The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session Page: 311
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Dec. 1843.
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
31<
28th Cong 1st Sess.
The Navy—Mr. E. J. Morris.
H. of Reps.
or the improvement of the falls by slack water, I
would say, make the improvement; blast out the
channel in the falls, and for the greater part of the year
it will be used in preference to the canal, being more
convenient and expeditious; and, in the event of im-
provement by dam and slack water, it is only pre-
paratory to that work; so that, in no point of view,
can there be any good objection found to the pro-
posed expenditure. A few hundred dollars has al-
ready been expended for this object by private con-
tribution, which has resulted in important benefits
to the navigation of the falls; and if it were possible
for those interested to act in concert, and in any reg-
ular organization, more money could be raised by
individual subscription, in a very short time, than
is asked for by this amendment. But individuals
are not to be driven to the necessity of using their
own means to make improvements of such vast na-
tional importance. I look, sir, with confidence to the
seaboard and the lake coast for support. They have
their appropriations from Florida upon the Atlantic,
and the- lakes, to Green Bay, of ten, twenty, fifty, a
hundred, and two hundred thousand dollars, at
glints by them deemed important to be improved.
ut as we occasionally hear allusions made to de-
mocracy within this hall, I look more particularly
in that quarter for support; and I expect the aid of
democratic whigs as well as democrats; for the prop-
osition is for the benefit of the masses of the people,
in opposition to incorporated wealth. It is to relieve
labor and industry of a tax which now goes into the
coffers of a monopoly.
No one, it seems to me, can reasonably oppose a
measure which proposes to do good, and is so per-
fectly protected and guarded from doing injury. I
only ask that the officer having charge of the im-
provements upon the Ohio river may, m his discre-
tion, be permitted to expend a small portion of the
sum allotted to that sen ice upon that point where
the greatest obstruction exists, if, in his opinion,
such expenditure will be most beneficial to the navi-
gation of that stream. I ask the appropriation only
upon conditions that it will be useful; and I leave its
expenditure to the judgment and skill of the officer.
If the objections urged against it are valid, the money
will be expended upon other points in the river, and
there the subject will end. If my positions are cor-
rect, and the officer should be of that opinion, the
improvement will be made, and the country will
reap the benefit of it. Much good then may, and
no harm can possibljy grow out of the adoption of
the amendment. Vvfio, then, can, or will object
to it?
I have urged this. Air. Ohaiiman, with some de-
gree of earnestness, for which, 1 trust, I shall be par-
doned when the great amount of good proposed to
be done is compared with the unusually small sum
of money asked foi. I undertake to say, sir, that
the coal trade of Pennsylvania alone pays enough
every two years, in t< lis to the canal, or in delays,
waiting for a rise of water, to make this improve-
ment; that the salt of Virginia, in a few yeais,
would pay a like sum; and that the produce of Ohio
and Indiana, shipped in flat-boats, will, in two
years, pay a sufficient sum. I ha\e hitherto said
nothing of the numerous and immense individual
losses, in the staving and wrecking of fiat-boats in the
falls, which amounts lo thousands upon thousands
every year, and which might be so easily avoided in
the manner now proposed.
Looking at this question, Mr. Chairman, as it
would naturally be viewed by every unprejudiced
mind, one would readily conclude that it would meet
with no opposition. But I have already seen
enough to satisfy me that it will be rejected. The
influence of a joint stock company, with a million
of dollars at stake, in a legislative body, is no
mean competitor, as the people of the West will
find, before they remove this incubus which now
hands so heavily upon their industry and enterprise.
Wily, sir, this '"mad-dog" cry about draining the
river, and affecting the navigation above, is raised
on purpose to frighten and deter those who have not
investigated the subject, from giving it their support.
Those who originated it, I cannot but believe know
better. It is a mere humbug, got up for deception;
for let me say, once for all, that I propose to do noth-
ing that can have the slightest tendency to produce
that effect. I propose only to straighten and im-
prove the channel, and remove the rocks; guarding,
at the same time, against the very contingency which
gentlemen seem so much to dread.
Can gentlemen be sincere in urging this objection,
when it is already obviated by the amendment itr
self? I think not; and I must be permitted to say
I think the people will so decide.
But, sir, I will not detain the committee longer,
If the amendment should be lost, I shall at any rate
havie attained my principal abject, which was to
call the attention of the country to the subject, that
justice might hereafter be done, even if it should be
rejected now. The false impressions which I fear
have been made upon the minds of members, and
which may defeat the measure for the present, will
(as I know they can) be removed. It will therefore
operate merely as a postponement, not a defeat.
SPEECH OF MR. E. J. MORRIS,
of pennsylvania.
In the House of Representatives, December 28,1843—
In defence of the American navy.
Mr. Speaker: I should not have offered myself
to the attention of the House, had there not been in
the remarks of the gentleman from New Hampshire
[Mr. H.u.e] something which seemed to deserve a
passing notice from those who cherish any friend-
ship for the navy. It is my honor, sir, to represent
the people of a district which is nearly concerned in
the navy and its interests, whose especial pride and
boast it is, not only to have built some of the best
ships it contains, but to have contributed to its
glory and strength such names as Bainbridge, De-
catur, tuid others, whose deeds have shed an un-
fading lustre upon the American character—a peo-
ple who have always manifested a lively interest in
the progress of this branch of national defence, and
whose sympathies with its triumphs have been,
perhaps, the more keen, from a personal participa-
tion in their achievement.
I know perfectly well that when the cry of econ-
omy and retrenchment is sounded, how difficult it is
to stand up against it; it must always be difficult,
and to some extent unpopular, to resist any measure
which bears upon its face the appearance of reform.
But I ask members who join with the gentleman
from New Hampshire m hs attacks upon the navy,
to look at its present size and condition. Can they
say it is too large? too large in proportion to our
commerce? Has the commerce of the country re-
ceded? Has it declined to such a degree as to re-
quire an immediate and radical reduction of the
force created for its defence' Of how many vessels
docs this gieat navy, of which gentlemen complain,
consist? Of sixty-eight vessels in all, including
brigs, schooncrs, condemned steamers, and relief
ships' Of this number, but fifty-three are fit for active
service; and for the purpose of foreign squadrons to
cruise in the distant seas, whither the guardian
genius W the navy follows the merchant marine,
there are but little more than thirty-nine vessels of
sufficient capacity. With such a small force, we
maintain squadrons in the Mediterranean, in the
Pacific, in the East Indies, on the coast of Africa,
on the coast of Brazil, and on the eastern coast of
America; six squadrons in all, which allows but
little moie than six ships to each.
It is well known, lhat the vessels of the different
squadrons do not usually crise in company. From
the necessity of following the merchant service, and
of visiting the many ports of foreign stations, the
ships are frequently scattered at a great distance
from each other. Thus, in regard to the Mediterra-
nean squadron; while some of the vessels composing
it remain at Malion or in the Gulf of Spezzia, others
are cruising on the coasts of Egypt, along the shores
of Africa, or threading their way through the insu-
lar labyrin tli of the Grecian Archipelago. We own
no naval stations in foreign seas, and there is conse-
quently no resting place for our vessels of war but
in the harbors of friendly nations. It must be ad-
mitted, that for stations requiring such active ser-
vice, rendered by vessels dispersed hundreds of
miles from each other, thirty-nine vessels is a num-
ber barely adequate, which will not admit of reduc-
tion. Of the duties of the home squadron, gentle-
men have but an imperfect idea, when they suppose
them confined to the coast of the United States :
that squadron cruises not only on our own coasts,
but in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, through
the Caribbean sea, and down the coast of South
America to the river Amazon.
When the resolution passes, upon which the gen-
tleman from New Hampshire has founded his at-
temps at naval retrenchment, he will find that the
services rendered by this squadron, both in reliev-
ing distressed vessels, and as a fleet of observation
and protection, are of very important character.
The commercial tonnage of the United States
States amounts to more than two million of tons. Its
this great mercantile marine confined to our own
coasts and the neighboring seas? Is its enterprise
so limited as to be restricted to the American lakes,
rivers, and bays, where, on any hostile emergency,
it may find a secure place of refuge? No, sir. It is
spread with the winds ofheaven over all the waters
of the globe; it is afloat on the China seas, on the
Iudian ocean, in the Mediterranean, in the Pacific,
at the poles, under the line; it penetrates everywhere
where there is a harbor or port of profitable trade.
With the whalemen, our hardy sailora pursue-their
adventurous way wherever their prows find a sea to
plough, or a far distant coast to visit and explore.
A merchant service of such extent, such bold and
active enterprise, dispersed over so many different
latitudes, requires a strong navy to protect it. If
we are to have commerce, we must have a navy; if
that commerce increases, that navy must grow with
it.
The tonnage of the United States is second only
to that of Great Britain, and yet the latter possesses
a navy sine times as large as that of the United
States. Undoubtedly, Great Britain needs a large
naval force for the protection of her colonies as
well as her shipping, but the British navy had its
origin in the same objects as that of the United
States, to guard its coasts, rivers, and numerous
harbors. The first shock of war falls upon the sea-
board, and unless the navy is of such a size as to enable
it to effectually oppose its rampart of wooden walls to
an invading enemy, the cities and towns of the sea-
board may be pillaged, sacked, and burned, before a
land force can be organized to turn back the devas-
tating flood. Gentlemen of the West, who live
thousands of miles in the interior, shielded from
foreign invasion by the rocky screen of the Alle-
ghanies, may calmly talk of reducing the navy, and
of breaking down this strong arm of national de-
fence, which wards off the earliest and heaviest
blows of foreign hostility. They will excuse me
if, as a representative from a seaboard district, I
raise my voice against this attack upon the navy, as
an attack upon our means of self-protection; if I
protest against exposing us to all the horrors and
devastations of foreign invasion, by crippling the
navy, and destroying its powea- and efficiency by
reducing its numbers. I speak, sir, of war and of
the evils of war, as if present, as I not believe that
policy "wise or s.igacious which in peace breaks
down all means of defence, end leaves us help-
lessly exposed to the calamities of war, or with-
out the means of a'sserting national rights and
honor when struck at in a time of tranquillity,
Cost what if may, as long as we have a thousand
miles of seacoast to guard, an enterprising commer-
cial marine to protect, cities and "towns upon the
borders of the ocean, we must have a navy formida-
ble ill numbers and disciplined efficiency.
Gentlemen from the West threaten to break down
the liavy, unless more liberal appropriations are
made for harbors on the lakes, and improvements
on the western waters. I do not intend, sir, to he
driven into any measure by denunciations of injury
to my constituents; but I take occasion to say in ad-
vance, that I shall deefri it both a pleasure and a du-
ty to co-operate with the representatives of the West
in all efforts for government aid in clearing out their
great rivers, m improving their navigation, and in
constructing harbors for the protection of their lake
trade. Owing to the neglectful policy of Mr. Van
Buren's administration, and the prevalence of that
strict-construction theory which reduces the consti-
tution to a nullity, many of the best harbors on the
lakes have fallen to decay, so that the navigation of
these inland seas is becoming more and more
perilous every day. I believe the general gov-
ernment invested with ample powers by the
constitution to promote all internal improve-
ments of a national character, and I shall
never hesitate to vote appropriations to all which
bear upon their face a character of nationality and
general utility. I shall, however, in thus furthering
the interests of the West, expect a due regard
from its representatives for the commercial welfare
of the East.
I .have no doubt, sir, that abuses exist in the man-
agement of the navy. It, is to be expected that m
the disbursement and application of the appropria-
tions granted for its support, abuses should tak«
place. It is to be hoped that many of these will be
corrected, and the naval fund be managed wiJi
greater strictness and economy than heretofore.
Among other abuses, is that of the recent reduction
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session, book, 1844; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2368/m1/321/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.