who was president when the us navy department was established?
William McKinley
contradiction
 The United States Navy claims 13 October 1775 as the date of its official establishment , when the Second Continental Congress passed a resolution creating the Continental Navy . With the end of the American Revolutionary War , the Continental Navy was disbanded . Under President George Washington threats to American merchant shipping by Barbary pirates from 4 north African Muslim States , in the Mediterranean , led to the Naval Act of 1794 , which created a permanent standing U.S. Navy . The original six frigates were authorized as part of the Act . Over the next 20 years , the Navy fought the French Navy in the Quasi @-@ War ( 1798 – 99 ) , Barbary states in the First and Second Barbary Wars , and the British in the War of 1812 . After the War of 1812 , the U.S. Navy was at peace until the Mexican – American War in 1846 , and served to combat piracy in the Mediterranean and Caribbean seas , as well fighting the slave trade . In 1845 , the Naval Academy was founded . In 1861 , the American Civil War began and the U.S. Navy fought the small Confederate Navy with both sailing ships and ironclad ships while forming a blockade that shut down the Confederacy 's civilian shipping . After the Civil war , most of the its ships were laid up in reserve , and by 1878 , the Navy was just 6 @,@ 000 men . 

entailment
 Assistant Navy secretary Theodore Roosevelt quietly positioned the Navy for attack before the Spanish – American War was declared in April 1898 . The Asiatic Squadron , under the command of George Dewey , immediately left Hong Kong for the Philippines , attacking and decisively defeating the Spanish fleet in the Battle of Manila Bay . A few weeks later , the North Atlantic Squadron destroyed the majority of heavy Spanish naval units in the Caribbean in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba . 

contradiction
 At the same time , tensions between the U.S. and France developed into the Quasi @-@ War , which originated from the Treaty of Alliance ( 1778 ) that had brought the French into the Revolutionary War . The United States preferred to take a position of neutrality in the conflicts between France and Britain , but this put the nation at odds with both Britain and France . After the Jay Treaty was authorized with Britain in 1794 , France began to side against the United States and by 1797 they had seized over 300 American vessels . The newly inaugurated President John Adams took steps to deal with the crisis , working with Congress to finish the three almost @-@ completed frigates , approving funds to build the other three , and attempting to negotiate an agreement similar to the Jay Treaty with France . The XYZ Affair originated with a report distributed by Adams where alleged French agents were identified by the letters X , Y , and Z who informed the delegation a bribe must be paid before the diplomats could meet with the foreign minister , and the resulting scandal increased popular support in the country for a war with France . Concerns about the War Department 's ability to manage a navy led to the creation of the Department of the Navy , which was established on 30 April 1798 . 

neutral
 The United States Coast Guard was formed in 1915 when its predecessors – the United States Life @-@ Saving Service and the United States Revenue Cutter Service , which was established in 1790 by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton as an armed maritime law enforcement service – were merged . According to Dr. William H. Thiesen , Ph.D. , Atlantic Area Historian of the United States Coast Guard , the following events involving Hispanics occurred in the early years of the Coast Guard its predecessor services . 

contradiction
 Congress allotted Secretary George M. Robeson 's Department of the Navy $ 56 million for construction programs . In 1876 , a congressional committee headed by Representative Washington C. Whitthorne discovered that $ 15 million of that sum was unaccounted for . The committee suspected that Robeson , who was responsible for naval spending , embezzled some of the missing money and laundered it in real estate transactions . This allegation remained unproven by the committee . 
