their State, but neither would they fight against her; or
that they would remain in the navy, but seek employment that might spare
them the pain of taking part in such a contest. These illogical
positions were soon abandoned as the spirit of war gained more and more
hold upon the feelings of men, but for Farragut they never existed after
the first blow was struck. Through whatever struggles with himself he
may have passed in the earlier stages of the secession movement, his
decision, when reached, admitted no half-measures, nor halted between
two opinions. "He stood on no neutral ground, he longed to take an
active part in the war." Nevertheless, the Government could not at once
accept, as a title to full and implicit confidence, even the sacrifice
of home and life-long associations which he had made to the cause of the
Union. If given any duty, a man of Farragut's rank and attainments must
needs have one involving much responsibility, failure in which would
involve not only himself but those who had employed him. The cry of
treachery was sure to follow, and prudent officers of Southern birth
found it advisable to decline employments where they foresaw that delays
were unavoidable, because they felt that what might be explained in the
case of a Northern man would in them be stamped by public opinion as the
result of disaffection. In Hastings and its neighborhood the most
grotesque suspicions were spread concerning the Southern captain who had
thus come to dwell among them, and who, for conscience and country, had
given up more than had been demanded of those who thus distrusted him.
Time was needed to allow men's minds to reach a more reasonable frame,
and for the Government itself to sift and test, not merely the fidelity,
but the heartiness and the probable capacity of the officers at its
command.

Farragut's first employment was as a member of a board to recommend
officers for retirement from active service, under an act approved
August 3, 1861. The object of this act was to assist the Department in
the discrimination necessary to be made between the competent and those
disabled by years or infirmity, for up to that time there had been no
regular system of retirement, and men were retained on the active list
past the period of efficiency, because no provision for removing them
existed. The duty, though most important with war actually existing, was
delicate and trying, and far from consonant to Farragut's active,
en