[Speech of Winfield S. Schley at the eighteenth annual dinner of
the New England Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, December 22,
1898. The President, Stephen W. Dana, presented Admiral Schley in
these words: "Admiral Schley needs no introduction from me--he
speaks for himself."]
MR. PRESIDENT, GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY:--I am very
much in the condition of the gentleman who, being about to be married
and having had his wedding suit brought home a day before the event,
returned it to the tailor with instructions to increase the girth just
two inches. His explanation was that not enough room had been left to
accommodate the wedding breakfast he had to eat or for the emotion that
was to follow the event.
I am always glad to meet my countrymen anywhere and everywhere. They
stand for all that is representative; they stand for all that is
progressive; they stand for all that represents humanity, and they stand
for all that is fair-minded, high-minded, and honorable. As to those of
us who by the circumstances of our service are obliged to pass the
greater part of our lives away from home, away from kindred, and away
from the flag, it may be difficult to understand how to keep the altar
of one's patriotism burning when we are separated from the sweetest and
kindest influences of life and performing a service and a duty that are
outside of the public observation. But there is a large-heartedness at
home that never forgets us. We are bound to our country by ties that are
not only sweet in their nature, but the circumstances of service
generate a love of home and a patriotism that are the surest guarantees
of the welfare and the safety of our people.
The Navy is that arm of the public defence the nature of whose duties is
dual in that they relate to both peace and war. In times of peace the
Navy blazes the way across the trackless deep, maps out and marks the
dangers which lie in the routes of commerce, in order that the peaceful
argosies of trade may pursue safe routes to the distant markets of the
world, there to exchange the varied commodities of commerce. It
penetrates the jungle and the tangle of the inter-tropical regions. It
stands ready to starve to death or to die from exposure. It pushes its
way into the icy fastnesses of the North or of the South, in order that
it may discover new channels of trade. It carries the influence of your
power and the beneficent advantages of your civilization to the secluded
and hermit empires of the Eastern world, and brings them into touch with
our Western civilization and its love of law for the sake of the law
rather than for fear of the law's punishments. It stands guard upon the
outer frontiers of civilization, in pestilential climates, often exposed
to noisome disease, performing duties that are beyond the public
observation but yet which have their happy influence in maintaining the
reputation and character of our country and extending the civilizing
agency of its commerce.
The bones of the officers and men of the Navy lie in every country in
the world, or along the highways of commerce; they mark the
resting-places of martyrs to a sense of duty that is stronger than any
fear of death. The Navy works and strives and serves, without any
misgivings and without any complaints, only that it may be considered
the chief and best guardian of the interests of this people, of the
prestige of this nation, and of the glory and renown of its flag.
These are some of the duties of peace, which has its triumphs "no less
renowned than war." But it is the martial side of the Navy that is the
more attractive one to us. It is that side of its duty which presents to
us its characters who have written their names and their fames in fire.
No matter what may be our ideas of civilization or how high our notions
of peace, there is no one of us who has not felt his heart beat a little
bit faster and his blood course a little bit more rapidly when reading
of the daring and thrilling deeds of such men as John Paul Jones or of
Decatur or of Stewart or of Hull or of Perry or of MacDonald or of
Tatnall or of Ingram or of Cushing or of Porter or of Farragut.
The war so happily ended has added new names to the galaxy of naval
worthies. New stars are in the firmament. The records indicate that your
naval representatives have been faithful to the lesson of their
traditions, that they have been true to their history, whilst the men of
our Navy have shown that they have lost none of the skill and none of
the tact that they have inherited. But they have proven again that a
generation of men who are able to defend their title to the spurs they
inherited are proper successors to their progenitors. [Applause.]