Part 162

The honorable gentleman who anticipates the destruction of the constitution, unless we shall neglect one of the great interests which it was intended to protect, considers the English Orders in Council as leaving our institutions firm and untouched. Regulations, the effect of which is to give to a foreign power the complete disposition of the property of a large class of our people, are it seems in their political result innocent. Although every citizen who has property on the ocean become dependent on the English Ministry, become their subject, our liberty and independence are (we are told) unimpaired. But let a navy be raised--let the Government which expects obedience provide protection, and the constitution perishes!

But we have been referred particularly by my honorable friend from Pennsylvania to the experience of the world, as having already decided the question which we are now discussing. It seems that Venice and Genoa, and every other naval power which can be named, have all furnished abundant proof of the ruinous effects which such a force is calculated to produce. Sir, the assertion is new. I do not pretend to an intimate acquaintance with the histories of those nations, but I have hitherto believed that the first great shock which the power of Venice received, was given by the League of Cambray--a league formed to repress her ambition, not of maritime, but of territorial aggrandizement. But, whilst Venice has lost her independence, after maintaining it for five or six centuries, may I ask my honorable friend whether the States of Italy, which were never oppressed by fleets, had enjoyed a longer term of prosperity and freedom? As to Genoa--her naval power, her independence and glory, rose and sunk with the same man--Doria. But Holland, says the gentleman from Kentucky, affords an example of a nation, whose commerce flourished greatly before it had a navy, and decayed while her navy continued powerful. If there ever were a people, whose naval power has been employed to protect and almost to create their commerce, it is the Dutch. They fought their way at the same time to trade in the East Indies and America, and to national independence in Europe. The decay of their trade is to be attributed to the development of the resources of other nations; to the navigation act of England; and the similar measures adopted by other powers. As to France--the period of her greatest financial prosperity probably coincided with that of her greatest naval power; both were due to the administration of Colbert. But the evils of a navy (gentlemen tell us) have been concentrated in the case of England. With all her fleets she is destined soon to lose her independence. The expense of those fleets has crushed the industry of her subjects, and must soon reduce her to national bankruptcy. Let us suppose that these gentlemen, who have been so much mistaken in regard to the past, may be more accurate in their narrative of the future. Still England will have owed to her fleets her redemption from invasion for ages past. While every other considerable nation of Europe has been bankrupt over and over again, she is not yet bankrupt. While nearly every other Government of Europe has been overset, hers yet rides out the storm. Should England fall to-morrow, it should seem impossible to deny that her navy will have prolonged her independence for at least two centuries.

My honorable colleague has calculated the expense of building and maintaining a navy of 12 ships-of-the-line and 20 frigates, and has explained the principles on which his calculations have been founded. The estimate of the gentleman from Pennsylvania can hardly be considered, after the error which has been remarked, as impugning those calculations. I have not myself attempted to estimate the probable expense of maintaining 12 ships-of-the-line and 20 frigates with any precision, but I cannot doubt the fairness of the rule which deduces it from the expense of such a force to England. This is the rule which I understood my colleague to have employed. It has not been disputed in debate; it has been in conversation. Many gentlemen have objected to an estimate of the expenses of a navy during war, in which (as they suppose) no allowance is made for the peculiar expenses which war involves. To have all our ships safe at the end of the contest is observed to be rather a sanguine expectation. But if the rate of expense in the estimate of my colleague were deduced from the rate of English expense during war, these objections must be altogether groundless. Now, it was deduced from the expense which is found sufficient to maintain the English Navy in a state of unimpaired strength during war. The English expense, from which it was inferred, included the charge of docks and navy-yards, of the repair of old ships and of the building of new ones. It included pensions to their officers, and even the support of the prisoners taken from their enemies. I have on my table a detailed account of the English naval expenditure for a year of the last war. The whole amount was about twelve millions and a half, and of this sum fully four millions and a half were applied to what may be considered the contingent expenses of the navy. Now, is there any reason to suppose that the contingent expenses of our navy would be greater in proportion to its force than this? And if not greater, has not an allowance been made for the capture of some of our ships, or, in other words, for the building of new ones? It is true, that from the superiority of English sailors to their present enemies, England loses little by capture, and, it may be supposed, that from the greater frequency and severity of our conflicts when we shall be engaged in war against her, our contingent expenses may be greater in proportion to the number of our ships then hers. But there are many expenses to which she is necessarily subject, from which we shall be exempt. I will instance that resulting from blockading squadrons, and that from repairs in colonial and foreign ports. These can appear inconsiderable to no man who has given his attention in any degree to the subject. Naval men I believe would not contradict me, if I were to state the expense of a ship employed in a strict blockade, and particularly during the winter months, as fully double that of a ship engaged in ordinary service. In fact, England finds the expense too great for her finances, and has been obliged, in some measure, to give up the practice. The other article of expenditure to which I have referred, I shall not attempt to estimate with any precision. It must, however, be obvious to every man, that the ships of war of England must frequently be repaired and refitted in distant countries. In these the most scrupulous fidelity and economy on the part of her officers cannot prevent the expense from being frequently extravagant. The most salutary regulations and most provident instructions on the part of the Administration at home cannot prevent her officers from being sometimes careless and fraudulent. I recollect an instance of the enormous expense involved in the distant services required from the British Navy, which I cannot pretend to state with accuracy, but in which I hope not to be substantially wrong. Sir Home Popham (a distinguished officer in the English Navy) had under his command in the last war two or three frigates in the East Indies. They had left England in good condition, and their repairs for two or three years, and the supply of the different articles of equipment which they occasionally required, exceeded, I believe, the prime cost of the vessels themselves. These two items of expenditure, blockading squadrons, and repairs in distant countries, (to neither of which an American Navy would be liable,) will be acknowledged, I think, to justify the conclusion, that the contingent expenses of the English Navy must be as great in proportion to its force as ours would be in war--and therefore that the rule employed in the calculations of my colleague was correct.

But our resources for the equipment of a navy appear to the honorable gentlemen on the other side, as deficient in respect to men and money. Sailors in this country cannot be obtained in sufficient numbers without impressment. It is not necessary, sir, to inquire whether for the defence of their peculiar rights the services of a marine militia may not be required. There is no reason to doubt our being able to procure the voluntary services of our seamen. If we shall at any time be engaged in a war (like that with France in 1798) which shall leave the greater part of our trade unaffected, the wages of sailors will, indeed, be high, but the number required will be small and the Government can afford high wages. In a war of a different character--against a nation powerful at sea--your sailors will be thrown out of employment and their wages will be necessarily low. But gentlemen object to this reasoning on the supposition that in such a case our sailors would all engage in privateers. The notion that in any war there will be a demand in this country for more than thirty thousand sailors for privateers is surely an extravagant one. But it has been shown by my colleague that in a war which should diminish our trade by one-half, (and a war requiring any great naval exertion would necessarily do this,) thirty or forty thousand seamen may be employed in privateers, and a sufficient number would remain for your public ships. But are not your privateers as much a part of the naval force of the nation as your ships of war? It has been said, indeed, that they are the more useful part. Now, if the Government should believe (what neither sober reflection nor the experience of other nations can permit it to doubt) that this part of your force cannot be in any great degree serviceable unless supported by a fleet--then surely a limitation to its extent, which would be necessary even to the interest of its owners, cannot fairly be objected to. The law just passed for raising twenty-five thousand men, provides, I think, for only one regiment of cavalry. Now, it is very possible that a much larger proportion of the twenty-five thousand men that can be accommodated in this regiment, may choose to go to Canada on horseback. They must be disappointed, and either not go into the army at all, or go into the service which they least desire. No man has hitherto denounced the act as on this account tyrannical and oppressive. Yet this case seems to me a true parallel to the other. In the naval, as in the military service, the interest of the country requires the employment of different sorts of force; and the object may be attained with equal fairness in both services by limiting the amount of the favorite force.

Mr. LAW said: Being in favor of the bill now under consideration, I beg leave to express my sentiments, and state the reasons in support of my opinion; and the only pledge I shall offer to the House, for their attention, is, that I shall not occupy much of their time.

This bill, sir, embraces two objects--one relates to the repairs and equipment of the ships of the United States now out of service--the other contemplates the building of ten additional frigates, and laying the foundation of a new Naval Establishment. The view which I entertain of this subject, does not arise from its connection with that system which grows out of what is called the present crisis, or putting the nation in armor for war, as reported by the Committee of Foreign Relations; but from a conviction, that, as an abstract question or matter of general policy, I deem it for the interest and security of the United States, to begin the establishment of a Navy, to be perpetuated and extended hereafter--and, because I believe it may be accomplished, to the extent at present proposed, from the ordinary means we ought to possess, without adding any new burdens on the citizens. In order to decide whether it is for the interest of the United States we must examine and see how it is connected with the great and essential interest of the country. The basis of our national wealth is agriculture; the real substance of the nation is drawn from the earth. This arises from the great and extensive territory which we possess, thinly settled, low in price, of an excellent soil, capable, from its fertility and variety of climes, of affording produce of every kind, in the greatest abundance. The surplus of all is wanted in other countries, where nature has been less bountiful; and it must be a great while before the labor of our citizens can be diverted extensively into other channels--I mean manufactures. This is a condition in which we ought to rejoice for the causes, which bind us in this necessity, are those which tend to preserve the morals, the happiness, and the independence of the nation. And until our lands are taken up, and population becomes redundant, the basis of our national wealth must be the farming interest. But, sir, in a country so blessed by nature; where the inhabitants have the greatest stimulus to industry, the fruits of their labor secured by just and equal laws; where the property cannot be taken from the owner without his consent, there will be a vast surplus, beyond what the consumption of the country requires. Hence, commerce springs up as the daughter and handmaid of agriculture. Without commerce, agriculture would languish. With it, wealth is consolidated, and industry promoted. It diffuses its benign influence, discoverable in the splendid and delightful improvements, which rejoice the eye of the traveller, throughout the country. And it is as unnatural for the farming interest to oppress the commercial, as it is for the parent to abandon its offspring. They mutually cherish and support each other; and, by natural sympathy, must be affected by the checks and disorders which each may receive. But commerce must be protected. It cannot protect itself against force. Being carried on abroad on the ocean, (for I am speaking of foreign commerce,) it is subject to annoyance, interruption, and hazard. We must pass the common highway of nations to get to a market; and in this route, the weak and defenceless must, and always will be the sport and prey of the strong and violent, whom they meet in the way. From the wretched state of those nations with whom we have intercourse, we, from weakness, must fall victims to their violence. This is an evil which we shall always experience as a neutral, coming in collision with belligerents. Shall we then abandon commerce, or shall we strive to support it? It will be for the interest of the country to support it, if possible; for if we abandon it, the evil will recoil on the agricultural part, who, no longer than foreign commerce is supported, can find a vent for their surplus; and without a vent for the surplus, a bare competency might be endangered. Internal commerce would always fail, for that, being but a stream from foreign commerce, must dry when the fountain from whence it issues fails. Enterprise ceases, and languor and poverty ensue. It is then for the interest of the nation to cherish commerce. But how can this be done? Will a navy have this effect? I think it will. Indeed, if the little navy which was commenced some years ago, had been supported and increased as it might have been without any difficulty, we might, and in all probability should, have avoided our present calamities. We are now the defenceless prey of both France and England; deprived of the common rights of nations and citizens of the world. Will it then be asked, shall we not go to war and fight our way? I have already recorded my negative on the several questions preparatory to that step, and I am decidedly against going to war. We have not the means necessary, and unsuccessful resistance will only make our condition worse. I verily believe, if this nation had fostered our infant navy, from the time it was commenced, and had not, by a strange infatuation, abandoned and neglected it, it would now have been too important to be despised, by either France or England. Our prosperity would have continued. Our strength would have been dreaded, and our friendship courted by both nations. While they have been contending for the mastery, we, with such naval force as we ought to have had, and a strict course of neutrality, might have pursued a lawful and gainful trade. We might have had a perpetual revenue of sixteen millions, instead of the pittance now received at the Treasury. I believe, that with the navy we might have had, and a correct strict neutral course, there would have been neither Berlin and Milan Decrees, nor Orders in Council, to annoy our lawful commerce.

Mr. ROBERTS observed, that there appeared to be a disposition in the committee to take the question on the filling the blank in the first section without further debate. As he could not vote for appropriating $480,000 for the repair of the vessels of war unfit for service, it would perhaps be the most proper time to submit his opinions. I have not, Mr. Chairman, said he been a listless hearer of the very ingenious arguments advanced by gentlemen in favor of the report. He had, however, been so unfortunate as to be more confirmed in his inclination to vote against the bill, from attentively weighing these arguments. The select committee in their report (for they had reported specially as well as by bill) have said, with oracular confidence, that this country is inevitably destined to become a naval power. He had not, with them, become a fatalist. Though he was disposed to claim a high destiny for his country, he did not believe that destiny was yet immutably fixed. He, however, believed the question now to be decided must have an influence on that destiny, that might at an early day, if decided affirmatively, obliterate our happy civil institutions; if negatively, preserve them long the best blessings of posterity. Gentlemen who have advocated a naval establishment, have chosen to consider this bill and report as the furtherance of a system already in existence, and that, however short of their wishes the committee may be disposed to go, they stand prepared to view whatever might be done to augment the naval force as an evidence of assent to their system. Mr. R. said at one time he had inclined to vote for the appropriation of a sum to equip such of the vessels now out of service as might be found worthy of refittal. But on discovering it would be considered as an acknowledgment that a navy was proper in the sense it had been brought into view by the committee, and doubting, on better consideration, whether there was not great likelihood the money would be worse applied in repairing old, than in building new vessels, and feeling a conviction that if these vessels should be deemed worthy of repair, they could not be brought into action in that exigence of war when they could be useful, as in that case land defence must be resorted to, and the consequent expense incurred, he should feel it his duty to vote against this appropriation.

It has been observed that the constitution has invested Congress with power to regulate commerce, to provide and maintain a navy, &c. There is nothing, said Mr. R., imperative in this. It was necessary in a general grant of powers to insert many items to be left to the sound discretion of Congress, to use or not to use. Soon after the Government came into operation, it became a favorite object with one set of politicians to form a navy. On the occasion of our commerce being depredated upon by the Barbary corsairs, the question first came up. It became a matter of deliberation whether a peace should be purchased of them with money and presents; whether some European power should be subsidized to keep a few frigates on that station, or whether a naval force should be equipped for the purpose (as alleged) of enabling the President to negotiate to better effect. The party with whom I have always found it my duty to act, said Mr. R., opposed, on that occasion, the commencement of a navy system, when it was invited under circumstances so specious. They were, however, in the minority. The ships of war were voted--with what effect on the Algerines, he did not stop to inquire. If this opposition to the commencement of a Naval Establishment was wrong in the minority, their successors ought not to follow them; but if it should be found that they were right, the ground ought never to be quitted. The question of increasing the navy was again discussed in the celebrated times of '98-9. The collisions with France had raised the war fever very high. A navy was vociferously contended for as the most efficient means of defence. It was when things were in this state, that the President, in his reply to the Marine Society of Boston, who had with much fervor tendered him their approbation of his measures, hoped to see the wooden walls of America considered as her best defence. Because Athens, when she was invaded by the hosts of Xerxes, had chosen to interpret the oracle that promised her safety in wooden walls, rationally, America must take the same course, however dissimilarly situated. The people of Attica, inhabiting a circumscribed territory, found safety in their fleet, and they could have found it nowhere else. But such cannot be the case with America. Even the hosts of Xerxes could not make it necessary for the American people to quit their territory--the figure would not hold. On this occasion, too, the Republican party consistently opposed a navy; strange blindness and obstinacy, if they were not sustained by reason as well as principle. On this occasion, the supporters of a navy system were a majority in council. For a moment they succeeded with their measures. But the public councils were soon filled by the people with men of other minds, and the question was put to rest.

Gentlemen have considered this subject on its general principles and remote consequences. In this point of view, said Mr. R., it presents a wide field for reflection. The Chairman (Mr. CHEVES) has complained he has had to meet this subject encumbered with much error and many prejudices; among which is the idea that a naval system is prejudicial to civil liberty. The opposers of a navy, with an air of no small triumph, are called upon to show how a system of maritime power would endanger the freedom of our country. It has been said, a military chieftain, by an easy transition, may become a civil ruler, and that the commander of an army has often become a despot, while no such event could happen from a naval commander, as such an office gave no power on terra firma. If we look a little deeper into the subject, we shall find we have as much to fear, and even more, from a naval than a military power. The latter can only be kept in time of war, and for comparatively but short periods; at a time too, when the public spirit is awakened and ready to oppose encroachment. The chair of rule may possibly be gained by a military chief; but an attempt on the public liberty has a much greater chance to fail. Evils of this sort can only take place on very rare contingency; but the ruin of the public liberty can hardly fail to be a consequence of the establishment of a naval power. History proves to us that maritime power has always excited national ambition to a spirit of conquest and plunder. A naval power will seek colonies and ports in distant places. The chance, nay, the certainty, of collisions with other nations, is multiplied, and a corruption of morals is produced, that cannot fail to make the first Government on earth a tyranny, by a course of events that the patriot can neither prevent nor divert to other consequences. A short time after Athens had found safety in her wooden walls, one of her statesmen proposed she should burn the fleets of her neighbors, that she might thereby be rendered mistress of Greece. This project the virtue of the people resisted; but that virtue soon gave way in the expedition to the Cyclades, where her navy committed acts of violence that must indelibly fix the stain of the blackest perfidy and cruelty on the Athenian character. What could be a more unprovoked act of aggression than her crusade against Syracuse, a crime that visited her with a declension of power from which she never recovered? For a nation to believe her destinies fixed, is in a great measure to fix them. Nothing, perhaps, contributed more to make Rome the mistress of the world, than the oracles that promised it. Her heroes and statesmen were stimulated thereby to fulfil her destiny. The maritime supremacy of Britain is, perhaps, owing as much to the belief that she is the destined Queen of the waters, as to any other cause. Though such operations be calculated to bring about astonishing effects, how unfortunate is it when a nation's eyes are thus directed to improper attainments--it becomes a source of incalculable evil. Athens and Rome were the victims of such a policy, as Britain is at this time. I fervently hope, said Mr. R., for a better destiny for our beloved country. Rome and Carthage were both great maritime powers; it was not in Lybia and Italy they began to contend for superiority, but in Sicily and Iberia. The conflicts thence arising brought terror to the gates of Rome, and laid Carthage in ashes. The abuse of maritime power in both those States changed the free features of the government, and left a dreary despotism in their stead. A naval victory secured to the second Cæsar the rule of the mistress of the world. In later times, we have been told, said Mr. R., the declension of maritime States has been due to other causes than their Naval Establishments. In some instances it may have been so. When the strength and power of a State has arisen entirely from the profits of commerce, when that commerce has taken another course, the transitory splendor it has built up has vanished. Venice was an example of this. The commerce of the East caused her to rise out of the circumscribed and marshy Islands at the bottom of the Adriatic, the proud Mistress of the Waves. When the Cape of Good Hope had been doubled by the Portuguese, her commercial advantages failed. She sunk from the conqueror of the Eastern Empire, to a mere city of Italy and Portugal; a narrow territory, by the same commerce, assumed the first rank among the nations of the world. A naval power may serve sometimes to extend commerce to wider limits; but it can by no means control it with certainty to channels through which nature, and often the policy of other nations, bid it to flow. What is the state of British commerce at this time? The rupture of the peace of Amiens did not arise from Britain having received injuries from France after the cessation of hostilities. The new war was a commercial one. The British Cabinet saw, in a state of peace, France would not be unmindful of her commercial interests. The intelligence, the enterprise, and population, and the resources of France, all indicated that she would at least divide successfully the profits of commerce with her rival. The naval power of Britain giving her the command of the sea, she could oppose only with effect the growing commerce of her neighbor in a state of war. This step of British policy imposed on the ruler of France the necessity of changing the channels of commerce. In this way he has aimed a blow at the vitals of her strength, which her tremendous naval power neither enables her to avert nor lessen its force. Her marine puts the trident into her hands, but she can no longer shake the earth. Her monopolizing spirit has sealed the Continent of Europe against her, and interdicted her commerce with America. She has reduced the ocean almost to a desert; and she seems hastening to that destiny which has generally attended her predecessors in naval power through her ambition to rule the waves.

Gentlemen propose to protect commerce on this side the Gulf Stream, yet admit if our vessels are despoiled on the Indian Ocean, we must apply retaliation in the West Indies. The Gulf Stream limitation is at once given up; a new expedition to the Cyclades is in that case to take place. Begin your conquest in the West Indies, and you must increase your navy to acquire and defend them. It is at once an admission that naval power must be used more for ambition than the protection of commerce and our territorial waters. But, what is worse, as you acquire colonies and ships you must create armies. The hands of the Executive, restricted and elective as it is, in the United States, became thence armed with a sceptre formidable indeed, and the more so as it acquires this strength without producing the shock to public feeling which the seizure of power by a military leader will always excite. It has been said, (said Mr. R.,) that the existence of Great Britain hung upon her navy in the contest in which she is now engaged. If her fate hangs suspended by her naval power, she owes her peril to that source. Without her maritime strength, would she have aspired to balance the scales of power on the Continent? Would she have become a party to the infamous conspiracy of Pilnitz? Would she have wantonly plotted the dismemberment of France? Would she have broken the peace of Amiens whence her present dangers arise? Certainly not.

On the article of cost, said Mr. R., it is of little importance whether the army or navy of Great Britain is most burdensome on her finances, though it has been dwelt upon with particular emphasis, nor whether an army be more expensive in every case, than a navy. Armies are a necessary consequence of navies. Has not the British army increased with equal pace with her navy?

The humane mind, said Mr. R., cannot contemplate without pain, that from naval power have flown the most copious streams of human misery. The plunder of half the world, with immense advantages in addition, has not sustained the British navy. A debt has been accumulated that almost baffles the power of figures to estimate. But debt, and a prospect of Government insolvency at home, are of much less account than the wrongs this navy has wrought on the society of nations. And yet it is this Government that is held up to Republican America as a model for imitation.

Need I remind you, said Mr. R., of the millions of victims sacrificed to commercial cupidity on the plains of Hindostan, by means of this navy? A population, thrice as great as that of the British Isles, has been exterminated in this devoted region, within comparatively but a few years, by mercantile rapacity. Colonel Dowe informs us, that the wealth of one of the cities of this wretched country had whetted the avarice of Clive and his associates, and that an offer was made to the Government to pay the public debt for permission to sack it. It was too gross an act of infamy to assent to, and the adventurers obtained their end by other means. A famine and pestilence was substituted for the bayonet, and the spoils of the devoted city glutted the hands of rapine. In this exploit, a shoe-black divided his £200,000. Need I remind you, said Mr. R., that the population of Africa has been drained, to groan out a wretched existence in the West India colonies, to prop up this naval and commercial power, or that the remotest corners of every sea have been visited with the scourge of blood and desolation for the same purpose? On general principles, does not past experience afford sufficient warning to these States to avoid those shoals on which so many nations have been wrecked?

Mr. Chairman, under no view which I have been able to take of this subject, considering it either as the furtherance of a system of naval power, to be expanded with the growing strength of the Union to gigantic size, or that it is a proper time for providing a temporary increase of naval force, can I agree, said Mr. R., to the bill on your table.

When Mr. ROBERTS had concluded, the committee rose, and had leave to sit again.

WEDNESDAY, January 22.

Another member, to wit, WILLIAM M. RICHARDSON, from Massachusetts, appeared, produced his credentials, was qualified, and took his seat.

Naval Establishment.

The House again went into a Committee of the Whole on the bill concerning the Navy. The question on filling up the blank in the section which provides for repairing the vessels on hand, with four hundred and eighty thousand dollars, was carried by a large majority.

The next section provides for the building of ---- additional frigates.

Mr. CLAY (the Speaker) rose to present his views on the bill before the committee. He said that as he did not precisely agree in opinion with any gentleman who had spoken, he should take the liberty of detaining the committee a few moments while he offered to their attention some observations. He was highly gratified with the temper and ability with which the discussion had been hitherto conducted. It was honorable to the House, and, he trusted, would continue to be manifested on many future occasions.

On this interesting topic a diversity of opinion has existed almost ever since the adoption of the present Government. On the one hand there appeared to him to have been attempts made to precipitate the nation into all the evils of naval extravagance, which had been productive of so much mischief in other countries; and, on the other, strongly feeling this mischief, there has existed an unreasonable prejudice against providing such a competent naval protection for our commercial and maritime rights as is demanded by their importance, and as the increased resources of the country amply justify.

The attention of Congress has been invited to this subject by the President in his Message delivered at the opening of the session. Indeed, had it been wholly neglected by the Chief Magistrate, from the critical situation of the country, and nature of the rights proposed to be vindicated, it must have pressed itself upon our attention. But, said Mr. C., the President, in his Message, observes: "Your attention will, of course, be drawn to such provisions on the subject of our naval force as may be required for the service to which it is best adapted. I submit to Congress the seasonableness also of an authority to augment the stock of such materials as are imperishable in their nature, or may not at once be attainable." The President, by this recommendation, clearly intimates an opinion that the naval force of this country is capable of producing some effect; and the propriety of laying up imperishable materials was no doubt suggested for the purpose of making additions to the navy, as convenience and exigencies might direct.

It appeared to Mr. C. a little extraordinary that so much, as it seemed to him, unreasonable jealousy should exist against the Naval Establishment. If, said he, we look back to the period of the formation of the constitution, it will be found that no such jealousy was then excited. In placing the physical force of the nation at the disposal of Congress, the Convention manifested much greater apprehension of abuse in the power given to raise armies than in that to provide a navy. In reference to the Navy, Congress is put under no restrictions; but with respect to the Army--that description of force which has been so often employed to subvert the liberties of mankind--they are subjected to limitations, designed to prevent the abuse of this dangerous power. But it was not his intention to detain the committee by a discussion on the comparative utility and safety of these two kinds of force. He would, however, be indulged in saying, that he thought gentlemen had wholly failed in maintaining the position they had assumed, that the fall of maritime powers was attributable to their navies. They have told you, indeed, that Carthage, Genoa, Venice, and other nations, had navies, and, notwithstanding, were finally destroyed. But have they shown, by a train of argument, that their overthrow was, in any degree, ascribable to their maritime greatness? Have they attempted even to show that there exists in the nature of this power a necessary tendency to destroy the nation using it? Assertion is substituted for argument; inferences not authorized by historical facts are arbitrarily drawn; things wholly unconnected with each other are associated together--a very logical mode of reasoning! In the same way he could demonstrate how idle and absurd our attachments are to freedom itself. He might say, for example, that Greece and Rome had forms of free government, and that they no longer exist; and deducing their fall from their devotion to liberty, the conclusion in favor of despotism would very satisfactorily follow! He demanded what there is in the nature and construction of maritime power to excite the fears that have been indulged? Do gentlemen really apprehend that a body of seamen will abandon their proper element, and, placing themselves under an aspiring chief, will erect a throne to his ambition? Will they deign to listen to the voice of history, and learn how chimerical are their apprehensions?

But the source of alarm is in ourselves. Gentlemen fear that if we provide a marine it will produce collisions with foreign nations--plunge us into war, and ultimately overturn the constitution of the country. Sir, if you wish to avoid foreign collision you had better abandon the ocean; surrender all your commerce; give up all your prosperity. It is the thing protected, not the instrument of protection, that involves you in war. Commerce engenders collision, collision war, and war, the argument supposes, leads to despotism. Would the counsels be deemed wise, of that statesman who should recommend that the nation should be unarmed--that the art of war, the martial spirit, and martial exercises, should be prohibited--and that the great body of the people should be taught that national happiness was to be found in perpetual peace alone? No, sir. And yet every argument in favor of a power of protection on land applies, in some degree, to a power of protection on the sea. Undoubtedly a commerce void of naval protection is more exposed to rapacity than a guarded commerce; and if we wish to invite the continuance of the old, or enaction of new unjust edicts, let us refrain from all exertion upon that element where they operate, and where, in the end, they must be resisted.

For his part, Mr. C. said, he did not allow himself to be alarmed by those apprehensions of maritime power which appeared to agitate other gentlemen. In the nature of our Government he beheld abundant security against abuse. He would be unwilling to tax the land to support the rights of the sea, and was for drawing from the sea itself the resources with which its violated freedom should at all times be vindicated. Whilst this principle is adhered to, there will be no danger of running into the folly and extravagance which so much alarms gentlemen; and whenever it is abandoned--whenever Congress shall lay burdensome taxes to augment the Navy beyond what may be authorized by the increased wealth, and demanded by the exigencies of the country, the people will interpose, and, removing their unworthy representatives, apply the appropriate corrective. Mr. C. could not, then, see any just ground of dread in the nature of naval power. It was, on the contrary, free from the evils attendant upon standing armies. And, the genius of our institutions--the great representative principle, in the practical enjoyment of which we are so eminently distinguished--afforded the best guarantee against the ambition and wasteful extravagance of Government.

What maritime strength is it expedient to provide for the United States? In considering this subject, three different degrees of naval power present themselves. In the first place, such a force as would be capable of contending with that which any other nation is able to bring on the ocean--a force that, boldly scouring every sea, would challenge to combat the fleets of other powers, however great. He admitted it was impossible at this time, perhaps it never would be desirable for this country to establish so extensive a Navy. Indeed, he should consider it as madness in the extreme in this Government to attempt to provide a Navy capable to cope with the fleets of Great Britain, wherever they might be met.

The next species of naval power to which he would advert, is that which, without adventuring into distant seas, and keeping generally in our own harbors, and on our coasts, would be competent to beat off any squadron which might be attempted to be permanently stationed in our waters. His friends from South Carolina (Messrs. CHEVES and LOWNDES) had satisfactorily shown that, to effect this object, a force equivalent only to one-third of that which the maintenance of such squadron must require would be sufficient. That if, for example, England should determine to station permanently upon our coast a squadron of twelve ships-of-the-line, it would require for this service thirty-six ships-of-the line, one-third in port repairing, one-third on the passage, and one-third on the station. But that is a force which it has been shown that even England, with her boasted Navy, could not spare for the American service whilst she is engaged in the present contest. Mr. C. said he was desirous of seeing such a force as he had described, that is, about twelve ships-of-the-line and fifteen or twenty frigates, provided for the United States; but, he admitted that it was unattainable in the present situation of the finances of the country. He contended, however, that it was such as Congress ought to set about providing, and he hoped, in less than ten years, to see it actually established. He was far from surveying the vast maritime power of Great Britain with the desponding eye with which other gentlemen beheld it. He could not allow himself to be discouraged at the prospect even of her thousand ships. This country only required resolution, and a proper exertion of its immense resources, to command respect, and to vindicate every essential right. When we consider our remoteness from Europe, the expense, difficulty, and perils, to which any squadron would be exposed, stationed off our coasts, he entertained no doubt that the force to which he referred would insure the command of our own seas. Such a force would avail itself of our extensive seaboard and numerous harbors, everywhere affording asylums to which it could retire for safety from a superior fleet, or from which it could issue for the purpose of annoyance. To the opinion of his colleague, (Mr. MCKEE,) who appeared to think that it was in vain for us to make any struggle on the ocean, he would oppose the sentiments of his distinguished connexion, the heroic Daviess, who fell in the battle of Tippecanoe.