Historical voices

But these three greatest men have taken their place among the great men of all nations, the great men of all time.

Yet as the generations slip away, as the dust of conflict settles, and as through the clearing air we look back with keener wisdom into the nation’s past, mightiest among the mighty dead loom the three great figures of Washington, Lincoln…

In the long run every great nation instinctively recognizes the men who peculiarly and pre-eminently represent its own type of greatness.

The nation must make ready the tools and train the men to use them, but at the crisis a great triumph can be achieved only should some heroic man appear.

Whether it is Nelson, the greatest of all admirals, at Aboukir, Copenhagen, or Trafalgar; or Farragut, second only to Nelson, at New Orleans or Mobile; or Dewey at Manila—the great occasion must meet with the great man, or the result will…

Yet we must keep in mind also that all this forethought, energy, courage, and capacity will be wasted unless at the supreme moment some man of the heroic type arises capable of using to the best advantage the powers lying ready to hand.

We should therefore keep in mind that the hero can not win save for the forethought, energy, courage, and capacity of countless other men.

Ships take years to build, crews take years before they become thoroughly expert, while the officers not only have to pass their early youth in a course of special training, but can not possibly rise to supreme excellence in their…

A thoroughly good navy takes a long time to build up, and the best officer embodies always the traditions of a first-class service.

Every officer and man, from the highest to the lowest, who did his full duty in raising the navy to the standard of efficiency it had reached on May 1, 1898, is entitled to feel some personal share in the glory won by Dewey and Dewey’s men.

It is particularly true of the naval service that the excellence of any portion of it in a given crisis will depend mainly upon the excellence of the whole body, and so the triumph of any part is legitimately felt to reflect honor upon the…

Not only is it impossible for a man to learn how to handle a ship or do his duty aboard her save by long cruises at sea, but it is also impossible for a good single-ship captain to be an efficient unit in a fleet unless he is accustomed to…

Only incessant practice will make a good gunner; though, inasmuch as there are natural marksmen as well as men who never can become good marksmen, there should always be the widest intelligence displayed in the choice of gunners.

Exactly as it is of no use to give an army the best arms and equipment if it is not also given the chance to practice with its arms and equipment, so the finest ships and the best natural sailors and fighters are useless to a navy if the…

Even Dewey’s splendid capacity would not have enabled him to win the battle of Manila Bay had it not been for the traditional energy and seamanship of our naval service, so well illustrated in his captains, and the excellent gun-practice…

A man of less daring courage than Dewey would never have done what he did; but the courage itself was not enough.

An infinity of excuses can always be found for non-action.

All that he could do was to choose a good man, give him the largest possible liberty of action, and back him up in every way; and this Secretary Long did.

A man afraid to vary in times of emergency from the regulations laid down in time of peace would never even have got the coal with which to steam to Manila from Hong Kong the instant the crisis came.

These are the risks which must be taken, and the men who take them should be singled out for reward and for duty.

But only a limited number of men have the moral courage to make these preparations, because there is always risk to the individual making them.

Therefore, when war threatens, preparations must be made in any event; for the evil of what proves to be the needless expenditure of money in one instance is not to be weighed for a moment against the failure to prepare in the other.

A service will do well or ill at the outbreak of war very much in proportion to the way it has been prepared to meet the outbreak during the preceding months.

An excellent test is afforded by the readiness which the man has shown to take responsibility in any emergency in the past.