stores, and other property to a vast amount therein, was unconditionally surrendered to him, and he is now its Commandant, occupying the quarters of the late Commandant, and granting paroles of honor to such of his prisoners-of-war as have desired to depart and not serve under him. The dispatch from the late Commandant, then a prisoner-of-war, informing the Secretary of this ignominious surrender, was received at the Department on the evening of the 13th of January. And the resignation of Captain Randolph, who, on the 12th, was the leader of the insurgents, did not reach the Secretary until the 14th, when, without inquiry or delay, it was immediately accepted. E. Farrand, Commander in the Navy, and also a citizen of Alabama, was the second in command at the Pensacola Navy-yard, the executive officer of the yard. When the attack was made upon the yard, Farrand met the assailants at the gates, by previous understanding, admitted them to the yard, and conducted their leader to the commanding officer, participated in the formal capitulation, and immediately engaged in service under the new Commandant of the yard. This was done while he still held in his possession his commission as a Commander in the Navy. On the 13th or 15th of Jan. (the Department does not know which) Farrand forwarded his resignation to the Secretary; but it did not reach him until the 21st of the same month, seven days after official notice of the surrender had been received at the Department. Yet this resignation was immediately, and without inquiry, accepted. F. B. Renshaw, a Lieutenant in the Navy, and a citizen of Florida, was the First Lieutenant of the yard, and actively engaged in securing its surrender. It was by his order that the flag was hauled down, amid the jeers and shouts of a drunken rabble. He immediately enrolled himself under the leader of the insurgents, and present Commandant of the yard, and from the day of its surrender, has continued under him, to discharge the duty of First Lieutenant, as before under the United States. Yet he continued to hold his commission as a Lieutenant in the Navy till the 16th of January, and his resignation did not reach the Secretary till the 22d, when, like the others, it was, without inquiry or delay, accepted. The conduct of these officers plainly comes within the Constituional definition of treason against the United States, viz: "levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort." And, so long as their resignations were unaccepted by the Secretary, they could be tried and punished as traitors by a court a knowledge of their acts, would have been to have involved himself in their crime, would have been to have committed treason himslf. To have done it without inquiry, and without reason, to know that they have committed no offense, shows a want of that solicitude for the honor and efficiency of the service which is indispensable to its just administration. Yet the resignations of Farrand and Renshaw, and also those of the other officers resigning at the Pensacola Navy-Yard, were all received and accepted after the Secretary had already been officially informed that they had surrendered to a lawless band of insurgents and he had detached them to await orders, having "neither approved nor disapproved of their conduct, and not proposing to do so without full information touching their conduct in the surrender of the yard. Why, after having been thus warned, and having taken this position, the Secretary did not wait for this information, the Committee cannot understand. "Several other resignations of officers who do not appear to have been engaged in actual war against the United States before tendering the same, were nevertheless accepted by the Secretary with an unnecessary haste, which neither the purpose of the resignation nor the times would justify or excuse. Some of them were even accepted by telegraph, when it was perfectly apparent that the object of resigning was to relieve themselves as early as possible from embarrassment, and the obligation of the oath of office, as well as summary trial and punishment by a court-martial, previous to joining insurgent forces against the constituted authorities of the country. "These resignations, thus accepted, have been followed by immediate engagement in a service hostile to the Government. One man, holding the office of civil engineer in the Pensacola Navy-yard at the time of its surrender, forwarded his resignation on that day to the Secretary, inclosed in a letter to Senator Mallory, in which he expressly states the reason of his resignation to be because he is prevented from acting against the Government by the obligation, of his commission. The letter of resig nation, and the one inclosing it, stating this reason, were both laid before the Secretary on the 24th of January; yet the Secretary not only accepted the resignation at once, and thus relieved him from the obligation on him not to act against the Government, but caused the acceptance to take effect" from the 12th of January, the day of the surrender of the yard," twelve days anterior to the time of its date. The reason given for thus making this acceptance |