acts of injustice; and to make for the other half the best preparations we can. sweat of his brows. H. OF R. actor; yes, he had witnessed that a British force, confined to their works in New York, by General "Of what nature should these be? A land army Washington, with the aid of a small marine, would be useless for offence; and not the best nor safest could send a detachment to Petersburg and Richinstrument of defence. For either of these purposes, mond in Virginia; and if those towns did not exthe sea is the field on which we should meet an Euro-perience the destructive effect of fire, as all the pean enemy. On that element it is necessary we tobacco in them did, it was owing to the mercy should possess some power. To aim at such a navy of the enemy. He had seen Cornwallis march as the greater nations possess, would be a foolish and wicked waste of the energies of our countrymen. It triumphantly from Chestertown to Virginia. A would be to pull on our own heads that load of mili-French fleet came to our aid, gave us the command of the water, and the laurels were shorn tary expense, which makes the European laboror go supperless to bed, and moistens his bread with the from the brow of this popular British General and himself made captive. Here then, we have a "It will be enough if we enable ourselves to prevent mountain view, opposed to a water prospectinsults from those nations of Europe which are weak theory to experience. I trust I shall not be considon the sea; because circumstances exist which renderered as presuming too much in deciding in favor even the stronger ones weak as to us. Providence has of the practical opinion. A land army, therefore, placed their richest and most defenceless possessions is not the safest instrument for defence; but the at our door; has obliged their most precious commerce sea is the element on which we should meet an to pass, as it were, in review before us. To protect European enemy. Let us then count the cost. this, or to assail us, a small part only of their naval Will naval equipment be more costly than an force will be risked across the Atlantic. The dangers army? The argument of my friend from South to which the elements expose them here are too well Carolina (Mr. CHEVES) is unanswerable on that known, and the greater dangers to which they would head. He has, I believe, purposely omitted one be exposed at home, were any general calamity to in- fact in corroboration of his statement for me. I volve their whole fleet. They can attack us by detach- will supply it as well as I can. It is this: that the ment only; and it will suffice to make ourselves equal experience of the British nation retrospectively to what they may detach. Even a smaller force than confirms his view, as to the comparative expense they may detach, will be rendered equal or superior between land and naval equipment. by the quickness with which any check may be repaired with us, while losses with them will be irreparable till too late. "A small naval force then is sufficient for us, and a small one is necessary. What this should be, I will not undertake to say. I will only say, it should by no means be so great as we are able to make it. Suppose the million of dollars, or £300,000 pounds, which Virginia could annually spare without distress, to be applied to the creating a navy. A single year's contribution would build, equip, man, and send to sea, a force which should carry 300 guns. The rest of the Confederacy, exerting themselves in the same proportion, would equip in the same time 1,500 guns more. So that one year's contributions would set up a navy of 1,800 guns. "The British ships-of-the-line average 76 guns; their frigates 38;-1,800 guns then would form a fleet of 30 ships, 18 of which might be of the line, and 12 frigates. Allowing eight men, the British average, for every gun, their annual expense, including subsistence, clothing, pay, and ordinary repairs, would be about $1,280 for every gun, or $2,304,000 for the whole. I state this only as one year's possible exertion, withot deciding whether more or less than a year's exertion should be thus applied." The circumstances under which these two great men delivered these two variant opinions were not less different than the circumstances under which they were formed. The first was given under the irritation of opposition and in the heat of debate. The latter sprung from the asylum sacred to patriotism and philosophy. The early habits of the first were formed in a country far removed from nautical views, but where indeed the use of the bayonet was well understood. The latter had just had the American Revolution in review before him, nay, more, he had been a busy the Annual Register, the Naval expenditure was, do. Army vol. 5, p. 150-Navy $3,640,000 1,383,748 Do. Do. 800,000 3,640,000 Do. Do. Do. 1801, p. 32-Navy do. do. Army 6,194,452 the expanded bosom of the Chesapeake, the bold claiming jurisdiction in your very harbors; and I am sure all who are within the hearing of my voice anticipate before I name it, the fatal consequence to one American citizen at least. This total imbecility on the water is strongly exemplified in the history of China; permit me to read an extract taken from a newspaper: 15,800,000 15,900,000 1,738,000 No one will question the safety with which reliance may be placed on the British expenditure for land and naval purposes. To aid this view, I will observe that in many instances of the supplies the estimate appears to have been made at £4 per month for each man, whether in the land or sea service. Is it necessary to call the attention of the committee to the fact, that in the course of years reviewed, the British navy has been every where successful; her army only occasionally so. If then the experience of the past and the best estimate of the future, evince that naval equipment is not more costly than land Extremes are not always the safest mode of equipment, and since an army is not the safest reasoning; but in this case, the view it exhibits instrument of defence, we are led to inquire into is a striking one. Suppose the United States to its effect or applicability to our situation. If the be at war without a single ship. The smallest view be taken as some have done, that the force vessel may insult and injure you in all your you are to provide is to give additional security waters; and for this I refer to the British sloop to commerce, then indeed were argument unne-in Charleston, and the Cambrian in New York, cessary as it is self-evident, that regiments are altogether inefficient for that object. If limited to my view, namely, for the defence of our seacoasts, the shores of our bays and rivers, and for the protection of that great highway that lies between Orleans and Maine, the peculiar application of naval force is almost as apparent. Take a view of the seacoast, its extent, the number and boldness of its rivers, and it will point at once to the kind of force necessary for its protection. That view will show you also the extent of the interest at stake which it is the duty of the Government to defend. I thank the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. McKEE) for his calculation. I did not hear him accurately, but have no doubt of its correctness. He came to this result: with the building twenty ships-of-the-line and forty frigates, you would, at the end of the war, be $80,000,000 in debt. Admit it. On your seacoast and rivers you have not less than fifteen or twenty towns, worth on an average the sum of $80,000,000. To save one then would compensate the expense, and my object includes besides all the farms and farm- We have some neighbors in St. Domingo, and houses, to say nothing of the lives of their inhab-elsewhere in the West Indies, who know how to itants, which would be of equal, and I believe make as good ladrones as are made in the Chinese greater, amount in value than all the towns. There seas; and when we shall become totally defenceis then left the coasting trade, which, as within less, it is not probable that their talents will be the mark, I will state at $80,000,000. How then unemployed and their powers inert. stands the calculation of the enemies of our system? How great the saving over the cost? And on us is the duty to make it. My district strikingly evinces the inefficiency of bayonet defence. There is within its bounds more water than land; and you cannot go five miles in but few directions without meeting with navigable water; nay, sir, my State exemplifies it. We count in our bounds "The excellent policy of a great nation's being destitute of a navy is strikingly exemplified in China. Here two or three millions of people are kept in continual awe and consternation from the marauders on their coast, who send and carry off their wives and children; stop all the unarmed vessels they meet in the rivers of that fine country, and pillage and plunder almost without resistance. Even some of the Chinese least render them assistance by forbearing to oppose are themselves obliged to co-operate with them, or at for their own preservation. Now a few frigates would be more than sufficient to silence all these piratical ladrones; but they have too much of the American unpolitic policy for such expense; nor will they wantonly expend one dollar for naval defence; though ten would be saved in consequence of it." This fact is not dependent on this scrap, but is known to every man conversant with that conntry. I am just presented with a note from a gentleman, saying, at this time an American captain from Newport is engaged by that immense empire as a defender against those ladrones. I am fed to another view of the subject by the statement of the gentleman from Kentucky, (Mr. Mc KEE,) who said that one county near Baltimore could pay more taxes than the whole State of Ohio. Now taxes are the sinews of war. Ishould thank the gentleman, if he would calculate the loss that might be drawn from the seaboard by a contemptible floating force. And here the resources of the nation would not only be lost to your own Treasury, but they would be applied in aid of the resources of your enemy. I have shown you how assailable we are on the seaboard. The temptation to plunder is admitted. Will you then dis regard your duty and leave us unprotected? I feel strong in the appeal to this House, that they will extend to us a portion of the strength of the nation. It is not in man to be perfect. Complete protection is not asked; but we hope not to be reduced to the humiliating condition of being deemed unworthy of public, protection. As to the quantum of defence, the argument of the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. CHEVES.) is relied on as unanswerable. What, sir, if it cost you $80,000,000, shall it deter you when it has been shown that more than twenty times $80,000,000 will be saved by it! But Great Britain has a thousand ships, cries every opposing tongue-a thousand ships, perhaps, swim on the imagination of every one that is silent. Sir, I accord with my friend from Pennsylvania, or rather, perhaps, I ought to say I admire his magnanimity in giving his enemy the praise of bravery and of skill. Will he not, with me, look to the monument at the Navy Yard, to the fate of Somers and Israel? Must we be reminded of the Philadelphia, attacked under the walls of Tripoli by a third or fourth of the force which defended her? Shall I bring to his recollection the bombardment of Tripoli by one frigate and a few gunboats, or the final effect which our few frigates produced on that Power, compared with that of the Neapolitans, with, I believe, four ships-of-the-line? I trust that these instances will suffice as proof to my friend, that, if the British are brave, his countrymen are equally so. Since we are led to this nation and its thousand ships by my friend, let us consider her conduct at the period of the Spanish Armada. Its particular number is not material; but it was styled by British historians invincible. Did the British nation then, headed by a woman, submit? No, sir. The sequel is knowna tempest came, and the armament was destroyed. Had Britain then a population to support and defend her seagirt frontier greater than America? No. If, indeed, there is no help for us, but in a blast from Heaven to disperse these one thousand ships, let us take the counsel in the fable, and first put our shoulders to the wheel, and then call on Heaven, and this appeal I will join, in confidence that a free people are the peculiar care of Heaven. With unequal sail, let me follow in the wake of my friend from South Carolina, in the argument as drawn from the number of British ships. He gave you their stations, and asked from which could the force be spared to detach to these seas. I would ask at what time, in what instances, has she been able to make distant detachments, and 12th CoN. 1st SESS.-28 JANUARY, 1812. what have been the number? Lord Nelson went up the Mediterranean with, I think, fifteen sail-ofthe-line-a French fleet that effected the capture of Cornwallis, was, I think twenty; yet it was months before Great Britain could collect in these seas a force to compete with De Grasse. It will be better to refer to the memory of gentlemen than to fatigue them with multiplied instances. Let it not be said that seven millions of freemen are not capable of defending themselves. Thus, sir, in a desultory way, I have given you some of my views on this subject, not all, because I have thought much; but the want of habit does not enable me to condense or arrange my views: my feelings tell me I have occupied my portion of your time. [NOTE. It was intended to have compared the expenditure for the British navy, which is understood to be for the last years $17,200,000, with the expenditure of the French army, which is believed to be $40,000,000. By report of the Secretary of War it appears that a regiment of infantry will cost per annum, $167,031. Do of cavalry, $273,506. A 74-gun ship will cost for same time, by report of the Secretary of the Navy, $202,110.] Mr. MITCHILL said, he addressed the Committee under impressions of great diffidence, after so full an elucidation as the subject had received, particularly from his honorable friend the chairman of the committee that reported the bill, (Mr. CHEVES,) who had supported it with cogent reasonings; and his other honorable friend, (Mr. BASSETT,) who had maintained its expediency by perspicuous statements. I should have been willing, Mr. Chairman, to remain silent on this occasion; but coming, as I do, from the principal seat of commerce in this nation, and being the immediate representative of its greatest mercantile emporium, I feel a more than usual impulse to make known to you my sentiments on the question. If, in so doing, I shall not pursue an even course, but appear somewhat immethodical and desultory in my remarks, it will, I trust, be ascribed in part to the difficulty of selecting topics not already touched upon and exhausted. For the laborers who have gone before me with their sickles, have so completely gathered the harvest, that I consider myself but an humble gleaner in the field. The bill now under consideration contains several distinct propositions for increasing the naval power of this nation. The two prominent features which it exhibits, are, first, the repairing of such public ships and vessels as now lie in ordinary, and rendering them fit for service; and, secondly, an augmentation of our floating force, by constructing a number of line-of-battle ships, and additional frigates. The other provisions of the bill, as to men, money, and docks, are merely incidents to the great objects contained in the first and second sections. As the whole bill is open to animadversion, and as its principle has been discussed at great length, I shall rather direct the observations I have to offer to the chief subject of naval increase, than to matters of detail in its modifications. The people whom we represent here, in this House, may by called emphatically a commercial people. All of them, and more especially the eastern and northern portions of the inhabitants. have a deep interest in the use and employment of the ocean. Their land is the more valuable on account of its contiguity to that highway of nations. They have availed themselves of their situation to educate expert merchants and navigators. They are owners of vessels and cargoes; and these, together, with their persons, they expose on the tempestuous waves; dispositions of this character marked the infancy of the Colonial settlements. Even while confined within the restrictions imposed by the master Government over his provinces, they gave admirable proofs of their knowledge and adroitness in almost everything that related to trade and shipping. Thus, a commercial spirit was interwoven, as it were, with their original stamina. What they first acquired by practice, was perpetuated by imitation. To this day, it is cherished by habit; by continuance, it has become necessary to them, as a sort of second nature. This tendency of their mind was strengthened by the freedom of the institutions under which they lived; and, before the lapse of half a century, from their landing in these climes, they disputed fiercely with their governors about patronage and prerogative. In process of time, attempts were made to tax their commerce without their consent, and to levy money upon them, not voted by representatives of their own choosing. They resisted; they appealed to arms. The duties on glass, painters' colors, and tea, were not oppressive in their amount; but, being wrong in principle, our predecessors, unalterably attached to a free jurisprudence, and a free trade, declared magnanimously that they would not tolerate the encroachments. They adopted the maxim of principiis obsta, of opposing tyranny at its onset. They made early opposition, and their resistance was effectual. The quarrel which terminated in the Revolution was thus the offspring of a misunderstanding, principally commercial; and, indeed, grounded in commercial restrictions. And I mention it to demonstrate the temper and feeling of our people, while yet in the Colonial condition, upon this important point. That was a contest upon a precautionary idea, and undertaken less from any injury actually sustained, than from oppression apprehended. JANUARY, 1812. more skilfully than any nation on the globe. I quote the naval architects of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Norfolk, and Charleston, in proof of my assertion. The excellence of their structures, whether you regard their burden or their speed, is without a parallel in ancient or modern times. Nor are our countrymen deficient in the management and direction of such floating machines. They can spring a cable and weigh an anchor more expertly than the trans-atlantic sailors; they can hand, reef, and steer better; they can perform a prescribed piece of service quicker; they equal the most able of the foreign mariners in expedients to lessen the dangers of the storm, and to extricate themselves from the horrors of a lee-shore. Their activity has really wrought wonders. While some of them are exploring high latitudes for a Southern continent, another has taken possession (Crusoe-like) of the remote island of Tristan d'Acunha ; while a third teaches the arts of civilization to the natives of the Sandwich Islands, and a fourth plants the seeds of empire on the banks of the Northwestern Columbia. To belt the globe, is become with them a common feat, an ordinary act of commercial outfit. The sandal-wood of the Fejee islands, the pearls of the Carolinas, and the buche de mer of the Philippines, are sought almost as familiarly as the productions of the West Indies. If they find force necessary to carry on that commerce, they apply that force, remove difficulties abroad in their own way, and excite no inquiries at home about their proceedings. By individual effort the science of physical geography and the art of circumnavigation, are as much improved now-adays, and in this country, as they have heretofore been by the munificence of nations, even with European monarchs at their head. And, what is worthy of particular notice in these voyages, they who engage in them perfectly know how curios ity may be blended with profit, and how the air, the water, and the earth, may be so laid under contribution as to afford them a rich reward for their toils. I have heard it said, that the revolutionary Congress had conceived, as soon as the individual States could be prevailed upon to surrender the impost then belonging to them, a duty of five per centum ad valorem, would defray all the needful expenses of the General Government. All their calculations of future income rested upon commerce. The framers of the Constitution, under Independence was, nevertheless, attained, and which we are now by God's blessing assembled, our citizens were thereby emancipated from their appear to have entertained similar views of the provincial thraldom. Immediately, they became system of revenue. This may be inferred, from more commercial than ever; they quickly doubled the power expressly given to Congress "to reguthe stormy Cape, and made visits to India and late commerce." And this, sir, is not a dormant China-they braved the billows, and bade defi- power, like that granted, but never exercised, " to ance to the tempests-they proved themselves fix the standard of weights and measures.' daring and intrepid, almost beyond example. has been often the object of legislative enactment. Shall I attempt a few sketches in the maritime It is one of the most weighty and important conhistory of these sons of liberty? They wield the cessions of power that that incomparable instruaxe better than any other people; they vanquishment confers. I conceive the authors of this the stately tenants of the forests, and subject the oak, and the pine, and the cedar, and the locust, to their power; they model and construct ships It Constitution to have been the lords of the soil, and the true representatives of the landed interest. They were not a convention of professed mer chants; but merely an assembly of gentlemen with commercial feelings. They have left one of the strongest proofs of this that was ever recorded, by prohibiting Congress from laying a duty on exports. Thus that patriotic body, with jealous vigilance and foresight, took care of the agriculture and the commerce of their country. Knowing the connexion between these two great branches of human enterprise, in nature and in fact, they would not sever them in practice nor even in theory; and for the most valid reasons that can be conceived. Agriculture has been declared to be the mistress, and Commerce the handmaid. Yet the correctness of this may well be questioned. Their relation is of another kind; more consanguineous and more intimate. I should rather pronounce them to be sisters; that the sisters were of twin connexion; and that Agriculture had the advantage of Commerce only in the circumstance of being the elder-born. Away then with that political error which disjoins ties and affinities so intimate as these! The Constitution also bestows upon us the power to build and employ a navy; intending, no doubt, thereby to afford a safeguard to that property and those persons who were embarked in commerce. It was perfectly plain that rapacity and violence had not deserted the earth; that unprotected wealth would tempt the hand of cupidity; and that the weak would occasionally, in these days of refinement, as in the ruder times of yore, be made the prey of the strong. Letters of marque and reprisals were therefore authorized upon proper occasions; and rules concerning captures were intrusted to our legislative discretion. Fully possessed of all this knowledge and all this power, the people of the United States have been remarkably pacific; they have been more than pacific; they have acted under a persuasion that other nations would be equally pacific, at least towards them. Our citizens have entertained too good an opinion of mankind; and in consequence, they have fallen alone and helpless into the dens of thieves and sharpers. They have adventured with large sums of money in their purses, among pirates and ruffians, without pistols and side-arms of any sort to defend themselves. Like the feeble, good humored and forgiving, everywhere they have been kidnapped, and plundered in all quarters. The millions and hundreds of millions that have been thus unlawfully seized, would have ruined any people but our own. But a productive soil, worked by industrious hands, repairs losses with amazing quickness. From this source it is, that such immense depredations have not exhausted us entirely. The waste of plunder has been great; but the efforts of reproduction has been greater. It have been urged. sir, that the hazards of trade may be guarded against by insurance. By paying a premium adequate to the risk, an adventurer can secure the sum mentioned in his policy against individuals or companies who would make good his loss. This is indeed true; and such operations are of the highest importance to men of business. But in the eye of a statesman or a sovereign, it is equally a H. OF R. loss to the country, whether the underwriter or the assured shall be obliged to bear it. In either case, there is so much taken out of the country; there is so much minus in the great national account-and the process may be carried so far as to be ruinous to both parties. I wish to steer my course free and clear of such rocks and breakers as these. If the Treasury now contained but half the sum of the property burned, sequestered, detained, condemned, exacted for costs, charges and fees, and wrung from the owners under some foul pretext or other, we should possess more by half than is required to provide for the decent protection of our commerce. We are told, nevertheless, that if the tracks of the ocean, in addition to their usual dangers, are so beset with enemies, it is best to keep out of harm's way by staying at home. This experiment has already been tried. An embargo of fourteen months was abandoned from a conviction of the impossibility of enforcing it. The people, it seemed, must and would trade. Many would adventure; no restraints could bind them. They proceeded to sea without the accustomed documents, and the courtesy of the British gave the runaways a favorable reception. That It is not now the question, whether our constituents shall be a commercial people or not. die has long ago been cast. We are so and the dispute which at present agitates us, is a nullity, if we do not intend to continue so. If I was to engage as Plato did, in framing a constitution for an ideal Republic, or after the manner of More, delineate the form of an Utopian government, do not affirm that I would exclude external commerce. But the visionary schemes of closet-politicians are not the matters upon which we are deliberating; ours is practical business. It is a decision of the course which it is wisest and best to take, under a constitution which recognises foreign trade, derives its principal pecuniary supplies from the exercise of that trade, and invests us, the legislative administrators of that constitution, with the presiding care over it. The experience of ages has sufficiently proved that, if men expose their persons among barbarous strangers, they are liable, in a multitude of cases, to insult and captivity; and if they have treasure or merchandise in their possession, robbery and murder are but too often practised by the assailants. Does not the sheik who commands the caravan traversing the Arabian sands, know the danger of his undertaking? Is he forgetful that his camels, those "ships of the desert," with all their precious loading, pilgrims, hucksters, and all, will become the spoil of some freebooter, unless he shall be prepared to purchase a |