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One of the issues of the Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute published in the spring of 1880 was devoted to "The Autobiography of Commodore Charles Morris, U.S.N.,” edited by historian James R. Soley.
Written solely for the benefit of the Morris family, and released almost 25 years after his death, it is a rather dull account of Morris’ naval career from his early days as one of Commodore Edward Preble’s famous "boys” in the Mediterranean, through the period of the War of 1812, when he was among the "boys” who became the gallant frigate captains of that conflict, and through the administrative service of his more mature years.
In a foreword, Soley expressed his respect and admiration for the late commodore. Morris was considered by many, said Soley, to be "the foremost man of the old Navy, one who united judgment and self- control, in the highest degree, with courage and zeal, and who was as successful in the office as upon the quarterdeck. . . .”
The copy of that issue of the Proceedings in the possession of the Seattle Public Library contains a handwritten, two-page insert which is a violent rebuttal of Soley’s appraisal of Morris. The angry words, scrawled across both sides of lined note paper, are barely legible. They read:
MEMORANDUM "The officers of the Navy who were old enough to form correct opinions, (from about 1820 to 1842, when the Board of Navy Commissioners was abolished) will in the main, [be] of the opinion that the Board was greatly averse to every suggestion for the improvement of the Navy and naval ordnance that did not originate with its members, & for the greater part of the time that Commodore Morris was a member, he was, de facto, the Board. Had the Board divested itself of its jealousies & met the able men of the service in a becoming spirit, the Board would not have been abolished. They were all powerful for good or evil—imperious and dogmatic. They ruled with a rod of iron, & permitted no one in the service to have any opinions not originating and in full accordance with their own. It was mere dogged stubbornness, born of their self sufficiency & jealousy that caused all the trouble and delay in fitting out the South Seas Exploring expedition after Congress authorized it. They wanted their oum way-' untrammeled—which Congress did not see fit to give them. The same may truly be said in regard to the assignment of quarters to the officers of the Ohio, induced by class feeling. In truth, the Navy was managed for the benefit of a Clique, composed of the Navy Commissioners & their intimate friends and relatives. These prominent officers deserved and received great credit and high honors for their war
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services, but they were not content—they wanted to be, and were for a long time, autocrats. Commodore Morris never, it is believed, ever yielded his opinion that a 42 pounder gun was the heaviest that could be worked aboard any ship, even after the introduction of our 8 inch guns!
"As chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography, he not only thwarted Dahlgren in every way in his power, but used his personal & professional influence with the Sec’y of the Navy (Mr. Dobbins) to prevent him from proving the possibility of using more powerful more efficient ordnance than 42 pdrs.!!
"Commodore Morris, with his ability and experience, might have built up a navy which the country would have been proud of. He did not do it. He did not try to do it. He was in a groove & would not get out of it. He practiced laissez faire."
The latter portion of Morris’ autobiography describes defense of the Board on the matters of which an unidentified officer, who had surely grown old in the service, was still complaining. The Commodore claimed that the Board was not to blame for the delayed expedition to the South Seas, which had finally sailed under command of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes. Clearly, Morris and the man originally appointed to command, Captain Thomas Ap Catesby Jones, hero of the 1814 Battle of Lake Borgne, had wasted no love on each other. On another occasion, Jones had tangled with the Commodore personally on the subject of the proper ordnance for naval vessels, according to the autobiography, and would not accept the findings of a special board appointed by the Secre- tary of the Navy, which supported Morris’ position.
The Commodore had had a bit to say, too, about the terrific wrangle that had followed the quartering °f the Ohio’s junior officers down on her orlop deck fust before she put to sea for a cruise. Apparently, the youngsters had screamed as though they were the owners of their former gundeck space, and had refused t0 see that Commodore Isaac Hull’s need for the cap
tain’s quarters to accommodate his wife and sister on the cruise was responsible for the whole business.
Many of the aggrieved young officers and their friends in the service had written letters to newspapers, complaining of the Board’s autocratic stance on this and other matters.
There is little doubt that the author of the unsigned memorandum criticizing Morris meant to see it published, perhaps in the Proceedings. Nevertheless, it seems unlikely that it ever left his possession. The sheets of note paper are uncreased, and they were thrust so firmly between the pages of the issue that they were eventually bound between the hard covers of Volume VI.
Who wrote the memorandum? There is one frail clue. The package acquired by the Seattle Public Library in 1911 contained Volumes I through VI and bears an inscription: "Lieut. Wm. H. Parker, U. S. Navy from Thornton A. Jenkins, Rear Admiral U. S. Navy.” The handwriting appears to be the same as that of the manuscript insert.
Admiral Jenkins, vice president of the Washington branch of the Naval Institute in 1880, and subsequently the Institute’s sixth president, was a young officer during the period that the Board of Navy Commissioners was in existence. Was he the author? May he not have been one of the youthful letter writers, reminded in his old age of the grievances of his youth upon reading Soley’s appraisal of Morris? No one will ever know.