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Extracts from Private Journal.

51 Roman Catholics were not Americans, for which reason she insisted upon their being taken from the consul, who transcended his powers in protecting them. These were the only points touched upon in the correspondence; and, on remarking that they were not enough to sustain the allegations made in his conversation of yesterday, he said that Commodore Read had the other papers, which he would procure; but he never presented them. I candidly told him that the data were not sufficient to enable me to form an opinion; but from what I had read and heard, I was convinced that no consul had a right to throw our flag around foreign Catholics to shield them from the laws of a government within his consulate."

The events of this cruise entered deeply into the religious feelings of Lieutenant Foote, and his private journal gives indications of great mental trials and heart-searchings.

A few quotations will doubtless prove interesting to the readers of this book, for, as has been said, though not a perfect man, the springs of our hero's character are to be found in his religious nature, and in his intense and unvarying desire to "act for God." These meditations show that, while above all a man of action, he did not live a shallow, surface life, but that the roots of his actions had their nourishment in a more hidden life:

"U.S. SHIP JOHN ADAMS,' VALPARAISO, January 7, 1840. "Discard the secret whisperings of pride. It is Christ himself that must be formed in the soul the hope of glory. Therefore, my soul, look to Jesus your Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit your Sanctifier, and give God all the glory for every good impulse of the affections.

"This day I renewedly dedicate myself to God; and although trials and temptations await me in a man-of-war, still grace is sufficient to overcome all, if I am faithful to the means which the Holy Scriptures furnish. Enlighten my mind to cherish clear conceptions of thy character, oh God. Communicate thy grace to my dear orphan daughter, that she may early be prepared to serve thee."

"VALPARAISO, February 7.

"This day I observe as one of prayer and humiliation for the manifold evils of my heart. I deplore the ascendency of my passions and my

pride. The world appears to be too much in a heart that is dedicated to God. Blessed Jesus! show me my true character. Give me a view of spiritual things.

"I resolve to watch and pray, to bear in mind that the Christian life is a warfare, that one must be uncompromising in his principles. I resolve to guard my tongue from speaking injuriously of others; to avoid levity of manner, on the one hand, and moroseness on the other; to perform the executive duties of the ship with impartiality, feeling that my official acts will be closely criticised on account of my profession of Christian principles; to devote every day suitable time to meditation and prayer, letting no day pass without one hour being wholly spent in religious reading and devotion."

"AT SEA, March 19th.

"Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Why with the fruits of holiness can not the Christian be satisfied? Alas! in my own case, the world, its honors and varied sources of gratification, steal upon me and are incorporated into all my plans."

"AT SEA, April 2.

"My mind being in an unusual state this day, induces me to note the circumstance notwithstanding the gale. Some trials belonging to the service cause me unpleasant feelings, but especially the singular deportment of a friend. Earthly ties bind us to the world, and when they are sundered we should throw ourselves on Him who is without variableness or shadow of turning.

"Oh, enable me to become less sensitive to mortal friendships, and transfer my affections to my Redeemer; and, Heavenly Father, give me influence, that souls may be weaned from the world and placed supremely on thee. Bless this ship, her officers and men."

"AT SEA, April 22.

"Doubts as to the Christian religion suddenly flashed across my mind last evening. Why are these things? I know not, unless it is to show us our weakness, and that we must ever in this warfare rely on Christ."

"AT SEA, May 21.

"I could give wings to my faith, such are my views and feelings to-day. But, alas! what have they been the last month? Such as to condemn me, for the pride and vanity about the appearance of the ship, instances of passion, and coldness in my devotions. I would humble myself before God this day."

Extracts from Private Journal.

"AT SEA, June 9.

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"We are rapidly drawing to the end of our cruise, a good emblem of life; and it becomes me to look back to the cruise of my life for the evidences that Christ has been formed in the soul.

"The coming week is likely to be one of excitement to me. May my weakness prove my strength! Blessed Redeemer, to thee I look for grace according to temptation.

"Our Father, I renew to thee this day my obligations and vows to be thine-wholly thine. I come to deplore the levity of my character, and yet I come blessing thee. I come with the desire to be taught of God through Christ and the Holy Spirit, so to live and act in my situation as to thy glory, and that my highest ambition may ever lie in being conformed to the will of God.

Amen."

Upon the thirty-fourth anniversary of his birth, September 12, 1840, he wrote:

"Oh how mingled are the emotions of my mind. It seems as if love, joy, gratitude, on the one hand, with sorrow and contrition of soul on the other, were all at work within me. The Christian is told in the Word of God that Christ is an all-sufficient Saviour, and he is able and ready in all circumstances to sustain us in a life of perfect obedience, if we exercise faith in him. May this year be so passed as to meet thy acceptance; and if I am to leave this world before its expiration, enable me cheerfully to acquiesce."

CHAPTER V.

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NAVAL ASYLUM AT PHILADELPHIA.-CRUISE OF THE CUMBER

LAND."-NAVAL ACADEMY AT BOSTON.

HAVING been detached from the John Adams June 24, 1840, Lieutenant Foote was appointed Nov. 22, 1841, to the Naval Asylum in Philadelphia, and after Commodore Barron's resignation the full charge of that institution during the last two years of the administration of Secretary Upshur, was placed in his hands. This establishment at that time combined the character of half hospital and half school, and was, in fact, the first of our home institutions of a like kind that sprang up to meet the necessities of the service. The Naval Academy at Annapolis grew out of this, the purely educational part of it having been transferred to Annapolis. To Lieutenant Foote was especially assigned the care and education of midshipmen.

"By scraps of laws, regulations, and departmental instructions, a Naval Academy has grown up, and a naval policy become established for the United States, without the legislative wisdom of the country having passed upon that policy, and contrary to its previous policy, and against its interest and welfare. A Naval Academy, with two hundred and fifty pupils, and annually coming off in scores, makes perpetual demands for ships and commissions, and these must be furnished, whether required by the public service or not; and thus the idea of a limited Navy, or a naval peace establishment, is extinguished, and a perpetual war establishment in time of peace is growing upon our hands. Prone to imitate every thing that is English, there was a party among us from the beginning . which wished to make the Union, like Great Britain, a great naval power, without considering that England was an island, with foreign possessions, which made a Navy a necessity of her position and her policy; while we were a continent, without foreign possessions, to whom a Navy would be an expensive and idle incumbrance; without considering that

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England is often by her policy required to be aggressive, the United States never; without considering that England is a part of the European system, and subject to wars (to her always maritime) in which she has no interest; while the United States, in the isolation of its geographical position, and the independence of its policy, can have no wars but its own, and those defensive."*

These remarks are interesting as bearing upon a department of the Navy with which Lieutenant Foote, in the course of his active life, came to be closely identified. He did an important work in organizing and building up these infant establishments and naval schools, which the distinguished senator to the contrary notwithstanding-are essential to the existence of a strong naval power. It is true we shall never need again a great Navy to protect our territory. The invention of iron-clads, the facility of sea-coast fortifications, the telegraph, the vast extension of the railroad system, make us, so long as no internal dissensions prey upon and weaken us, impregnable without a great Navy, which, if not needed, is a source of expense and foreign menace. But what would we have done at the breaking out of the last war without some military and naval organization, and some actual material of preparation? To say nothing also of our extended commercial interests, the fact that there are such great numbers of Americans residing in Europe and all parts of the world, makes a naval home establishment-with its boards, bureaus, and schools-a necessity.

It is doubtless true that there will be no more sea-actions like those off Brest and Trafalgar, where nation met nation in conflict.

The necessity of maintaining large squadrons, and building costly ships only to go to ruin, when the whole system of warfare and of naval architecture is undergoing such continual

* Benton's "Thirty Years in the U. S. Senate," vol. ii., p. 57.

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