some assurance of ultimate remuneration for the losses which must be incurred in the first instance, from inexperience, unskilfulness, and ignorance. [H. of R. soil; they are transported in vessels which we have constructed by sailors whom we have produced and educated. All is from within ourselves. Why is this importation to be prevented, and this trade to be cut off? The avowed purpose is to increase the distillation of whiskey, and the hope of increasing the market for the grain of some of the Western and Middle States. We are informed, by the evidence reported, that one bushel of tained by the distiller, and the other delivered to the farmer in payment for his grain. The farmer, in the Some gentlemen earnestly contend, that every thing West, then takes his fifty bushels of corn, puts it into a which we can learn to produce, should be protected by wagon, conveys it to a distillery, and exchanges it for law, while others as strenuously maintain, that no legisla. fifty gallons of whiskey, and thus his grain is converted tive aid should be extended in any case. These are ex- into spirits. What is the process with us? The fifty tremes and equally remote from the truth. No such gen- bushels of grain of our farmer, is, either by himself, or eral rules can be established; but the question of encour- the trader to whom he has sold it for that purpose, put agement ought to be settled upon each article by itself, on board a vehicle-not called a wagon indeed, but callaccording to its character. To entitle it to our care, it ed a ship or vessel-transported to an island-there exought to be such, that after the first obstacles are over- changed for molasses, which is brought back and delivcome, and foreign enactments countervailed, it will be ered to the trader or farmer. This molasses, thus obable to maintain itself by its own strength. I am willing tained, is as much the fruit of the labor of the farmer, to take the infant manufacture by the hand, and support as if it had been made by him from the cane grown on its early steps; but let it be such as will eventually, when his own land. This molasses is then conveyed to a disyears have passed by, be able to stand and go alone. I tillery, and there exchanged for, or made into rum; and would most cheerfully lend my aid to the introducing and thus the grain of our farmer is converted into spirits. fostering of new products, but they should be adapted Now, sir, I ask where is the policy or justice of sacrificto our soil and climate, and to the condition of our coun- ing one of these farmers to the other? Is not the grain try. I would not sacrifice all experience to experiment. of the one as much entitled to protection as the corn of I would not abandon former profitable employments, to the other? Is not the ship as important and useful a force labor into new and unproductive channels. I would fabric as the wagon; and are not the sailors, who nanot lay waste those fair fields, and that congenial cultiva-vigate the one, as much entitled to regard, as the tion, from which we have derived wealth, prosperity, and horses who drag the other, or as any class of men in the happiness, to substitute in their place sickly hot-house country? plants, which can exist only under the concentrated rays of legislative patronage. But the articles to which this encouragement should be extended ought to be selected with much care and caution, and with reference to the capacity and condition of our own country, compared with that from which they are imported. The character of the trade which introduces them, and the bearing of the proposed measure up-corn makes two gallons of whiskey; one of which is reon other branches of industry, ought also to be carefully considered. A word, sir,.upon the subject of steel. Three witnesses only were examined, who all declared that they knew nothing about it, and two of the three gave their opinion that it ought not to receive further protection. And, upon this evidence,the committee have recommended a large increase of duties, and that, too, when it does not appear that the article is produced any where in the country. They will tax every man who buys an axe, or a hammer, or a knife, for the benefit of the manufacturer of steel, who does not exist. I had supposed that the contention between entities and non-entities, had passed away with the schoolmen of the dark ages. It was then made a solemn question whether a possible saint was of more value than an actually existing fly; but, in this enlightened and brilliant age, it is discovered that a possible maker of steel is of more value than all the existing manufacturers, farmers, and mechanics in the land! The duty on molasses has been so ably discussed by my colleague, [Mr. ANDERSON] as to leave little to be added. The quantity imported last year, was 13,260,867 gallons. Of this, the report of the committee informs us, 11,000,000 of gallons were brought into ports East of New York-in other words, for I like to be explicit, into New England. And I will add that more than 4,200,000 gallons were imported into Maine. Why was this immense amount, being almost one third of the whole quantity, brought into that single State? Is it that we have more wealth than others, that our sea-port towns can send more money wherewith to purchase, than great commercial cities? No, sir; I regret to say that we are comparatively poor. Why, then, do we engross so much of this trade? It is because it is carried on solely by our own labor. We send to the West Indies the fish which we have caught with our own hands, the lumber which we have cut in our own forests, the agricultural products which we have raised on our own Where, then, is the difference in these two processes that can justify you in attempting to injure one portion of your citizens for the mere forlorn hope of aiding another? There is a difference--the one gives much more employment to American capital and domestic industry than the other. There is another distinction-the one pays into the treasury more than 650,000 dollars annually; from the other you receive nothing. Those that you now seek to prostrate, are really entitled to the preference, if any partiality is to be indulged. It is in evidence that the distillation of whiskey is a profitable and fast increasing business, while that of new rum has diminished, and is diminishing. You propose to aid a business prosperous and profitable at the expense of one depressed and suffering. The gentleman from Pennsylvania near me,[Mr. INGHAM] gave us a picture of the prosperity and happiness of the farmers of his own State. He described their extensive and fertile fields, their substantial stone buildings, their comfort, and their contentment; and in the pride of his heart, boasted that they never came here to ask for protection. And it is for the hope of benefitting such men, who in plenty and independence, scorn to ask your aid, that you now volunteer to tax and oppress the farmers of the East, whose stubborn soil and inclement skies, with incessant toil, will but afford them the necessaries of life. But I do not stop here. I have thus far confined myself to that portion of the molasses which is converted into spirit; but much the greater part is consumed as food. I am aware that the committee inform us that much of it is distilled, and one member of the committee [Mr. STEVENSON] says, that 8,000,000 of gallons are so disposed of. This I presume to controvert. They have given us no da ta or calculation, but rest on mere conjecture and assumption. It is proved that the amount distilled has diminished; the importation has much increased; the proportion, then, which now goes to the distilleries, is much less than H. OF R.]} Tariff Bill. formerly. This has arisen from the progress of whiskey. A distilled, [APRIL 1, 1828. returning from his day of toil, and take from his hand the measure of molasses which he carries to his family, and put in its stead a gallon of whiskey, for the sustenance of his children! When your children ask bread, will you give them a stone? Nay, will you take from them the bread which they have earned, and give them a serpent, poisonous and deadly? I ask a few moment's attention to the effect of this ta riff upon the State which I have the honor, in part, to represent. used for food, 8,850,753 I trust that I can divest myself, as far as any gentleman, Thus it appears, by official documents, that the impor- of all undue and improper local influences. But it is our tation of the latter year exceeded the former by more than high and bounden duty to endeavor to make known here 2,000,000 of gallons; yet the distillation was less. If the the condition of those whom we represent, and the opesame proportion of the last year's importation were dis- ration of measures, especially of taxation, upon their prostilled, as of that of 1820, it would be but about 3,000,000 perity. To this end, principally, it is, that the people of gallons out of 13,000,000. But if we allow a ratable every where are so justly tenacious of the right of repredecrease as from 1810 to 1820, it would be considerably sentation. I have studiously and anxiously endeavored to less. I have taken pains to ascertain the quantity distill-learn the true condition and real interests of my own State, ed in Maine, and find it to be less than one-fifth part of and, as connected therewith, to understand the colonial the amount there imported. This nearly corresponds policy of Great Britain. with the statement of my colleague, which was one sixth. Look at the situation of Maine. Her territory, in the I find it also stated, by one of the ablest and most correct form of a diamond, rests at one corner only on New Hampstatistical writers, [Mr. NILES] that the quantity convert- shire, and is, on all other sides, surrounded by the British ed into rum does not exceed 3,000,000 of gallons. From Provinces, or by the sea which Britain commands. We all these independent sources of information, thus corro- are in the midst of our enemies-enemies by arms in war borating each other, I am justified in asserting that the adversaries to all our interests in peace. To our naviquantity distilled does not exceed one-fifth part of the gation she is every where hostile; in the lumber trade, whole. The residue is used by all classes, and especially the Provinces have great facilities by their forests, rivers, the yeomanry, mechanics, and laboring poor, as whole- and shipping; for the fisheries, their advantages in some some, nutritious, palatable, necessary food, and frequent-respects exceed ours, for our boats and vessels are somely as a substitute for sugar. And you would now take times obliged to go even into their waters and harbors to from them this article, thus procured by their own labor, carry on the business. You would say to them, you shall not sell your fish, you shall not sell your lumber, you shall not sell the fruits of your farms, lest, by possibility, it may affect the distillation of whiskey. You shall not procure your accustomed food, by disposing of your own productions, but shall, nolens volens, drink our whiskey! And will the object be attained? After you have stopped this importation, cut off these markets, and taken away this employment from the navigation, will the sale of whiskey be increased? I ask the advocates for this measure, do you want our vege. table food, salted provisions, or live stock' If not, what shall we give you in exchange? Wherewithal shall we pay you, if disposed to become your customers? This proposition has not even the merit of the case of taking one man's property to give it to another-it is to take from the one, when there is hardly ground to hope that the other will obtain any portion of it! It is to destroy, not to transfer. I would say to the whiskey-maker, to injure others, is not, of course, to benefit yourself. You may set fire to your neighbor's house, and burn it down over his head, in the hope that he may purchase the materials for anoth er of you; but if he be unable to buy, you will derive no benefit, and he must go houseless. If the sole purpose be to prevent the distillation of molasses, why interdict that part which is eaten, being more than 10,000,000 of gallons? Why not advance directly to your object? Impose your tax solely upon that manufacture-compel the distillers to take your license at your own price; and, although that would be, most unjustifiably, to break down one portion of your citizens for the purpose of building up another, yet it would avoid one monstrous result of the present measure. What do you now seek to accomplish?-to prohibit a salutary article of diet, and extend the use of whiskey! You would take from the farm house, the cottage, and the log cabin, whole. some necessary food-to leave in its place a pernicious in toxicating liquor to sow the seeds of "the pestilence which walketh in darkness, and the destruction which wasteth at noonday!" You would go to the poor man, This bill must powerfully aid and advance the colonial policy of Great Britain. Her system now is, to build up her continental colonies on our borders, at the expense and even to the distress of her West India possessions. This I have already illustrated, in speaking of her course and conduct in excluding us from her islands. What broke off the negotiations in 1823? The elsewhere principle, as it has been called; the provision which had been incorporated into our statute, and insisted upon by our Minister, that the productions of the United States should be received into her West India Islands upon the same terms as similar productions from elsewhere. To this it was objected, that the products of Maine would then have equal advantages with those of her adjacent provinces, to which she would never consent. She would not listen for a moment to such a proposition. It is a fact never known, I presume, here, that the laboring citizens of Maine, even West of the centre of the State, are drawn hundreds of miles from their families and homes, across the British lines to labor, year after year, in cutting British timber, for British employers, to be transported in British vessels; and this, too, when our own immense forests are inviting the axe of the woodsman, and our ships anxiously seeking employment. Is not this an unheard of anomaly? Where else in this country, the asylum of the laborers of all nations, where else is it that American citizens are compelled to seek employment from foreigners? Sir, this should open our eyes to the warning effects of British policy. Another fact: Our agricultural products, to a small amount, indeed, but sufficient to illustrate the system, are attracted across the boundary line, to depots in New Brunswick, to be thence transported abroad in British vessels: and almost every ton of our potash, and considerable quantities of flour from New York, have during the past year, found their way to Quebec and thence to foreign markets. And thus our rival takes from our ships and our sailors the transportation of our own produce, and gives it to her own, and secures to her provinces the benefits of the transit through them. APRIL 1, 1828.] Tariff Bill. [H. OF R. Our intercourse with the West Indies is a barter trade; The views of Britain are further exhibited by her claim equal to a direct capitation tax of one dollar and twenty of boundary, by which she seeks to take from Maine a cents upon every man, woman, and child in Maine, acterritory about equal in extent to the whole of Massachu-cording to the last census! setts. By the treaty of 1783, the independence of the Thirteen States was acknowledged according to their ex-it can be no other. If we stop these imports, our existing boundaries—this territory was then a part of Massachusetts. In the negotiations at Ghent, the British Commissioners proposed to purchase it of us, in order to give them a direct communication between Quebec and Halifax. They asked us to cede it to them for an equivalent. Our Commissioners promptly replied that, being a part of an independent State, the General Government had no power to cede it, and that the proposition could not be even a subject of discussion. They have since claimed it as their own: thus showing a fixed determination to accomplish their object, little regarding the character of the means. They have expended, and are still expending, large sums for fortifications, armaments, and naval depots, in their colonies. In every movement we see that it is the purpose of the British Government to strengthen their provinces; to render them formidable in themselves, and the fulcrum of her power on this side the Atlantic; and, at the same time, weaken and depress Maine. This bill, in its effects, tends to accomplish these purposes. ports, toc, must cease. They will not pay us money, but will receive their necessary supplies from our neighbors and rivals. Where, then, is to be the market for our fish, of which we send about a million of dollars worth annually, from the United States to the West Indies? Where shall we send our lumber, of which more than twentysix millions of feet are exported, in one year, from the single town of Portland? What is to become of the four millions dollars of capital now invested in this business in Maine, and of more than a hundred thousand tons of shipping now engaged in this trade, in the same State, worth from four to five millions of dollars? And, after you have sunk our vessels, and driven the mechanic from the ship-yard, and the mariner from the sea, and compelled them to change the whole current of their lives, to abandon fixed habits and early pursuits, to become tillers of the earth, what do you do for them in their new occupation? What do you offer to the farmers? You tax them for the necessaries of life, and cut them off from their markets. Their produce is now sold on the seaboard, and on the margins of rivers, to be transported to the West Indies, or consumed by the population engaged in ship-building, navigation, trade, and the fisheries. If these are broken up how are our agriculturists to pay their taxes and obtain the usual comforts of life? They cannot send their productions to any other parts of the United States; their soil and climate will not compete with the more favored regions of the West. The breadstuffs of the South are now imported into every harbor and river in Maine. Flour, even from Rochester, far in the interior of New York, finds its way to the very centre of the State. If you destroy our other occupations, the farmer too, must be ruined. If the storm of legislation is him, he, too, must be uprooted by the whirlwind. He cannot stand alone. Every class of citizens must suffer, and the consequence must be, that the tide of our popu Maine must bear some proportion too, of the loss of lation will be retrograde. Our sailors will be found in the trade with France, Sweden, and Russia; but this is of foreign ships, our laborers will be drawn across the lines little moment compared with that of the West Indies. into the neighboring provinces, or seek a resting place in The quantity of molasses imported into Maine the last still more distant regions. Emigration will again comyear, exceeded 4,200,000 gallons; the proposed tax of mence. Emigration, as a public evil, affecting a commufive cents the gallon amounts to $210,000. Two hundred nity, every statesman can appreciate and must deplore. and ten thousand dollars a year, on this article, in Maine But its effects on private happiness, although little seen, alone! And are we told that the business can be sustain are not to be wholly disregarded. The young man will ined under these enormous impositions, in the face of the deed put on a careless face and assume a bold exterior; keen, close, vigorous, and unrelaxing competition of the but when he crosses the paternal threshold for the last British? Sir, it is impossible; it but barely exists now. time, and bids adieu to the land of his fathers, and the Those best acquainted with the subject, and in whose home of his infancy, he severs nearly all the ties which opinions we may place entire confidence, have told you bind him to existence. The old man, too; he may be. that it cannot bear any additional burthens; they have stow his parting blessing, and bid God-speed to his vigoinstructed their Representatives here not to attempt a re-rous and youthful son; but he feels that he is cut off forduction of the proposed duty on molasses, for that one cent would be as fatal as five; but that, if the smaller amount only were imposed, some of those engaged in this business might be induced to struggle along, against hope, to inevitable eventual ruin. They say, if you are Permit me here to advert to the course pursued by the determined to wound them fatally, deal a death blow at Committee on Manufactures. They were clothed with once; they would not linger along in protracted torments. extraordinary powers, and they seem to have exercised If the committee were correct in stating that from five them in an extraordinary manner. Authority to send for to six millions of gallons of spirits were annually import-persons and papers is borrowed from the British Parliaed, and if the same proportion came into Maine as of the ment. There, when it is apprehended that a contemmolasses, the addition of ten cents the gallon would im- plated measure will bear hard upon a particular class of pose upon that State nearly 200,000 dollars more. This, persons or portion of country, some of those who are to however, is excessive. Take but half that sum, and add be injuriously affected, are sent for as witnesses; that it to it the 210,000 dollars on molasses, and the 48,378 dol- may be known what will be the extent of the injury, and lars on shipping, makes an aggregate of 358,378 dollars how it can best be avoided or alleviated. What has been to be annually imposed upon Maine in three items only; the course of the committee? They themselves inform Every manufacture in Maine, which this measure reach es, it injures or destroys. The rope makers and cordage manufacturers cannot exist under these heavy duties on the raw material. The distilleries-it is the avowed purpose to ruin. Our navigation is our great manufacturing interest. Strange as it may seem, Maine owns one-eighth part of the whole tonnage of the United States; the materials for which part would, by the present laws, pay in duties, the sum of 478,411 dollars, and by the bill before us, the sum of 720,302; an addition of 241,891 dollars. The amount now annually paid by the shipping of Maine, in these duties, is 95,682 dollars; add 12,906 tonnage duty, makes 108,588 dollars. By this bill the same ship-to prostrate those around, who now protect and sustain ping will pay, on its materials 144,060 dollars; tonnage duty 12,906 dollars; amounting to 156,966 dollars; being an additional tax, every year, of 48,378 dollars. ever from the ministrations of that filial piety which Hea. ven designed as the consolation of declining years-from his faltering limbs is taken the prop which nature gave to sustain them. 60 [ APRIL 1,1828. that I had never before heard of. The witness replied that he had no knowledge of any such practice, but he had heard of it. And, upon this evidence, the committee gravely proceed, by solemn legislation, to prevent our ship owners, our merchants, and our navigators, from risking their ships, their cargoes, and their lives, upon the ocean, with "old and worn sails," in order to evade the duty on duck! There is one other case of fraud against this duty, even stronger than this, and about as well authenticated; it is that of the "Three wise men of Gotham, who went to sea in a bowl"-a vessel with nosails at all! us that, of all the molasses imported into the United bill was to me utterly inexplicable, until I read the eviStates, eleven-thirteenths are brought into New England; dence; and there I saw that the committee, of their own and yet the committee have not asked a single question mere motion, proposed this question: "Is it the practice of any man from that section of country, although some of American vessels, about sailing from America to of those now here, and particularly my colleague, who foreign ports, to clear out for their voyage with old has spoken on the subject, could have given them much" and worn sails, and to supply themselves with sails in valuable information. No: they seek for witnesses afar "foreign ports; thus avoiding the duty upon the hemp off; they go to regions thousands of miles distant for in-" or the manufacture imposed by our laws?" A practice formation on which to determine whether they shall distress our citizens or destroy our business. And the questions which they propound-what are they? When this trade with us is in a suffering condition, and barely exists, they ask the witness, Do you think that your farmers have received a fair compensation for their capital and labor? A fair compensation ! Send for a man who has lent you his money, and now receives fifty thousand dollars a year in interest on your public stocks; say to him, We are a committee to determine whether that in terest shall be increased; and then ask him, Do you think that you have received a fair compensation for your capital? What would be the answer? A little more. And he would answer honestly. Every man, almost, does really believe that he ought to receive a little more," to give him "a fair compensation." The committee did not even inquire into the injury which this measure would inflict. Their course seems to have proclaimed to us, that it matters not how deeply our trade, our navigation, our fisheries, and our agriculture, may be affected, if thereby they may but hope to increase the distillation of whiskey-this, one might be induced to think, was, with them, the summum bonum—the ne plus ultra of legislative perfection! As to hemp. Every body knows that our ships are the great consumers, and the testimony reported by the committee further informs us, that nearly all the importa. tions are made into the Eastern ports; yet, on this sub ject, not one witness is called from that region. Here, again, what is the question proposed to those who are called to testify-" Is it not important" to you to increase the duty on hemp? And can we misunderstand the nature and the cause of such a leading question? We are taught, too, by the evidence reported, not to indulge the hope of an ultimate reduction of price; that it is ascer tained by experiment, that an addition, even of fifty dollars the ton on the foreign article, will not produce the same-the water-rotted hemp, in this country, and of course twenty-five dollars cannot have that effect. As to iron. The gentleman from Pennsylvania, [Mr. STEVENSON] a member of the committee, informs us that the Middle and Western States now supply themselves; and that the Southern produce nearly enough for their own consumption; that, of this article too, the importation is almost exclusively confined to the Eastern States. And he further tells us, that not only is this trade to be cut up; but, that the rolling mills, and slitting mills, and all the other iron works of the East, are to be transferred to the beds of ore in his own neighborhood. In this he is mistaken; but we are not the less obliged to him for the frankness with which he has warned us of his expected consequences ! The same gentleman from Pennsylvania, [Mr. STEVENson,] a member of the committee, also declares that the bill is to put an end to our molasses trade, and to break down all our distilleries. And he further says, that, as to the coarse woollens-the negro cloths-of which 5,000,000 of yards are annually manufactured at one establishment in Massachusetts, the duties were purposely put low, out of sympathy for the population of the South; and in this connexion, while telling us of his sympathy for the South, he talks of the wealthy incorporated companies of New England. Does the gentleman think that we can misunderstand language like this, or doubt the end to which such measures tend! He further assures us that the committee, in regulating the imposts, bore in mind that there were consumers buyers" of iron and woollens, but he did not inform us that they recollected that they were consumers of duck, and hemp, and molasses. The Chairman of the Committee has given us some account of their proceedings. It was proposed to tax ironvery well-all assent-no objection :-hemp, perfectly agreeable-no hesitation—no inquiry:—sail duck, agreed no doubts-no difficulties-put it on to that also :woollens-ah-stop-pause-consider-be cautioustouch them lightly. To me there has been no want of frankness on the part of the committee. They have, with sufficient distinctness, proclaimed to us from Maine, at least, that this measure is injurious to all our interests. They have warned us again and again; so that, if we vote for it, we do so with our eyes open, seeing the consequences. And do they think we shall vote for it? When they present to us that which they tell us contains ingredients fatal to our constitution, do they believe that we shall take it as a medicine, merely because they have labelled it with the name of tariff? The bill, in its effects, co-operates with the British policy. That favors the introduction of iron and hemp for their vessels-this taxes them for ours. They desire to injure and distress our navigation and commerce, and manufactures of woollens-this tends to accomplish all these objects. They earnestly desire the destruction of our West India trade, the prostration of our fisheries, and to wound our navy-this bill must powerfully contribute to a "consummation so devoutly to be wished." If the question could be proposed to the British Parliament, they would pass this bill for us by acclamation. And should we, of this committee, adopt it in its present form, a British statesman might well say that we deserved a pension from his Royal Master. And what is the course of the Committee on Manufactures, in relation to the most important of all our manufactures our ships! Sir, they never touch them, but to wound-they never notice but to tax them. The provision respecting discriminating duties, which ought still to be enforced as to those nations which refuse to remove their unequal impositions, and which has been inserted in every act imposing duties on imports for the last thirty years-even that is omitted from the present bill. The solicitude of the committee I have already spoken of navigation as a branch of dofor our navigation is still further illustrated, by their taking mestic industry. It is not only important in itself, but away the drawback upon duck, when exported in a quan-intimately connected with commerce. They must flourtity less than fifty bolts in one vessel. This clause of the ish or decline together. Upon this topic I shall not en APRIL 1, 1828.] Tariff Bill. [H. of R. large. Of the benefits of commerce, I had supposed | cross of St. George, which was waving fin insolence and there could be but one sentiment among intelligent men triumph. in this country. But it has been spoken of here with I repeat, sir, without fostering your navigation and seaasperity and reproach. It seems to have been supposed men, you cannot have an effective navy. And can we that there was an antipathy between it and agriculture doubt the necessity of strengthening this arm of national and manufactures. But they are essential to each other. defence? It is said that commerce impoverishes and exhausts the Who does not see that the great Powers of Europe, country, to add to the wealth of the sea board. Nothing England, France, and Russia, are putting on their armor can be more erroneous. It has given life, and energy, for a maritime contest? The British are making unweaand activity, to every branch of industry. Its salutary in- ried exertions to increase the strength and efficiency of fluence has been felt in the remotest ramifications of so- their marine. In the year 1827, they had 113 men of ciety; it has every where diffused knowledge, refine- war upon the stocks, of which six were of 120 guns each; ment, and wealth, and poured millions upon millions an- while of the whole number which they now have afloat, nually into the national treasury. It has been to us the only 14 are of that description; besides which, of those sun of our prosperity, shedding light and joy, and draw-upon the stocks, two were of 104 guns, one of 98, and ing up from the ocean those rich showers which have many other large vessels-the whole to carry no less than gladdened and fertilized our whole land. I cannot join 4,358 guns. in denouncing commerce, nor lend my hand to crush it; but would gladly exert my feeble efforts to impart new strength and energy to the parent of so much good. France, too, is not inactive. She has not wholly abandoned the policy which prompted Napoleon to construct his gigantic works at Antwerp; though her motives, we trust, are not the same. Great activity has been display. ed in her dock yards at Brest, Toulon, and Cherbourg. At this last arsenal alone, 3 three-deckers were launched during the last year, and 2 other three-deckers, 2 ships of a hundred guns, several frigates, and large steam boats, were there on the stocks. The former mysterious conduct of Great Britain, in relation to the Greek war, and which operated to sustain the cause of the Turk arose from her apprehensions of the designs of Russia. It was feared that she desired "to lave her enormous sides in the waters of the Medi ple; in which event, England already saw, in anticipation, a Russian fleet issuing from the Dardanelles, manned by Greek sailors. Our shipping is essential to our navy. Without a civil marine, you cannot have a military marine. Without commerce and navigation, you cannot have a navy. You may build ships of war, and put on board of them officers and men; but, if you have not seamen, you have not a navy. And sailors are to be formed only in their youth, and by years and years of their hardy service. All experience tells us this. Where are now the navies of Holland and Spain? Where are the fleets of Tromp and De Ruyter, which traversed the sea as in triumph, and en. tered the Thames itself in defiance? Where is the Span-terranean," and aimed at the possession of Constantinoish Armada, which made even Ocean's Empress to tremble on her throne? Gone, sir; gone with the commerce and navigation which sustained them. Why was not Napoleon able to cope with England on the sea? Had he The ocean is yet to be the scene of tremendous naval not all the skill and science of naval architecture? Did conflicts, and, if we preserve our neutrality, it must be an he not possess all the munitions of war, and the most ac-armed neutrality. If we would avoid being insulted and complished theoretical officers; and, with eight hundred trampled on, we must have strength to make our ven thousand soldiers, could he not command men? Sir, he geance felt, and our friendship valued. had every material but the seamen, and these even the creative genius of Napoleon could not make. It was the want of this bone and muscle of a navy-real full-formed sailors-that lost him the battles of Aboukir and Trafalgar. What was it that enabled us to confound our ene-right of deposite at New Orleans formerly produced such mies, and astonish the world by our early naval prowess; that caused us, Pallas like, to step into national existence with the armor and intelligence of manhood? It was the skill, the strength, the energy, the activity, and the indomitable spirit of our sailors. Where were they formed? In our merchant service and fisheries. And to the latter in particular, the fishe ries, which gentlemen now seem willing to sacrifice, is to be attributed their unequalled character. This occupa tion has a thousand times been called the nursery of our seamen, and never was the term more justly applied. It carries not our young men and boys to the polluted, pes. tilential atmosphere of foreign cities, where their minds and their bodies may be corrupted in the haunts of debauchery; but they go forth in a little community of fathers, and sons, and brothers, and friends, and neighbors; and, from the time of their departure until their return, "their home is," indeed, " upon the deep ;" there they breathe only the pure blasts of the "mountain wave." It was one branch of this business which so early attracted the penetrating eye of Burke, and which he justly pourtrayed in that splendid eulogium, which has been so often quoted and admired. cess. Without an efficient navy, a few ships might insult our coast and blockade our harbors; they might hermetically seal the magnificent Mississippi, the great outlet of the whole Western country; and if the suspension of the commotion, what might now be the convulsions conse. quent upon such a measure? Without an efficient navy, our commerce and our revenue would almost cease to exist-not only the Barbary powers in the Mediterrane. an, but the pirates of the Archipelago, of the West Indias, and of Barrataria; night prosecute their work of murder and rapine with impunity. Instead of our drawing up the leviathan of the deep, every shark would feed upon our fatness. A maritime force is free from the dangers of standing armies. We may safely confide to it the guardianship of our liberties. But why should I dwell on this theme > The question has been settled. The judgment in favor of the navy has been pronounced by the whole People. It has fought itself into favor. Who does not remember that, when thick darkness had settled upon our whole horizon, it was the gleams of glory reflected from the ocean that "dispelled the gloom? And can it be necessary that I should now conjure you not to wound it by striking a blow at navigation-not to sacrifice our ships? Sir, if we have one just conception of what belongs to the interests, the honor, the security of our country, we shall, throughout our public lives, foster and protect our commerce, our navigation, and our navy; and when political life shall be drawing to a close, and we are about to depart forever from our country's service, let our last advice to those who shall survive us be the exhortation which trembled This is a school which no other nation can equal, and it is one great secret of your commercial and naval suc. Here have been formed those mariners who have carried your commerce, in defiance of foreign competition, into every sea, and who brought down the proud |