CHAPTER XLV.

THE NAVY DEPARTMENT—THE UNITED STATES OBSERVATORY—THE STATE DEPARTMENT.

Primitive Arrangements—The Navy in Early Days—The Department of the Navy Established—The Secretary’s Office—The Navy-Yards and Docks—The Bureau of Construction—The Bureau of Provisions and Clothing—Equipment of Vessels—Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography—The Naval Observatory—The Bureau of Medicine—Interesting Statistics—The Navy Seventy Years Ago—The “Day of Small Things”—Instructions of the Great Napoleon—Keeping Pace with England—The Glories of Foote, Ferry, Porter and Farragut—Scene from the Observatory—Peeping Through the Telescope—The Mountains in the Moon—The Largest Telescope in the World—Making Mathematical Notes—A Passion for Star-gazing—Casting Horoscopes—Gazing for Pastime—“For the Sake of Science”—The Chronometers of the Government—Comparing Notes—The Test of Time—Chronometers on Trial—The Wind and Current Charts—The Good Deeds of Lieutenant Maury—“The Habits of the Whale”—The Equatorial—A Self-acting Telescope—The Transit Instrument—The Great Astronomical Clock—Telling Time by Telegraph—Hearing the Clock Tick Miles Away—The Transit of Venus—Great Preparations—A Trifle of Half-a-Million of Miles—The Department of Foreign Affairs—The Secretary of State—A Little Secret Suggestion—The Diplomatic Bureau—The Consular Bureau—The Disbursing-Agent—The Translator—The Clerk-of-Appointments—Clerk-of-the-Rolls—The Clerk-of-Authentications—Pardons and Passports—The Superintendent of Statistics.

The first intention of the fathers of the American Republic was to provide for a chief clerk, under whose direction contracts might be made for munitions of war, and the inspection of provisions necessary for carrying on war by land or sea.

As the maritime warfare of the United States increased in the brilliancy of its victories, the necessity for a separate organization to control its officers, and to provide for the feeding, equipment, and payment of its sea-faring warriors gradually became apparent; but it was not until the thirtieth day of April, 1798, that Congress was sufficiently apprised of this necessity to pass and secure the approval of an “Act to establish an Executive Department, to be denominated the Department of the Navy,” and on the twenty-second day of June of the same year an Act was passed granting the franking privilege to the Secretary of the Navy.

Subsequent legislation has dealt more with the _morale_ of the navy than with the functions of the department; reference to various other Acts is therefore omitted.

As organized in 1860, the department consists of the following officials: The Secretary; Chief-Clerk; Bureau of Navy-yards and Docks; Bureau of Provisions and Clothing; Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography; and the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.

The division of labor is as follows:

Secretary’s Office: The Secretary has charge of everything connected with the naval establishment, and the execution of all laws relating thereto is intrusted to him, under the general direction of the President of the United States, who, by the Constitution, is Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy. All instructions to commanders of squadrons and commanders of vessels, all orders of officers, commissions of officers, both in the navy and marine corps, appointments of commissioned and warrant-officers, orders for the enlistment and discharge of seamen, emanate from the Secretary’s office. All the duties of the different Bureaus are performed under the authority of the Secretary, and their orders are considered as emanating from him. The general superintendence of the marine corps forms also a part of the duties of the Secretary, and all the orders of the commandant of that corps should be approved by him.

Bureau of Navy-yards and Docks: Chief-of-the-Bureau, four clerks, one civil-engineer and one draughtsman. All the navy-yards, docks and wharves, buildings and machinery in navy-yards, and everything immediately connected with them, are under the superintendence of this Bureau. It is also charged with the management of the Naval Asylum.

Bureau of Construction, Equipment, and Repair: Chief-of-the Bureau, eight clerks, and one draughtsman. The office of the Engineer-in-chief of the Navy, who is assisted by three assistant-engineers, is attached to this Bureau. This Bureau has charge of the building and repairs of all vessels-of-war, purchase of materials, and the providing of all vessels with their equipments, as sails, anchors, water-tanks, etc. The Engineer-in-chief superintends the construction of all marine steam-engines for the navy, and, with the approval of the Secretary, decides upon plans for their construction.

Bureau of Provisions and Clothing: Chief-of-Bureau and four clerks. All provisions for the use of the navy, and clothing, together with the making of contracts for furnishing the same, come under the charge of this Bureau.

Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography: Chief-of-Bureau, four clerks, and one draughtsman. This Bureau has charge of all ordnance and ordnance stores, the manufacture or purchase of cannon, guns, powder, shot, shells, etc., and the equipment of vessels-of-war, with everything connected therewith. It also provides them with maps, charts, chronometers, barometers, etc., together, with such books as are furnished to ships-of-war. The United States Naval Observatory and Hydrographical Office at Washington, and the Naval Academy at Annapolis, are also under the general superintendence of the Chief of this Bureau.

Bureau of Medicine and Surgery: Chief-of-Bureau, one Passed-Assistant-Surgeon United States Navy, and two clerks. Everything relating to medicines and medical stores, treatment of sick and wounded, and management of hospitals, comes within the superintendence of this Bureau.

The following statistics may be interesting to some of our readers: In 1806, the number of seamen authorized by law was 925, to which number 3,600 were added in 1809. In 1812, Congress authorized the President to employ as many as would be necessary to equip the vessels to be put in service, and to build as many vessels for the lakes as the public service required. In January, 1814, there were in actual service seven frigates, two corvettes, seven sloops-of-war, two block-ships, four brigs, and three schooners, for sea, besides the several lake-squadrons, gunboats, and harbor-barges, three ships-of-the-line, and three frigates on the stocks. The whole number of men and officers employed was 13,339, of which 3,729 were able seamen, and 6,721 ordinary. The marine corps, as enlarged in 1814, was 2,700 men and officers. The commissioned naval officers combatant were 22 captains, 18 commanders, 107 lieutenants, 450 midshipmen.

In 1814, Secretary Jones reported to the Senate that there were three 74-gun and three 44-gun ships building, six new sloops-of-war built, twenty barges and one hundred and twenty gun-boats employed in the Atlantic waters, thirty-three vessels of all sizes for sea, afloat or building, and thirty-one on the lakes. Even in 1813, the energy of this department had led the first Napoleon to issue the following instructions to his Minister of Marine:

“You will receive a decree by which I order the building, at Toulon, at Rochefort, and at Cherburg, of a frigate of American construction. I am certain that the English have had built a considerable number of frigates on that model. They go better, and they adopt them; we must not be behindhand. Those which you will have built at Toulon, at Rochefort, and at Cherburg, will manœuvre in the roads, and give us to understand what to think of the model.”

Since then, in defence of the nation, the American Navy has won victories which placed it in the front rank of the navies of the world. Mobile, with the names of Foote, Terry, Porter and Farragut, do not pale before any victories or names of earth.

A soft midsummer night, we stood upon the roof of the United States Observatory. Beneath us was Braddock’s Hill, where, generations gone, the young surveyor dreamed; and stretching far on to its guardian Capitol, the city which he foresaw—a verity now—its myriad lights twinkling through the misty distance. To our right was Georgetown; beyond Arlington Heights, and House; before us the Potomac, winding on to Alexandria; above us the fathomless heavens, the waxing moon and silent stars. Professor Harkness moved an axle; the great revolving dome turned round and parted; the great telescope was pointed to the opening, and the broad seam of sky visible between. We mounted the perch, and there were the mountains in the moon! their jagged edges, their yawning craters, yet only for a moment; for earth and moon are swift travellers. In a moment Madame Moon had outstripped our point of vision, and we had to pursue her.

Just before us was the unfinished dome of another observatory, wherein will soon be placed the largest telescope in the world. Beside us two other open domes, and upward pointed telescopes, told of other star-gazers below. We descended. There, in a dimly-lighted room, stood a solitary man peering through a telescope, its divining face uplifted to the narrow field of stars visible through the open dome. Hush! An observation! The solitary man whose face we now see is aged, and his hair white, with swift and silent step turns from his telescope to his desk, to make his mathematical notes.

“He need not do this unless he chooses,” says Professor H. “He was long ago promoted above this work. But a man who has formed a passion for star-gazing and observation never gets over it.” The room was dim and silent enough to have been given up to the presence of death. One felt as if some momentous operation were going on. The stars and the star-gazer both were felt. I shrank silent, into a corner, till that horoscope was cast, and the path of that far-away world measured to its minutest fraction. In the opposite wing we found another star-gazer. Was he gazing for pastime? Not at all. He was gazing for the Government and the sake of science.

Thus, while the nation sleeps, its servants keep watch not only of the weather, but of remotest worlds.

The chronometers belonging to the Government are kept in a room set apart for that purpose. These instruments are purchased by the Navy Department, with the understanding that they are to be tested in the Observatory for one year. They are placed in the chronometer room, and are carefully wound and regulated. They are examined daily, and compared with the great Astronomical Clock of the Observatory, and an accurate record of the movements of each one is kept in a book prepared for that purpose.

The temperature of the room is also examined daily, and recorded. These minute records enable the officers of the Observatory to point out the exact fault of each imperfect chronometer. Thanks to this, the maker is enabled to remedy the defect, and the instrument is made perfect. At the end of the year, the instruments found to be unsatisfactory are returned to their makers, and those which pass the test are paid for. The returned instruments are usually overhauled by the makers, and the defects remedied. They are then sent back for a trial of another year, at the end of which time they rarely fail to pass.

There are usually from sixty to one hundred chronometers on trial at the Observatory, and the apartment in which they are kept is one of the most interesting in the establishment.

The researches connected with the famous “Wind-and-Current-Charts,” begun and prosecuted so successfully by Lieutenant Matthew F. Maury, whose services were lost to the country by his participation in the Rebellion, are conducted here, and also those connected with “The Habits of the Whale,” and other ocean phenomena.

The Equatorial, which is the largest telescope in the Observatory, is mounted in the revolving dome which rises above the main building. It has a fourteen-feet refractor, and an object-glass nine inches in diameter. Its movements are most ingenious, being regulated by machinery and clock-work. Its powers are so great, that it renders stars visible at midday, and, if directed at a given star in the morning, its machinery will work so accurately, that it will follow with perfect exactness the path of the star, which will be visible through it as long as the star is above the horizon. The Meridian and Mural Circles are in one of the rooms below.

The Transit-Instrument is placed in the west wing of the building, under a slit twenty inches wide, extending across the roofs, and down the wall of the apartment on each side, to within four or five feet of the floor. It was made by Estel & Son, Munich, and is a seven-foot achromatic, with a clear aperture of 5.3 inches. The mounting consists of two granite piers, seven feet high, each formed of a solid block of that stone, let down below the floor and imbedded in a stone foundation eight feet deep, and completely isolated from the building. Midway between the piers, and running north and south, is the artificial horizon composed of a slab of granite ten feet long, nineteen inches deep, and thirteen inches broad; it rests on the foundation, and is isolated from the floor, with the level of which the top of it is even, with a space all round it of half an inch. In the middle of this slab, and in the nadir of the telescope, there is a mortise, nine inches square and ten inches deep, in which the artificial horizon is placed to protect it from the wind during the adjustment for collimation, or the determination of the error of collimation of level, and the adjustment for stellar focus, verticality of wires, and the other uses of the collimating eye-piece.

The great Astronomical Clock, or “Electro-Chronograph” is placed in the same room with the Transit-Instrument, and is used in connection with it to denote sidereal time. It was invented by Professor John Locke, of Cincinnati, and is one of the most remarkable instruments in the world. By means of an electrical battery in the building, the movements of this clock can be repeated by telegraph in any city or town in the land to which the wires extend. With the wires connected with it, its ticks may be heard in any part of the country, and it will record the time so accurately that an astronomer in Portland or New Orleans can tell with exactness the time of day by this clock. It also regulates the time for the city. There is a flag-staff on top of the dome, upon which a black ball is hoisted at ten minutes before noon, every day. This is to warn persons desiring to know the exact time to examine their watches and clocks. Just as the clock records the hour of twelve, the ball drops, and thus informs the city that it is high noon.

The officials of the Naval Observatory have nearly completed the plan of operation for observing the transit of Venus, which will occur in December, 1874. Eight parties of five persons each will be dispatched; four to stations in the Southern Hemisphere, and the others to the Northern. Those going south of the Equator will leave New York next spring in a naval vessel, specially prepared and fitted for their accommodation, while others will probably proceed to their stations by mail-steamer. The posts in the Southern Hemisphere will be on the Kerguelen Islands, Auckland and Van Diemen’s Land. In the northern station they will be located at Yokohama, Nangasaki, Shanghai, and near the Siberian border.

After the transit, the observers in the Southern Hemisphere will be collected by a Government ship, transported to Japan, and sent home by mail-steamer. The whole expedition will probably occupy a year at least. Each party will include astronomers and photographer, with a complete equipment and apparatus for obtaining perfect observations and a record of the transit. Prof. Harkness will have charge of the parties and observations in the Southern Hemisphere, and Prof. Newcomb of those in the Northern. The object of the observation, for which Congress has appropriated $150,000, is to determine more accurately the distance between the earth and the sun, and the Professors at the head of the expedition expect to be able to settle the distance within half a million of miles.

In July, 1789, Congress organized a “Department of Foreign Affairs,” and placed it in charge of a secretary, who was called the “Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs.” He was required to discharge his duties “conformably to the instructions of the President,” but as his powers were derived from Congress, he was required to hold himself amenable to that body, to attend its sessions, and to “explain all matters pertaining to his province.” In September, 1779, Congress changed the title of the department to the “Department of State,” and made a definite enumeration of the duties of the Secretary.

The head of the Department is the Secretary-of-State. His subordinates are: an Assistant Secretary-of-State, a Chief-Clerk, a Superintendent of Statistics, a Translator, a Librarian, and as many clerks as are needed. The Secretary receives a salary of $8,000 per annum. He conducts all the intercourse of this Government with the governments of foreign countries, and is frequently required to take a prominent part in the administration of domestic affairs. He countersigns all proclamations and official documents issued by the President. If popular rumor be correct, the Secretaries-of-State have frequently written the messages and inaugurals of the Presidents, and thus have kept those august personages from making laughing-stocks of themselves.

The duties of the office require the exercise of the highest ability, and the Secretaries-of-State have usually been among the first statesmen of our country. The first incumbent of the office was Thomas Jefferson, and the present Secretary is the Hon. Hamilton Fish, of New York.

The Diplomatic-Bureau is in charge of, and conducts all the official correspondence between the Department and the ministers and other agents of the United States residing abroad, and the representatives of foreign powers accredited to this Government. It is in this Bureau that all instructions sent from the Department, and communications to commissioners under treaties of boundaries, etc., are prepared, copied, and recorded; all similar communications received by the Department are registered and filed in this Bureau, and their contents are entered in an analytical table or index.

The Consular-Bureau has charge of all correspondence and other business between the Department and the consuls and commercial agents of the United States. Applications for such positions are received and attended to in this Bureau. A concise record of all its transactions is kept by the clerk in charge of it.

The Disbursing-Agent has charge of all correspondence and other business relating to any and all expenditures of money with which the Department is charged.

The Translator is required to furnish translations of such documents as may be submitted to him by the proper officers of the Department. He also records the commissions of the consuls and the vice-consuls, when not in English, upon which exequaturs are based.

The Clerk of Appointments and Commissions makes out and keeps a record of all commissions, letters of appointment, and nominations to the Senate; makes out and keeps a record of all exequaturs, and when in English, the commissions on which they are issued. He also has charge of the Library of the Department, which is large and valuable.

The Clerk of the Rolls and Archives has charge of the “rolls,” by which are meant the enrolled acts and resolutions of Congress, as they are received by the Department by the President. When authenticated copies thereof are called for, he prepares them. He also prepares these acts and resolutions, and the various treaties negotiated, for publication in the newspapers and in book form, and superintends their passage through the press. He distributes through the United States the various publications of the Department, and receives and answers all letters relating thereto. He has charge of all treaties with the Indian tribes, and all business relating to them.

The Clerk of Authentications is in charge of the Seals of the United States and of the Department, and prepares and attaches certificates to papers presented for authentication; receives and accounts for the fees; and records the correspondence of the Department, except the diplomatic and consular letters. He also has charge of all correspondence relating to territorial affairs.

The Clerk of Pardons and Passports prepares and records pardons and remissions of sentences by the President; and registers and files the papers and petitions upon which they are founded. He makes out and records passports, and keeps a daily register of letters received, other than diplomatic and consular, and the disposition made of them. He also has charge of the correspondence relating to his business.

The Superintendent of Statistics prepares the “Annual Report of the Secretary of State and Foreign commerce,” as required by the acts of 1842 and 1856.