It will raise the character
of sailors, both as individuals and as a class. It will give weight to
their testimony in courts of justice, secure better usage to them on
board ship, and add comforts to their lives on shore and at sea. There
are some laws that can be passed to remove temptation from their way
and to help them in their progress; and some changes in the
jurisdiction of the lower courts, to prevent delays, may, and probably
will, be made. But, generally speaking, more especially in things
which concern the discipline of ships, we had better labor in this
great work, and view with caution the proposal of new laws and
arbitrary regulations, remembering that most of those concerned in the
making of them must necessarily be little qualified to judge of
their operation.
Without any formal dedication of my narrative to that body of men,
of whose common life it is intended to be a picture, I have yet
borne them constantly in mind during its preparation. I cannot but
trust that those of them, into whose hands it may chance to fall, will
find in it that which shall render any professions of sympathy and
good wishes on my part unnecessary.
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