Exempt1 yourselves from the lash2, you take Bible oaths to it that it is indispensable for others; you swear that, without the lash, no armed ship can be kept in suitable discipline. Be it proved to you, officers, and stamped upon your foreheads, that herein you are utterly3 wrong.
"Send them to Collingwood," said Lord Nelson, "and he will bring them to order." This was the language of that renowned4 Admiral, when his officers reported to him certain seamen5 of the fleet as wholly ungovernable. "Send them to Collingwood." And who was Collingwood, that, after these navy rebels had been imprisoned6 and scourged7 without being brought to order, Collingwood could convert them to docility9?
Who Admiral Collinngwood was, as an historical hero, history herself will tell you; nor, in whatever triumphal hall they may be hanging, will the captured flags of Trafalgar fail to rustle10 at the mention of that name. But what Collingwood was as a disciplinarian on board the ships he commanded perhaps needs to be said. He was an officer, then, who held in abhorrence11 all corporal punishment; who, though seeing more active service than any sea-officer of his time, yet, for years together, governed his men without inflicting12 the lash.
But these seaman14 of his must have been most exemplary saints to have proved docile15 under so lenient16 a sway. Were they saints? Answer, ye jails and alms-houses throughout the length and breadth of Great Britain, which, in Collingwood's time, were swept clean of the last lingering villain17 and pauper18 to man his majesty's fleets.
Still more, that was a period when the uttermost resources of England were taxed to the quick; when the masts of her multiplied fleets almost transplanted her forests, all standing19 to the sea; when British press-gangs not only boarded foreign ships on the high seas, and boarded foreign pier-heads, but boarded their own merchantmen at the mouth of the Thames, and boarded the very fire-sides along its banks; when Englishmen were knocked down and dragged into the navy, like cattle into the slaughter-house, with every mortal provocation20 to a mad desperation against the service that thus ran their unwilling21 heads into the muzzles22 of the enemy's cannon23. This was the time, and these the men that Collingwood governed without the lash.
I know it has been said that Lord Collingwood began by inflicting severe punishments, and afterward24 ruling his sailors by the mere25 memory of a by-gone terror, which he could at pleasure revive; and that his sailors knew this, and hence their good behaviour under a lenient sway. But, granting the quoted assertion to be true, how comes it that many American Captains, who, after inflicting as severe punishment as ever Collingwood could have authorized—how comes it that they, also, have not been able to maintain good order without subsequent floggings, after once showing to the crew with what terrible attributes they were invested? But it is notorious, and a thing that I myself, in several instances, know to have been the case, that in the American navy, where corporal punishment has been most severe, it has also been most frequent.
But it is incredible that, with such crews as Lord Collingwood's—composed, in part, of the most desperate characters, the rakings of the jails—it is incredible that such a set of men could have been governed by the mere memory of the lash. Some other influence must have been brought to bear; mainly, no doubt, the influence wrought26 by a powerful brain, and a determined27, intrepid28 spirit over a miscellaneous rabble29.
It is well known that Lord Nelson himself, in point of policy, was averse30 to flogging; and that, too, when he had witnessed the mutinous31 effects of government abuses in the navy—unknown in our times—and which, to the terror of all England, developed themselves at the great mutiny of the Nore: an outbreak that for several weeks jeopardised the very existence of the British navy.
But we may press this thing nearly two centuries further back, for it is a matter of historical doubt whether, in Robert Blake's time, Cromwell's great admiral, such a thing as flogging was known at the gangways of his victorious32 fleets. And as in this matter we cannot go further back than to Blake, so we cannot advance further than to our own time, which shows Commodore Stockton, during the recent war with Mexico, governing the American squadron in the Pacific without employing the scourge8.
But if of three famous English Admirals one has abhorred33 flogging, another almost governed his ships without it, and to the third it may be supposed to have been unknown, while an American Commander has, within the present year almost, been enabled to sustain the good discipline of an entire squadron in time of war without having an instrument of scourging34 on board, what inevitable35 inferences must be drawn36, and how disastrous37 to the mental character of all advocates of navy flogging, who may happen to be navy officers themselves.
It cannot have escaped the discernment of any observer of mankind, that, in the presence of its conventional inferiors, conscious imbecility in power often seeks to carry off that imbecility by assumptions of lordly severity. The amount of flogging on board an American man-of-war is, in many cases, in exact proportion to the professional and intellectual incapacity of her officers to command. Thus, in these cases, the law that authorises flogging does but put a scourge into the hand of a fool. In most calamitous38 instances this has been shown.
It is a matter of record, that some English ships of war have fallen a prey39 to the enemy through the insubordination of the crew, induced by the witless cruelty of their officers; officers so armed by the law that they could inflict13 that cruelty without restraint. Nor have there been wanting instances where the seamen have ran away with their ships, as in the case of the Hermione and Danae, and forever rid themselves of the outrageous40 inflictions of their officers by sacrificing their lives to their fury.
Events like these aroused the attention of the British public at the time. But it was a tender theme, the public agitation41 of which the government was anxious to suppress. Nevertheless, whenever the thing was privately42 discussed, these terrific mutinies, together with the then prevailing43 insubordination of the men in the navy, were almost universally attributed to the exasperating44 system of flogging. And the necessity for flogging was generally believed to be directly referable to the impressment of such crowds of dissatisfied men. And in high quarters it was held that if, by any mode, the English fleet could be manned without resource to coercive measures, then the necessity of flogging would cease.
"If we abolish either impressment or flogging, the abolition45 of the other will follow as a matter of course." This was the language of the Edinburgh Review, at a still later period, 1824.
If, then, the necessity of flogging in the British armed marine46 was solely47 attributed to the impressment of the seamen, what faintest shadow of reason is there for the continuance of this barbarity in the American service, which is wholly freed from the reproach of impressment?
It is true that, during a long period of non-impressment, and even down to the present day, flogging has been, and still is, the law of the English navy. But in things of this kind England should be nothing to us, except an example to be shunned48. Nor should wise legislators wholly govern themselves by precedents49, and conclude that, since scourging has so long prevailed, some virtue50 must reside in it. Not so. The world has arrived at a period which renders it the part of Wisdom to pay homage51 to the prospective52 precedents of the Future in preference to those of the Past. The Past is dead, and has no resurrection; but the Future is endowed with such a life, that it lives to us even in anticipation53. The Past is, in many things, the foe54 of mankind; the Future is, in all things, our friend. In the Past is no hope; the Future is both hope and fruition. The Past is the text-book of tyrants55; the Future the Bible of the Free. Those who are solely governed by the Past stand like Lot's wife, crystallised in the act of looking backward, and forever incapable56 of looking before.
Let us leave the Past, then, to dictate57 laws to immovable China; let us abandon it to the Chinese Legitimists of Europe. But for us, we will have another captain to rule over us—that captain who ever marches at the head of his troop and beckons58 them forward, not lingering in the rear, and impeding59 their march with lumbering60 baggage-wagons of old precedents. This is the Past.
But in many things we Americans are driven to a rejection61 of the maxims62 of the Past, seeing that, ere long, the van of the nations must, of right, belong to ourselves. There are occasions when it is for America to make precedents, and not to obey them. We should, if possible, prove a teacher to posterity63, instead of being the pupil of by-gone generations. More shall come after us than have gone before; the world is not yet middle-aged64.
Escaped from the house of bondage65, Israel of old did not follow after the ways of the Egyptians. To her was given an express dispensation; to her were given new things under the sun. And we Americans are the peculiar66, chosen people—the Israel of our time; we bear the ark of the liberties of the world. Seventy years ago we escaped from thrall67; and, besides our first birthright—embracing one continent of earth—God has given to us, for a future inheritance, the broad domains68 of the political pagans, that shall yet come and lie down under the shade of our ark, without bloody69 hands being lifted. God has predestinated, mankind expects, great things from our race; and great things we feel in our souls. The rest of the nations must soon be in our rear. We are the pioneers of the world; the advance-guard, sent on through the wilderness70 of untried things, to break a new path in the New World that is ours. In our youth is our strength; in our inexperience, our wisdom. At a period when other nations have but lisped, our deep voice is heard afar. Long enough, have we been skeptics with regard to ourselves, and doubted whether, indeed, the political Messiah had come. But he has come in us, if we would but give utterance71 to his promptings. And let us always remember that with ourselves, almost for the first time in the history of earth, national selfishness is unbounded philanthropy; for we can not do a good to America but we give alms to the world.
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1
exempt
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| adj.免除的；v.使免除；n.免税者，被免除义务者 | |
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2
lash
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| v.系牢；鞭打；猛烈抨击；n.鞭打；眼睫毛 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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renowned
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| adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的 | |
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seamen
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| n.海员 | |
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imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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scourged
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| 鞭打( scourge的过去式和过去分词 )； 惩罚，压迫 | |
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scourge
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| n.灾难，祸害；v.蹂躏 | |
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docility
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| n.容易教，易驾驶，驯服 | |
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rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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abhorrence
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| n.憎恶；可憎恶的事 | |
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inflicting
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的现在分词 ) | |
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inflict
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| vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担 | |
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seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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docile
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| adj.驯服的，易控制的，容易教的 | |
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lenient
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| adj.宽大的，仁慈的 | |
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villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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18
pauper
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| n.贫民，被救济者，穷人 | |
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19
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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provocation
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| n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因 | |
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21
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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muzzles
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| 枪口( muzzle的名词复数 )； （防止动物咬人的）口套； （四足动物的）鼻口部； （狗）等凸出的鼻子和口 | |
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cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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intrepid
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| adj.无畏的，刚毅的 | |
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rabble
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| n.乌合之众，暴民；下等人 | |
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averse
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| adj.厌恶的；反对的，不乐意的 | |
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31
mutinous
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| adj.叛变的，反抗的；adv.反抗地，叛变地；n.反抗，叛变 | |
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victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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33
abhorred
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| v.憎恶( abhor的过去式和过去分词 )；（厌恶地）回避；拒绝；淘汰 | |
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34
scourging
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| 鞭打( scourge的现在分词 )； 惩罚，压迫 | |
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35
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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38
calamitous
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| adj.灾难的，悲惨的；多灾多难；惨重 | |
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39
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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40
outrageous
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| adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的 | |
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41
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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42
privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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43
prevailing
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| adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的 | |
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44
exasperating
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| adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
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45
abolition
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| n.废除，取消 | |
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46
marine
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| adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵 | |
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47
solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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48
shunned
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| v.避开，回避，避免( shun的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49
precedents
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| 引用单元； 范例( precedent的名词复数 )； 先前出现的事例； 前例； 先例 | |
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50
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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51
homage
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| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
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52
prospective
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| adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的 | |
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53
anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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54
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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55
tyrants
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| 专制统治者( tyrant的名词复数 )； 暴君似的人； （古希腊的）僭主； 严酷的事物 | |
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56
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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57
dictate
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| v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令 | |
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58
beckons
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| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的第三人称单数 ) | |
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59
impeding
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| a.(尤指坏事)即将发生的，临近的 | |
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60
lumbering
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| n.采伐林木 | |
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61
rejection
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| n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃 | |
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62
maxims
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| n.格言，座右铭( maxim的名词复数 ) | |
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63
posterity
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| n.后裔，子孙，后代 | |
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64
middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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65
bondage
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| n.奴役，束缚 | |
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66
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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67
thrall
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| n.奴隶；奴隶制 | |
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68
domains
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| n.范围( domain的名词复数 )；领域；版图；地产 | |
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69
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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70
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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