The Navy.
A New York journal learns from reliable sources that--
‘
"A very great excitement prevails among the officers of the Navy in consequence of the present state of affairs at the
South, and that so adverse are they to a collision with their fellow-citizens in that quarter that there will be an almost universal resignation of their commissions as soon as hostilities break out. They will not imbrue their hands in the blood of their brethren."
’
We can easily believe that the most fraternal sentiments towards their countrymen of the
South, and of every section, animate the officers of the Navy.
Many of them are Southern men, and all of them, with few exceptions, are gentlemen of an eminently national character.
Sectionalism has never found much foothold in the Navy.
They love the name of
Americans, and are proud of that beautiful flag, which has waved triumphantly upon every sea. They do not wish to see that flag become the emblem of section, nor to behold its stars dislodged from their orbits, and rushing into collision and chaos.
Moreover, individually and personally, the
American sailor is the most generous and sympathizing, as he is the most enterprising and heroic of men, and therefore we can easily understand that few of our naval officers, whatever their political ideas, view with composure the prospect of being employed to coerce any portion of their own countrymen into submission, with the award.
Nor is this peculiar to the officers in our own service.
Even in
France, accustomed as it is to bloody revolution and bloody oppression, the military chief recoils from the cruel necessity of bathing in the blood of his countrymen that award which was consecrated to their defence, and, no matter how necessary it may be, he is never able afterwards fully to efface the odium of the executioner's office, and write out from his shield that ‘"damned spot."’
