RESIGNATIONS IN THE NAVY. 443 Resignations in the Resignations in tho 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, a knowledge of their acts, would have been to have and other property to a vast amount therein, was un- involved himself in their crime, would have been to conditiionally surrendered to him, and he is now its have committed treason himslf. To have done it withCommandant, occupying the quarters of the late out inquiry, and without reason, to know that they Commandant, and granting paroles of honor to such have committed no offense, shows a want of that of his prisoners-of-war as have desired to depart solicitude for the honor and efficiency of the service and not serve under him. The dispatch from the which is indispensable to its just administration. late Commandant, then a prisoner-of-war, informing Yet the resignations of Farrand and Renshaw, and the Secretary of this ignominious surrender, was re- also those of the other officers fesigning at the Penceived at the Department on the evening of the 13th sacola Navy-Yard, were all received and accepted of January. And the resignation of Captain Ran- after the Secretary had already been officially indolph, who, on the 12th, was the leader of the insur- formed that they had surrendered to a lawless gents, did not reach the Secretary until the 14th, band of insurgents and he had detached them to when, without inquiry or delay, it was immediately await orders, having "neither approved nor disapaccepted. E. Farrand, Commander in the Navy, and proved of their conduct, and not proposing to do so also a citizen of Alabama, was the second in com- without full information touching their conduct in mand at the Pensacola Navy-yard, the executive the surrender of the yard. Why, after having been officer of the yard. When the attack was made thus warned, and having taken this position, the upon the yard, Farrand met the assailants at the Secretary did not wait for this information, the gates, by previous understanding, admitted them Committee cannot understand. 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 hin 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 "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 Resignations in the Navy. retroactive in its effect, viz.: to 'stop his pay from that time, did not appear, under the extraordinary circumstances by which it was surrounded, at all satisfactory to the Committee. The resignation of the officer in charge of the Marine Hospital at Pensacola was accepted by telegraph, and he was thereby enabled to take upon himself the same position under the insurgent force, without any interruption. And that of Lieutenant R. T. Chapman, dated on board the Brooklyn, when about to sail under orders, was likewise accepted by telegraph, and he was thus relieved of any inconvenience he would otherwise have experienced in being carried to sea against his wishes. Resignations in the the hostile attitude which the "Resolved, That the Secretary of the Navy, in accepting, without delay or inquiry, the resignations of officers of the navy who were in arms against the Government when tendering the same, and of those who sought to resign that they might be relieved from the restraint imposed by their commissions upon engaging in hostility to the constituted author. highly prejudicial to the discipline of the service, and injurious to the honor and efficiency of the Navy, for which he deserves the censure of this House." "The course thus pursued by the Secretary in accepting these resignations appears, under the cir-ities of the country, has committed a grave error, cumstances, to be most extraordinary. No custom of the Department, in ordinary times can justify it. No want of confidence in the loyalty of these officers can excuse it; for if their previous conduct had jussified any such suspicion, it also demanded investigation beforehand, which would, as to some of them, have disclosed to the Secretary complicity in treason, calling for courts-martial rather than honorable discharge. A prudent regard for the public safety would, no doubt, have justified, if not imperiously demanded, that some of the officers should have been early removed from delicate and responsible positions of trust, by the substitution of others more reliable. But these very considerations appear to the Committee to have forbidden the furnishing any such facilities for engaging in hostilities against the Government, as the relief from the sum This report was signed by three members of the Committee. A fourth member, John Cochrane, an Administration Democrat, refused to sign, and simply expressed a verbal dissent from the views of the majority. He doubtless did not feel it quite politic to put in a minority report. The minority report of Mr. The Minority Report. Branch, (Dem.,) of North Carolina, opened by citing the several duties assigned to the Committee, and says: "In no one of these branches of inquiry can anything be found to justify or demand a scru tiny into the conduct of naval officers, the motives which induced them to resign their those engaged in an attempt to overthrow the commissions, or into the propriety of the Government with the skill, experience, and discip-Secretary's action in accepting them. How mary trial and punishment of a court-martial secured by the acceptance of their resignations. The course pursued by the Secretary has resulted in furnishing ever much there might be found deserving of reprobation, the Committee was neither authorized nor required to take cognizance of the subject." In regard to the points raised, he declared the table given "would show that the For line which education at the expense of the Government, and long service in the navy have conferred upon our own officers. The Committee cannot understand how this course is consistent with a proper discharge of the duties of his office by the Secretary in this critical juncture of affairs. It appears to them to have been attended with conse-eign squadrons were unusually weak, in proquences the most serious to the service of the country. They can find no excuse or justification in the claim set up in behalf of the Secretary that the resignations have been accepted in ignorance of any misconduct, for no resignation should at any time be ac cepted until there is reason to know at least that the officer tendering it had been guilty of no unofficerlike conduct deserving a court-martial. But the circumstances connected with these resignations, the apparent purpose for which they were made, and portion to the whole force of the Navy, and the Home squadron unprecedently strong." He cited from the Secretary's report of December 3d, 1857, to show that, at that time six ships were considered so large a force for the Home squadron as to require an explan ation. The same squadron, on the 16th of January, consisted of eleven ships, of which seven were steamers. He further added, that THE MINORITY REPORT. 445 up to January 24th, not a The Minority Report. single ship had been ordered to any foreign station since the Presidential election. The number of vessels in ordinary he declared to be only usually large-that, even in times of war, it was inevitable that many vessels should be out of commission and in for repairs. If, however, more than usual were dismantled and unfit for sea, it was for the reason that Congress had so restricted appropriations as to leave the Secretary no means for putting the vessels in commission. Another reason was found in the fact that the number of vessels in commission was governed by the numerical strength of officers and seamen in the naval service. The num ber was limited by law, and the Secretary could not exceed it to put the vessels in commission, even if they had been ready for sea. The Report, therefore, assumes: "The Secretary deserves no censure, but should receive the highest commendation for inflexibly obeying the law in the administration of his depart ment. Every attempt at retrenchment and econ omy is defeated, because heads of departments will not themselves conform to the law, and compel their subordinates to do the same. * The Navy seems to have been adequate for all the demands made upon it by the wise and peace-preserving policy of the President. If the President, who goes into office on the 4th of March, desires to engage in civil war, he will have an ample naval force with which to begin, even so early as the 5th of March; and there will be, probably, abundant time for increasing it before the war closes." The Report then considers the naval resignations, and the conduct of Mr. Toucey in accepting them. We quote: "It is known that in many, if not most of the cases, the officers, in resigning, have not only given up an honorable profession, for which alone they were fitted by education and habits, but have reduced themselves and families to penury. Some powerful motive must have actuated them. If it was selfish, let any one point out a possible advantage they could promise themselves personally. It could not be that they aimed to recommend themBelves to the favor of the Southern Confederacy, for that Government does not possess a ship, and cannot, for a long time, provide itself with a navy. When it does so, it cannot be expected that the affairs will be in any better situation, with reference to their person al interests, than they would have been had they remained in. The Minority Report. the service of the United States. It is evident that, in resigning, they have been actu. ated by a high sense of duty to the States of which, respectively, they were citizens, and that, in the time consulted a nice sense of honor. In a few instances and manner of tendering their resignations, they have they have engaged in the military service of their States, but not until they had resigned their commissions in the Navy of the United States. In no instance does it appear that one of them has betrayed the trust reposed in him by this Government, or engaged in any hostile service, until he had discharged himself of all the responsibilities imposed in his commission."* The case of Captain Randolph's resignation was referred to, and disposed of by saying that the Secretary accepted the resignation before he knew of the Captain's conduct in the surrender of the Pensacola Navy-yard and forts. As to the propriety of accepting the resignations the Report said: "The chief clerk of the Navy Department testified that there has been nothing unusual in the course recently pursued in regard to resignations, and that the uuiform course, from time immemorial, has been to act promptly in resignations, unless some special reason existed for taking the case out of the routine of current business." O most impotent conclusion! one feels like exclaiming, in perusing this defence of the Secretary and the recusant officers. We have before referred to the dishonor attached to the course pursued by those "resigning" officers [see page 117,] and can only say that the defence volunteered by Mr. Branch but heightened the indignation felt towards them and the Secretary. The outrageous cases *These statements created some surprise, considering the fact that, as almost all the resigned officers had taken commissions in the service of their native States, the confession of "penury" argued a disability on the part of those States to care for its servants. It was also a further admission of obligation to the Government. It had educated and raised to their honorable positions men without resources, and who, therefore, owed the Government for everything they were. The American Navy was a convenient resort for young Southern gentlemen of "patrician birth," who were without means to sport an establishment on shore. The fact of this dependence Mr. Branch should have suppressed. of treason, perpetrated by The Minority Report. their officers, in the betrayal of the Revenue-Cutters Coste, McClellan, and Lewis Cass, doubtless were construed, by the lenient Committee-man, as remarkable instances of the "nice sense of honor" which instigated those many desertions of the old flag. The excuse offered for the Secretary's acceptance of resignations was so discreditable to his loyalty as even to be scorned by those of his friends who had thought there was no power to prevent the stampede from duty. The Secretary knew that, the resignations demoralized and weakened the already half manned navy-therefore it was wrong to allow the officers to leave; he knew they resigned to take the oath of allegiance to a foreign power--therefore it was improper to allow the old allegiance to Mr. Toucey was not Mr. Dix, and Mr. Buchanan was not General Jackson. Otherwise the record of those "stricken from the list," never to be restored to the service, would have embraced all who deserted their country in its hour of greatest need. CHAPTER XXXV. THE PEACE CONVENTION. ITS PROCEEDINGS UP TO ADJOURNMENT, FEBRUARY 27 тн. ADOPTION OF THE FRANKLIN SUMMERS The Convention's THE "Peace Conven- | her Legislature for the Crittenden plan, with tion" continued its sittings a distinct application to future Territory. through February, ranging Mr. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, followed in an able speech, vindicating the North from the aspersions cast upon that section, and calling upon Southern Delegates to point out in what respect they had invaded their constitutional rights. The North had its principles, and would maintain them at all hazards. They did not propose to interfere with Slavery in the States, or to commit any aggressions; but, having elected a President fairly and legally, they intended he should be inaugurated, and exercise all the functions of that office. This had been made the ground for secession, which could not be justified in any way. through the catalogue of provisos, to discover, if possible, the magic words which should at once read black and white. How successful the sages were, the succeeding pages will record. The Convention held a four hours' session on Monday, (February 18th.) The proceedings, as far as they transpired, were thus reported: Mr. Seddon, of Virginia, opened the debate on Reverdy Johnson's amendment to Mr. Guthrie's proposition, restricting its operation to present Territory, [see page 360.] He reviewed the whole ground of controversy between the sections, and stated the position of Virginia, as defined in the resolutions of Mr. Guthrie, of Kentucky, considered the language of Mr. Boutwell as menacing, and THE PEACE The Peace Convention CONVENTION PROCEEDINGS. replied with much emphas- fested. He claimed to have come here in a away. The Peace Convention 447 restriction in the debate. He thought such a sugges?ion came with a bad grace from those who had been fully and frequently heard. Commodore Stockton of New Jersey, made a characteristic speech, in which he declared the Convention should not adjourn until it had agreed upon something. He deprecated the idea of coercion, and if it was attempted, there would be found hosts in the North to rise up against the men who would try that policy. Mr. Granger of New York, contended that the election of Mr. Lincoln was not to be regarded as an indorsement of the Chicago Platform by the great mass of Northern people, and if New York was now called upon to speak, she would give 100,000 ma Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, then spoke, with much effect, to his amendment, declar-jority for Compromise." ing boldly that the acquisition of Territory had been the provoking cause of all our national difficulties, and he was ready to stop it and to, meet the North half-way by applying the proposition only to that now possessed. After further discussion, the amendment was adopted-14 to 6-all the Southern States but Maryland voting in the negative, considering themselves under instructions to support Mr. Crittenden's plan. After the result was announced, the South acquiesced without any expression of feeling. Fourteenth Day. Tuesday's session was devoted to a rather profitless discussion on the little Mr. Noyes, of New York, did not regard Mr. Granger as the authorized exponent of opinion in his State, and he would not be deterred from asserting his principles by the menaces of Commodore Stockton. Mr. Seddon, of Virginia, informed the Convention that if Mr. Lincoln's Administration attempted to collect revenue or execute the laws in the Seceding States, Virginia would treat it as a declaration of war. Mr. Ruffin, of North Carolina, made a conciliatory speech, deprecating all partisan spirit in these discussions. He was older than the Constitution, and hoped he should not survive its downfall. demn in the extreme views held by leading Republicans, who would yield to no compromise-yield to no concessions. Mr. Morrill, of Maine, addressed several inquiries to the Virginia delegation as the position which that State intended to occupy between the Government and the Seceding States. Mr. Ewing, of Ohio, spoke of the consermatter of the length of speeches to be allow-vative line of policy, and saw much to coned. In the course of debate a pretty free personal expression was had, showing the individual wishes and leaning of members. The Southern States' members having, thus far, had most of the talk to themselves, proposed to cut-down debate to the thirty minutes rule. They also proposed resolutions naming an early day for the final decision of the Convention. All of which little dodges to cut off debate and force action did not avail, for the Northern members seemed indisposed either to make short specches or to hurry up the proceedings. Dudley Field of New York reminded the assembly that he would not submit to any Mr. Seddon answered at much length, and in the tone already indicated. Mr. Rives spoke in defence of the proposed method of amending the Constitution, in answer to charges of irregularity, showing that the Convention which framed the Constitution had not been regularly called. So, |