The American Minute: “Naval warfare had been revolutionized…” by American John Ericsson “a great son of Sweden”

The Confederate iron-plated ship Merrimac destroyed two Union boats during the Civil War.The Union responded with the ironclad Monitor.

President Calvin Coolidge dedicated a statue to the Monitor‘s designer, John Ericsson, on May 29, 1926:

“The Confederate ironclad…Merrimac, began a work of destruction among 16 Federal vessels, carrying 298 guns….

…When the ironclad Merrimac went out on the morning of MARCH 9 to complete its work of destruction it was at once surprised and challenged by this new and extraordinary naval innovation…

…After a battle lasting four hours in which the Monitor suffered no material damage… the Merrimac…badly crippled, withdrew, never to venture out again…

…The London Times stated that the day before this battle England had 149 first-class warships.

The day after she had but two, and they were iron-plated only amidships. Naval warfare had been revolutionized.”

American Minute-Notable Events of American Significance Remembered on the Date They Occurred

President Calvin Coolidge also stated in his speech, May 29, 1926:

“We assemble here today to do reverence to the memory of a great son of Sweden…John Ericsson…. We honor him most of all because we can truly say he was a great American….”

Coolidge added:

“Sweden is a country where existence has not been easy. Lying up under the Arctic Circle…

…At an early period they were converted to the Christian faith and their natural independence made them early responsive to the Protestant Reformation, in which their most famous king, Gustavus Adolphus, ‘The Lion of the North,’ was one of the most militant figures in the movement for a greater religious freedom…

…It was under this great leader that plans were first matured to establish a colony in this country for purpose of trade and in order that the native, as was set out in the charter, might be

‘made more civilized and taught morality and the Christian religion… besides the further propagation of the Holy Gospel’…

…While it was under a new charter that a Swedish colony finally reached the Delaware in 1638, they never lost sight of their original purpose, but among other requests kept calling on the mother country for ministers, Bibles, and Psalm books…”

Coolidge described the Swedes further:

“Forty-one clergymen came to America prior to 1779.

One of the historians of this early settlement asserts that these colonists laid the basis for a religious structure, built the first flour mills, the first ships, the first brickyards, and made the first roads, while they introduced horticulture and scientific forestry into this Delaware region…

The building of nearly 2,000 churches and nearly as many schools stands to their credit…

Always as soon as they have provided shelter for themselves they have turned to build places of religious worship and founded institutions of higher learning with the original purpose of training clergymen and teachers…

Reverence for religion which is the foundation of moral power.”

Calvin Coolidge continued on the Swedes:

“Though few in number during the period of our Revolutionary War, they supported the Colonial cause and it has been said that King Gustavus III, writing to a friend, declared

‘If I were not King I would proceed to America and offer my sword of behalf of the brave Colonies’…

Such is the background and greatness of the Swedish people in the country of their origin and in America that gave to the world John Ericsson.”

When offered payment for designing the Monitor, John Ericsson, who ‘had a particular horror of slavery’, replied to a U.S. Senator in 1882:

“Nothing could induce me to accept any remuneration from the United States for the Monitor… It was my contribution to the glorious Union cause…which freed 4,000,000 bondsmen.”

Coolidge added of John Ericsson:

“This great mechanical genius wrote to President Lincoln offering to ‘construct a vessel for the destruction of the hostile fleet in Norfolk and for scouring southern rivers and inlets of all craft protected by southern batteries.'”

John Ericsson explained to President Lincoln:

“Attachment to the Union alone impels me to offer my services at this frightful crisis -my life if need be- in the great cause which Providence has caused you to defend.”