The Navy’s Useless Burden: A 1877 Critique of American Militarism
An editorial from the Seattle Intelligencer questions why the U.S. maintains a naval force, arguing that defense of the continent makes overseas armadas obsolete and economically damaging.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Some thirty years ago, an intelligent merchant and ship owner of one of our commercial cities put forth in pamphlet form the question: What is the use of our navy? Where there was one to ask that question then, there are a thousand now, and neither then nor now has one been found to answer it. Let it go again before the public mind: What is the use of our navy? No one says it is to capture pirates, or drive them from the seas. Not one of our war vessels is made for that purpose. Is it to cruise around the globe to repel or avenge insults to our flag? If so, are the captains and officers of our frigates to be judges, jurors, and executioners in matters of international law? Are we to bombard South American villages for a quarrel over a bottle of whiskey? If we have no use for our navy in time of peace, what is the use in war? Can any honest, intelligent mind believe that England, or any power, could send 50,000 men across the ocean to invade this continent? With 500,000 men that could be concentrated at any point of attack on two days' notice, such an expedition is a preposterous fantasy. We are held in the protecting arms of the broad ocean, 3,000 miles from the nearest European power. Why should we allow our children's toil and earnings to be an everlasting oblation to this impalpable bogie that makes cowards of us all?
“Why should we allow our children's toil and earnings to be an everlasting oblation to this impalpable bogie that makes cowards of us all?”
This 1877 editorial reflects an isolationist streak in Pacific Northwest political discourse, highlighting a skepticism toward federal expenditure that echoes contemporary debates about military spending versus local infrastructure needs in Seattle.
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