110 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



with the mental activity. Officers are expected — at 

 least, it is generally so in the upper grades — to work 

 rather with the head than the hand, and, moreover, I 

 am bodily as active as a majority of the Board, and if 

 broken legs disqualify, at least one member of the Board 

 should have borne me company, for his leg was broken 

 twice over. . . . General Scott is crippled in the arm, 

 yet it does not appear to have unfitted him for the army. 

 Besides, this Board has left untouched other crippled 

 officers, both above and below me". 



The action of the Board produced a very mischievous 

 and demoralizing effect on the naval service, upon which 

 it let loose the spirit of a hyena. Officers began to in- 

 vestigate the antecedents of each other, and all sorts of 

 trouble-making scandal was unearthed. But fortu- 

 nately for Maury nothing could be found prejudicial 

 against his character and his record in the files of the 

 Navy Department, and he exulted over the fact that he 

 had never tripped in his youth. He became disgusted 

 with all the accusations and insinuations that had been 

 aroused, and declared that they were heartsickening to 

 a man who loved to live at peace with all the world. 



It was necessary, however, for him to see the matter 

 through. So he again wrote to the Secretary of the Navy, 

 complaining that he had been given no hearing, that 

 all action had been taken in secret, no minutes or records 

 of any kind having been kept, and that the charge of 

 incompetency was too vague; and therefore he asked 

 for specific charges and for a fair and open trial according 

 to law. The Secretary replied that the members of the 

 Board had dispersed to their duties; but that he would 

 reassemble them if the President so directed, adding 

 that Maury had a "spotless character and eminent 



