CHAPTER XL.
SOME OF THE CEREMONIES IN A MAN-OF-WAR UNNECESSARY AND INJURIOUS.
The ceremonials of a man-of-war, some of which have been described inthe preceding chapter, may merit a reflection or two.
The general usages of the American Navy are founded upon the usagesthat prevailed in the navy of monarchical England more than a centuryago; nor have they been materially altered since. And while bothEngland and America have become greatly liberalised in the interval;while shore pomp in high places has come to be regarded by the moreintelligent masses of men as belonging to the absurd, ridiculous, andmock-heroic; while that most truly august of all the majesties ofearth, the President of the United States, may be seen entering hisresidence with his umbrella under his arm, and no brass band ormilitary guard at his heels, and unostentatiously taking his seat bythe side of the meanest citizen in a public conveyance; while this isthe case, there still lingers in American men-of-war all the stiltedetiquette and childish parade of the old-fashioned Spanish court ofMadrid. Indeed, so far as the things that meet the eye are concerned,an American Commodore is by far a greater man than the President oftwenty millions of freemen.
But we plain people ashore might very willingly be content to leavethese commodores in the unmolested possession of their gilded pennywhistles, rattles, and gewgaws, since they seem to take so muchpleasure in them, were it not that all this is attended by consequencesto their subordinates in the last degree to be deplored.
While hardly any one will question that a naval officer should besurrounded by circumstances calculated to impart a requisite dignity tohis position, it is not the less certain that, by the excessive pomp heat present maintains, there is naturally and unavoidably generated afeeling of servility and debasement in the hearts of most of the seamenwho continually behold a fellow-mortal flourishing over their headslike the archangel Michael with a thousand wings. And as, in degree,this same pomp is observed toward their inferiors by all the grades ofcommissioned officers, even down to a midshipman, the evil isproportionately multiplied.
It would not at all diminish a proper respect for the officers, andsubordination to their authority among the seamen, were all this idleparade--only ministering to the arrogance of the officers, without atall benefiting the state--completely done away. But to do so, we votersand lawgivers ourselves must be no respecters of persons.
That saying about _levelling upward, and not downward_, may seem veryfine to those who cannot see its self-involved absurdity. But the truthis, that, to gain the true level, in some things, we _must_ cutdownward; for how can you make every sailor a commodore? or how raisethe valleys, without filling them up with the superfluous tops of thehills?
Some discreet, but democratic, legislation in this matter is much to bedesired. And by bringing down naval officers, in these things at least,without affecting their legitimate dignity and authority, we shallcorrespondingly elevate the common sailor, without relaxing thesubordination, in which he should by all means be retained.