And State Papers 119 



Our honor at home, our honor in domestic and in 

 ternal affairs, is at all times in our own keeping, and 

 depends simply upon the possession of an awakened 

 public conscience. But the only way to make safe 

 our honor, as affected not by our own deeds but by 

 the deeds of others, is by readiness in advance. In 

 three great crises in our history during the nineteenth 

 century in the War of 1812, in the Civil War, and 

 again in the Spanish War the navy rendered to the 

 nation services of literally incalculable worth. In 

 the Civil War we had to meet antagonists even more 

 unprepared at sea than we were. On both the other 

 occasions we encountered foreign foes, and the fight 

 ing was done entirely by ships built long in advance, 

 and by officers and crews who had been trained dur 

 ing years of sea service for the supreme day when 

 their qualities were put to the final test. The ships 

 which won at Manila and Santiago under the Ad 

 ministration of President McKinley had been built 

 years before under Presidents Arthur, Cleveland, 

 and Harrison. The officers in those ships had been 

 trained from their earliest youth to their profession, 

 and the enlisted men, in addition to their natural 

 aptitude, their intelligence, and their courage, had 

 been drilled as marksmen with the great guns and 

 as machinists in the engine rooms, and perfected in 

 all the details of their work during years of cruising 

 on the high seas and of incessant target practice. It 

 was this preparedness which was the true secret of 

 the enormous difference in efficiency between our 

 navy and the Spanish navy. There was no lack of 



