claim against the United States; but if the facts be as he and his witnesses state them, he has a just demand against the Indians, which it is the duty of the government to assist him in collecting. The Indians are, as respects their annuities and tribal funds, the wards of the government; and while it is the duty of the government to protect them against the fraudulent purposes of white men, it is no less its duty to compel them to act honestly towards bona fide white creditors. If Shaw, the petitioner, had gone into the Indian country in violation of the intercourse act, he would have no claim to the protection of government; or if he had been a trader, though living on land bought of the government, his claim would be very feeble. If, however, as he alleges, and as your committee believe to be true, he was an actual settler on land bought from the United States, carrying on a lawful and laudable business, having no intercourse or connexion with the Indians, and these people bought or took from him by force or stealth provisions which were absolutely necessary for their subsistence, he has a claim upon them for payment, which it is the duty of the United States to enforce.

Your committee are aware that there has been, on the part of the petitioner, no literal compliance with the requirements of the 17th section of the act to regulate intercourse with the Indian tribes. This omission may be excused on the ground that petitioner relied on the good faith of the Indians, and trusted their repeated promises to pay him, and on the further ground that he was ignorant as to the requirements of the law. His claim is now barred by the three years' limitation fixed in the intercourse act. If the claim be such as he states it, and as your committee believe it to be, it will be a great hardship to deny him all relief; and to give him that relief now, to which he was at first entitled, can work no injury to the Indians.

While your committee say all this, they do not forget that they are reporting on an ex parte statement of the facts. The Indians have not yet been heard. It is right that they should be, before any portion of these funds are applied to the payment of this claim; and, therefore, in preparing the bill which accompanies this report, your committee have taken care that both sides shall be heard.

. COM

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

JANUARY 23, 1857-Ordered to be printed.

Mr. BIGLER, from the Committee on Commerce, made the following

REPORT.

[To accompany bill S. 470.]

The Committee on Commerce, to whom was referred the memorial of the Board of Trade of the city of Pittsburg, asking for an appropriation of public lands, to enable a company chartered or to be chartered, by the States bordering on the Ohio river, to improve its navigation; as also the bill offered by the senator from Ohio, (Mr. Pugh,) providing for an appropriation of $50,000 to pay the expenses of topographical and hydrographical surveys on the tributaries of the Ohio, with a view to the improvement of its navigation, by means of a system of reservoirs, to retain the water when it is abundant and supply it to the channel of the river during the dry season, beg to report:

That they have given both propositions, as well as the general subject of improving the Ohio river, that measure of consideration which the great commercial and political interests involved seem to demand. The existence of a constitutional right in Congress to appropriate the public funds for the improvement of the national highways of the country has been denied by many learned statesmen, whilst others, admitting the power, have questioned the policy of such use of it on the part of the government. The policy of restraining its use, if found to exist, to works of the highest utility and largest national consequence, in order to guard against the abuses to which any system of public expenditure, however legitimate, is so likely to lead, is, we believe, admitted by all; even by those who would advocate the broadest federal jurisdiction over the subject.

The committee having determined, however, to go no further than to recommend the adoption of the bill presented by the serator from Ohio, with amendments to give the proposed examination a wider range, the constitutional question does not necessarily arise, and need not be discussed or decided on this occasion. The practice of authorizing surveys and other scientific examinations for the purpose of solving difficult problems in theory or practice, with a view to the promotion of the general good, has been indulged in since the earliest days of the republic, and no serious objection has been made to such use of the public money. Should the proposed examination confirm the favorable impressions of the committee as to the expediency and practicability of the great enterprise to which they look, a proposition

to apply the federal funds to the accomplishment of the work will present the constitutional difficulty in its broadest view, and then each can decide for himself.

The main purpose of this report is to notice the object to be accomplished; its character and importance; its practicability and consequences; and to discuss, briefly, the various schemes for its attainment, which have, at different times, been presented for the consideration of the public.

First, then, as to the value of the navigation of the Ohio river as a channel of commerce, and the necessity for its improvement.

The State of Pennsylvania, about thirty years ago, commenced her system of public works for the ostensible and primary purpose of reaching the commerce of the Ohio river. The State of Maryland, backed by the federal government, shortly afterwards attempted to reach the same channel of trade through the still incomplete Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. The State of Virginia made an effort to gain the same object, by means of the James River and Kanawha improvement. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company was organized with reference to the same object, and more recently the Pennsylvania railroad from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, and other similar works further north and south have been constructed, all seeking the same high prize. These demonstrations sufficiently indicate the high estimate placed on the Ohio as a channel of commerce by the States iLtervening between it and the seaboard, and at an early day in the progress of railroads and canals. More than a hundred million of dollars have already been expended by these States, and companies incorporated by them, with direct reference to the tonnage of the Ohio and its branches. At the time the great avenues which now conduct the commerce of the Ohio to the Atlantic cities were first begun, it is obvious that their enterprising projectors, in estimating the value of their schemes, had scarcely cast a thought beyond the banks of that river. The wide-spreading system of railroad communication which now traverses the western States, picking up the vast products of the country, at every point, had not been foreseen, in one-half its present proportions, by even the most sagacious of these wise men. The Ohio river, thus extended in its relations, and constituting an indispensable link in a grand scheme of commerce between the Atlantic ports and the western and southwestern States, its uninterrupted navigation has become a matter of countless value to commerce, embracing within the scope of its beneficial consequences nearly one-half of our great country.

As for the extent and value of the tonnage of this river, the committee do not deem it necessary to illustrate its magnitude by an array of details; nor, indeed, could they conveniently do so with reliable accuracy. The most of the statistics they can find on the subject are largely conjeotural. In a report made to the Secretary of War in 1848, by J. J. Abert, Esq., chief of the Topographical Bureau, we find the steam tonnage of the western rivers estimated at 426,278 tons, and the floating value of the commerce put down at $296 613,000; but what portion of this can properly be claimed for the Ohio does not appear. Mr.

Abert's estimate of the present value of the tonnage of the western rivers, as stated to a member of the committee, is six hundred millions! A report of Captain Palmer, a topographical engineer of good abilities and experience, on the commerce of the Ohio river for the year 1856, is perhaps the most authentic and direct information that can be had at present. In that report we find the whole number of steamers on the Ohio proper put down at 400, the annual voyages at 8,642, and the freight at 2,592,600 tons; the whole number of flat-boats at 6,000, the voyages at 9,000, and the freight at 450,000 tons, making a total tonnage of 3,042,600 tons, which is valued at $134,130,000. In this estimate the commerce of two of the greatest branches of the Ohio, (the Cumberland and the Tennessee) is not included. Were this added, it would swell the aggregate to near two hundred millions of dollars. The number of passengers moved by the steamers for the year 1856 Captain Palmer has put down at 1,150,453, exclusive of those carried on ferry and canal boats; and he has valued the total commerce of the Ohio valley, moved by land and water for the same year, at the enormous sum of $371,255,836.

The Ohio is a noble river, furnishing, with its main stem and branches, more than three thousand miles of connected steam navigation, sustained by tributaries which traverse seven great States of the Union, and possessing, for an average of more than eight months of the year, the capacity to convey upon its surface, free of harm from breakers or shoals, any number of steamers and amount of tonnage. The willing contribution of waters from the States of Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, for this period of the season, confers upon it great excess of capacity; but when the drought comes on, the mountain rivulets withhold their supplies, the runs and creeks and larger feeders gradually fall away, until the main stem is reduced below the point of efficient navigation, and at times so low that the surface is penetrated by the rugged hottom. Then the busy and cheering scene, usually presented on this great river, becomes sadly changed. Solitude and apathy take the place of robust enterprise and industry. The general noise and bustle of business is silenced; the steamers remain almost stationary, their crews run idle; intercourse between the river points is suspended; trade is stagnated; industry checked, and the just ends of commerce paralyzed.

This river is a great artery of inland commerce, eminently national in all its characteristics, wide-spreading and generous in the benefits which its navigation bestows, promoting the ends of commerce and trade, not only through the agency of its principal branches-the Alleghany, the Monongahela. the Muskingum, the Kanawha, the Sciota, the Kentucky, the Green, the Wabash, the Tennessee, the Cumberland, and others-penetrating, as these branches do, into seven great States, unsurpassed in the extent and value of their agricultural and manufacturing productions, but through all the artificial channels of trade and travel, connected with the main river or its branches, whether railroad or canals, running east or west, north or south, and which are largely sustained by reciprocal patronage with it; the whole necessarily operating as a common system, no link of

which can suspend its operations without entailing a portion of the evil on the remainder. The paralyzing effects of the suspension of navigation on the Ohio is not confined alone to the cities of Pittsburg, Wheeling and Cincinnati, but it is felt in the cities of New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore on the seaboard, and at other less important points. This condition of the river for but a short period has a most prejudicial influence upon its aggregate operations for the year, as it throws a degree of uncertainty about its commerce, and trade seeks other channels; perchance it comes round by sea from New Orleans, instead of pursuing the uncertain navigation of the river. Its effects upon the business of Pittsburg, the greatest commercial and manufacturing city in the west, is most striking and prejudicial, producing a general depression in all departments of industry. If no other interests were involved, the welfare of this great city, so remarkable for its progress in the mechanic arts, and for the extent, variety, and excellence of its manufactures, should be of itself object enough to command the notice of Congress.

But, as has already been shown, seven great States are washed by this river or drained by its tributaries, each of which are more or less interested in its free and constant navigation. And to this number, indeed, we might justly add the States of Tennessee and Alabama, as joint owners of the navigable portions of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, making in all a family of nine States, containing a population of not less than fifteen millions, being more than one-half of the aggregate population of the United States. To trace the influence of this channel of trade through all its ramifications would be a difficult, if not an impracticable task. It is felt with peculiar force at all the ports on the southern and western rivers, covering a connected steam navigation of more than sixteen thousand miles, the most widely separated, exchanging their products at short intervals.The city of Pittsburg alone, situate at the eastern extremity of the Ohio, to say nothing of her vast manufactures, sends out annually on this long line of travel from fifty to sixty new steamers to trade alike with Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas, in the south, as with Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota, in the west, their pilots becoming equally familiar with the channel among the stumps on Red river, or the rocks of the upper Mississippi.

May it not be safely claimed, then, in view of the foregoing facts, that if the navigation of the Ohio river be not national in its characteristics and consequences, and its improvement be not a fair subject for national care and aid, then no such object can be found within the broad limits of the United States of America.

That this navigation ought to be improved all must agree; that the work is too great for individuals, even if possessed of the right to do it, is clear; and no State possesses the necessary jurisdiction over the river, if otherwise prepared to accomplish the end; hence the application to the general government.

Your committee do not propose to discuss in detail the various schemes which have been presented at different periods for the improvement of this navigation. There are four plans, however, the leading characteristics of which it would seem proper to notice briefly.