\Z'H 
 
AMERICAN OCEAN STEAMSHIPS: 
 
 THEIR NECESSITY TO AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OP 
 
 MR. ELLIOT C. C OVD m, 
 
 OF NEW-YORK, 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 NATIONAL EXPORT TRADE CONVENTION, 
 
 AT 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., 
 
 FIBItUAEY 19th, 1878. 
 
 NEW-YORK: 
 
 PRESS OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. 
 
 1878. __ 
 

 I879/A/CS3S 
 
SPEECH. 
 
 Tiie Convention was organized by the appointment of 
 Ex-Governor Henry Lippitt, of Rhode Island, as perma¬ 
 nent President. On motion of Hon. Amasa Norcross, 
 Member of Congress from Massachusetts, it was resolved, 
 that Mr. Elliot C. Cowdin, of New-York, delegate from 
 the Chamber of Commerce, be invited to address the Con¬ 
 vention. 
 
 Thereupon Mr. Cowdin, having first made liis acknow¬ 
 ledgments to the Convention, spoke as follows ; 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention : 
 
 Tiie depressed condition of the commercial marine of this coun¬ 
 try is obvious to even superficial observers ; -while it is humiliating 
 to merchants, ruinous to ship-owners and ship-builders, and alarming 
 to far-seeing statesmen, who remember the days of our maritime 
 
 prosperity and power. 
 
 Need this be so? Is there no revival in store for us? Does not 
 the country teem with products toward which foreign peoples 
 stretch out their hands ? Are not our artisans competent to con¬ 
 struct ships ? Can we not furnish skillful mariners for navigating 
 them ? 
 
 The answer to these questions is found in the fact, that it is but 
 a few years since the tonnage of our shipping, foreign and domestic, 
 
4 
 
 ranked only second among the nations, and that to-day the total 
 tonnage demanded by our own productions is greater than that of 
 any other country. Most assuredly we ought to have our own 
 ships to do our own carrying trade. 
 
 To measure the extent of the decline in our commerce, and the 
 causes that produced it, and the means that can be employed for 
 its revival, it will be profitable to institute some comparisons be¬ 
 tween the past and the present. 
 
 The late Mr. Lindsay, M. P., in his instructive work on Merchant 
 Shipping, speaking of this country, says: “ Within eighty years from 
 the Declaration of Independence they rivalled, and, indeed, sur¬ 
 passed in the amount of their merchant shipping, all other nations.” 
 We might think this an erroneous statement, did we not know that 
 the author included in it our coastwise and inland navigation, as 
 well as that with foreign ports. The same British authority further 
 asserts that, embracing all these branches, this country, in 1860, 
 owned nearly as much tonnage as Great Britain and all her colonies 
 and possessions combined. 
 
 British ship-owners began to be alarmed at our progress. We 
 had built our clipper ships, we had engrossed the trade of 
 California, and from thence over the Pacific to China, and we had 
 established the Collins line of steamers for crossing the Atlantic, 
 surpassing in speed and accommodations the ships of all other 
 nations. A few statistics, in round numbers, will show that this 
 alarm of our hereditary rival on the ocean was not groundless. 
 
 Of the tonnage engaged in our foreign trade in 1850, sixty per 
 cent, was carried in American bottoms, and but forty per cent, in 
 foreign bottoms, mainly British. Our foreign trade largely in¬ 
 creased from 1850 to 1860. The tonnage employed in it, which en¬ 
 tered into and cleared from our ports in 1850, aggregated 8,710,000 
 tons. In 1880 it had risen to 17,100,000 tons. But, whereas, in 
 1850, only GO per cent, of it was carried in American bottoms, our 
 vessels carried 71 per cent, of it in 1860. This was a handsome 
 gain, both in our trade and in our tonnage, during these ten years. 
 It was in the dark and perilous winter of 1860-61, that our ocean 
 shipping began to decline. 
 
 | As already seen, our own ships carried 71 percent, of our freight 
 trade in 1860. But in 1870, ten years later, though the aggregate 
 tonnage engaged in foreign commerce that entered and cleared at 
 our ports was larger in 1870 than in 1860, only 38 per cent, of it 
 was transported in American bottoms. Our tonnage had fallen 
 off 33 per cent, in these ten years. Official reports show that a 
 
5 
 
 very large share of this decrease went to Great Britain, and 
 but little of it to France or any other nation. The British 
 tonnage entering and leaving her ports for foreign countries, 
 in I860, was 14,000,000 tons, and rose to 25,000,000 in 1870. 
 As our flag went down, Britain’s rose to take its place. And 
 this sombre picture has grown darker with the march of time. In 
 our Centennial year, when the nations of the earth sent represen¬ 
 tatives to congratulate us on our prosperity and power, observant 
 eyes discovered the humiliating fact, that scarcely more than one- 
 fourth of our trade with those nations was carried on by ships that 
 bore the American flag. 
 
 The same general results are arrived at in another mode. I have 
 heretofore spoken of the aggregate tonnage engaged in foreign 
 trade which annually entered and cleared at our ports. Let us look 
 at the actual tonnage of such of these vessels as carried the 
 American flag. In 1850 their tonnage was 1,000,000; in 1800, 
 2,000,000; in 1870, 1,500,000; while the actual tonnage of British 
 vessels of the same kind stood in 1850 at 4,200,000; in 1800 at 
 5,700,000; in 1870 at 7,200,000, thus showing that our loss from 
 1800 to 1870 was Great Britain’s gain. And we have been 
 steadily declining since then. In 1873, the actual tonnage of 
 our ships of this class had fallen to 1,400,000, and in 1870 it had 
 dropped to 1,150,000. Our decline is strikingly exhibited by com¬ 
 parisons respecting steam vessels engaged in foreign commerce. 
 On this great field of enterprise the United States, in 1853, ranked 
 fourth among the nations. But in 1860, in the time of our greatest 
 need, just previous to the civil war, we ranked no higher than the 
 fifteenth. That terrible tempest almost swept our flag from the 
 ocean, whether borne by vessels propelled by sail or by steam. 
 
 We will come down to a recent date, and still further prove that 
 though our commerce with foreign countries increases, our own 
 carrying trade has fallen into alien hands. In 1377, the domestic 
 exports of the United States were valued at $671,000,000. But of 
 these, $515,000,000 were transported in foreign vessels, and only 
 $156,000,000 in our own ; i. e., only about one-fifth were trans¬ 
 ported in bottoms that lifted our own ensign, and four-fifths in 
 bottoms bearing foreign flags. 
 
 But I will no longer dwell exclusively upon the depressed condi¬ 
 tion of our commercial marine, but proceed to consider some of the 
 
 causes that produced it. 
 
 It will be remembered, that while our ocean shipping, propelled 
 by sails, increased steadily and kept full pace with our foreign 
 
6 
 
 trade down to the commencement of the Civil War, the number and 
 aggregate tonnage of our ocean steamers, employed in foreign trade, | 
 had already greatly declined. The growth of the former was 
 natural, for it had a fair field of competition with the sailing vessels I 
 of other nations. For lack of protection during the war, even this j 
 was almost swept away. It fell into the hands of rival nations in 
 the course of the four calamitous years of the great struggle, and it ^ 
 has not yet recovered from that disastrous flow. While fostering 
 care, liberal legislation and generous aid, have from that day to 
 the present built up our rivals, our own shipping interest has 
 received little encouragement or sympathy from our own people, ^ 
 and no support from our Government. 
 
 In speaking thus far, I have had in view mainly our sailing ves¬ 
 sels. I now turn to our ocean steamships. As already shown, these 
 had begun to be hauled off previous to the war. During the four ^ 
 years’ strife, they hardly dared cross the seas. Though now in a 
 less deplorable condition than then, in that respect, yet, their 
 revival without government aid is indeed hopeless. 
 
 The American people have been familiar with steam navigation 
 from the days of Fulton. During the twenty-five years that suc¬ 
 ceeded his first successful voyage upon the Hudson River, we had 
 become foremost among the nations for the number of steam vessels 
 and the miles they annually traversed. We had not crossed the 
 ocean, but we had navigated it by steamboats for thousands of miles 
 along our own coasts, and up mighty rivers, and over vast inland 
 seas, of whose extent the average mind of Europe had but faint 
 conceptions. 
 
 Without exaggeration, we had, in the year 1838, a larger steam¬ 
 boat tonnage, and more experience in that branch of navigation, 
 than any other people. Nevertheless, when in that year the little, 
 low, dingy steamer, Sirius, dropped anchor in the harbor of New- 
 York, on the termination of a voyage from Liverpool, she was an 
 object of intense curiosity to our people, especially to ship-owners and 
 seamen, and her presence in our waters opened up to penetrating eyes 
 the long vista of the future. Still, to our hardy mariners, who were 
 accustomed to traverse the seacoast in steamers from Portland to 
 New-Orleans, and up our great rivers and over our vast lakes, the 
 Sirius was rather an object of interest than of wonder; they felt sure 
 that what she had done, they could easily do. 
 
 Rut England, fixing her keen and envious eye upon the spectacle 
 in the harbor of New-York, instantly determined to become the 
 navigator of the Atlantic by steam from Europe to America. She 
 
7 
 
 first supplanted the Siriits with the more spacious and inviting 
 Great Western. The success of this well remembered vessel in¬ 
 spired England to strike for supremacy in ocean steam navigation. 
 And the hour brought with it the man. As early as 1830, Mr. Sam¬ 
 uel Cunatii), of Halifax, had conceived the idea of establishing a mail 
 service, by steamers, from Liverpool to Halifax, and thence to Boston. 
 His scheme was deemed visionary. But persevering resolutely, 
 he visited England, and after many vicissitudes and the lapse of 
 anxious years, lie met with such encouragement from the British 
 Government that he was able to enlist capital, and build ships for 
 carrying into effect his original purpose. The result was the famous 
 Cunard line. But the founder of this enterprise would have utterly 
 failed in his efforts, had not the British Government first entered 
 into a contract with him and his associates to pay them £ 55,000 
 or say $275,000 per annum, for providing three suitable steamers 
 in which they were to carry the mails twice a month between 
 Liverpool and Boston via Halifax. The Britannia , the steamer 
 that made the first voyage under this contract, sailed from Liver¬ 
 pool on the 4th of July, 1840. Her engines were of 740 horse¬ 
 power; her cargo capacity was only 225 tons; she could accom¬ 
 modate but 90 passengers, and her average speed was eight and a 
 quarter knots per hour. 
 
 Insignificant, indeed, would she now appear by the side of the 
 mammoth vessels of later days, the Bothnia, for example, of 3,000 
 tons cargo capacity, and accommodations for 340 passengers, with 
 engines of 2,780 horse-power, running 13 knots per hour, and that, 
 too, with a consumption of coal during the voyage scarcely greater 
 than that of the earliest steamers. Yet the Britannia was the pioneer 
 that led the way to the navigation of the globe by great steamship 
 companies. The Cunard line grew apace. Her founder, encouraged 
 by additional Government aid, gradually enlarging the capacity of 
 his ships, increased their number to 49. The Government advanced 
 its subsidy to the company for mail service, till it approached half a 
 million of dollars annually. 
 
 The founder of this line died not long since, covered with honors, 
 but the line still liv.es, sustained by the patronage of a compre¬ 
 hensive and practical people. I have dwelt upon this par¬ 
 ticular case, because it illustrates the policy pursued by Great 
 Britain in fostering ocean steam navigation for the last 38 years, 
 until reaching a point where she has few rivals and no superior. 
 I have done it, too, because it affords a striking proof of the 
 fact, that even England, upon whose dominions the sun has not 
 
8 
 
 gone down for a century, could not found and maintain success- j 
 lully steamship lines, without bestowing upon them generous sup- J 
 port for carrying the mails. 
 
 The Collins line of ocean steamers of this country may be men- 1 
 tioned in connection with the Cunard lino, to exhibit the bioad dil- j 
 ference between the policy of the two Governments. This line was 
 established in 1845. Our Government contracted with Mr. E. K. 
 Collins and his associates, for transporting the mails from New- 
 York to Liverpool, in four first-class steamships, making twenty trips 1 
 a year, for which the Post Office Department was to pay annually J 
 the sum of $385,000. Mr. Coi.lins entered into this agreement with 
 the avowed object of restoring American prestige in navigating ' 
 the Atlantic between this country and Europe. lie promptly built 
 four ships of 3,250 tons burden, and embarked upon his enterprise 
 with 'high hopes. In 1852, his pay was increased to $858,000 per 
 annum ; and in 1S55, he constructed another splendid steamer of 
 5,000 tons. 
 
 Now, mark the course of Great Britain. In the face of this com¬ 
 petition, she stimulated the Cunard Company, by largely increased 
 benefactions lor mail service, to place additional and better steamers 
 on the line between Liverpool and the United States; and by the 
 like methods, brought new steamship companies into existence, to ■ 
 run their vessels between the two countries ; and thus, by what 
 may be called a combined attack upon our American line, to crip¬ 
 ple it, reduce its income, and, if possible, drive it lrom the ^ 
 ocean. 
 
 In this race with our hereditary rival, w'hat was the course of the j 
 A merican Government? In 1850 the compensation to the Collins ^ 
 line was reduced to $385,000 per annum. This was the first blow 
 struck at the enterprise. It reeled and staggered under it till 1857, 1 
 
 when Congress refused to renew the contract for mail service at any 
 price, and the Collins line was compelled to lower its flag, and 
 give up the contest. So, the American Government, ignoring the <j 
 patriotic efforts of statesmen like Rusk of Texas, Douglas of Illinois, 
 and IIamlin of Maine, guided by the counsel of Jeffeuson Davis , 
 and Judah P. Benjamin, adopted a niggardly policy, and played 
 directly into the hands of England. Thus it was that Mr. Collins, 1 
 shattered in fortune and disheartened in spirit, disappeared from 
 the public view; and alter a lapse of twenty years, a few old friends 
 have recently borne him to the grave. 
 
 IIow widely different was the conduct of England in a similar 
 emergency a few years later? Lord Stanley, in a report to Par- 
 
 
 
liament in 1862, stated, “that the American mails in their ordinary 
 course entail a heavy lossbut it was not proposed to withdraw 
 from the field for that reason, but to increase the lines and extend 
 their service, because the Government knew, that it was by an ad¬ 
 herence to this policy that England, in the long run, had won her 
 supremacy on the seas. 
 
 This is especially true of ocean steamers, a branch of navigation 
 of comparatively modern date, and whose history is, therefore, 
 within our own knowledge. Every student of this subject has 
 learned that those lines of steamers that have received Government 
 aid, have lived and flourished, and in many instances have grown 
 great and powerful; while, on the other hand, those which have not 
 been thus sustained, have languished, and finally been compelled to 
 succumb. The facts also demonstrate, that those countries which 
 have maintained these lines have largely increased their foreign 
 commerce, have found new markets for their home productions, 
 have secured a constantly enlarging share of the carrying trade of 
 the world, and by these modes have been remunerated ten-fold for 
 the comparatively trivial sums paid for transporting the mails. 
 And so certain is all this, that we may rest assured, that England, 
 at least, will never abandon her system of mail subsidies so long as 
 they are needed to enable that proud power to maintain her mari¬ 
 time ascendancy, or compete with rivals who would wrest it from 
 her. To trace the history of this question, even in the merest outlines, 
 makes it necessary to give some statistics. 
 
 It will be remembered that Great Britain was not only the 
 pioneer among the nations in trans-ooeanic steam-navigation, but 
 she has been the most persistent of all the countries of the globe in 
 pursuing her grand idea. In 1853, the steam vessels that entered the 
 ports of Great Britain, from foreign ports, numbered 4,505, with an 
 aggregate tonnage of 1,335,636 tons. Of these, 3,984 were British, 
 with a tonnage of 1,170,850, while 35 were American, with a ton¬ 
 nage of 46,070. 
 
 Now mark the result of the two policies of these rival nations in 
 regard to affording aid to ocean steamers, in the following eight 
 years. In 1861, 8',696 steam vessels entered British ports from for¬ 
 eign ports, having a tonnage of 2,801,743 tons, of which 7,209 were 
 British, with a tonnage of 2,375,856 tons, and only 5 were Ameri¬ 
 can, with a total of 7,778 tons. Or, in other words, in those ten 
 years, British steamships, entering her ports from foreign ports, in¬ 
 creased 3,315 in number, and 1,199,006 in tonnage, while ours, 
 which entered her ports, fell in number from 35 to a paltry 5, and 
 
10 
 
 in tonnage, from 46,670 to 7,778. So, even then England had 
 nearly swept our steamers from the European trade. 
 
 And what was the cause of her increase and of our decline? 
 She paid the price of her prosperity in a liberal compensation for 
 mail service, and thereby kept her flag afloat, while we, lading to 
 appreciate the emergency, and with eyes shut to future consequen¬ 
 ces, left our ocean lines to languish and finally die. 
 
 A passing reference to Brazil will show what rich remuneration 
 comes to the wise people who lay out moderate sums upon steam¬ 
 ships to facilitate trade with their customers in other lands. From 
 18-10 to 1850 the average annual commerce between England and 
 Brazil was £2,000,000. There was then no steamship line between 
 the two nations. During these ten years our trade with Brazil was 
 much greater than England’s, because our clippers could out sail her 
 ships. But in 1850, England established a line of steamers to liio de 
 Janeiro, and in the next three years her trade with Brazil had in¬ 
 creased nearly 150 per cent., and in 1855, mark this, it had increased 
 800 per cent. In this field of competition, instead of meeting British 
 steam with steam, we virtually abandoned the contest, and the 
 result was that just about in proportion as her commerce with 
 Brazil rose, ours fell. And so it has continued to this day. 
 
 Before giving a few more statistics demonstrating the main 
 cause of the decline of our ocean steam marine, especially in com¬ 
 petition with England, I will reiterate, that the chief obstructions 
 lying in our path are, that ocean steamship companies cannot 
 flourish or even live without Government assistance in some form ; 
 that such ships must be constructed of iron, and on a liberal scale; 
 that American capitalists, without the assurance of Government 
 aid, will not face the fierce contest they are sure to encounter from 
 existing foreign lines, and make the large investments which are 
 absolutely necessary to enter the field with any prospect of success; 
 and that under present circumstances no prudent man of business 
 will risk a dollar for the establishment of a first class line of ocean 
 steamers between this and any foreign country. 
 
 Mr. President: though I myself have no pecuniary interest what¬ 
 ever in navigation, I know sometfiing of ocean steamers. During 
 a long experience in the foreign trade, it has been my lot to cross 
 the Atlantic upwards of eighty times, in vessels of nearly every 
 line, beginning in 1846, in the little Hibernia, one of the pioneer 
 steamers of the Cunard line, and ending with the floating palace, 
 Baltic, of the White Star line. I frankly confess to the weakness— 
 if a weakness it is, that from my youth I have always had a de- 
 
11 
 
 | cided preference for ships bearing the American flag, but where are 
 ■ they now ? 
 
 ! I conjure you, Mr. President, and gentlemen of the Convention, 
 
 B to pause ior a moment, and reflect upon the fact, that tins great 
 1 republic, with an enlightened and energetic population of 40,000,000 
 * of people—proud of their vast territory, proud of their agricultural 
 ‘ and mineral wealth, proud of their achievements in industry and 
 I manufactures, proud of their great railways and canals, proud of 
 I their fifty thousand miles of inland navigation of rivers and lakes, 
 
 & proud of a sea-coast of unparalleled extent—on two great oceans 
 |r can scarcely boast of a single first-class ocean steamship, entirely 
 I suited to the wants of the times, now traversing the Atlantic. 
 
 | -The experience of the past is replete with lessons for the future, 
 f We started too late in the race, but we ran well for a time. Wo 
 began in 1845, with the Collins line to Liverpool and the line to Bre- 
 m men. In 1850 our Government was paying for mail service on ocean 
 steamships SI,840,000, about §1,200,000 of which was for European 
 lines, and the residue was for lines to the Pacific coast, Havana, 
 Panama, Charleston and New-Orleans. But, as already stated, we 
 finally grew weary of well-doing, and our great competitor left us 
 far in the rear. In the ten years from 1867-76, both inclusive, 
 Jr' Great Britain expended for ocean mail service more than fifty-two 
 5? millions of dollars (§52,000,000.) In the same period we expended 
 * for the same object §5,800,000, less than one-fourth of which was 
 ■ j or service to Brazil, and nearly all the rest to the Pacific Mail 
 fe Steamship Company. Thus it appears that England paid in those 
 ten years about ten times as much as the United States. Is it any 
 l wonder we are practically excluded from the seas ? 
 
 Let us trace a little further the munificent track of the long- 
 P sighted power which boasts that her home is on the deep. In the 
 K beginning of the past year, England was under contracts ior 
 paying nearly §5,000,000 annually for ocean mail subsidies to 
 foreign ports, chiefly to the East Indies and Australia, to the West 
 Indies and South America, and to the United States. The amount 
 she was then paying to lines running to this country was £111,981, 
 u or say §560,000. 
 
 It is a part of the British policy to increase or reduce the subsidy 
 to the-lines in proportion as competition is great or little. It is sig¬ 
 nificant of Britain’s persistency in following a path that leads di¬ 
 rectly to new markets for her manufactures, and enables her to 
 k grasp more and more of the carrying trade of the world, that in no 
 
12 
 
 instance has she diminished these subsidies, except where competi¬ 
 tion ceased to be of consequence. j 
 
 Mark the different course we have pursued. But we could 
 not dispense with mail service; and having so few facilities for 
 transporting mails in our own steamers, see to what humilia¬ 
 ting shifts we were compelled to resort. In the ten years, from 
 I 860 to 1869, both inclusive, we paid for sea postage, in round 
 numbers $4,800,000. Of this sum there went to steamers owned 
 by foreigners, $3,420,000, and only $1,380,000 to steamers owned 
 by Americans. In 1876, the English, French, German and Dutch 
 Governments paid to foreign Steamship Companies, lor such service 
 to this country, the sum, in round numbers, of $1,170,000. Now, 
 in that very year we paid to these same foreign lines, for carrying 
 letters from our Post Office Department, nearly $200,000. Or, in 
 other words, we, instead of trying to establish lines of our own, 
 subsidized the foreign lines that were already subsidized by their 
 own governments to enable them to drive our flag from the ocean. 
 
 The three great Ocean Steamship Companies of the world, at the 
 present time, are the Cunard Company— of unparalleled success— 
 its steamers having run for thirty-eight years, without the loss of 
 one 1 fv or one letter entrusted to their charge, with its 49 steam 
 vessels of 90,200 tons and 14,500 horse-power. The Peninsular 
 and Oriental Company, with its fleet of 50 sea-going steamers, 
 measurin'? 122,000 tons and 22,000 horse-power, which conveys the 
 mails to all the ports of the East; and for a service of 1,171,092 
 miles, receives $2,150,000. The Compagnie des Messageries Man- 
 times, of France, the largest Steamship Company in existence, whose 
 fleet, in 1875, had reached 65 ships, measuring 175,000 tons, 39,000 
 horse-power, and was receiving lor a service of 631,514 miles, within 
 a fraction of $2,000,000. 
 
 These and other great companies, which time will not per¬ 
 mit me to mention, had their origin in the aid and encourage¬ 
 ment extended to them by the Government of their respective 
 countries. 
 
 The parsimony of onr Government in refusing to make any pro¬ 
 vision to bear up our flag on the ocean against this gigantic com¬ 
 petition, is without parallel in the history of steam navigation. 
 
 Commodore Nicholson, U. S. N., in a brief speech at the anni¬ 
 versary banquet of the New-York Chamber of Commerce in May 
 last, in the presence of the President of the United States and 
 several members of the cabinet, said: 
 
 “You all know that our country needs a navy, for, with a navy, 
 
13 
 
 no foreign foe shall set foot upon our shores. We also need a navy 
 to protect our merchant marine. Look at our navy. What is it? 
 Look at our commerce. What is that? Four years ago I was in 
 the harbor of Rio de Janeiro and counted 2G large steamships. 
 There were English, there were Freneh, there were German, there 
 were Italian, but there was not one American.” 
 
 The same sad fact stares us in the face wherever we go. All 
 must admit that the great achievement of our day, in the interest 
 of the mercantile marine, was the opening of the Suez Canal. But 
 have we profited by it? 
 
 ' In the year 1874, Great Britain passed through that Canal 898 
 vessels, measuring 1,797,464 tons. The same year France sent li 
 through 83 vessels, measuring 221,810 tons, but the United States I 
 
 —not one. 
 
 And now, Mr. President, in this humiliating condition of affairs, 1 
 what are we to do to restore our prestige on the ocean, especially 
 in the matter of steam navigation with foreign countries? 
 
 We must appeal to the self-interest of the nation. It is estimated 
 that we pay about $S5,000,000 annually to foreign steamship com¬ 
 panies for freight, passage-money and mail service, nearly all of which 
 might be expended in American channels, for the benefit of all 
 classes of our citizens, and give employment to a vast number of de¬ 
 serving men. 
 
 By supplying the places of these foreign vessels with ships of our < 
 own, we should restore such animation to our ship-yards as they 
 have not seen for years. We should re-open the markets for ship¬ 
 building materials. We should give joy to our mechanics and 
 laboring men, and greatly promote our agricultural interests. 
 
 Ninety-five per cent, of the cost of an iron ship is for labor. 
 To swing wide open the long-closed doors of this great in¬ 
 dustry, would gladden the hearts of millions of men. To secure 
 this, Congress should act, and that promptly, by inviting pro¬ 
 posals from American citizens for carrying the mails between 
 the United States and foreign ports, with the assurance that, under 
 proper guarantees, the contracts will be awarded to the lowest 
 bidder. In justice and equity we have a right to demand this 
 much, especially, considering what the Federal Government has 
 done in past years in aid of public enterprises. It has donated 
 to States and Corporations, mostly the Pacific Railroads, upwards 
 of 200,000,000 acres of public lands, valued at more than 
 $5 0,000,000. 
 
 Besides the Pacific roads, among the many grants, there are 
 
14 
 
 about seventy other rail-road companies that have received, at dif¬ 
 ferent periods, grants of public lands from Congress directly, or 
 indirectly by means of concessions through the States. 
 
 The records of the Treasury Department show, that the assist¬ 
 ance whieh the Pacific roads have received from bonds of the Gov¬ 
 ernment, and the interest paid thereon by the Government, amount, 
 in round numbers, to $92,000,000. About $05,000,000 of these bonds 
 are regarded ns contingent, and may hereafter be refunded. But 
 history shows that, with scarcely a single exception, Government 
 grants of this kind are never repaid. 
 
 I revert to these grants, or subsidies, not to find fault with the 
 policy that dictated them, but rather to call attention to the fact, 
 that with one-tenth of the aid granted to these enterprises we could 
 have restored our flag on every sea, and should now behold a 
 majestic fleet of American ocean steamers, in charge of our own 
 mails, laden with the products of the genius and labor of our 
 own people, and bringing to us productions of other countries to 
 increase our revenues. 
 
 Now let us look for a moment at our mail service on the land. 
 The report of the Post Office Department for the fiscal year 1876, 
 shows that we have thirty-one States and nine territories that are 
 not self-supporting. The aggregate deficit in these States and terri¬ 
 tories that year, to be precise on this point, was $6,774,765 41. 
 
 Among the States and territories who thus received Government 
 aid, we find that— 
 
 $613,340 49 
 379,609 59 
 368,287 51 
 353,146 29 
 342,723 98 
 
 The Post Office receipts in a few of the States were greater than 
 the disbursements. But the deficit of the Department for carrying 
 the mails of the whole country, that year, was $4,620,000. 
 
 Now, for one half the amount paid annually by the General 
 Government as a subsidy for carrying the mails in the single State 
 of Ohio, a semi-monthly line of first class ocean steamers to Brazil 
 can be sustained. This small sum will open to American industries 
 a market of 11,000,000 of people, and enable us to sell to them as 
 much as we now buy from them, instead of, as at present, selling 
 them annually only $7,250,000, while we buy from them $15,450,000. 
 
 Is there a delegate on this floor, from any section of the Union, 
 
 Ohio was subsidized to the amount of 
 Missouri “ “ “ “ 
 
 Nebraska * “ “ “ “ 
 
 Texas “ “ “ “ 
 
 Illinois “ “ “ “ 
 
15 
 
 that would countenance for a moment the withdrawal of this sup¬ 
 port to the States, because the mail service is a heavy tax upon the 
 Federal Treasury? No, sir; certainly not! In surveying this vital 
 question, there are higher considerations that enter into it than the 
 mere striking of a balance upon the ledger. The intelligence, the 
 pride, the patriotism of the American people would revolt at the 
 mere suggestion of applying such a principle to the mail service 
 on the land, and why should not like considerations be accorded to 
 the mail service on the Ocean ? 
 
 But, first of all, we want ships to carry the mails. Experience 
 teaches us that they should be iron propellers of the highest class, 
 in model, strength and speed. They can only be built advanta¬ 
 geously near the immediate sources of iron and coal, and in that 
 respect we are among the most favored of nations. Our country 
 abounds in ship-building materials of every kind, at low prices. 
 Our mechanics and mariners are second to none in the world, and 
 they are ready and anxious to give honest labor for honest money. 
 Millionsof capital now await opportunities for judicious investment, 
 under the condition that the experience of our own and other na¬ 
 tions has shown, that a moderate compensation from the Govern¬ 
 ment for carrying the public mails is indispensable to success. Aye, 
 it is for compensation , not subsidies, that we appeal. 
 
 Mr. President: In view of the continued depression of our indus¬ 
 trial and commercial interests, let us earnestly beseech Congress not 
 to allow this auspicious moment to pass without taking the requisite 
 steps towards aiding to restore the honor and prosperity of our 
 country, by authorizing such mail contracts as will ensure success in 
 the great struggle with rival nations for America’s fair share of 
 the commerce of the world. 
 
 At the close of Mr. Covvdin’s remarks, the Convention 
 unanimously tendered him a vote of thanks for his address, 
 and requested him to furnish a copy for publication.