K 2.7^ 
 5 I8to? 
 
 I La 
 
 A 
 
BANCROFT 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. MILTON S. LATHAM, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 fladfu 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 On the IQth day of June, 1863. 
 A. L s o, 
 
 DEBATE in the SENATE, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 team $Mjj Sine from Ojalifontia 10 0{hm, 
 
 AND PASSAGE OF THE BILL, 
 
 On the 25th day of April, 1862. 
 
 BALTIMORE.. .PRINTED BY JOHN MURPHY & Co. 
 
 PUBLISHERS, BOOKSELLERS, PRINTERS AND STATIONERS, 
 
 MAKBLE BUILDING, 182 BALTIMORE STREET, 
 
 1862. 
 
acroft 
 
 PACIFIC RAIL ROAD BILL 
 
 Mr. LATHAM. I move that all prior orders be suspended, and that the Senate 
 proceed to the consideration of House bill No. 364, being the Pacific railroad bill, 
 which was set down for one o'clock. 
 
 The motion of Mr. LATHAM was agreed to ; and the Senate, as in Committee of 
 the Whole, resumed the consideration of the bill (H. R. No. 364) to aid in the 
 construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific 
 ocean, and to secure to the Government the use of the same for postal, military, 
 and other purposes. 
 
 Mr. LATHAM. Mr. President, before the Senate proceeds to a critical ana 
 lysis of the various sections, I feel it my duty to present a few general ideas upon 
 this important measure, and a special review of the leading features of the bill. I 
 deem this course most economical of the time of every Senator, and perhaps it 
 may obviate the necessity of response to many objections which will legitimately 
 arise in the progress of debate. 
 
 The subject of an inter-oceanic railway, uniting the Pacific with the Atlantic, 
 has seriously occupied the attention of the American people and Congress since 
 the admission of California into the Union. There is, in fact, no measure more 
 universally understood and its necessity appreciated by men of all parties, or any 
 more earnestly advocated in years past by distinguished statesmen, than this pro 
 ject now before the Senate of the United States. Mr. Jefferson, at the opening of 
 the present century, saw the importance, nay, necessity, of exploring a route from 
 the valley of the Mississippi to the ocean; at a period, too, when the Republic 
 was in its infancy; its population but five millions; its territorial rights in the 
 vast region within the then Territory of Oregon undefined, the separation of the 
 American from British territorial lines not having been made until nearly forty 
 years after, when adjustment was effected by the Washington treaty of 1846. 
 
 The celebrated expedition of Lewis and Clark, through the long, bleak, unbroken 
 wilderness as it was in that age, passing three winters in the enterprise, was more 
 than two years in exploring to the mouth of the Columbia river, having traveled 
 four thousand miles, starting from the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri, 
 and occupying three years in the overland and return transit. 
 
 The time, the toil, the incredible hardships and perils of the expedition show the 
 importance of the contemplated results, destined to affect so vastly the interests of 
 the great American family. Since then, what an amazing change has taken 
 place! Two generations are no more, and the illustrious men of that age have 
 passed into history. The Republic, as it came from the victorious patriots of the 
 Revolution, in virtue of the Declaration of Independence, as recognized in the 
 definite treaty of peace in 1783, fixed the territorial limits in area equal to eight 
 hundred and twenty thousand six hundred and eighty square miles. Those 
 
limits, by the Louisiana treaty of 1803, with the French republic, by the Florida 
 treaty of 1819 with Spain, by Texas annexation resolutions of 1845, by the Guad- 
 alupe Hidalgo treaty of 1848 with Mexico, and the Gadsden treaty of 1854, have 
 been increased to three millions and a quarter of square miles, double the area of 
 the Roman empire at its greatest period of expansion, after battling for possessions 
 for a thousand years. With its territorial growth has kept pace its population, 
 now thirty-three millions, far advanced in civilization; and by the application of 
 steam as a motive power on land and sea, and lightning as a medium for the 
 transmission of intelligence, the country stands in practical science centuries in 
 advance of any previous era in the history of man. Tt is not disputed that the 
 progress of the United States in every industrial department has been rapid and 
 constantly sustained, in agriculture, manufactures, and commerce. The first 
 geographical division, the Atlantic slope, was where these great interests were 
 first developed on this continent. 
 
 The restless Anglo-Saxon race, under its new-born Government of freedom, 
 soon spread itself over the great valley of the Mississippi, and now on the Pacific 
 shores confronts the millions of Asia, and is preparing to dispute supremacy with 
 the commercial rivals of the Union. The results of our industrial activity may be 
 understood by a few items of illustration. 
 
 The yield of corn alone for the year 1860, was, in bushels, nine hundred mil 
 lions; the domestic produce exported for the year ending 30th June, 1860, as 
 shown by the report of the Treasury, was considerably upwards of four hundred 
 millions of dollars, and about thirty-eight millions of dollars in excess of foreign 
 imports. To this may be added profits on those exports and cost of transportation 
 in American vessels, all of which it would not be unreasonable to estimate as a 
 gain to our own people in that year's transaction of $100,000,000. 
 
 In addition to our foreign commerce, (taking the year 1860 as an average, less 
 than will exist when peace returns,) we have an internal annual trade of over one 
 thousand five hundred millions of dollars carried coastwise, up the bays and large 
 rivers, on the great lakes by steamers and sailing vessels, on the Mississippi and 
 its affluents, by two thousand vessels, then by overland through the great railway 
 system a system begun thirty years ago, yet now equal to thirty thousand miles 
 in operation, with sixteen thousand miles additional projected ; all together unite 
 in forming a net-work over the older portions of the United States, at a cost of 
 $1,000,000,000. 
 
 Now, it is proposed to link these arteries of internal prosperity by one which 
 shall traverse the great interior region from the valley of the Mississippi westward 
 to the ocean, uniting with the local system of the Pacific, the land of mineral and 
 agricultural wealth, which, since its admission into the Union, has furnished an 
 annual contribution in gold greater than four times the yield prior to 1850 of the 
 aggregate gold product of the world. 
 
 The Congress of the United States, by acts in 1853 and 1854, determined that 
 all question of the feasibility of the measure should be put at rest forever by order 
 ing explorations, which were made in five different latitudes, ranging from our 
 extreme northern limits towards the southern, taking first a direction near the 
 forty-ninth and forty-seventh parallels, then the forty-second and forty-first, the 
 thirty-ninth and thirty-eighth, the thirty-fifth and near the thirty-second. 
 
 These elaborate and voluminous details are presented in a series of large folio 
 volumes, published by order of Congress, showing the entire practicability of an 
 
efficient route, at different eastern termini, in' the wide longitudinal range over a 
 .thousand miles, stretching from our northern boundary in the Mississippi valley 
 to the thirty-second degree of latitude. 
 
 The condensed tabular exhibit of results which I now present from these rail 
 road exploration publications shows in a clear, methodical, and analytical form, 
 the general direction of the lines of route traversed air lines, distance by proposed 
 -railroad routes, summit of ascents and descents, length of level route of equal 
 working expense, comparative cost of different routes, number of miles of route 
 through arable lands, through regions not equally favorable, the elevation at dif 
 ferent distances, and altitude above the sea of the highest points upon the routes. 
 
 The eastern half of the Pacific railroad is already a reality, and that upon the 
 most gigantic proportions. 
 
 We are now called upon to put an end to delays by coming up to the project 
 with a determination to discard all sectional differences, all questions of unimpor 
 tant details, and agree at once upon a plan, by legal enactment, which shall 
 secure the construction of this work as speedily as the genius and energy of our 
 artisans can accomplish it. Fortunately, statesmen of all parties agree that there 
 is no constitutional objection, while there can be none of a political or industrial 
 nature. The constitutional power, then, over the subject is complete and un 
 doubted. When Ohio, the oldest of the public land States, was admitted into the 
 Union the General Government was the great land proprietor within the limits of 
 that State. The Cumberland road was projected by the General Government. 
 It cost over six and a half millions of dollars, but its results were immense. The 
 time from Wheeling to Baltimore was shortened from eight to three days, villages 
 everywhere sprang up along the route, and property rapidly advanced in value. 
 
 Thirty-four years ago over that road two thousand tons of produce in one 
 thousand wagons were transported from Wheeling to Baltimore, and a stimulus 
 given to intercommunication by turnpikes which awakened into life regions at that 
 time unknown to the quickening influences of trade. It was even then supposed 
 the annual produce taken over the road would be advanced to a hundred thousand 
 tons by cheapening the cost of transportation. Yet, in this principle of cheap 
 transit, the future was destined to produce a revolution incalculable in its results, 
 as found in the inauguration of the railway system. 
 
 Congress had, at an early period, exercised the power of appropriating moneys 
 for internal improvements in the States, with their consent In 1806, an act of 
 Congress authorized a road to be opened from Nashville, in Tennessee, to Natchez. 
 The Cumberland road was made pursuant to a law of that year, under an agree 
 ment in 18O2 with Ohio that a part of the proceeds of the public lands within that 
 Stale should be applied to the opening of roads leading to it, States through which 
 the roads might pass assenting. Other roads were made from Maine to Arkansas 
 and Florida; obstructions in rivers were removed. 
 
 Finally, such measures of internal improvement by the General Government 
 were substantially terminated; yet not until after $30,000,000 had been expended, 
 the first serious check to them having been given by President Monroe's veto of 
 the appropriation by Congress of money for repairing the Cumberland road, and 
 establishing gates and 'tolls. His successor, Mr. John Q,. Adams, in his first pub 
 lic State paper as President, favored the exercise of the power by Congress as a 
 constitutional right, and the policy of a liberal appropriation from the public 
 Treasury for works of internal improvement, thereby withdrawing the former 
 
weight of presidential authority against that power which Congress had exercised. 
 Afterwards his successor, President Jackson, announced the doctrine that Con 
 gress did not possess the authority under the Constitution to appropriate moneys 
 for works of internal improvements of a local character, but admitted the power 
 in regard to those of a national character. 
 
 The State rights doctrine introduced in this respect by the Maysville veto was 
 never denied, but on the contrary, encouraged and justified the exercise of the. 
 authority of the General Government in opening military roads and highways 
 over the Territories of the United States, and conferring munificent land grants 
 upon States for railroad communications, stretching from the North to the South, 
 upon a most expanded scale. 
 
 This system of land grants, to aid in the construction of railways, began in the 
 State of Illinois by a grant from Congress of an area equal to four thousand and 
 fifty-five square miles, or two millions five hundred and ninety-five thousand 
 acres, twice as large as the State of Delaware. This is called very properly the 
 corner-stone of the great empire system of internal trade and travel. The grant 
 was made to the State of every alternate section, six miles in width on each side 
 of the road and its branches, with an indemnity, where sections were not found, 
 of an equal quantity elsewhere within fifteen miles of the route. 
 
 In 1852, the whole line was put under contract, connecting the extreme northern 
 part of the State at Galena to Cairo on the south, with a subsequent branch to 
 Chicago. This main stem was the base of a triangle of which the bend of the 
 river forms the other two sides. The Illinois Central railroad is the longest four 
 hundred and fifty-odd miles in the world under any one corporation. Within two 
 years from the date of the grant, ten thousand men were at work upon the line, 
 at an annual expense of $3,700,000. It is now fully equipped, with over one 
 hundred locomotives, one hundred passenger, baggage, and express cars, and also 
 over two thousand freight cars. Already the company has disposed of $16,250,000 
 worth of their lands, the larger moiety remaining unsold, so that the grant is esti 
 mated as equal to $40,000,000 from the General Government to a single State of 
 the Union. 
 
 Since then statesmen of the extreme South, as well as North, have given in 
 their adhesion to " land grants " for such great objects ; and Congress, by a 
 number of special laws, has made like munificent donations to Missouri, Ala 
 bama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Michigan, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Wisconsin, 
 and Minnesota, the aggregate being equal to twenty-five millions five hundred 
 thousand acres. The immense, nay, incalculable benefits conferred by these 
 grants within the last ten years, cannot be estimated in the rapid circulation of 
 surplus capital within the great area they embrace. 
 
 Now, Senators, look at the condition of our possessions on the Pacific ! Are they 
 to be shut out from a participation in the benefits, to gain nothing from the vitaliz 
 ing influences of these mighty agents of human prosperity with a sea-line on 
 the western ocean of nine hundred and seventy miles, equal to half the Atlantic; 
 with a population of half a million, which has overcome obstacles and attained 
 results unsurpassed by any State in either hemisphere? When the American 
 flag was first raised in 1846 on those distant shores, the voyage there was a six 
 months' one by way of Cape Horn ; then followed the perilous transit over Cen 
 tral America. Soon American energy crossed the Isthmus of Panama with a 
 forty eight mile railway, at a cost of $8^000,000; and lines of steamships on the 
 
Atlantic and Pacific sides went into active operation with a clear profit, for I860, 
 of nearly $2,000,000. Have we not done our part, with all the toils and priva 
 tions of pioneers, in fostering on distant shores the institutions* of our country 
 in developing the gold product of our State, which has changed the value of the 
 precious metals and furnished its immense metallic circulation in aid of the com 
 merce of the world our mines of silver, quicksilver, tin, lead, copper, iron, and 
 coal our quarries of marble, granite and burr-stone, which are sources of count 
 less profit and wealth to the whole earth? The arable lands of the State were 
 estimated by Capiain Wilkes, of the exploring expedition in 1842, at only twelve 
 thousand square miles, or seven millions six hundred and eighiy thousand acres. 
 Upon better data, revealed by the progress of settlement, it is since asceriained 
 that the farming lands of the State cover a surface of nearly eighty millions of 
 acres, producing abundance of cereals and fruits of the temperate zone, changing 
 the relation of California from dependence upon importations for bread to that of 
 exporting flour as one of her staples. But the riches of our soil and ils various 
 products are known to the Senate and country. To a greater or less extent, ex- 
 plofation and settlement have proved like facts in regard to the agricultural lands 
 of Oregon and Washington the northern boundary, in part, of the latter being 
 Puget Sound, a great inland sea, destined^to have its effect in the trade of the 
 Pacific ocean. 
 
 Are these vast interests, in distant localities of the Un ; on, to lanquish and 
 struggle simply because two thousand miles intervene between them and your 
 great Mississippi valley? Is this great interior region still to be traveled the usual 
 laborious way, subjecting the voyager to so many perils, simply for the want of 
 adequate facilities? Have we not a claim to the benefits due by a Government, 
 the theory of which is to confer equal blessings, within its constitutional range, 
 upon every portion of our wi^e spread territory? The answer to this has been 
 enunciated by the press, in primary assemblies, legislative bodies, representing 
 more than thirty millions of people this side the Rocky mountains, and is now 
 responded to, urged and importunately demanded by the interests of the half mil 
 lion of our citizens west of the Sierra Nevada and Cascades. 
 
 Contemplating the interests, which I have so imperfectly suggested of the 
 Atlantic and Mississippi valley on the one hand, and on the other those now ex 
 isting on the Pacific still to be developed for the benefit of the whole Repulic, pre 
 sent and future, have the representatives of the Pacific not a right to demand your 
 patient, patriotic, prompt consideration and action, upon the important proposi 
 tion now before the Senate? 
 
 The measure before us is clear, comprehensive, and effective in its details, in 
 volving no disputed authority. It proposes a railroad system from the Mississippi 
 valley to the Pacific, with a telegraph line. It imposes proper checks and restraints 
 upon the railroad companies those organized and to be created to prevent 
 abuses or any improper application of the means placed at their disposal. It gives 
 them freedom in selecting a route, ample time to prosecute and finish the work, 
 and yet is specific in its awards of credits and land grants, exact in securing the 
 interests of the United States by lien in every inch of progress and loan of public 
 credit, and affording reasonable time to all parties. It proposes to lend the credit 
 of the Government by six per cent, bonds, redeemable in thirty years, the loan to 
 be made pari passu with the progress of the work, in fixed ratios; and the amount 
 of the responsibility (say $05,000.,000) so arranged as to restrict the cost per mile 
 
8 
 
 to known and ascertained reasonable valuations ; ultimately redeeming the stock 
 thirty years hence, when the mighty results of this work shall have rolled forward 
 to the door of the next generation; thus benefiting the masses at the opening of 
 the next century who will swarm east and west of the Rocky Mountains and line 
 the Pacific shores. The roads and branches indicated in this bill make an aggre 
 gate of two thousand four hundred and twenty-five miles, which, at the rate of 
 five sections or three thousand two hundred acres per mile, would make the 
 aggregate of the land grant for the Pacific railway only seven million seven hun 
 dred and sixty thousand acres. 
 
 Now, let us examine this proposed credit and land grant relatively with the 
 territorial extent to be benefited, in contrast with what has already been done by 
 Congress in northern, southern, and middle land States. The geographical sur 
 face of the State of Illinois is fifty-five thousand four hundred and ten square 
 miles. The grant to her for railroad purposes, as I have already indicated, is two 
 million five hundred and ninety thousand acres, valued at $42,000,000. The 
 geographical surface of that State, added to the acres of Missouri, Alabama, Mis 
 sissippi, Louisiana, Michigan, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, and Minnesota, make 
 the surface of these land States equal to six hundred and eighteen thousand four 
 hundred and one square miles. To tljese, Congress has donated twenty-five and 
 a half millions of acres in the choicest localities and richest lands, easily converted 
 into farms, in the midst of thick settlements, with fine fields in a state of highest 
 cultivation, with easy and quick access to domestic and foreign markets. The 
 Government having virtually withdrawn as a land proprietor in many of those 
 States, an immense increase value was the consequence to the lands thus con- 
 ceeded. If, then, we estimate the value of the lands to the ten land States men 
 tioned, at only one half the value of what the Illinois railroad grant is ascertained 
 to be, it will be found to reach the enormous sum of $150,000,000. 
 
 Besides all this, Congress by a general law approved 4th of August, 1854, has 
 granted the right " to all rail or plank road or macadamized turnpike company, 
 heretofore, or that may be chartered before the 4th of August, 1862, the right of 
 way over and through any of the public lands of the United States," giving them 
 one hundred feet in width, enlarged to two hundred feet in cases of deep excava 
 tion and heavy embankment, with the right to take from the public lands materials 
 of earth, stone, or wood, with the necessary sites for watering places, depots and 
 workshops. 
 
 The sum of these amazing results is briefly this, that to ten land States with an 
 aggregate geographical surface of six hundred and eighteen thousand four hundred 
 and one square miles, Congress has granted nearly two hundred millions of 
 dollars' worth of the richest lands, in beautiful localities, on the great highways 
 of domestic and foreign trade. 
 
 Now, the States of California, Oregon, and Kansas are together equal to a geo 
 graphical surface of three hundred and sixty-five thousand five hundred and 
 seventy-three square miles, and the Territories of the United States between the 
 Mississippi and Pacific contain one million two hundred and forty-two thousand 
 three hundred and twelve square miles, equal to the area of thirty States, each of 
 the size of the State of Ohio. The three large States already organized, and the 
 interest of ihis half-continent territory, representing the dimensions of thirty States, 
 only ask you for seven millions seven hundred thousand acres of wild lands, and 
 the loan of your credit for thirty years, of $65,000,000. 
 
9 
 
 Now, Senators, compare what you have granted to others and what is now 
 asked for us. Look upon that picture, and then upon this! As conscientious^ 
 patriotic statesmen not neglectful of even the least or more distant part of the 
 Republic, every inch of it being confided to your legislative care- moved by the 
 spirit of the imperial Senate of ancient days, never to yield a foot of territory while 
 an enemy was upon it, but constantly guarding its vast outline in all its diversified 
 interest, let me appeal to you to weigh the grave considerations inseparable from 
 this project, and extend to us in justice the benefits of equal laws and equal rights 
 so cheerfully and liberally awarded to other portions of the United States. 
 
 It may be said that the existing political commotions, the exigencies of war, 
 and other pressing demands upon the finances of the nation, render it inopportune 
 to add to the pecuniary obligations of the country. Earnestly,, vitally important 
 as this measure is to the Pacific States, yet if it could for a moment impair, check, 
 or divert the resources of the Government so as to result in any embarrassment in 
 these times of trial, I answer in the name of my constituents, that they would not 
 now ask it at your hands. They are committed to the support of these institu 
 tions, upon the basis of the Constitution, under which the Government of the 
 United States was organized on the 4th of March, 1789, and will stand by it to 
 the last! 
 
 Let us, then, inquire if the proposition before us is liable to such exception. 
 The loan of the public credit at six per cent, for thirty years is for $65,000,000, 
 with absolute security by lien, with stipulations by sinking fund from profits for 
 the liquidation of the principal. Official reports and other authoritative data show 
 that the average annual cost, even in times of peace, in transportation of troops, 
 with munitions of war, subsistence, and quartermaster's supplies, may be set 
 down in round numbers at $7,300,000. The interest upon the credit loan of 
 $65,000,000 of bonds will be annually $3,900,000, leaving a net excess of $3,400,000 
 over the present cost; appealing with great force to the economy of the measure, 
 and showing beyond cavil or controversy that in fact the Government will not 
 have a dime to pay on account of its credit, nor risk a dollar by the act authorizing 
 the construction of this great work. The United States, if there is force in figures, 
 facts, and reason, will secure with a land grant of seven million seven hundred 
 and sixty thousand acres of wild lands, without a farthing's cost, or outlay, or 
 risk, either present or future, a road that will span half a continent, be the great 
 highway of domestic trade, and eventually make the Union the center of the com 
 merce of the world. 
 
 Let it be understood by the Senate and the country that we ask not a tithe for 
 this indispensable work of what has been granted to others for like objects, and 
 that we ask it upon such a basis as will neither in present nor in future draw a 
 dollar from the Ircasury. In fact, such a road would secure the early peopling 
 and development of this vast interior, now comparatively shut in from the world. 
 Along its entire length settlements would immediately form, which it would be 
 the policy and interest of the railroad land grantees to encourage and foster, with 
 the motive of enhancing the value of their own lands, and affording protection to 
 their property. 
 
 The line of this great thoroughfare between two oceans, would offer the highest 
 inducements, with every prospect of success in agricultural and mineral regions, 
 now but imperfectly developed. Soon, in fact, this almost blank in our geogra 
 phical limits would be filled up by industrious producing classes, requiring all the 
 
10 
 
 appliances of civilized life. The effect in value upon such public land would be 
 amazing, and the opening up of the arable surface and development of the pre 
 cious and useful metals; the working of coal mines, the establishment of machinery 
 and workshops, would revolutionize the existing condition of "the plains," 
 filling the wa>te places with occupation, and preparing the social and political 
 condition of the country fora transition from Territories into sovereign States of 
 the Union, linking by a great federative bond the whole political fabric from ocean 
 to ocean. 
 
 The proposition before us is also one of immense importance, looking to the 
 commerce of the East. Advance commercial interests, and you increase the 
 influence and power of the nation. Trade with the Indies was the great desidera 
 tum upon the revival of commerce in western Europe. The Italian republics 
 took the lead in the overland commercial intercourse, which virtually ended upon 
 the establishment of Turkish authority in Europe and Africa. The spirit of mari 
 time exploration and rivalry opened by the Portuguese, who more than three and 
 a half centuries ago rounded the Cape of Good Hope, reached the Malabar coast, 
 monoplized the India trade, and placed that inconsiderable kingdom foremost 
 among commercial nations. After the union of Portugal to Spain, the closing of 
 the ports of the Spanish empire to British vessels, the dependence of the latter 
 upon the Dutch for supplies, the revolt of the Netherlands, and the exclusion of 
 the Dutch in their turn from the ports of Lisbon, the European depot of Italian 
 wares, the Dutch, soon followed by the English, sought the direct passage to 
 India, and before the close of the sixteenth century the great East India companies 
 were founded. France, Denmark, and Sweden sought a participation in the irade, 
 but the extraordinary growth of British power in the East, overshadowing all 
 opposition, governed an empire of one hundred and fifty millions of subjects in the 
 East, occupying half the territorial extent of the United States; and having sub 
 jected the native princes, with a grasping and remorseless policy rules them with 
 absolute dominion, at a distance from the British metropolis, by the way of Good 
 Hope, of fifteen thousand miles, thus bringing to the British Isles the rich rewards 
 of eastern trade. With all the disadvantages of remote locality from their colonial 
 dependencies, we should take a lesson from the energy of the English in their 
 amazing efforts to overcome time and space in bringing the capitals of Great 
 Britain and the Bengal Presidency into rapid inter-communication. Two different 
 "overland routes," as i hey are called, are now in operation; the one reaching 
 round ihe Atlantic, through the Mediterranean sea, to Alexandria, in Egypt by 
 the Nile, the Isthmus of Suez, and down the Red sea, traversing the Arabian 
 Gulf and Bay of Bengal, to Calcutta; the other, varying only in respect to the 
 transit of Calais and Ostend, through Southern Europe, until the waters of the 
 Mediterranean are reached, and connection formed with the African and Red sea 
 routes. 
 
 The demands of British trade are not even satisfied with these facilities, for it 
 is in contemplation to establish a great overland continuous railway from London 
 to Calcutta, starting from Calais, in Prance, passing through Belgium, Rhemish 
 Prussia, Germany, and Italy, to the Adriatic; thence through Turkey in Europe 
 to Constantinople, down through Turkey in Asia, deflecting towards the mouth 
 of the Orontes, on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean; thence easterly, to 
 strike the Euphrates, down the long valley of that mighty river, passing Babylon, 
 reaching Breporah on the Persian Gulf, skirting the northern shores of the latter \ 
 
11 
 
 thence, through Beloochistan, crossing the Indus, and passing over the breast of 
 the Hindoo peninsula, uniil it shall reach Calcutta a route of five thousand six 
 hundred miles, bringing the British metropolis and the Bengal Presidency within 
 a week's travel of each other. Grand as is this railway conception, it is but part 
 of the telegraphic line to reach from Falmouth, by the Straits of Gibraltar, id 
 Malta, to Alexandria, in Egypt, crossing the Isthmus down to the Red sea; 
 thence to Kurrachee, on the western side of Hindostan, over the Peninsula to 
 Rangoon, in British India, to Singapore, Hong Kong,Shanghae, in China, Naga 
 saki, in Japan, and returning to Singapore to connect with the western side of 
 Australia, crossing that continent to the capital of the Province of Victoria, and 
 thence on the existing line to Brisbane, on the shores of the Alpine Australia. 
 
 Such are the plans of the commercial power and policy of the Briti.-h empire, 
 seeking rapid intercommunication by steam, railway^ and telegraph with all the 
 great commercial ports of the world, at the public expenditure of hundreds of 
 millions of pounds sterling, and advancing through European, Asiatic, and 
 African territory. 
 
 Now, the position the United States occupy on the Pacific ocean in respect to 
 the Indian trade, gives them advantages not possessed by Europeans In point 
 of distance in our Atlantic and European relations, the difference is inconsider 
 able when the quiet waters of the Pacific are contrasted with the restless and 
 stormy Atlantic. The distance from San Francisco to the southern part of Mats- 
 mai or Tesso, the northern Japanese island, being forty one hundred miles; to 
 the southern point of the great Island of Niphon, forty-four hundred and seventy- 
 four miles; to Shanghae, in China, fifty-three hundred and seventy-three miles; 
 and to Honololu, of the Sandwich Islands, twenty one hundred miles. Improve 
 ments in marine steam machinery are such that it is not an overestimate to say 
 fifteen miles an hour, in due time, may be attained, and in that event a fortnight 
 would suffice for importations from China, Japan, and other ports. 
 
 The exclusive system of Oriental nations has been nearly obliterated by ad 
 vancing civilization. The British treaty of 1842, at Nankin, restored commer 
 cial intercourse to the five ports of Canton, Arnoy, Foochoo, Ningpo, and Shang 
 hae. All the benefits of that treaty accrued to us by our treaty with China con 
 cluded on 3d July, 1844. After the Chinese war, declared in 1857, there fol- 
 Idwed the voluminous treaties concluded in June 1858, between China, the Uni 
 ted States, Great Britain, and France, by which four additional ports were opened 
 to foreign shipping, and the navigation of the Yan-tse-kiang river made free to 
 all nations. In 1854, the Perry Japanese expedition led to the treaty of opening 
 Simoda and Hakodadi to our vessels; the new treaty of 1857 opened Naugasaki 
 to American trade, and an additional treaty of 1858 still further liberalized the 
 relations between ourselves and Japan. The United States are thus placed where, 
 by reason of geographical position and commercial relations, they possess the 
 means to secure the Asiatic trade, and turn its golden floods towards themselves. 
 All that is now desired to that end is the success of the Pacific steam line to 
 Asia, wiih a complete connection of California, Oregon, and Washington by the 
 railway now under consideration. 
 
 By the completion of this system between New York and Asia, travel from 
 Europe would select as to time and expense the direction across our territory j 
 silks, teas, spices, and other valuable India products would come to us direct, 
 and our eastern merchants and manufacturers be enabled to compete successfully 
 
12 
 
 with the trading world, controlling immense commerce and enriching the Re 
 public. The American road over the plains is a little over one third of the pro 
 posed overland Indian route, it is all within our own territory, connecting the 
 Pacific sea-coast, which occupies the same relation to Asia as the Atlantic does 
 to Europe. It will he a great medium, imparting wonderful activity to all the 
 industrial interests of the country, and as time is money, through its union with 
 the existing railroads will furnish facilities not merely of domestic trade and ex- 
 chang-e, but of easy and cheapened social intercourse between citizens now in 
 remote and distant localities. As a political measure it will guard and secure 
 interests essential to defense from intestine and foreign foes. 
 
 1. In the vast region over which this road is to be constructed, hostile tribes 
 of Indians have ravaged and destroyed the property of our frontier men, butcher 
 ing families of emigrants and settlers, and interrupting even the languid connec 
 tion which exists between the interioi and the seat of Federal power. On this 
 account the Government has necessarily kept mounted and foot-troops for years 
 past, furnishing all their numerous and necessary supplies, and at enormous ex 
 pense. These hostile tribes roaming on each side of the Rocky mountains from 
 beyond the northern line of the United States down to the Gulf of Mexico, and 
 further on beyond the western basis in California, Oregon, and Washington, the 
 same mysterious, intractable race, slowly vanishing before the white man, re 
 quire to be held in obedience by material force. Indian wars in these distant 
 portions of our territory have cost the country for years valuable lives and mil 
 lions of treasure. Besides this, we have now the country laid waste by the Tex 
 an enemy with large military force, holding in check and harassing our own 
 small army without the possibility of succor, from the nearest point in Kansas, 
 under several weeks. A road like this would furnish facilities, enabling the 
 military arm of the Government to strike with concentrated force and rapidity, 
 to subdue and repress enemies of the Republic, to protect and guard that exposed 
 and neglected region. 
 
 2. The next military aspect of this subject is the exposed condition of the 
 Pacific coast in case of foreign war. 
 
 The growth of our commercial power has brought us into superiority over 
 the greatest maritime people of the eastern hemisphere, our tonnage being five 
 millions five hundred thousand, or an excess over them in tonnage of half a mil 
 lion. The popular nature of our institutions is a standing cause of disquiet to 
 the feudal aristocracy of the Old World. Their leading reviews, journals, and 
 parliamentary discussions, breathe a tone almost of animosity toward us, and 
 indicate their yearning hope that this intestine war may end in overthrow and 
 ruin as a great nation. The commercial marine of the United States is found on 
 every sea, visiting the most distant shores, entering every market of the globe, 
 seeking such a division of the rich profits of trade as their energy and enterprise 
 have a right to demand. The sources of British strength and power are to be 
 traced to commerce, which turns toward the seat of empire a deep stream of 
 wealth, fed by affluents front every distant region, and stimulating at home all 
 the industrial elements of that people. We are competitors for a fair division of 
 that trade, and in the ratio in which we lessen her share by increasing our own, 
 we weaken her power, and advance to that position in the family of nations 
 which we feel is the destiny of a great and free people. Between us there is 
 now pending a dispute in regard to the boundary dividing the possessions of the 
 
13 
 
 two Powers, involving a question of ownership of San Juan and other islands 
 in the straits of Rosario, in the northwestern angle of the territory of the United 
 States. A recent political event growing out of our belligerent rights has brought 
 to our shores a hostile fleet with all the equipments of war, threatening to strike 
 upon the instant, while a formidable and well appointed army in the Canadas 
 even now keeps watch upon the long line of our lake frontier. We are living 
 in an age when the political elements of the Old and New World are in com 
 motion. A conflict between the principles and policy of the mysterious man 
 who presides over the destinies of France it may be said, of Europe and 
 those of the British empire, threatens a crisis by which the United States, as a 
 commercial nation, would be drawn into the vortex. With disturbing causes at 
 home, and threatening relations abroad, are we to remain passive in regard to a 
 measure so essential to our protection; nay, even necessary to the preservation 
 of our territory ? 
 
 Senators, there is a serious responsibility resting at the door of inaction and 
 delay. Should foreign war come, our western ocean frontier of nearly a thou 
 sand miles will be found walled out by the Rocky mountains, the Sierra Nevada, 
 and the Cascades. Months would be required before an army could give relief 
 overland. By sea, Panama, Nicaragua, and Tehuantepec would be closed by 
 hostile fleets, and feeble and ineffectual communication could only be kept up, a 
 distance of seventeen thousand miles, around Cape Horn. We ask not to be 
 dealt with as a broken or dismembered part of this great empire, but that our 
 unity with the eastern half of the American continent be maintained by the means 
 which the nation can so easily command. Our people are true to the cause of 
 the Union ; every sympathy, remote as we are from the central authority, is link 
 ed to the Government of our fathers, under which we hope to live, and in defense 
 of which we are prepared to die. 
 
 Such are the imperious reasons which force me to urge the favourable action 
 of the Senate ; and in warning you of the imminent necessity for instant and 
 efficient legislation, it is my duty to solemnly protest that further delay is fraught 
 with perils to the integrity of our territory, and may end in dismemberment and 
 ruin! 
 
 Senators, we turn with pleasure from such an eventuality, we hope impossi 
 bility, to the contemplation of .results, the guarantees- for which are to be found 
 in your love of country and devotion to all her interests. In this season of Do 
 mestic turbulence we derive satisfaction from the conviction that all attempts at 
 disintegration must necessarily be abortive; that the present is consequently an 
 unatural state of things, from which the deluded portion of our people will re 
 cover from the delirium of a fever ; that our normal condition is unity ; that com 
 mon language, laws, lineage, blended interests, industrial, social, and political, 
 love of freedom, of representative Government, are moving, controling causes, 
 in fact, the great elements of order and power, which will hush into silence the 
 clashing discord of the hour, and restore the reign of peace and prosperity. Our 
 domestic struggle has not been without its benefits; it has developed new ideas 
 in respect to military and naval strength in the United States, furnishing exam 
 ples which tell upon the policy and bearing of rival nations. In this struggle a 
 million of men at arms have entered the field, fully equipped with all the modern 
 improvements of war, while capacity exists for the rally of a four-fold number, 
 should necessity require, for the protection of our firesides and altars. 
 
u 
 
 tt has further been demonstrated that the pre-existing system of naval defense 
 and attack is entirely inadequate and unreliable. In one maritime war the prow 
 ess and skill of our Navy appeared in successful dispute for ocean supremacy. 
 Now we have launched upon the deep, steel clad warriors of such model and 
 power as to mock and defy those "wooden walls" once the boast and glory of 
 proud maritime Powers. The ability of our Government for the rapid construc 
 tion and multiplication of these new iron engines of naval strength is such as to 
 enable us to place invincible sentinels at the doors of our harbors in the Atlan 
 tic, the Gulf, the great Lakes, and in the Pacific. 
 
 And when the reign of peace comes, as soon as it must, results will demon 
 strate the entire competency of this Government to maintain and further, in a spi 
 rit of justice, all the varied interests committed to its charge, while the power 
 ahall be established and conceded to maintain its extended peaceful and parental 
 rule, from ocean to ocean* 
 
e .-- to 
 
 |S JS jg 
 
 $ g 
 
 M N N & 
 
 as s y ~ 
 
 g I 
 
 833 
 
 i i 
 
 
 
 Distance by proposed rail 
 road route. 
 
 Sums of ascents and descents 
 
 Length of level route of equal 
 working expense. 
 
 Comparative cost of different 
 routes. 
 
 Route through arable land. 
 
 Route through land generally 
 uncnltivable arable soi 
 boinp found in small a' ens 
 
 and 1,000 feet. 
 
 1,000 and 2,000 feet. 
 
 2,000 and 3,000 feet. 
 
 3,000 and 4,000 feet. 
 
 4,000 and 5,000 feet. 
 
 5,000 and 6,000 feet. 
 
 6,000 and 7,000 feet. 
 
 =- 7,000 and 8,000 feet. 
 
 8,000 and 9,000 feet. 
 
 mn 
 
 i? 
 
 9,000 and 10,000 feet. 
 
 Altitude above the sea of the 
 highest point on the route 
 
 P 
 
 * These are the estimates of the office; tho-e of Governor Stevens having been brought to the same standard 
 of incre-tsed cost with the other routes, and his equipment reduced to that of the other routes. His estimates 
 were $117,121,000 and $110,091,000. 
 
 f Supposing the route to be a straight line, with uniform descent, from the Un-kuk-oo-ap mountains (near 
 8cvir river) to the entrance of the Tah-ee-nhay- pah Pass -.he nv>st favorable supposition possible. 
 
 JThe estimate of Lieutenant Parke, for the construction of a railroad by this route from Fulton to San Jose, is 
 $82,912,750. A'lding $2,025,000, the office estimate for the route from San Jose to San Francisco, Lieutenant 
 Parka's tota' estimate from Fulton to San Francisco would be $St.837,750. 
 
 gThn estimate of Lieutenant Parke for this route is $>9,i)05.500. 
 
 The sum of the minor undulations (not included in thu sum of ascents and descents here given) will probably 
 be greater ft>r the routes near the forty-seventh and forty-ninth parellels than for the other routes. With the 
 amount of work estimated for the roads in this report, the equated lengths, corresponding to the sums of ascents 
 and descents have but little practicable value. With a full equipment and heavy freight business, the sum of 
 ascents and descents becomes important. 
 
STEAMSHIP COMMUNICATION, 
 
 BETWEEN 
 
 San Francisco, California, and Shangliae, China, 
 
 VIA 
 
 SANDWICH ISLANDS and JAPAN, 
 
Debate in Senate of the United States. 
 
 IN SENATE. 
 
 FRIDAY, April 18, 1862. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. If there be no morning business, the Chair will 
 call up the unfinished business of yesterday, which is a bill (S. No. 75) to establish 
 a Line of Steam Mail Ships between San Francisco, in California, and Shanghae, in 
 China, touching at the Sandwich Islands and Japan ; on which the Senator from 
 California has the floor. 
 
 Mr. LATHAM. That may lie over for a little while, until there is a quorum-. 
 There is evidently not a quorum here now. I want to press the measure to a 
 vote, No doubt the committee rooms are filled. There are two or three committees 
 in session this morning, to my knowledge. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Does the Senator make a motion ? 
 
 Mr. LATHAM. Let it go over informally. I will call it up again. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. It will lie on the table for the present. 
 
 *3 3 3 3 3 3 33 3 * 
 
 STEAMSHIP LINE TO CHINA. 
 
 Mr, LATHAM. I now move that the Senate proceed to the consideration of 
 Senate bill No. 75. 
 
 The motion was agreed to, and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, resumed 
 the consideration of the bill (S. No. 75) to establish a Line of Steam Mail Ships be>- 
 tween San Francisco, in California, and Shanghae, in China, touching at the Sand^ 
 wich Islands and Japan. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Upon this question the Senator from California 
 is entitled to the floor. 
 
 Mr. LATHAM. I have nothing to say upon the subject in addition to what I 
 stated the other day, with the exception of a fact that I wish to present to the Sen 
 ate in consequence of objections that I know exist in the minds of many Senators 
 with whom I have conversed in relation to this bilL 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair desires further to state, that the 
 question pending is on the amendment moved by the Senator from California to 
 strike out all of the original bill, after the enacting clause, and to insert a substitute. 
 
 Mr. SUMNER. The Senator from California knows very well I take a sincere 
 interest in his bill, and I listened with great attention to the able and elaborate speech 
 in which he developed his idea. It seems to me that if it can be carried out, it cannot 
 do otherwise than great good to our commerce ; but the Senator himself did confess 
 to a considerable expenditure which would be entailed upon the country if the sy- 
 tern were attempted. The point to which I wish to bring his attention, if he will 
 
18 
 
 allow me, is to what extent that expenditure can be made consistent with the pres 
 ent condition of things, and with the extraordinary expenditures to which our Treas 
 ury is exposed; in other words, whether, at this moment, when we are engaged in 
 this extraordinary war, we can, with proper reference to the finances of the country, 
 assume this additional burden. If we svere in a moment of peace, if we had no 
 extraordinary expenditures, then I should feel constrained by the argument of the 
 Senator. The difficulty with me is that we are not in a condition to assume any 
 new and extraordinary expenses. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The question is on the amendment offered by 
 the Senator from California. 
 
 Mr. FESSENDEN. I should like to hear the amendment read. 
 
 The Secretary read it, to strike out all of the original bill after the enacting 
 clause, and insert : 
 
 That the Postmaster-General be, and hereby is authorized and directed to enter into a 
 contract, for a term not exceeding five years, for a sum not exceeding $500.000 per annum, 
 with such person or persons, being the lowest bidders, offering sufficient and satisfactory 
 security, after due public notice, for the transportation of the United States mails, upon 
 the best teims for the United States, monthly, and in thirty-five days, from San Francis 
 co, California, via the Sandwich Islands and'Japan, in case'any port of that empire shall 
 be opened to the United States, to Shanghae, in China, and back, in steam vessels of not 
 less than two thousand tons buiden, of the best form of construction adapted to the navi 
 gation of the Pacific ocean ; and any excess of the amount \\ Inch may be contracted to be 
 paid for this service over the aggregate of postages collected therefor, shall be paid out of 
 any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 
 
 SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That these mail steam vessels shall be appropriately 
 armed and equipped as war steamers, in such manner as the Secretary of the Navy may 
 direct; they shall each be commanded by a lieutenant of the United States Navy,' and 
 while employed in carrying the mails, as herein provided, thev shall be required to pro 
 tect commerce in their route between Shanghae and San Francisco, in the same manner 
 as if the said vessels were wholly devoted to that service. 
 
 Mr. LATHAM. Mr. President, I think I can answer successfully the objection 
 made by the honorable Senator from Massachusetts to this bill, I know very well, 
 as I stated the other day, that a proposition of this kind ought not, in the present 
 condition of affairs, to be made, unless for good and sufficient reasons. I am 
 prepared to show to the Senate that the protection given by our Government to the 
 commerce of the Pacific coast is wholly inadequate to the interests involved ; in the 
 next place, to show, that if the Government pursues the policy indicated in this 
 bill it will be really an economy j and in the third place, that the interests of our 
 country there, are such that they will suffer to a very alarming extent unless we go 
 to the expense of increasing the Navy on the one hand, or of adopting a system like 
 this on the other. 
 
 In the first place, on the Pacific coast we have but six men-of-war. The Navy 
 Register shows that the Pacific squadron consists of the Lancaster, 26 guns; steam 
 sloop Saranac, 9 guns ; sloop St. Mary's, 22 guns ; the steam sloop Wyoming, 6 
 guns ; the steam sloop Narragansett, 5 guns ; and the sloop Cyane, 20 guns. There 
 are four steam sloops out of the six vessels that are in all the Pacific waters. These 
 ships are principally stationed in the large harbors which line the coast extending 
 from Chili up to the British possessions in the North-west. The flag-ship Lancaster 
 is located almost permanently, I may say, in the bay of Panama, for the purpose 
 of protecting the commerce that we have monthly between the Atlantic and the Pacific 
 
19 
 
 coasts. The sloop Cyane is located almost permanently in the harbor of Acapulco, 
 because our position with the Mexican Government is such that some vessel of war 
 is imperative at that place, to protect our commerce and preserve amicable relations. 
 The other vessels, with the exception of one, are on the coast of South America ; 
 so that now our trade with the East Indies and with the Chinese ports, since the 
 misfortune that happened to the steamship known as the Saginaw very recently, is 
 entirely without a single vessel to protect them. There is not a single armed vessel 
 carrying the American flag in all those waters. 
 
 As against this showing, the British Government have got in those northern 
 waters not in the southern Pacific, but in the northern Pacific a long list of men- 
 of-war, which I beg the attention of the Senate in reading, as follows : 
 
 Guns. Tonnage. H. P. 
 
 Steam flag-ship Bacchante 51 2,667 600 
 
 Steam sloop Caraeleon 17 952 200 
 
 Steam corvette Clio 22 1,472 400 
 
 Steam sloop Fawn 17 751 100 
 
 Steam sloop Harrier 17 748 100 
 
 Paddle sloop Hecate 6 817 240 
 
 Steam sloop Miranda 15 1,039 250 
 
 Steam sloop Mutine , 17 882 200 
 
 Storeship Naiad 6 1.020 
 
 Storeship Nereus 6 1,094 
 
 Steam corvette Pelorus 21 1,462 400 
 
 Steam corvette Tartar 20 1,296 250 
 
 Steam frigate Termagant 25 1,547 310 
 
 Steam frigate Topaze 51 1,973 600 
 
 Gunboat Forward 60 
 
 Gunboat Grappler 60 
 
 Total (16 ships) 291 17,729 3,770 
 
 The French Government in the same quarter have the following fleet to protect 
 their commerce, which is of a very limited character as compared with our own : 
 
 Guns. Men. H. P. 
 
 Steam flag-ship Duguay Trouin 90 1,000 800 
 
 Corvette Galathee 32 300 
 
 Corvette Cornelie 32 300 
 
 Corvette Bayonnaise 32 300 
 
 Screw steamer Oassini 6 180 250 
 
 Total ~102 3,080 1,050 
 
 Both these Governments have recently increased their force in those waters. 
 During the time when there was a difficulty pending, growing out of the Trent 
 affair, additional vessels were ordered by both of those Governments into the Pa 
 cific waters. The number I am unable to state, because I have no means of know 
 ing. 
 
 I wish now to present to the Senate an estimate from the Navy Department as 
 to the cost of maintaining those vessels on the Pacific station. I will take the 
 Lancaster, which, as I have stated, is located in the bay of Panama, as an illustra 
 tion. The annual expense to the Government of maintaining the Lancaster is 
 $405,414 per annum. The pay of officers, marines and seamen amounts to $97,374; 
 provisions, $35,040 ; wear and tear and consumption of stores, $84,000 ; and fuel 
 per annum, $189,000; making a total of $405,414. Three such ships as is con 
 templated by this bill, and for which we ask but a subsidy of $500,000, would 
 cost the Government annually $1,216,242. Three such vessels as the little St. 
 
Mary's, a mere sloop, a sailing vessel, would amount per annum to $299,823. 
 Three such vessels as the Cyane, another sailing vessel, would amount to $266,280 
 per annum. The payment of officers, marines and seamen in each is estimated at 
 nearly sixty thousand dollars per annum ; provisions $20,000; and the wear and 
 tear and consumption of stores, between twenty and thirty thousand dollars ; so 
 that, if you take three of these vessels, mere sloops, the charge made in this bill 
 would really be economical on the part of the Government. 
 
 Senators whose attention has not been called specifically to this question may not 
 be aware of the extent of our commerce in those waters ; they may not know what 
 amount of property we have there. Why, sir, a work that I have been able to get 
 hold of, published a few years ago, shows that the American trading vessels in the 
 Pacific alone amount to 650, with a tonnage of 200,000, and with 16,000 men em 
 ployed. The vessels engaged in the American whale fisheries which would, neces 
 sarily, be incidentally protected by vessels traversing the route prescribed in this bill 
 in the Pacific waters amount to 634, with a tonnage of 223,109, and employing 
 18,000 men. Their value is $30,000,000, and give us a yearly profit of $10,000,000. 
 The total number of vessels in the Pacific that are to be protected incidentally by 
 these steamers, as provided for in this bill, amount to 1,284, with a tonnage of 
 423,109, and with 34,000 navigators, and a total value of $70,000,000. This was an 
 estimate made several years ago, which must now be necessarily much increased. I 
 have been unable to obtain a very recent estimate, but I state the above as reliable . 
 
 Mr. President, I consumed so much of the time of the Senate the other day on 
 this question, that I did not, as I might have done, allude to these statistics so elab 
 orately. Senators may naturally ask why should we engage in a trade of this kind, 
 supposing our commercial relations with that Government are not of a character to 
 justify us in this outlay. AVhy, sir, with the exception of the European trade, there 
 is no part of the known habitable globe with whom our commercial relations are so 
 extensive, or have been so growing, as with the Chinese empire. Let me take one 
 article alone the article of tea. I make no allusion to the silks, to the works of art ; 
 to the dye-stuffs, and to other commodities that we import from that country ; but 
 I choose to take that article which is best known to Senators and the country, and 
 call your attention to the trade in that article. I will read, for instance, the relative 
 trade between England and our country in the article of tea. 
 
 " In the first half of this time, that is, from 1792 to 1822, England imported of tea from 
 China 737,637,740 pounds, or an average of 24,587,591 pounds per year. The total value 
 of her trade with that country, in this period, was $1,894,813,474, or an annual trade of 
 $63,160,449, and from which the Government of Great Britain derived in this period the 
 aggregate revenue of $440,233,422. In the succeeding thirty years, that is, from 1822 to 
 1852, the quantity of tea imported by England reached the aggregate weight of 1,208,045,- 
 111 pounds, or an annual average of 40.268,170 pounds. At the beginning of the term, 
 the yearly import was about 23,000,000 pounds, and it now averages about 54,000,000 
 pounds annually. In this last thirty years, the English derived in duties from this tea 
 trade alone $550,311,614, or a yearly revenue of $18,343,720. 
 
 "The first voyage from the United States to China was made in 1785, but the trade was 
 not fairly opened until 1792 ; from that period it has continued to increase until our im 
 portations of teas now average about 16,000,000 pounds annually. The total value of im 
 ports from the commencement of the trade to this time has reached the amount of $258,- 
 858,283. Our exports have amounted to $86,260,264; leaving to be paid in the precious 
 metals $172,598,019." 
 
 The reason why the balance of trade is against us is because the specie carrying 
 
21 
 
 business that was done by onr Government alone up to 1827, has been entirely 
 taken by the English, as I explained to the Senate the other day. Up to 1827, our 
 vessels had carried direct to China the sum of $88,851,606. The opium trade sprang 
 tip as between the British East Indies and the Chinese ports about that time, so that 
 the balance of trade was in favor of England ; and in order to meet that, as I stated 
 the other day, our American bills of credit were substituted for the specie carrying 
 trade. The result has been that, from 1827 down to 1834, the specie that we sent 
 to China amounted only to $7,988,616, while our American bills on Chinese account 
 payable in London, for the same time, amounted to $16,657,476. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from California will suspend his 
 remarks. The hour has arrived for the consideration of the special order of the 
 day, which, by force of the rules, supersedes the consideration of the present bill. The 
 bill now before the Senate, therefore, is Senate bill No. 151, to confiscate the property 
 and free the slaves of rebels. 
 
 Mr. HOWARD. I will state to the Senate that I desire to make some observations 
 on that bill, and would be glad to proceed now, unless it will interfere seriously 
 with the measure which is before the Senate, advocated by my friend from California. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Michigan is entitled to the 
 floor. 
 
 Mr. LATHAM. With the permission of the Senator from Michigan, I should 
 like to finish this bill. It will not occupy a long time. I am nearly through. I 
 do not think it willl give rise to any discussion. 
 
 Mr. HOWARD. Then I will yield for that purpose. 
 
 .Mr. LATHAM. I should like very much to have the bill finished to-day. 
 
 Mr. FESSENDEN. I can only say that the disscussion will not end probably 
 with the remarks of the honorable Senator from California. I shall have a word 
 or two to say upon this measure ; they will not be long, to be sure ; and I do not 
 know what other Senators may desire to speak. I cannot allow it to pass without 
 e ntering my protest against it, to say the least of it. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The floor is at the disposition of the Senator 
 from Michigan. 
 
 Mr. HOWARD. If that be the case, I will proceed. 
 
 O O O O C= $ O O 
 
 s o o c o o $ ** * 
 
 Mr. LATHAM. After the wish expressed by the honorable Senator from Ken 
 tucky, I move that the Senate proceed to the consideration of the unfinished business 
 of the morning hour, which was laid aside in order to take up the special order, on 
 which the Senator from Michigan has spoken. 
 
 The PRESIDENT >ro tempore. If it be the pleasure of the Senate the bill now 
 under consideration, the confiscation bill, will be passed over, remaining as the 
 unfinished business of the day, and the Senate will proceed to the consideration of 
 the bill on which the Senator from California had the floor, which the special order 
 interrupted. If there be no objection, the bill will be considered as before the Senate. 
 The Chair hears no objection. 
 
The Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, resumed the consideration of the bill 
 (S. No. 75) to establish a Line of Steam Mail Ships between San Francisco, in Cal 
 ifornia, and Shanghae, in China, touching at the Sandwich Islands and Japan. 
 
 Mr. LATHAM. I had nearly concluded what I had to say to the Senate when 
 the special order interrupted me. I was showing the influence that had been exerted 
 by the English through the means of the opium trade in diverting the course of 
 specie sent from our country to Chinese traders, and I had just called attention to 
 the fact that from 1827 to 1834 our specie sent to China direct amounted only to a 
 little over seven millions of dollars, while the American bills payable in London 
 since that time to cover the balances found due had swelled up to the enormous 
 amount of $75,757,797. I was about to say that this is an unnatural course of 
 trade, for the reason that our country produces the very same things for consumption 
 that the British does ; we manufacture the same articles ; and there is no reason 
 whatever why our people should not avail themselves of their market instead. We 
 are more in contact, nearer of approach, and more able to compete for that trade 
 than any other nation on the face of the earth. 
 
 Let me take the exports for one year from the two countries, Great Britain and 
 our own, from which the Senate will be able to see their relative proportions and 
 discrepancies : 
 
 EXPORTS FROM ENGLAND TO CHINA. 
 
 Cotton Goods. 
 
 Unbleached muslins 1,792,321 pieces. 
 
 Bleached muslins 645,356 " 
 
 Twilled cottons 133.591 " 
 
 Calicoes or chintzes.... 75,174 " 
 
 Cotton handkerchiefs 61,480 dozen. 
 
 Cotton yarn 4,314,947 Ibs. 
 
 Woolen Goods. 
 
 Broad cloths 334.643 pieces. 
 
 Cassimeres 303.717 " 
 
 Camlets 381,773 " 
 
 Blankets 6,335 pairs. 
 
 EXPORTS FROM UNITED STATES TO CHINA. 
 
 Cotton Goods. 
 
 Unbleached muslins 90,523 pieces. 
 
 Bleached muslins 6,398 " 
 
 Twilled cottons 116,140 " 
 
 Calicoes or chintzes 3,130 {t 
 
 Cotton handkerchiefs 250 dozen. 
 
 Cotton yarn 69,567 Ibs. 
 
 Woolen Goods. 
 
 Broad cloths 615 pieces. 
 
 Cassimeres 968 " 
 
 Camlets 4,958 " 
 
 Blankets none. 
 
 We have here the staple article, can manufacture as cheap, if not cheaper, than Eng 
 land, the expense of transportation quite as small, and there is no reason in the 
 world why this marked difference should exist. This trade is ours by all laws of 
 geography, and we should not permit it to pass from our hands. 
 
 But to return to the objection of the Senator from Massachusetts, I feel perfectly 
 authorized in saying, and I believe in so doing I express the wish of my constituency, 
 
23 
 
 that if Congress would pass this bill and give our commence the protection these 
 steamers would afford, traveling monthly throughout the entire Northern Pacific, it 
 can withdraw every vessel it has now in the Northern Pacific, costing the Govern 
 ment at present between one and two millions of dollars. I do not mean to dispar 
 age the efforts and energies of our ships-of-war stationed on the Pacific coast, for I 
 believe they do all they can, but they are of little, if any, protection to the whaling 
 trade or to the American trade that is engaged in our Northern Pacific. Why, sir, 
 of what benefit, except for that isolated and local protection, is the stationing of the 
 Cyane in the bay of Acapulco, or the Lancaster in the bay o; Panama? None 
 whatever. If an outrage is committed, or a wrong of any kind inflicted by any 
 foreign Government, before we could get redress a long time must elapse, besides 
 trusting to the uncertainties of negotiation and diplomacy. Once give us a line like 
 this, constituting the militia of the seas, .traveling periodically from San Francisco to 
 the Sandwich Islands, to Japan, and to China, and it would be of more benefit and 
 more protection to our commerce than all the vessels now located in the whole Pa 
 cific, both Northern and Southern. Having shown you that the Lancaster alone 
 costs nearly half a million annually, the whole subsidy we ask for this entire line; 
 and if economy is your object, after giving us this, take away your -war vessels, and 
 place them where they may be of greater service to the country. 
 
 Mr. President, this is a. measure which the constituency I represent have very 
 much at heart. It occupies the attention of the commercial people of that coast 
 more than any other, except the great Pacific railroad. It has been asked for not 
 only by our Legislature and by our Chamber of Commerce, but by repeated peti 
 tions, praying that this commerce given to us by nature, shall not pass forever from 
 us. I know the belief on the part of some is that the State itself is perfectly able to 
 take care of itself; but it strikes me that any such idea is a very contracted one. If 
 you intend to put these remote portions of the country on their proper basis as a 
 portion of the Union, you must give them equal and necessary assistance as well as 
 protection from foreign aggression. Why, sir, I hold in my hand a table of the 
 annual gold productions of the State of California, a large proportion of which, as I 
 endeavored to show the other day, would have long since found its way across the 
 Pacific by this proposed means, had Congress seen fit to establish it, enriching us, 
 instead of foreign countries. 
 
 The table shows that during the short time of our existence, from 1849 down to 
 the present period, the yield of gold in that State has amounted to over seven hun 
 dred and seventy-one millions of dollars, as follows : 
 
Table exhibiting the Shipment of Treasure from San Francisco to 31st December, 1860 to all 
 quarters, and also to New York ; the receipts of gold at the United States Mint and 
 branches, and the estimated yield of the mines of California, since 1848. 
 
 Year, 
 
 Shipments to all 
 quarters as man 
 ifested. 
 
 Shipments to 
 New York. 
 
 Receipts at Mint 
 and branches. 
 
 Estimated jneld of 
 California. 
 
 1848 
 
 
 
 
 $ 60,000 
 
 1849 
 1850 
 
 $ 4,921,250 
 27.676,346 
 
 
 $ 5,232,249 
 28,206,226 
 
 8,000,000 
 33,000,000 
 
 1851 
 
 45 582 695 
 
 
 57 138 980 
 
 55 000 000 
 
 1852 
 
 46 586 134 
 
 
 51 470 675 
 
 57 000 000 
 
 1853 . 
 
 57,331,024 
 
 $47,916,448 
 
 62,838,395 
 
 69.000,000 
 
 1854 . 
 
 51,328,653 
 
 46,289,649 
 
 46,719,083 
 
 64.000,000 
 
 1855 
 
 1856 . . 
 
 43,080,211 
 
 48,887,543 
 
 38,730,564 
 39,765,294 
 
 47,419,945 
 56,379,901 
 
 65,000.000 
 70,000,000 
 
 1857.. 
 
 48,592,743 
 
 35,287,778 
 
 55,217.843 
 
 70,000,000 
 
 1858. 
 
 47.548,025 
 
 35,578,236 
 
 51,494,311 
 
 70,000,000 
 
 1859 . 
 
 47,640,463 
 
 39,831,937 
 
 52,000,000 
 
 70,000,000 
 
 1860 . 
 
 42,325,916 
 
 35,665,500 
 
 27,037,919 
 
 70.000,000 
 
 1861.. 
 
 
 
 
 70,000,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 
 
 $771,060,000 
 
 Not long since a memorial, bearing date of December 5, 1861, was presented 
 from the Chamber of Commerce of the city of New York, in which I find the follow 
 ing statement : ^ 
 
 "To all the considerations before mentioned maybe added the fact that the foreign 
 commerce of the State of New York has increased, since the firsjt export of California gold 
 at this port, about tivo hundred per cent." 
 
 In 1849 the imports of that port (New York city) were $92,567,369 ; the exports 
 $45,963,100; making a total of $138,530,469. 
 
 In 1860 the imports were $248,489,877 ; the exports $145,555,449 ; making a 
 total of $394,045,326, or an increase during the time these shipments of gold had 
 continued, of $255,514,857. 
 
 Feeling loth to occupy any more time of the Senate, I shall now leave the matter 
 in the hands of those who are best able to judge of the interests of the Government 
 and of their sense of duty in the premises. Whatever may be the result of this 
 bill, whether passed by the Senate or rejected, I can only feel that I have done my 
 duty, and a pleasant one, in presenting and urging upon the consideration of this 
 body all the facts available and patent within my reach that would in any way 
 convince or favorably influence your judgments. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The question is on the amendment moved by 
 the Senator from California. 
 
 Mr. FESSENDEN. I am not aware of the relative merits of the original bill 
 and the amendment ; I have heard the amendment read, but I do not know what 
 the provisions of the bill are. I suppose, however, from the confidence I have in 
 my friend from California, and his knowledge of the subject and general accuracy 
 of views, that the amendment is undoubtedly an improvement upon the bill. But, 
 sir, I am opposed to both of them at the present time ; I am opposed to the thing 
 whatever shape it may assume. I am disposed to be liberal in my votes on all these 
 matters, and have been heretofore, and I do not know but what under another state 
 of things in the country I should be desposed to give my support to this object on 
 
25 
 
 looking into it and being satisfied that the good effects might be likely to flow from 
 it which are supposed by the Senator from California. But the Senate is aware and 
 the country is aware that . we have heretofore, in the period of our legislation, 
 adopted, to a certain extent, this system of subsidizing steamers, paying subsidies in 
 the shape of postal arrangement* in order to facilitate and increase trade. I do not 
 know but that the object is a legitimate one. It was, at all events, one that recom 
 mended itself to Congress and was tried ; but the Senate must be equally aware 
 that after a trial of that system for several years, it was ^deliberately laid aside and 
 abandoned by Congress, at a period, too, when the country was in a high state of 
 prosperity, its finances entirely unembarrassed, and when we were perfectly able to 
 undertake such a system and carry it on. Perhaps it was unwise to abandon it. 
 
 One would think, however, that if it was to be recommenced, it should be recom 
 menced where our trade is the largest and most direct, and especially with reference 
 to postages where it would be likely to yield something like a return. We must be 
 aware that this being established under the Post Office Department, amounts to 
 nothing and can amount to nothing comparatively ; it is a mere cover for the greater 
 object, the ulterior object, of promoting and protecting trade. I am a friend to that, 
 and at a proper time and under proper circumstances I should be willing to avail 
 myself of any provision of the Constitution which would enable me to accomplish 
 that purpose reasonably ; but at the present time I am averse to any of these 
 undertakings which are matters of experiment alone, although there are the fairest 
 prospects that the experiment will succeed ; and I am opposed to it simply for the 
 reason that we have on our hands now an undertaking which will tax our resources 
 to the utmost, and is doing so at the present time. We have a large amount of 
 debt unpaid ; we are put to the use of all our energies, of all our capabilities, to get 
 along with that which is absolutely pressing upon us as a necessity. 
 
 Now, however favorable I might be to this object, and however willing I may be 
 and certainly nobody has shown himself more so by his votes than I have to 
 advance the interests of our friends upon the Pacific coast by every legitimate 
 means in the world, even for them I am unwilling to devote such large sums of 
 money to undertakings of this description. I think that our friends there, as well 
 as in other parts of the country, can afford to wait for a short period of time until 
 the country shall be able to resume its original position, and be able to appropriate 
 something for this purpose. 
 
 I will not go into a review of any portion of the argument of the honorable 
 Senator. I think some of his suggestions can be readily met and answered, while 
 others it might be more difficult to manage. Leaving all that out of the question* 
 I must call the attention of the Senate to the fact that it is as much as we can 
 possibly do with the necessities on hand to meet the obligations of the Government ; 
 and I do not think we should be held excusable at the present time for returning 
 again to a system or an undertaking which leads to a system that was once com 
 menced, and was, in days of prosperity, deliberately abandoned. I may not have 
 agreed with the policy of abandoning that system at the time we did, and in the 
 manner we did ; but if those times had been these, if we were then in the same 
 
position that we are now, I should have had no doubt that this was a proper point 
 at which we could save the expenditure of money. I trust the time is not far distant 
 when the resources of the country will enable us to return to any system that has 
 been found beneficial, or that we may judge beneficial hereafter ; but I think that 
 our friends on the Pacific are pressing a little -too hard when they tell us that 
 measures like this, which we agree, those matters important to themselves in which 
 we may think alike, and which we may be disposed to encourage and sustain at 
 the earliest possible opportunity, should be pressed and undertaken at a moment 
 like this. 
 
 That is my general view of the subject, and, for my own part, I am unwilling to 
 consider any proposition of this description having reference to improvements and 
 facilities in trade, and other matters of which we are all unquestionably in favor, 
 that can be postponed without material injury. I admit the existence of the truth 
 that a nation must depend for its ability to support itself in war, in a time of great 
 expenditure, upon its resources, upon trade and commerce, and the other great 
 sources of national wealth ; but we cannot originate them in time of war ; they 
 must be originated in time of peace. This is no time to take out of the Treasury 
 money which we have not, if I may so express myself; money which is absolutely 
 essential for our daily expenditures, and which cannot be dispensed with for those 
 purposes, and apply it to untried experiments, much less to experiments which have 
 been tried and failed, so far as revenue was concerned. As a member of the Com 
 mittee on Finance, and having more particularly in view the resources of the coun 
 try with reference to meeting what we must meet daily, I feel it my duty to place 
 this simple and single view of the subject before Congress in reference to this bill and 
 all other bills of a similar description. 
 
 Mr. McDOUGALL. Mr. President, I did not expect to engage in this discussion 
 now. I hoped, however, to have a time when I might say a few words that, I think, 
 may have some value. I should like to discourse on this and kindred subjects some 
 what at length at some other time. Now, however, I shall s&y a few words. I have 
 not felt it incumbent on me to present the peculiar considerations that belong to this 
 question, for it has been taken charge of, so far as my State is concerned, by my 
 colleague, and I know him to be a man of eminent ability ; and after having heard 
 and read his discourse on the subject, I felt satisfied that the general aspects of the 
 question had been presented admirably, and that I could not improve them. 
 
 But, sir, there is one view of the subject which I propose to discuss now briefly, 
 wherein I differ radically from the Senator from Maine ; and I get my wisdom from 
 the teachings of past history. What I have to say now is rather for suggestion than 
 for advice. Sir, we are talking about economical measures, not about developing 
 the country ; we are talking about economical measures ; not about administrative pol 
 icy ; we are talking about non-action, not of action ; and therein we are guilty of a 
 great want of wisdom, in my judgment. After England had been involved in the 
 wars that grew out of the French revolution, and great debts were charged upon her, 
 there was this cry that I hear from the Senator from Maine. The great debt of the 
 country, the great debt that is being accumulated upon our shoulders, is now spoken 
 
5J7 
 
 of here. So it was there. And when the persons who were seeking popular favor 
 sought to alarm the people of England, the greatest man in modern times in the 
 British Parliament, in responding to the cry of the oppression of debt and of taxa 
 tion, said something like this: " but for these wars and this great burden, our ships 
 would not have been upon all the seas ; it has demanded from England the full ex 
 pression of the strength of all her sons ; it has developed her commerce with all the na 
 tions, and it has sent her ships upon every sea." I do not quote the language ; I 
 speak the substance of what was said by Fox in the English Parliament when they 
 were talking about England being overwhelmed with 800,000,000 sterling of debt. 
 Adversaries made England strong. We are not weak, and we are not hurt by these 
 assaults. The masters of politico-economical science who undertake to say that be 
 cause we happen to be in debt $1,500,000,000 I will assume that as the figure 
 therefore we, the people of this Republic, are in trouble do not understand what 
 are the resources of a great, free people. England represents a great, free people, 
 next to ourselves, where the energies of the people are brought to bear to meet the 
 necessities of the day, not by the nod of a monarch, but by action in Parliament. 
 
 Now, I have to say that we ought not to fear these things. Let us develop our 
 national strength in every form, and not be afraid. We are still the North American 
 Republic. We are still a Government winch has power over every State from the 
 Gulf of Mexico to the northern lakes, and from the shores of the Pacific to the 
 shores of the Atlantic. The accidents of our condition are temporary. It is of the 
 first importance that we should bind ourselves together, and not neglect to strengthen 
 ourselves by compelling the wealth of other States. There is the East, and I call 
 Senators' attention to it ; and they who ignore it will find themselves in great fault. 
 There is the wealth of the Orient, and what wealth is that ? There are merchants 
 in towns in China who could buy out any twenty merchants in the city of New 
 York. It is a country full of wealth. Milton was not wrong when he talked 
 about " barbaric pearls and gold." India, again, is the subject of a contest for com 
 mand. By our position on the Pacific we have the opportunity to command all the 
 ancient East; and if those who occupy high places of power refuse to lend the aid 
 of the Government, by legislation and counsel, to promote these results, they will 
 find that they have substitutes here at no very far period in the future. 
 
 Of all the questions that belong to the march of civilization and to the develop 
 ment of this country, wherein the extremest East is reproduced in the farthest West 
 of all these problems to them must belong, and to them must immediately relate 
 two questions : one is steam communication between our possessions on the Pacific 
 and the ancient East, and the other is iron communication between the shores of the 
 Atlantic and the shores of the Pacific. These are the two great questions that 
 belong to the age, and those who ignore them will be crushed under the iron wheels 
 of the great car of progress. 
 
 Mr. POWELL. I move that the Senate adjourn. 
 
 Mr. LATHAM. I hope not. 
 
 Mr. FE3SENDEN. Does the Senator imagine that he can get a vote on this bill 
 to-day ? 
 
28 
 
 Mr. LATHAM. I want to get a vote on the amendment. 
 
 Mr. POWELL. I withdraw my motion. 
 
 The amendment was agreed to. 
 
 The bill was reported to the Senate ; and the amendment was concurred in. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The question is on ordering the bill to be 
 engrossed for a third reading. 
 
 Mr. FESSENDEN. On that question I ask for the yeas and nays. 
 
 The yeas and nays were ordered. 
 
 Mr. POWELL. Now I move that the Senate adjourn. There is evidently no 
 quorum here. 
 
 The motion was agreed to ; and the Senate adjourned. 
 
 & o o * o o o 9 
 
 e a * 00000* 
 
 IN SENATE. 
 
 FRIDAY, April 25, 1862. 
 c a a * o <s o o 
 
 The hour of half-past twelve o'clock having arrived, the special order for that 
 hour was called up, and the Senate resumed the consideration of the bill (S. No. 75) 
 to establish a Line of Steam Mail Ships between San Francisco, in California, and 
 Shanghae, in China, touching at the Sandwich Islands and Japan. 
 
 Mr. COLLAMER. When this bill was up the other day, I suggested that a vote 
 should not then be taken. I had heard other gentlemen say they desired to speak 
 upon it. I have no wish to speak upon it. I will merely say that I doubt the pro 
 priety of again establishing a policy of this kind in the present condition of our 
 country. 
 
 Mr. GRIMES. I move to amend the second section of the bill by striking out 
 the words " they shall each be commanded by a lieutenant of the United States 
 Navy." 
 
 Mr. LATHAM. I have no objection to the amendment. 
 
 The amendment was agreed to. 
 
 Mr. HALE. I feel constrained to say a word or two on this subject, inasmuch as 
 the bill was referred to the Committee on Naval Affairs, and the committee reported 
 against the bill at this time. The committee did not go into an examination 
 of the matter in regard to its relation to commerce and the postal facilities which 
 this line will furnish to the country; but taking that view of it which made the 
 reference of it to the Naval Committee appropriate, they thought that it was not ex 
 pedient at the present time to recommend the passage of such a bill. The second 
 section, it will be seen, is the one that refers to that matter ; and it provides: 
 
 "That these mail steam vessels shall be appropriately armed and equipped as war steam 
 ers, in such manner as the Secretary of the Navy may direct j they shall each be com 
 manded by a lieutenant of the United States Navy," 
 
 which latter clause has been stricken out 
 
 "and while employed in carrying the mails, as herein provided, they shall be required to 
 protect commerce in their route between Shanghae and San Francisco, in the same man 
 ner as if the said vessels were wholly devoted to that service." 
 
29 
 
 I need not say that since this bill was first introduced, events which are familiar 
 to all the Senate have produced as total a revolution in regard to the subject of na 
 val warfare by steam vessels as ever has been known in any department of govern 
 ment from the foundation of the world, and what might have been considered ap 
 propriate and requisite and proper three months ago, would be considered, perhaps, 
 as absurd at the present time. The committee did not, as I said at the outset, deem 
 it their duty to inquire particularly in reference to the commercial or the postal rela 
 tions which this line of steamers was to have to the interests of the country, but 
 simply in regard to this latter subject ; and the committee believed that in that con 
 nection it was not worthy the support of Congress. They came to that conclusion 
 before the revolution of which I have spoken in public sentiment had occurred. 
 Since that has occurred, it seems to me that all the reasons which influenced the 
 committee in their decision are infinitely stronger than they were before, and that 
 the attention of the Navy Department in this hour of the country's emergency and 
 in this crisis of naval warfare, its energies and resources, should not be directed in 
 any manner to the construction <3f vessels of this character. It was for these reasons 
 that the committee were opposed to the adoption of this system then, and are 
 opposed to it as such now. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The question is on ordering the bill to be en 
 grossed for a third reading. 
 
 The question being taken by yeas and nays, resulted yeas 27, nays 13, as fol 
 lows: 
 
 YEAS Messrs. Anthony, Browning, Carlile, Cowan, Davis, Doolittle, Henderson, 
 Howard, Lane of Indiana,' Lane of Kansas, Latham, McDoagall, Xesniith, Pomeroy, 
 Powell, Rice, Saulsbury, Simmons, Stark, Sumner, Thomson, Wade, Wilkinson, Willey, 
 Wilson of Massachusetts, -Wilson of Missouri, and Wright 27. 
 
 NAYS Messrs. Chandler, Collamer, Dixon, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Grimes, Hale, 
 Howe, King, Morrill, Sherman, and Wilmot 13. 
 
 The bill was read a third time. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The question is, " Shall the bill pass ?" 
 Mr. FESSENDEN. I ask for the yeas and nays upon the passage of the bill. It 
 may be considered a very impertinent remark, but I must say that I can hardly 
 suppose the Senate understood, especially the members of the Finance Committee, 
 what they were voting for. This bill, in the present stage of our finances, makes a 
 positive requisition upon the Government, not only authorizes, but directs, the Gov 
 ernment to pay $500,000 a year to establish a line of steamships under the Post 
 Office regulations, at a period when we need all the money we can get by any possibility 
 to carry on the war, and when it is not. to be supposed that any income whatever 
 can come from it under the Post Office regulations. There is no Post Office business 
 for this line to do ; but it is to be established under the pretense of postal regulation, 
 when we have abandoned that whole system on the Atlantic coast, where commerce, 
 to a great extent, is carried, and where, if anywhere, we suifer from the competition 
 of English steamers. The system has been tried and abandoned, and we have come 
 to the plan of giving nothing whatever in the shape of subsidies except the postages. 
 We .abandoned the system which is now proposed to be again inaugurated after a 
 
30 
 
 deliberate trial, when our Treasury was full, when we had ample ability to sustain 
 it ; and yet, in this stage, where no postages and no income of any consequence at 
 all can be expected under the Post Office regulations, it is proposed to establish this 
 new line of steamships. I have said before, that a proper time, and when our 
 Treasury could afford it, I might be in favor of the system ; but at present I con 
 ceive it to be a matter that is fraught with very great danger. 
 
 I made all the remarks that I had to make upon it the other day, by way of 
 argument and suggestion. If the Senate differ from me, I submit with all the grace 
 that I can. I must do so; but I want it distinctly understood by everybody what 
 the measure is. I cannot say that I am surprised at anytoly's vote, because every 
 body else knows just as well as I do how to vote. I do not pretend to dispute that ; 
 but I am surprised at the members of my committee, who know what difficulty we 
 have to get money, even for the current expenses of the day, voting in favor of this 
 bill. 
 
 Mr. SIMMONS. I want to say one word in explanation of my vote. I know it 
 has got to be somewhat of a habit for gentlemen to question the ability of the people 
 to support the Government of the country. I have never entertained exactly the 
 opinion of the chairman of the Committee on Finance about the deplorable condition 
 of the finances of the country. I vote for this bill because I think its object a 
 laudable one, that I would vote for at any time, that I have been in favor of for the 
 last twenty years. 
 
 Mr. McDOUGALL. As the chairman of the Committee on Finance has stated 
 his conclusions, and the chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs has stated his, 
 allow me to say that I have not discussed this question on the floor for the reason 
 that I sought action and did not want to delay it; but I wish to say here that this 
 is a measure not to take money out of, but to put money into the Federal Treasury ; 
 this is a measure not to weaken the strength of the Government, it is to give it 
 strength. If there is any field of enterprise that demands the attention of the 
 Federal Government, so that we may be strengthened in commercial relations, by 
 finding a market for our manufactures, it is China at this present moment, and the 
 time when we can seize an advantage should not be lost. 
 
 Mr. FESSENDEN. I ask for the yeas and nays on the passage of the bill. 
 
 The yeas and nays were ordered. 
 
 Mr. HALE. I voted in the minority and therefore cannot make a motion to 
 reconsider ; but if some gentleman who voted in the majority would move a recon 
 sideration of the engrossment of the bill, I should like to submit another amendment 
 to be acted upon. 
 
 Mr. WILKINSON. To accommodate the Senator from New Hampshire, I move 
 to reconsider the vote ordering the bill to be engrossed for a thiK? reading, 
 
 Mr. HALE. I will state to the Senate- that my only object is. to move au amend 
 ment to the bill. 
 
 Mr. McDOUGALL. Will the Senator state the amendment he desires to offer? 
 
 Mr. HALE. I will state it so that the Senate can vote understanding^ on the 
 motion to reconsider. I want to move an amendment to strike out the second section. 
 
31 
 
 That is anaval matter entirely, and the views of the Naval Committee are that it 
 is riot worthy of the support of the Senate as a naval measure. If that is the 
 opinion of the Naval Committee, to whom it appropriately belongs, it seems to me 
 that the Senate should not fasten a naval measure on a postal bill. If it is a postal 
 and commercial measure, let it stand on its own merits,; do not saddle it on the Navy 
 when the Navy do not ask it and do not want. My amendment is simply to 
 strike out the second section. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Minnesota moves to reconsider 
 the vote by which this bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading. 
 
 Mr. LATHAM. I hope the motion to reconsider will not prevail. The amend 
 ment suggested by the Senator from New Hamshire, if moved by him and adopted 
 by the Senate, would emasculate the bill and render it in a great degree worthless 
 for the purposes for which we wish the bill passed by the Senate. 
 
 Mr. GRIMES. If the motion of the Senator from Minnesota prevails, I shall 
 propose to amend the bill by striking out the word " directed," in the fourth line of 
 the first section, which makes it obligatory on .the Postmaster General to expend this 
 $500,000, leaving it with him to do it or not, as he may deem that the public 
 interest will require, and there is where I think it ought to be left. 
 
 Mr. LATHAM. If I move to lay the motion to reconsider on the table, will it 
 carry the bill with it? 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. It will carry the bill with it. 
 
 Mr. LATHAM. I shall not make the motion. 
 
 The motion to reconsider was not agreed to: there being on a division ayes 17, 
 noes 24. 
 
 The question being taken by yeas and nays on the passage of the bill, resulted 
 yeas 26, nays 16 ; as follows : 
 
 YEAS Messrs. Anthony, Browning, Carlile, Cowan, Davis, Henderson, Howard, Lane 
 of Indiana, Lane of Kansas, Latham, McDougall, Nesmith, Pomerov, Powell. Rice, 
 Saulsbury, Simmons, Stark, Sumner, Thomson, Wade? Wilkinson, Willey, Wilson of 
 Massachusetts, Wilson of Missouri, and Wright 26. 
 
 NAYS Messrs. Chandler, Clark, Collamer, Dixon, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Grimea, 
 Sale, Howe, King, Morrill, Sherman, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, and Wilniot 16. 
 
 So the bill was passed. 
 
&. Co* Printers,. Booksellers and Stationers, 182. Baltimore straet, Baltimore,.