thirty-six heavy
ironclads and forty smaller vessels and torpedo boats. The crews of
these vessels numbered nearly 19,000 officers and men, or about three
times the entire number in our navy. Such a fleet, or, more likely, a
much larger one, might appear at the entrance say of New York harbor
within ten days after a declaration of war, and demand whatever the
nation to which it belonged might choose, with the alternative of
bombardment.

The problem of protecting our people and property from such attacks is
not a new one, and, in fact, most of the conditions of this problem
remain the same as they were fifty years ago, the differences being in
degree rather than in kind. The most natural thought would be to meet
such a fleet by another fleet, but the folly of such a course will
become apparent from a moment's consideration. The difficulties would
be:

1st. Our fleet must be decidedly stronger than that of the enemy, or
we simply fight a duel with an equal chance of success or failure.

2d. In such a duel the enemy would risk nothing but the loss of his
fleet, and even a portion of that would be likely to escape, but we
would not only risk a similar loss, but we would also lose the city or
subject it to the payment of a heavy contribution to the enemy.

3d. Unless we have a fleet for every harbor, it would be impossible to
depend upon this kind of defense, as the enemy would select whichever
harbor he found least prepared to receive him. It would be of vital
importance that we defend every harbor of importance, as a neglect to
do so would be like locking some of our doors and leaving the others
open to the burglars.

4th. It might be thought that we could send our fleet to intercept the
enemy or blockade him in his own ports, but this has been found
impracticable. Large fleets can readily escape from blockaded harbors,
or elude each other on the high seas, and any such scheme implies that
we are much stronger on the ocean than the enemy, which is very far
from the case. To build a navy that would overmatch that of Great
Britain alone would not only cost untold millions, but it would
require many years for its accomplishment; and even if this were done,
there would be nothing unusual in an alliance of two or more powerful
nations, which would leave us again in the minority. _Fleets, then,
cannot be relied on for permanent defense_.

Again, it may be said that we have millions of the bravest soldiers in
the world