162 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



willed, and surrounded by shallow men whom he was 

 using to further his own future re-election. He was 

 particularly incensed with the inability of the administra- 

 tion to appreciate the importance of a navy, and he 

 feared that, by ignoring this service, they would permit 

 Virginia to be degraded. There was talk, he declared, 

 of making New Orleans or Charleston the money capital, 

 and that the government was run on the theory that the 

 Confederacy belonged to Cottondom and that Cotton 

 meant to rule. 



Maury's strongest censures of Mallory and Davis were 

 made during the November following the publication of 

 his **Ben Bow" articles, which became so distasteful to 

 Mallory and so alarming to his political ease of mind that 

 he began to v/ish that Maury was entirely out of the 

 country. Only a few days after the appearance of the 

 first of these articles, he informed its author that he was 

 to go to Cuba to purchase arms and other war materials, 

 and said to him that in his judgment he could be better 

 spared than any other officer in either army or navy. 

 This intention was not, however, carried into effect; but 

 Mallory continued to trifle with Maury and to prevent 

 him from rendering any worthy service to the South. 



At about this time, Maury received from the Grand 

 Duke Constantine an invitation to come to Russia and 

 make his home there under the patronage of that govern- 

 ment. The letter, which was brought to Richmond 

 under a flag of truce by the Russian minister, was as 

 follows: "The news of your having left a service which is 

 so much indebted to your great and successful labors 

 has made a very painful impression on me and my com- 

 panions-in-arms. Your indefatigable researches have 

 unveiled the great laws which rule the winds and currents 



