The position of the United States naturally gives it great prominence as a naval power. Situated between the two great[303] oceans, with thousands of miles of coast on each, and a profusion of good harbors, bays, and great rivers, accessible to large ocean vessels for long distances into the interior; with a soil of great fertility, and numerous and inexhaustible sources of mineral wealth, besides all the conditions favorable to the establishment and success of manufactures—it requires large foreign markets for its various products, and an extensive commerce is essential to its development. It should be, and perhaps it is, the strongest naval power in the world. The War of Independence was much increased in length and difficulty by the want of a navy, the maritime resources of England giving her a great superiority in striking suddenly, and in force, at distant points.
It was natural, then, that so important an arm, for both attack and defense, should be prepared to act with energy, and this was one of the first cares of the new government; and so efficient did this branch of national strength become in the thirty years of peace, to the war of 1812 with England, that the easiest and some of the most important successes of the Americans, in that conflict, were on the sea.
The care of Naval affairs was, at first, committed to the Secretary of War. In 1798 it was erected into a separate Department, and a Secretary placed at its head. He was entitled to a seat in the Cabinet, as one of the advisers of the President, and received his appointment by nomination of the President and concurrence of the Senate, in the same manner as the Heads of other Departments.
As the President is the highest officer, in command, in the Navy, he ranks as second, and acts under his direction. It is his duty to procure naval stores and materials, and to oversee the places where they are deposited; to attend to the construction, equipment, armament, and employment of vessels of war, to make out the commissions of naval officers; to see that efficiency and discipline are maintained in the service; and to assume the control of the movements of the vessels of war that are kept cruising in every sea for the protection of our[304] commerce and citizens in foreign parts, and the preservation of the international rights and dignity of the United States.
3. A chief clerk was formerly the second officer in rank in the Department, but, in 1861, provision was made, by Congress, for an Assistant Secretary, who should act as Secretary in the absence of that officer.
Formerly there were five bureaus in this d............