e. Its great merit is the
professional spirit which runs through it; the high sense of duty, the
lofty standards of service to which its hearts are loyal and which make
them all equal to any duty.

Who sings the praises of the chiefs of the naval stations and bureaus of
the Navy department, who wept that there were no battles and glory for
them; and who, remaining at their departmental posts, made such
provision for the fitting out, the arming, the supplying, the feeding,
the coaling, the equipping of your fleets that the commanding officer
on the deck had only to direct and use the forces which these, his
brothers, had put in his hands?

Who repeats the names of the young officers who pleaded for Hobson's
chance to risk his life in the hull and hell of the Merrimac? Who
mentions the scores of seamen who begged to be of the immortal seven who
were his companions in that forlorn hope?

In the long watch before Santiago the terror of our great battleships
was the two Spanish torpedo-boat destroyers, those swift, fiendish
sharks of the sea, engines of death and destruction, and yet, when the
great battle came, it was the unprotected Gloucester, a converted yacht,
the former plaything and pleasure-boat of a summer vacation, which,
without hesitation or turning, attacked these demons of the sea and sunk
them both. I have always thought it the most heroic and gallant
individual instance of fighting daring in the war. It was as if some
light-clad youth, with no defence but his sword, threw himself into the
arena with armored gladiators and by his dash and spirit laid them low.
And yet who has given a sword or spread a feast to that purest flame of
chivalrous heroism, Richard Wainwright?

Who recalls all the still more varied services of our Navy--its exploits
and researches in the interest of science, its stimulus to international
commerce, its surveys in foreign harbors, its charting of the sea and
marking of the pathway of the merchant marine, its study of the stars,
its contributions--in short, to all the interests of an enlightened and
progressive country?

May I suggest, therefore, that with this broader view of our Navy, as
not an outside conception of our institutions, but an integral part of
them, it is a partial conception that criticises its recent development
and its continued developments in the future? It has not only given
dignity and variety of service and strength to your government, but
think how it is l