Alexandria Gazette

Flogging in the Navy
Correspondence of the N. Y. Tribune.

Washington, Thursday, Jan. 18.

Let no man say that good cannot come out of evil—it can, provided the counter-persuasions are not the stronger. The House to-day, in Committee of the Whole on the General Appropriation bill, the item in hand being a provision for some branch of the Navy Department sustained and voted in a Proviso that the Secretary of the Navy shall forthwith issue an order prohibiting Flogging or corporeal punishment in the Navy of the United States. There was any amount of fluttering and fidgeting—there was a very plausible objection raised that the amendment was not now in order, (who ever heard of a reform of abuses being strictly in order?) but the Chairman (Mr. C. B. Smith) ruled that the amendment would stick, and the Committee voted that it should stick, by nearly three to one I hope the opposition was in good part based on the alleged irregularity and untimeliness of the measure, and not on its supposed demerits, for I saw some very good men pass between the Tellers when the noes were called, who I hope are right on the naked proposition. At all events, the amendment is engrafted on the bill, and cannot be got off without a chance for a yea and nay vote. I don't believe there are fifty members in the House who will vote to strike it out on a call of the yeas and nays.

If this is only carried through, though it were the only good thing effected, Congress need not be ashamed of the session.