35TH CONG....1ST SESS.

Paulding, not appreciating the difference between the extent of a power and the abuse of a power, perpetrated this grievous wrong under the flag of our country.

If the colors of that noble pennon are allegorical, as I have read-the white as an emblem of the purity of our intentions, the red as an emblem of terror upon the battle-field, and the blue as an emblem of the faith of our engagements-he might have gleaned something from these as a rule of action, even something of the spirit of the law of" nations, and not perverted the flag under which he sailed, by a cool, premeditated attack upon the people from his fatherland-misguided though they may have been, or led astray by some illusory notions of giving freedom to a region among the fairest of the globe.

The main justification of Paulding rests upon the principle that evil may be done, provided a good follows as a result; a principle, sir, than which nothing can be more pernicious; a principle charged to be a leading one with the followers of Ignatius Loyola, and one, sir, that at all times has been denounced as one of the most dangerous chimeras that has ever entered into the brain of man. "To procure an eminent good by means that are unlawful (says Sir William Scott) is as little consonant to private morality as to public justice.' This is the language of a great and good man, and used while deciding against the legality of boarding vessels engaged in the African slave trade, anxious as he was, anxious as all England was, at the time, for the suppression of what was called a most abominable traffic in human flesh. "Tempora mutantur," Mr. Chairman; and an observer of human events might ask, if the philanthropy of Exeter Hall and the policy of la belle France were not yielding somewhat to the laws governing capital and labor? if they were not yielding somewhat to the questions of their demand and supply?

"Non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis, tempus eget." Martinez has declared that Paulding's act was above the law," and without question. The Yrissari treaty has been delayed, and has dragged its slow length along, owing to the jealousy entertained by Nicaragua as to a military protectorate over the transit route conceded by that treaty, for it must have felt sensibly that the same military power which had been so recently exerted for her defense, might be wrested to her destruction. And now we learn that the treaty will not be ratified at all.

And here let me remark, though not exactly germane to my subject, that all the Central American States entertain a jealousy of this countrya jealousy fostered by the acute agents of France and England in those countries.

That

I regret to hear so much stress laid upon the probable action of those Powers, in case our policy should perchance conflict with their own. policy meets us at every step. We met it in Texas -it has been at work in St. Domingo and the Sandwich Islands, Cuba, and the Central American States.

Ho. OF REPS.

between the principle alluded to and those embraced in the Monroe doctrine.

a

By the setting up of a king, or the creation of dictatorship in Mexico under the auspices of Spain, and possibly her allies, these principles would cease to be mere abstractions, but would be replete with practical results; ay, sir, great, glorious results, by which a flag, bearing the lions and castles of Castile-proud insignia of royalty and monarchy-would be forever banished from her possessions in this hemisphere.

If the startling report be true that Spain is taking measures to Africanize Cuba, or if at any future period such should be the case, I feel confident that the Executive of this country, sustained by its people, would remember the proud language of the Ostend manifesto; and then, sir, Cuba must be ours, no matter at what cost, no matter at what sacrifice of blood and treasure. And the Queen of the Antilles, gracefully displacing her diadem, and with her brows entwined with a floral wreath of her own gorgeous clime, would take her position among her sisters of this Confederacy.

So far as the Americanization of the isthmus under the auspices of a northern emigration society is to be attempted, whilst I doubt its feasibility, I am, as a southern gentleman, indifferent as to its results. As I understand the scheme, it will prove a grand monopoly of the North at the expense of the South; for no southern emigrants will receive the requisite passports at New York to enable them to settle in Nicaragua. If the objects contemplated by this association are to de

Sonora, is yet to be atoned for.

The rights and duties of nations are reciprocal.citizens, within our own borders, near the line of No nation has the right, though it may have the power, to force even benefits upon another nation; and Vattel says:

"But, though a nation be obliged to promote, as far as lies within its power, the perfection of others, it is not entitled forcibly to obtrude those offices on them. Such an attempt would be a violation of their natural liberty. In order to compel any one to receive a kindness, we must have an authority over him; but nations are absolutely free and independent."

All nations are supposed, in their intercourse with each other, to be equal; for, where there is sovereignty, there is the necessary concomitant, equality; and, in the terse language of Chief Justice Marshall, "Russia and Geneva have equal rights."

The President, in his message of last December, tells us that no progress whatever has been made towards the settlement of the claims of our citizens against the Spanish Government, and that "the outrage committed on our flag by the Spanish war frigate Ferrolana, on the high seas, off the coast of Cuba, in March, 1855, by firing into the mail steamer El Dorado, and detaining and searching her, remains unacknowledged and unredressed." And now tidings every day reach us of the most aggravated insults to our flag by British cruisers, in our own waters. England has never relinquished the principle of visitation and search, but will no doubt seek to palliate the conduct of And here, sir, let me ask you, what would have her officers by drawing an absurd distinction bebeen the feeling and sentiment in this country if tween them. There is no difference in principle; Nicaragua, on ascertaining that Walker's expe- the first is the incipient step, the latter the consumdition was about to sail, had sent an armed vesmation of the act. Either or both are to be exersel, and captured him within one of our southern cised only as belligerent rights, and are founded harbors, or within the marine league of our shores? upon and have their origin in force. In time of It would have been, sir, a casus belli; and there peace we can never permit them to be exercised, would have been a feeling of indignation pervad- and I, for one, say, full indemnity for past outing the bosom of every man who loved the honor, rages, and a relinquishment as well of the right the dignity, and the independence, of his country; of visit, as asserted by the cautious and facile and yet, sir, by this law of reciprocity, by this Aberdeen, as that of search, as well as visit, conlaw of correlative rights and obligations, Nicaragua had as much right to do that as Paulding had to seize Walker on the sands of the Punta Arenas.

When I first heard of this transaction, it occurred to me the Government of Nicaragua might love the treason, but hate the traitor, and however much she might complacently rejoice over the riddance from Walker, yet I asked myself, may not its national pride have been more humiliated, a deeper stab given to its nationality, than for all that Walker could have accomplished with his one hundred and fifty followers, and especially when among the pleas set up to justify the act, was that of the weakness of Nicaragua, and her inability to defend herself against a handful of adventurers? And must she not have felt

tended for by the haughty Palmerston. If not yielded, then I say, war; and in the interim let us give the Executive the means and the power to enable him to sustain the honor of the country.

edge and the light of a refined civilization among its people, with incidental benefits to the persons composing it, well and good; but if otherwise; if naught but the merest speculation, coupled with some undefined but yet certain ultimate intent of obtaining possession and subverting the Government, whenever their numbers and strength will authorize it, then all I can say is, their morality would be such as was inculcated by Dame Lobkins to Paul Clifford: "If you wants what is not your own, try and do without it; if you cannot do without it, take it by insinivation, not bluster. They as swindles does more and risks less than they as robs."

As to the territorial expansion of this country, it is inevitably and must be southward; faster, perhaps, than we wish. You might as well endeavor to prevent the expansion of steam or powder in a state of ignition; but I wish the process fair, and the acquisition gradual. If the people of those countries between the Rio del Norte and the Sierra Madre, irritated to frenzy by constant wars and revolutions, and the perpetual victims of the tyranny of a central power, should achieve their independence and form de facto Governments; then, if they should invoke admission into our Union, I say let them come in. Justice and humanity, and the regeneration of a portion of our race would demand this; and let them partake of the benefits of our laws and institutions, our freedom and independence. But if perchance a portion of this Union, guided by a narrow policy and false philanthropy, should oppose such an acces sion, from hostility to southern interests, a war of opinion may be engendered, and utterance given to it in tones loud and clear as a bugle call; and then, Mr. Chairman, hush who can its irksome echoes!

FIFTEEN MILLION LOAN BILL.

"Resolved, That our geographical and political position with reference to the other States of this continent, no less than the interest of our commerce and the development of our growing power, requires that we should hold as sacred the principles involved in the Monroe doctrine; their bear

ing and import adinit of no misconstruction; they should be applied with unbending rigidity."

OF NEW YORK,

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

May 31, 1858.

The House being in the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union-

Mr. ANDREWS said:

thousands of rostrums and presses in all parts of the Union. The two leading articles in that creed were these: first, that Kansas should be brought into the Union under such a constitution as its

35TH CONG....1ST SESS.

In regard to the manner in which the Administration has illus rated the first article of its creed, I have only to say that it employed the first five months of the present session of Congress in using all its power and patronage to force upon Kansas a constitution which the vast majority of its citizens detest and abhor. On this subject I am content to leave the Administration to reap the fruits of its own doings at the ballot-boxes in Kansas, so soon as they are opened to receive the indignant votes of that people, in August next, and to the more terrible retribution which is in store for it, at the autumnal elections in all the free States of the Republic.

My present business is with the mode in which the Administration has fulfilled its promises, made in the heat of the canvass of 1856, in respect to retrenchment and economy. In doing so, I shall speak plainly, dealing much more with the nine digits than with figures of speech.

When Mr. Buchanan took the oath of office, on the 4th of March, 1857, there was in the Treasury the sum of $17,710,000, or, in round numbers, $18,000,000. There have been collected from all sources, and placed in the Treasury during the first three quarters of the fiscal year which is soon to expire, $35,000,000. The estimated amount to be received during the last quarter is $8,000,000. At an early day in the present session, the Administration asked for and received the authority to issue Treasury notes to the amount of $20,000,000, and it is now asking for authority to borrow $15,000,000 more. This is proof that, at the close of the fiscal year, the Treasury will be empty. The current fiscal year expires on the 30th of June. At that time Mr. Buchanan will have been in power one year and four months. From the foregoing statements it will be seen that, during these sixteen months, this "economical" Administration will have spent the $18,000,000 which it found in the Treasury when it took office, and the $43,000,000 which have since been received into the Treasury, and pretty much all the $20,000,000 of Treasury notes which it has had authority to issue; making a grand total of $81,000,000 which this " economical," "hard money," " pay-asyou-go" Administration has used up in the first sixteen mouths of its existence! And now, like Oliver Twist, it clamors for "more!" The famous "South Sea bubble" of the olden time was no match for this Administration in regard to plethoric promises and lean performances. Thus stands the account:

It came into power by virtue of pledges of economy, retrenchment, and opposition to all schemes of public debt. Once clothed with the robes of office, and with the key of the Treasury in its hand, it has, like a reckless spendthrift, disposed of all the money it can get hold of, and all that it can beg or borrow, until it has become a serious question, which every member of this House should ask himself, "where is all this to end?"

It is starting to look at the increase in the expenditures of the Government, and the contrast between "economical Democracy" and the party charged with profusion and wasteful disburse

gress, who does not believe that at an early day of the next session the cry of the party in power will be, "Give us more money! we want more money! the Treasury is empty, and we must have more money?"

The economical people of this country-those who keep an eye to the debit and credit sides of their legers, or those who earn their daily bread by honest toil-these are not a niggardly people in money matters. They are honest, and they are loyal and generous. If it be necessary to raise and spend money for any wise or useful purpose, they are ready to vote it to the extent of the demand; but they always want to know, and sooner or later they always will know, for what purpose it is used. When the great body of the intelligent and honest masses of the American people-that vast majority of our constituents who neither seek nor desire nor would hold office-when they learn that this Administration has exhausted all the money in the Treasury, and has borrowed $35,000,000 during the first session of Congress to which it had access, they will ask, in emphatic tones, "What have you done, and what do you propose to do, with this money?"

If this question is honestly answered, they will learn that not one dollar of this vast sum has been or is to be expended in improving our harbors on the lakes and on the sea-board, or to clear out our navigable rivers; that though the commerce on our inland lakes and rivers amounts annually to hundreds of millions of dollars-an amount greater than the whole export trade of the United States; and though the human beings, passengers and sailors, whose lives are put to hazard on these waters, are counted by hundreds of thousands, yet not one dime can be wrung from this Administration to render the harlors of these lakes and the channels of these rivers more commodious and safe for this mercantile marine and its costly and precious freightage of goods, wares, and merchandise, and its still more precious lives of men, women, and children. We need no forts or castles, sir, to protect our harbors; the negligence and inattention of Congress have furnished their security against enemies and friends alike, in their dilapidation and ruin.

I instance one of our lake harbors-rather an extreme case, but a tolerably fair sample of many others. For this one, the War Department has recommended and urged upon this flouse an immediate appropriation of $41,000, to secure it from total ruin. The report says:

"The east pier, two thousand and thirty four feet long, was reported by Colonel Turnbull, as long ago as September, 1853, to be in a much decayed condition, and as appropriation of $21,530 was recommended by him for its repair, but it was never granted. It must now be entirely rebuilt from two feet below the water level to five feet above. There are also portions that are dilapidated to a great depth below the water suriace, and, as Colonel Turnbull justly states in his last two annual reports, in moderate gales of wind it is entirely submerged, which renders the approach of vessels to the entrance of the river very dangerous.' "For this object, including the tearing away and removal of the decayed portion, I herewith present an estimate marked P, amounting to $41,084 34.

"I would recommend, in order to prevent the ruin of the harbor, that this appropriation be immediately granted in one appropriation. 35

The city of Rochester, of which this harbor of Genesee is the port-a city of fifty thousand inhab tants, surrounded by one of the most fertile and productive regions of country the sun shines upon according to reports of the Treasury Department, has paid into the Treasury for the past year the net income of $142,579 50-an amount exceeded by only nine ports on the whole Atlantic coast, and only by Chicago and Milwaukee on the lakes; of this sum less than one third is required and reported indispensable for necessary repairs of this best harbor, and the only one of value to commerce for safety on eighty miles of lake coast. On the submerged pier referred to, lying like sunken rocks at the mouth of the harbor, some five or six vessels have been stranded during the past year-one vessel, cargo and crew lost; and this barrier, which the Government has placed there, it will neither repair nor remove.

Not one dollar can be obtained, either in the form of ready money or credit, for the construc

tion of a Pacific railway, that iron band, stronger than any provision of the Constitution, which is to bind together, in indissoluble fellowship, the

|

HO. OF REPS.

States on the oriental and the occidental sides of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. Though all branches of the business and all descripuons of the labor of the country-agricultural, mechanical, manufacturing, and commercial -are depressed, sorely depressed, yet this Administration seems only busy in finding out how and where it can get money to spend, while it seems to have no sympathy with, nor plans to relieve, these prostrate and struggling branches of industry. Indeed, it appears to me that the bold, palpable fact, that the party in power proposes to do nothing for them, will startle the country quite as much as its reckless expenditure of all the moneys in the Treasury, together with all it can borrow. In so doing, it not only shows its utter want of regard for the business and laboring classes of the country, but it strikingly illustrates its wide departure from the old landmarks of" Democracy. If any one partisan idea has been ridden harder than another in late years, by the selfstyled Democracy, it is their "anti-debi" hobby. With them, to run in debt at all was not to be tolerated, except under the pressure of inexorable necessity, a dernier resort when all other expedients had failed. And to contract a debt without at the same time providing, either presently or in the future, a specific mode and reliable means for the payment of the debt, was not only bad politics! economy, but was the very rankest type and the very surest test of" old Federalism."

And Low, what do we see? We find this "antidebt" party, this "pay-as-you-go" party, asking for an extraordinary issue of $20,000,000 of Treasury notes, and an extraordinary loan of $15,000,000, without providing any means for the redemption of the former, or the payment of the latter, except the ordinary income of the Treas ury, which we all know is not adequate to meet the current expenditures of the Government as at present managed. I find in this state of things, a confession, not only that the party now in power has ceased to be " Democratic," according to the long-approved standards of orthodoxy, but has become so thoroughly convinced of its incapacity to administer the Government on any sound prin ciples, that it has made up its mind to struggle through its four years in the best way it can, bor rowing here, and “shinning" there, and throwing out its notes yonder, and to leave to its present op ponents the task of providing the means, during the next four years, for the ultimate payment the debts which it had recklessly contracted.

of

This brings me naturally to the consideration of the question, how are these debts to be paid? How is the country to le relieved from its en barrassment? How are its great business interests-agriculture, manufactures, mechanic arts, commerce, in a word, all the industrial pursuits which diversify American labor, and which are now so depressed-how are these to be relieved?

In my judgment, these objects can never be accomplished except by such a revision of the pres ent tariff as will bring into the Treasury a larger amount of money; while at the same time protec tion is extended to all the various branches of industry. For the last few years we have been importing from foreign countries goods, wares, and merchandise, to the amount of from three hun dred to three hundred and seventy million dollars annually. In the last fiscal year, the value of our manufactures, (for they were chiefly manufa imports was $360,890,141. Of this amount of tured articles,) I doubt not that if the tariff of 1842 had continued in force to this time, with such modifications as experience had shown to be wise, a very considerable share would have been produced in this country.

I am not going into an argument at this time to prove the utility of a tariff policy which shall harmoniously blend the two features of revenue and protection. I think bitter experience is reaching the people that a return to such a policy, or, if it be contended that we have never had a tarif which properly blended these two features, then, that the early adoption of such a policy is abs lutely essential to restore and place on a permanent basis the prosperity of all classes in this country, which we imported last year, it is a libel on Amer Of the $360,000,000 of manufactured goods ican skill and capital to say, that under themot tering care of a wisely-adjusted tariff, we cannot

Of these eight different classes of articles,amounting to nearly one hundred and forty million dollars in the last fiscal year, we could, with proper encouragement, manufacture nearly or quite the whole. We have the requisite capital; we have the necessary raw materials, or can produce them on due notice; we have the essential machinery, or the genius to invent it, or the capacity to copy it from foreign models. We have the needed manufacturing skill, in the heads and hands of our people, native-born or imported; indeed, our country teems with foreign mechanics and artisans, anxiously waiting to be employed in their accustomed trades. We have water-power in greater abundance than any nation on earth, and we can create steam-power to an incalculable extent. All we want, then, to manufacture these one hundred and forty millions annually here at home, is to convince the people that their manufacturing establishments had better be set up and carried on in Massachusetts, New York, Wisconsin, Virginia, Tennessee, and Missouri, and their sister States, than in England, Scotland, France, Belgium, Germany, and Russia, and other European

countries.

Numerous other articles of manufactured goods fall under the same category with those already named. We import annually of copper manufactures about three millions; of tin manufactures, about six millions; of lead and zinc manufactures, more than three millions; of gold and silver manufactures, including watches, about six millions; of glass and earthen manufactures, nearly six millions; of paper manufactures, about one million; of leather and leather manufactures, nearly five millions. Thus it seems that, of these ten kinds of fabrics, we annually import from abroad some thirty million dollars. Does any one doubt that, with proper encouragement to our own capital and skill, we could manufacture on our own soil nearly the whole range of articles embraced in this list? Turning, for a moment, to inquire in respect to some other articles which we largely import, I find

that

Of molasses, we import annually

Of sugars................

Of wines................................................... Of spirits...

.....

5,000,000

5,600,000

Of tobacco and cigars....... Here we have a sum total of $66,000,000 in these five articles-articles good, bad and indifferent in their quality, which we annually import from abroad. Perhaps it would be impossible, or, if possible, unwise to attempt to produce the whole of this amount at home. I will not dwell upon these items, as they lie rather "out of my line." They must be looked after by those having them specially under their eye.

I might enumerate other classes of goods, but there is not time now, nor am I endeavoring to make a tariff speech, but only trying in a summary way to show, that of the $350,000,000 more or less, which we have been annually importing from abroad for several years past, at least $250,000,000 can and ought to be manufactured at home. Nor have I time to show by elaborate argument, that a tariff policy which would enable us to do this, would not, as has been sometimes supposed by superficial thinkers, be beneficial only to the manufacturer, and be fostering one kind of business at the expense of other kinds.

A system that would impel American capital, skill, and labor, to manufacture these $250,000,000 annually, on our own soil, and, in "due time to manufacture another $250,000,000 annually to be exported to other countries, would directly benefit not only the manufacturers, the mechanics, and the artisans, and the laborers of all sorts who produced these various fabrics, but would equally benefit all other classes of business men in the country: as, for example, the sheep-grower, the planter, and the miner, who furnished the wool and the cotton, the iron and the coal, consumed in these NEW SERIES-No. 30.

Internal Improvements-Mr. Hunter.

manufacturing establishments; and the farmer who provided the meat and the breadstuffs, and the gardener who raised the vegetables and the fruits on which the mechanics and artisans daily fed, and the merchant with whom they did their trading, and the banker who furnished the monetary facilities to the capitalists who had embarked their means in manufacturing, and the ship-owner and the mariner who were employed in transporting the fabrics to distant nations of the earth.

In a word, if it be beneficial to a people, and tends to promote their independence, that they raise their own daily food out of their own soil, it must be equally beneficial to them, and tend also to promote their independence, that they produce at home the woolen and cotton fabrics with which they cover their backs, the hats they wear on their heads, the shoes they put on their feet, the carpets that adorn their floors, the watches that tell them when to lie down and when to rise up, the linen on which they rest at night, the blankets that cover them while they slumber, the knives and the forks with which they eat their daily food, the goblets in which they drink the health of their friends, the leaden bullets and the steel blades with which they take the lives of their enemies, the iron rails on which their locomotives dash through their valleys and over their plains, the anchors and the cables that hold their ships, while riding out the storms of the arctics and the hurricanes of the tropics, and, in a word, the gorgeous silks with which they adorn the wives whom they love so well, and the very bunting of the star-spangled banner, that they will defend with their latest breath! A wise people, a free people, will never rely upon the capital and skill of alien nations for the necessaries and luxuries of life, the essentials of existence and comfort, and the very emblems of their power and their independence.

Now, sir, only about two million dollars are required for the purpose of preserving and securing the harbors of the country, and rendering them accessible to our commerce. This is a sum no greater than has been voted to this District of Columbia for unimportant objects-less by $1,000,000 than was voted to-day for three useless regiments of volunteers. I will cheerfully vote for such a loan as shall secure this object; but I cannot give my support for any loan bill, (except it be for the defense of the country,) unless provision be made for this imperatively neces sary purpose of preserving and repairing our dilapidated harbors.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

DEBATE IN THE SENATE. THURSDAY, May 27, 1858.

On motion of Mr. SEWARD, the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the bill (S. No. 343) making appropriations for repairing the piers at the harbor of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, which proposes to appropriate $5,000 for that purpose.

The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Ohio [Mr. PUGH] yesterday offered an amendment to this bill, adding to it all the other harbor bills. Shall the amendment be read?

Mr. HUNTER. I want it read. Mr. PUGH. It is not necessary to read it. I will state that I have not put on, as the Chair remarks, all these appropriations; but I have put on all those which the Committee on Commerce reported for the repair and preservation of works already commenced, together with the appropriations for contingencies, and for preserving the steam dredges that have already been constructed. Mr. CLAY. I ask that the amendment be read. The Secretary read it, as follows:

And be it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not other

wise appropriated, the sum of $10,000, for repairing the works at the harbor of St. Joseph, Michigan, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War.

And be it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $9,588, for repairing the works at the harbor of Monroe, Michigan, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War.

And be it further enacted, That the sum of $23,421 be,

and is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treas

ury not otherwise appropriated, for deepening and widening the channel through the St. Clair flats, Michigan, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War.

SENATE.

And be it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not other. wise appropriated, the sum of $26,143 15, for securing and repairing the works at the harbor of Cleveland, Ohio, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War.

And be it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, $30,000, for repairs upon the works at Huron harbor, Ohio, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War.

And he it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $16,940 96, for repairs upon the works at Black River harbor, Ohio, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War.

And be it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $8,679 55, for repairs upon the works at Grand River harbor, Ohio, to be expended un

der the direction of the Secretary of War.

And be it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $6,620, for repairing the works at the harbor of Ashtabula, Ohio, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War.

And be it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not other wise appropriated, the sum of $3,020, for repairing the works at the harbor of Conneaut, Ohio, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War.

And be it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not other wise appropriated, the sum of $8,638, for the immdiate repair of the piers at Erie harbor. Pennsylvania, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War.

And be it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $5,299 96, for the immediate repair of Dunkirk harbor works, New York, to be expended. under the direction of the Secretary of War.

appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherAnd be it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby, wise appropriated, the sum of $27,679 35, for repairing the public works at Buffalo harbor, New York, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War.

And be it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $9,736 65, for repairing the piers of Oak Orchard harbor, New York, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War.

And be it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $41,084 34, for repairing the public works at Genesee harbor, New York, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War.

And be it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $40,806, for repairing the piers dredging between the channel piers, to be expended under at Sodus Bay harbor, Wayne county, New York, and for the direction of the Secretary of War.

And be it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $46,391 14, for inmediate repairs required for the preservation of Oswego harbor, New York, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary

of War.

And be it further enacted, That there be, and the same is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $2,186 40, for repairs of the piers at Burlington, Vermont, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War.

And be it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $110,000, for completing the improvements in the raft region of Red river, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War.

And be it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby,

appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not other

wise appropriated, the sum of $10,000, for the preservation of steam dredges and appurtenances, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War.

And be it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $20,000 for unforeseen contingencies of lake harbors, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War.

Mr. HUNTER. I submit the following additional section as an amendment to the amendment:

And be it further enacted, That for the purposes of this act and to execute all improvements of harbors or rivers for which appropriations may be made by law during the present session of Congress, the President shall be authorized to borrow so much money as may be made necessary by these appropriations, on the credit of the United States, at an interest not exceeding six per cent., for a term of not more than ten years, the said money to be borrowed under the same limitations and restrictions and in the same manner as prescribed by the act entitled "An act to authorize a loan not to exceed the sum of sixteen millions of dollars," approved March 3, 1848.

Mr. President, I understand we are about to vote for a large appropriation, amounting, as the chairman of the Committee on Commerce informs me, to nearly six hundred thousand dollars, for objects for which we have no estimates from the Departments. We are about to make this addition to the estimates of the next fiscal year, which has not been asked for by the Executive, and it seems to me that those who are thus voting it are bound at least to supply the means by

35TH CONG....1ST SESS.

way of giving him authority to make such a loan as may be necessary for that purpose.

I know that yesterday and the day before, when the loan bill was up, many Senators opposed that bill upon certain grounds which would apply to this proposition when it is presented to the Senate; but they were so obviously untenable that I think I shall be able to show that there is no obstacle in the objections which were then presented that should prevent them from now providing the means for this appropriation, which they are about to add to the annual estimates of the Departments.

I know, sir, that they objected to that loan bill, which was indispensable to carry on this Government, which was indispensable for the support of your Army and your Navy, upon the ground that we would not agree to introduce amendments upon it which were designed to alter the existing mode of calculating the ad valorem duties, which amendments, as was shown upon that occasion, would have added largely to the revenues to be derived from this mode of taxation. I know, too, that they objected to a loan in addition to this, because they said that, in this time of deficiency, we were bound so to add to the tariff as to provide the Government with the means and with the revenues to meet the expenditures. I think it will be easy to show that the objection which they raised to the fact that we provided for a loan, and would not agree to provide any means of altering the old mode of calculating the ad valorem system, is not founded on reason, because it is the system on which we have been acting ever since 1793. From that day to this, as I am informed at the Treasury Department, it has been the unbroken usage so to construe the law, in relation to costs and charges, as to impose the duty on the costs and charges at the port from which the article is shipped-the port from which it is imported. I know that the Senator from Rhode Island [Mr. SIMMONS] said this was a false construction of the law, and that he had set up, in a report which he presented to this body, his opinion that all the Departments and all these authorities have been wrong in regard to this matter, I might almost say ab urbe condita. But, sir, against that opinion of his, that this is a false construction of the law, I set up the unbroken usage of the Department, the unbroken construction of all the Secretaries of the Treasury, and all the collectors, from that day to this. I set up the legislative exposition in 1823, when, in amending the oath which the consignee was to take, Congress required that he should swear that the invoice contained these costs and charges, which of course must have been the foreign costs and charges, for the invoice was made out at the port from which the importations were shipped. I stand on the exposition which has been given by the Federal courts, the courts of the land, on a case made in relation to this very matter. Judge Nelson decided, in the case of Grinnell vs. Lawrence, (Blatchford's Circuit Court Reports, vol. 1, page 349,) that

"In each case costs and charges are to be added, as prescribed in the enacting clause; and the costs and charges in this case are those which have been incurred at the port of shipment."

Now sir, I say upon all this, it has been the construction of the law made by all Secretaries of the Treasury and concurred in by the country and sustained by the highest tribunals in the land, that the mode in which we are now estimating the duty is the mode which the law requires and the history of the Department shows that it has been the unbroken usage, from 1795 to this time, so to assess and to lay the duties; and because we will not depart from that usage, now more than sixty years old, gentlemen say they will not vote for a loan to satisfy the wants of the Gov

Internal Improvements-Mr. Hunter.

tution, which forbids us to originate revenue bills, attempt to depart from that time-honored system which has been justified by experience itself. Now, sir, if these frauds exist, why do not the gentlemen show them? We are not to rest upon loose assertion; we are not to rest upon the clamors of persons who are often interested in getting them up. If these frauds existed to the extent that is alleged, they ought to be shown in the reports of our courts; they ought to be shown in the records of the Treasury Department; they ought to be facts that are patent. Some of the investigating committees, which have been originated for that purpose, ought to have shown them. Such committees have been originated, and they have resulted in nothing. On the contrary, you find that the late Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Guthrie-I quote from memory-in his letter on home valuation, says that the present mode of laying the duties has not resulted, as far as he knows, in many cases of fraud. We know, too, that the highest inducements are held out to the public officers to detect frauds, if they exist, because they are given a part of the fines, the penalties, and the forfeitures; and if, with such stimulants and such inducements as these, none have been detected and exposed, with what face can gentlemen rise here, and assert and expect us to believe, and act upon the belief, that these frauds exist to the extent alleged? Why, sir, they attempt to eke out the absence of positive testimony by circumstantial evidence; and what sort of circumstantial evidence? The Senator from Rhode Island, in order to show it, says that we have been cheated during the whole period of the existence of the tariff of 1846 by undervaluation, because the importations did not yield what they ought to have done in the way of duty; and how does he propose to estimate what they ought to have yielded? Mr. SIMMONS. I did not say that. I do not know but that it will hurt the gentleman's argument to have me correct him.

Mr. HUNTER. I understood the Senator from Rhode Island to say, that because they did not yield what the importations that were brought in ought to have yielded, in his opinion, the Government must have been cheated by undervaluation.

Mr. SIMMONS. No, sir; I did not say any such thing. Those facts were not stated by me to show the frauds. I stated that there might be circumstances to induce more importations in one year than the average; that they would vary from year to year. I did not rely on that as an evidence of fraud; but I alluded to the report of Mr. Guthrie, who said a great many fabrics had their names changed so as to get them in under lower schedules.

Mr. HUNTER. I understood the Senator from Rhode Island to assume that the true mode of estimating the revenue to be derived on imports was by averaging the duties; that is, by adding up the different schedules and dividing them by the number of duties. Am I wrong in that? Mr. SIMMONS. That is the way to find the average rate of duty.

Mr. HUNTER. It is by that average rate of duty we are to estimate, in his opinion, what we are to receive from the tariff; because he said under the present tariff, estimating in that way, it would be but sixteen per cent., and it would require $400,000,000 of imports to give $64,000,000 of revenue. Am I right in that?

Mr. SIMMONS. I say so. Mr. HUNTER. Then it comes to what I said, that the Senator from Rhode Island in his argument estimates the revenue that ought to be derived from the customs to be that average rate which we get by adding together all the duties in the schedules, and dividing them by the number of schedules. He takes, for instance, the tariff

SENATE.

Mr. HUNTER. Then I pass over that, if I misunderstood the Senator, and I am glad I have, for it really seems to me to be a most extraordinary calculation in one who generally cyphers so well, to suppose that we were to estimate the probable revenue to be derived by putting an av erage thus ascertained upon the dutiable imports. If he abandons that ground, I have nothing more to say on it.

Mr. SIMMONS. I do not know how I can abandon a ground I never took.

Mr. HUNTER. I am glad I misunderstood the gentleman.

Mr. SIMMONS. It seems to be very difficult for the gentleman to understand me. When I say I did not take the ground he says, he then turns round and declares that I have abandoned it.

Mr. HUNTER. I take the Senator's word; I do not insist that he took the ground if he says he did not.

Mr. SIMMONS. Well, that is not abandoning it, is it? Mr. HUNTER. There was another branch of the Senator's circumstantial evidence which was adduced in order to show that we must have been cheated in the way of undervaluation on the importations. My friend from Georgia [Mr. TOOMBS] also fell into an error on that subject. He seemed to suppose that because, for a certain period of three years, the imports, as valued in the port of shipment-that is, abroad-were greater than the exports as valued in the port of shipment-that is, here-we were cheated out of the difference, not only between this value of the exports and imports, but out of all the profit added to the exports when they went abroad. I told him upon that occasion what he will allow me to repeat, that the true equation was between the mar ket value of the exports where they were sent and the market value of the imports where they were brought; and that, in order to show that we were cheated, he would have to prove that the imports were of less value rated at the market price where they were bought, than the exports rated at the market price where they were sold; and when we come to institute that equation, we shall find that there may very well be a state of the tarif in, which the imports reckoned at the place of shipment would be of less value than the exports which are always reckoned at the place of shipment. Take the case that he desires to export his cotton in order to get iron for one of his railroads. His cotton goes to Liverpool free of duty; the duty does not enter into the market price there. It returns in the shape of iron which, under the tariff of 1846, bore a duty of thirty per cent., which did enter into the price there. In order to obtain equal values at the market price, you had to im port a less value of imports at the place of shipment than the value of the exports at the port from which they went. In other words, his sta tistics are only an illustration of the old "forty bale" theory, which was sustained by a distinguished gentleman from South Carolina, Mr. McDuffie, and by Professor Senior, of Oxford, a theory to which I do not subscribe in the whole, but which is undoubtedly correct, in part; for there are conditions of trade in which the exporter does pay a portion of the duty.

But, sir, even as I said on that occasion, if the Senator from Georgia had succeeded in showing when you came to institute the true equation, that the imports reckoned at the market value where they were bought, were less than the exports at the market value where they were sent, it would not do to say that the whole of that difference was attributable to undervaluation, because it would be far more reasonable to attribute them to smug gling, to which there were so many more induce ments, for which there were so many more oppor Against tunities, than to the undervaluation.

heretofore? It might as well have been made to any loan that ever was made. Surely it can with as much propriety be made to the appropriation bills as to the loan bill, because if you will not vote the means of satisfying the appropriations surely you ought not to vote for the appropriations themselves. And yet, gentlemen raise an outcry and a clamor about the frauds of this system which has been sanctified by an experience so long, and rather seek to cast reproach upon us because we do not, in the face of the Consti

in that ratio.

We have a check in the skill of experienced men who look to see whether the invoice states the true price of the article, who have the power to the stimulus which is given to the custom-house put it up if they find it too low. We have, too, officers by allowing them a portion of the fines, penalties, and forfeitures, in cases of frauds; and with all these safeguards in a system which has been maturing since 1795, it is reasonable to sul pose that frauds, unless the Government should

35TH CONG....1ST SESS.

have been most unfortunate in its selection of ap-
praisers, could hardly be so numerous as gentle-
men here charge and suppose. On the other
hand, the facilities for smuggling, especially since
the reciprocity treaty, are very great; and I have
no doubt that if the truth could be known, there
is a great deal of smuggling into this country.
I say, then, that the objection which those gen-
tlemen raise to voting for a loan bill because we
would not agree to adopt the proposition of the
Senator from Rhode Island, in regard to a change
of the mode of executing our ad valorem system, is
not a valid objection, because they have failed to
prove the frauds alleged, either by direct evidence
or circumstantial proof; and against them they
will find the authority of those who have been
administering the Department.

But, sir, I go further; I say that all those who voted for that amendment are forever estopped from saying anything in regard to the frauds of the present ad valorem system. Why, sir, what does that amendment propose? The duties are to be assessed on the market price or value, "to include the foreign cost, all charges, duties, and profits, or so much, thereof as may enter into and become a part of such wholesale market price or value;" so that under this, the appraisers would have not only all the opportunities for mistake, there would exist not only all the temptations for fraud that now exist when they have only to ascertain the foreign value, but they would have in addition, the temptations which would arise out of the opportunities for deceit, and for mistake to be given by ascertaining the charges, the duties, the freights, and the profits. Nor is this all, sir. An appraiser at New Orleans and at San Francisco was to appraise a yard of cloth by undertaking to ascertain what it would be worth at New York. It would take a skillful appraiser at New York to fix the true market value on it, if he had it in his possession, and could see it and feel it. How would it be possible for appraisers at the distant ports, and especially at the small ports, to execute any such law?

I say, then, that those who vote for this, stand committed to all the frauds of the present system, and to more besides; and that they have, therefore, no right to object to voting for a loan bill, for the simple fact that we did not impose upon it such a scheme as this; that we did not propose to add upon it such a scheme as this.

In addition to that, sir, we were justified in refusing it on the point which I raised, and which was treated as a mere technical objection, that the amendment offered by the Senator from Rhode Island did raise the taxes upon the country most materially; that it did originate a revenue measure here. Why, sir, upon the twenty-four per cent. schedule it made the tax higher, far higher than it was under the tariff of 1846; and the thirty per cent. schedule it raised to over forty per cent.; and yet when I referred to the provision of the Constitution which we have all sworn to support, it was said I was raising a technical objection; and I understood my friend from Tennessee [Mr. BELL] rather to administer rebuke to me as being somewhat beneath the gravity and importance of the occasion in raising such an objection. Sir, it has been said by an eminent man that the day would come when any one would be called to order who quoted the Constitution of the United States in the Congress of the United States; but I never expected to see the day when a constitutional objec-| tion raised upon the plain reading of the Constitution itself would be treated as a mere technical and trifling objection.

But I pass over that, I put it out of the way, for we took the vote, not on the point of order, but on the merits of the amendment. I come, however, to the other point, which gentlemen raised, that they would not vote loans unless we did something to increase the revenue; that it was manifest the revenue was below what was now estimated to be expended-that is, seventy-four or eighty million dollars a year, which they maintained and asserted was an extravagant estimate. Now, sir, I ask if it would have been possible, on our imports, to have laid any tariff, any system of duties, which could have been executed, that would have raised money enough to have met an estimate of seventy-four or seventy-six million dollars this year? Could we have

Internal Improvements—Mr. Toombs.

done it? I go further; if we could have done it, would it be proper to lay a tariff, which, in a period of such severe pressure and crisis as that we have just passed through, would have given us enough not only for the ordinary, but the extraordinary expenditures of the country? or, if it would have given us enough at such a period as that, in average times and in usual years, it would have filled our Treasury with a surplus; and we all know to what extravagance and profligacy a surplus revenue would lead.

I say it is not desirable that there should be such a system of revenue raised as would give enough, in time of pressure, to meet even the ordinary wants of the Government; and, if this be true, then the only question left for statesmen to consider is, whether the existing sources of revenue would be sufficient for the just demands of the Government economically administered; and, if they would be sufficient, then leave your revenue where it stands, and provide by way of loan for the temporary deficiency, under the júst expectation that when that period passes away, and commerce fills its usual channels, we shail have, out of the existing sources, enough for the just wants of the Government. I say that that is the true plan for the statesman to pursue, and that is the plan which the Secretary of the Treasury recommends. So far from disapproving of that, I honor and commend him for it. What sort of system would that be, which would alter the tariff so as to raise revenue enough in such a period as this, if it could be done, for such an expenditure as seventy-four or eighty million dollars a year?

But gentlemen cannot pursue both lines of attack. If they say seventy-four or eighty million dollars are extravagant estimates of expenditure, surely they ought not to be willing to raise revenue enough to meet them; but if they are willing to raise revenue enough to meet such an expenditure, they ought not to say that seventy-four or eighty million dollars are extravagant, for as certain as you raise the revenue, we know from experience, will be expended.

The sole question, then, for us to consider, was: is there likely to be enough, out of the existing sources of revenue, to meet the economical wants of the Government? I say, yes; enough to meet those wants if they do not exceed $60,000,000, or even $64,000,000 a year; and in order to prove it as nearly as could be done, (for any calculation of this sort is an approximation,) I took the dutiable imports for the year closing in July, 1857, the last fiscal year; I ascertained, by a calculation made at the Treasury Department, what rate of duty the tariff of 1857 had actually given on the dutiable imports; I imposed that rate of duty on the dutiable imports of 1857, and found that would give us something like fifty-one million dollars. I referred, then, to the experience of the tariff of 1846, and found that the imports and exports, and revenue, under that, increased something like ten per cent. per annum; and said that if we had a right to anticipate the same increase after the revival of trade, the present tariff would soon give us sixty million dollars or more. Would not that be enough, with the public lands, to meet all the just wants of the Government? If so, would it not be worse than useless, would it not be a wrong and an extravagance to avail ourselves of the present condition of things in order to force up the revenue to a higher standard, which, in periods of prosperity, would fill the Treasury to overflowing? Upon that, I am willing to go before the country. Upon that issue, I am willing to meet those gentlemen who insist that we are bound, rather than ask for a loan to meet this temporary deficiency, to impose a permanent addition on the taxation of the country.

But there was another argument which they addressed to us, which would have been an argument addressed to our feeling if it had been true; but, in my opinion, it was as unfounded as the others; and that was the appeal ad misericordiam. That was the appeal to do something for the labor of the country on the idea that we ought to raise the tariff in order to protect the operatives who were suffering. I say, in answer to that, that I do not think it fair to tax all other laborers in order to promote and to support another class. I do not think it fair to impose a system of taxation which, like the protective system, makes the con

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sumer, for every dollar he pays to the Government, pay one, two, three, or four other dollars to private individuals, in the shape of an enhanced price, on the domestic manufacture which he is thus forced to consume. I say it is not fair to the sailor, it is not fair to the man of commerce, it is not fair to the agricultural laborer, thus to tax them for the benefit of any other pursuit. I go further. I say that if bounties were thus given, it would be found that they did not profit the laborer. Why, sir, the manufacturing laborer, no matter what your tariff is, will get no more than any other skilled laborer in the country. If there be any extra profits produced by it, they go to the capitalists, the owners of the factories, the men who are rich enough already.

But, sir, I will for a moment assume the truth of the argument, though I do not assent to it, that as regards protection we ought to disregard all other interests, and look only to the manufacturer: I deny, if we look only to his interest, that we ought to resort to a protective system again, and as proof of it, I plant myself on the experi ence of the tariff of 1846. Show me any other period of ten years in the history of this country in which not only all its great interests throve and prospered so rapidly, but in which the manufacturing interest was developed with such rapidity as it was then. I proved to you the other day, from those statistics, which can neither err nor lie, that the manufacturing exports increased nearly threefold in those ten years, more than they haddone at any other period of our financial history; and that is the true test of the prosperity of the manufacturing interest. I showed you the statistics of the manufactures of cotton and of wool in Massachusetts, the great manufacturing State of the Union, and showed you with what unexampled rapidity they had prospered and thriven during that period. And I say that if such are the results of that reduction of duty; if we find so much greater comparative prosperity when we come to compare that period with those of high duties, I am justified in saying that it is neither a charity nor a benefit to the manufacturing laborer to impose upon him again the protective system. I plant myself for that upon those figures; let gentlemen explain away or meet them, if they can. Until they do so, I feel that I am laboring not only for the good of all the other great interests which prospered in sympathy and amity and friendship along with the manufacturing interest during these ten years; and I say that when I adopt a system of low duties, provided it furnishes revenue enough to the country, I am benefiting not only the agriculturist, but the sailor and the man of commerce, but I am benefiting also the manufacturer himself, and that is proved by the history not only of this, but of other countries; and accordingly these great truths which lie at the bottom of all great commercial prosperity are making their way throughout the civilized world. Upon them, sir, I am ready to meet gentlemen at any time or anywhere. If that be the issue which they make, regarding it, as I do, as one of progress, I am willing to stand or fall upon it.

Mr. TOOMBS. My honorable friend from Virginia has called my attention to what he supposes to be a mistake in the argument which I made on the day before yesterday; but I think he has committed one of the most singular and extraordinary mistakes for a gentleman of his financial knowledge I have ever heard in the Senate. I will take the illustration he has given me. I held that if the imports of the country were less than its exports, necessarily allowing for the elements I took into the account, we were doing a losing trade, or the goods were undervalued; that one result or the other absolutely followed. I then showed from the state of the exchanges during the last three years, that our trade was not a losing one, that we had sold the commodities exported for more than we gave for them because there was no balance against us. He gave the illustration of my exporting cotton for the purpose of importing iron. I will take that, and I think I can satisfy my friend in an instant that he is utterly wrong. If a merchant in New Orleans buys a thousand bales of cotton for $50,000, and sends them to Liverpool, if he sells them for $40,000, of course, he has lost $10,000, besides