Though there were many mutterings of the coming tempest in the decade 1850-1860, the navy, whose duty, unaffected by internal politics, lay abroad, went its even tenor. We had come to the verge of war with Spain in 1852 over the case of the _Black Warrior_. There had been filibustering expeditions and the slave trade to look after; threatenings of difficulties with England; a successful expedition to Paraguay in 1858 and 1859 to demand reparation for the firing upon the United States steamer _Water Witch_; and most notable and most momentous of all, the expedition, 1852-1854, resulting in the opening of Japan. Meanwhile was swiftly gathering the storm of secession. Despite the Kansas war, the John Brown raid, and fierce political antagonisms, the illimitable optimism of the American people would not admit the idea of danger until the convulsion was upon them. So little could our people in 1860 recognize that they were rapidly being carried into the abyss of war, that in the last days of the Congress which closed on June 25th of that year, “at the instance of Sherman, of Ohio, the estimate for repairs and equipment of the navy was cut down a million.... Senator Pugh, of the same state, could say: ‘I think we have spent enough money on the navy, certainly for the service it has rendered, and for one I shall vote against building a single ship under any pretence at all.’ The blatant Lovejoy, in the face of the rising storm, said: ‘I am tired of appropriating money for the army and navy when absolutely they are of no use whatever ... I want to strike a blow at this whole navy expenditure and let the navy go out of existence.... Let us blow the whole thing up! Let these vessels rot, and when we want vessels to fight, we can get mercantile vessels and arm them with our citizens.’... The whole existing steam navy consisted of but twenty-three vessels which could be called efficient and thirteen which were worthless, and while there was a willingness and effort on the part of the Northern senators and representatives to add to the force, it was put wholly upon the ground of the suppression of the slave trade. Morse, of Maine, the chairman of the Naval Committee in the House, urged that the increase should take the form of a purchase of small steamers of six to nine feet draught for African service. There appears no glimmering in the mind of any one of the speakers of the coming of a great war, then but nine months distant, and in which the North could not have been successful had it not been for the throttling of the blockade and the occupancy of the Mississippi.”[48]