„Stephen Mallory” változatai közötti eltérés
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49. sor:
1850-ben az később a polgárháborút kirobbantó országrészek közti ellentét miatt [[Tennessee]]ben megrendezték a [[Nashville-i konvenció]]t. A cél az összes rabszolgaságot engedélyező déli állam számára követendő követendő út kidolgozása volt. Annak ellenére, hogy Mallory ekkor nem töltött be állami hivatalt Floridában, elég befolyásosnak ítélték a Demokrata pártban ahhoz, hogy alternatív küldöttjeként delegálják a rendezvényre. Személyes okokból mégis távolmaradt, de a konvenció céljával való egyetértését levélben kifejezte, melyet a floridai újságok nyomtatásban terjesztettek.<ref>Durkin, ''Confederate Navy Chief'', pp. 38–39.</ref><ref>Underwood, ''Mallory'', p. 21.</ref>
== A Szenátus tagjaként (1850–1861) ==
=== Megválasztása ===
[[David Levy Yulee]] floridai szenátor hivatali ideje 1850-ben lejárt. Indult az újraválasztásért, de a radikális elszakadáspártiakkal való túlságos közelsége és néhány üzleti érdekeltséggel való szembeszállás miatt veszített. Az unió fenntartását kereső mérsékeltek erősebbnek bizonyultak Floridában és Malloryval váltották fel Yulee-t. Az állami kiválasztási eljárás némileg szabálytalan volt, mely ellen Yulee tiltakozott és azt egészen a Szenátus döntéshozásáig fenntartotta. A Szenátus azonban úgy határozott, hogy a floridai törvényhozás jogszerűen ítélte meg Mallory jelöltségét és jóváhagyta a szenátusi helyét.<ref>Durkin, ''Confederate Navy Chief'', p. 38–43, 48–49.</ref><ref>Underwood, ''Mallory'', pp. 22–25.</ref>
=== Jogalkotói tevékenysége ===
Az Egyesült Államok szenátusában végzett munkája nagyját tipikus, államának kedvező törvényhozási munka képzete. Felügyelete mellett a Szenátus elfogadott egy a Floridai vasutakat támogató, és egy a haditengerészetnek örökzöld tölgyerdő megvásárlását lehetővé tevő cikkelyt. Mindkét tervezetet elkaszálta azonban a képviselőház. Több sikert ért el a Szeminol indiánok ellen folytatott háború felülvizsgálatáról szóló törvénytervezeteivel, noha a vizsgált problémákat túldimenzionálta. Kárpótlást kínált az indián portyák által földönfutóvá válók számára és folytatta a bennszülöttek kitelepítését Floridából. Kezdeményezte továbbá, hogy Florida kikötőiben létesüljenek tengerészkórházak. None of this would have been considered exceptional for the era.<ref>Durkin, ''Confederate Navy Chief'', pp. 56–60.</ref>
=== Munkája a Tengerészeti Bizottságban ===
<!---Mallory was placed on the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs.<ref>His other initial committee assignment was to the minor Committee on Engrossed Bills. ''Congressional Globe'', 32nd Congress, 1st session, p. 32.</ref> His assignment became significant when President [[Millard Fillmore]] in his Message to Congress of December 13, 1851, recommended Congressional action on two issues. First was the problem of what to do with ineffective officers in the Navy. At the time, promotion was based solely on seniority, and no policy existed for removing officers who could not or would not fulfill their duties. Second was the issue of discipline in the enlisted rates. The practice of flogging had been outlawed in the previous Congress, and many of the old captains believed discipline on their warships was deteriorating; they wanted a return to the old ways or at least a reasonable substitute that would enable them to exert their authority.<ref>''Congressional Globe'', 32nd Congress, 1st session, p. 19.</ref>
Mallory's first major speech in Congress was in favor of a return to flogging, which he argued was needed in order that a captain would be able to control his seamen in battle. His position was unpopular throughout the nation, and Congress refused to lift the ban.<ref>Durkin, ''Confederate Navy Chief'', pp. 52–55.</ref><ref>Mallory's remarks can be read in full: ''Congressional Globe'', 32nd Congress, 1st session, Appendix, pp. 108–119.</ref> His views on flogging, for good or ill, were forgotten when he turned his energies to the second of President Fillmore's proposals, that of reforming the officer corps of the Navy. He was by this time chairman of the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs,<ref>After 1853. Underwood, ''Mallory'', p. 29.</ref> and the law that Congress passed was recognized as coming from his hand. It established a Retirement Board of senior naval officers, who examined the qualifications of all other commissioned officers. Those who were deemed incapable or unworthy of their rank were placed on a retired list, the first compulsory retirement in the history of the U.S. Navy. By most accounts, the board did its work creditably, but many of the officers who were adversely affected did not agree. Among those who were forced into early retirement was [[Matthew Fontaine Maury]], too crippled to go to sea, but whose study of ocean currents formed the basis for the new science of oceanography. Maury and some of the other retirees enlisted other Senators to support their cases, and the debate was renewed. In the end, however, Mallory's views prevailed, a testimonial to his parliamentary skills. The enmity between Maury and Mallory lasted the remainder of their lives and distorted their performance in the Civil War when both men sided with the South.<ref>Durkin, ''Confederate Navy Chief'', pp. 70–83.</ref>
Mallory's tenure on the Committee on Naval Affairs came during a time of great innovation in naval warfare. He kept abreast of developments in other navies, and he made sure that the U.S. Navy would incorporate the latest thinking into its new ships. Britain and France, then the two foremost navies in the world, were in the process of converting their fleets from sail to steam, and from paddles to screws. In 1853, the committee recommended passage of a bill providing for the addition of six new screw frigates to the fleet; when delivered, some considered them to be the best frigates in the world. In 1857, his committee persuaded the Senate to authorize twelve [[sloops-of-war]]. These entered the Navy beginning in 1858, on the verge of the Civil War.<ref>Tucker, ''Naval Warfare'', pp. 51–57, 62. One of the first class of frigates, {{USS|Merrimack|1855|6}}, would later become more closely identified with Mallory's vision of the maritime future.</ref>
Another innovation that was being considered was that of armor. Mallory was here somewhat ahead of his time, enthusiastically supporting iron cladding for ships before the fledgling metals industry in the country could supply it in the requisite quantities. No armored vessels were commissioned while he was in the Senate, but whatever fault there was lay elsewhere. He spoke up for extending appropriations for an armored vessel that was intended for the defense of New York Harbor; named the [[Stevens Battery]] after its designer and builder Robert L. Stevens, it had been laid down in 1842 but was still incomplete in 1853, when Mallory gave his argument. His pleading was unsuccessful in that the Senate did not agree to continue funding the project, but in his supporting speech he expressed some of the principles that guided his thinking when he later became the Confederate [[Secretary of the Navy]].<ref>Durkin, ''Confederate Navy Chief'', pp. 63–64.</ref>
===Secession crisis===
Representing as he did a state in the Deep South, Mallory could hardly have avoided taking a public stance on the issues that were tearing the nation apart. The occasion arose when the Senate considered the admission of Kansas to the Union. Its [[Lecompton Constitution]] would allow slavery in Kansas, and citizens who were against extending the practice into new territories seized upon the widespread irregularities in the adoption procedure to oppose it. Senator Preston King of New York mounted a two-hour attack on the constitution and Southern policy in general, following which Mallory replied in what his biographers describe as "probably his most effective speech in the Senate."<ref>Durkin, ''Confederate Navy Chief'', p. 101. Similarly Underwood, ''Mallory'', p. 38. His speech cannot be termed an oration. Although the language was sometimes floral in the manner of the time, his voice was so low that at one point he had to be interrupted by a request that he speak louder.</ref> One segment of his talk presented the rationale of the slave-holders in their unwillingness to accept majority rule. Addressing the question whether the constitution had been ratified by "the people," he said: "States have conferred, and may at any time confer, their whole political power on a minority. They may make disqualifications dependent upon the tenure of freehold estate, upon the payment of tax, upon militia duty, or upon the color of skin; but whoever the State chooses to confer her political authority upon, are the people." He foresaw the decline in relative power of the slave-holding states, although at this time he did not believe it would necessarily lead to secession. He concluded his remarks by a pledge to follow the South whatever happened: "It is not for me to indicate the path she [the South] may, in her wisdom, pursue; but, sir, ... my whole heart is with her, and she will find me treading it with undivided affections."<ref>''Congressional Globe'', 35th Congress, 1st session, p. 1136–1140 (March 16, 1858). Mallory's revised remarks also can be found in ''Congressional Globe'', 35th Congress, 1st session, Appendix, pp. 214–218.</ref>
Despite his willing adherence to the Southern position on the issues that were dividing the country, Mallory was not prominent in the secession movement. He advocated reconciliation almost up to the moment that Florida passed its ordnance of secession. That occurred on January 10, 1861, making Florida the third state (behind South Carolina and Mississippi) to leave the Union. On January 21, Mallory delivered his farewell speech in the United States Senate.<ref>Underwood, ''Mallory'', pp. 70–71. See ''Congressional Globe'', 36th Congress, 2nd session, pp. 485–486.</ref>
In the days before [[Abraham Lincoln]] took office, parties in the seceding states disagreed over the proper course of action concerning the forts within their domains. In Florida, three forts remained in the possession of the United States Army: Fort Zachary Taylor at Key West, Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, and Fort Pickens near Pensacola.<ref>Underwood, ''Mallory'', p. 67. Two other forts near Pensacola, Forts Barrancas and McRee, were occupied by Florida militia without incident.</ref> Some of the most strident secessionists proposed that they be taken over immediately, by force if needed, beginning with Fort Pickens. Cooler heads hoped to avoid bloodshed and gain possession by negotiation; they made much of the conciliatory words of [[William H. Seward]], already selected to be [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] in the incoming administration. Mallory and Florida's other Senator, [[David L. Yulee]], and the two Senators from Alabama sent telegrams to their respective governors urging caution. Other Southern Senators lent their support, and President-elect [[Jefferson Davis]] seemed to agree. In the end, the moderates won out, and no attack was made on Fort Pickens. Although Mallory was hardly alone, his political opponents later used his perceived pro-Union stance as an excuse to attack him.<ref>Underwood, ''Mallory'', pp. 68–70–73.</ref>
Note: His father, Charles was from Fairfield Co Connecticut and died from yellow fever in the West Indies. His first obtained plans for an ironsided vessel from his cousins in Mystic, Ct. They quickly cut him off from further plans.--->
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