AMERICAN STEAMSHIP LINES. SPEECH OP HON. ALEXANDER, McDONALD, OF ARKANSAS, * DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, APRIL 11, 1870. WASHINGTON: F. & J. RIVES & GEO. A. BAILEY, REPORTERS AND PRINTERS OF THE DEBATES OF CONGRESS. 1870. r ■ ■ » . < • * . . . : > . -t:-. : . . . !r.. / . i- ■ ^ * , * ■ *, * ■ ' * AMERICAN STEAMSHIP LINES. The Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, having under consideration the bill (S. No. 338) to encourage the establishment of a line of steamships, under the flag of the Union, for the conveyance of the mails of the United States to European ports and ports of India and China, by way of the Suez canal, and for promoting emigration from Europe to the southern States of the Union, and reducing the rates of ocean postages— Mr. McDONALD said: Mr. President: No subject should more earnestly engross the attention of Congress than the revival of our commerce. This arm of our strength having been palsied by recent events, the Republic looks to the Federal Gov¬ ernment to regain the prestige of her commer¬ cial supremacy. Midway between Europe and Asia our coun¬ try spans the whole continent, comprising in her resources of natural wealth more of the elements of grandeur and power than was ever possessed by any empire of ancient or modern times; our navigable rivers, our gulfs and bays indenting our sea-board, opening up an inland navigation of more than twenty-five thou¬ sand miles. Our railways, like great cordons of union, stretching from ocean to ocean and web- bingover the Republic in every direction, in the aggregate more than forty-five thousand miles, afford ample facilities for the development of our resources of wealth and power; while our free institutions stimulate the energies of our people and invite to our land an increasing tide of emigration from all parts of the world. Yet with all these unrivaled advantages of natural wealth, of inland intercommunica¬ tion, of free institutions, and of command¬ ing position, the humiliating fact exists that we are almost destitute of the means of inter¬ national intercourse with the great commercial Powers of the world. Not a line of Ameri¬ can steamships is employed in our trade with Europe; not an American citizen, for profit or pleasure, can cross the Atlantic ; not an embassador or other diplomatic agent of our Government can be sent to any Court of Europe under the protection of our own flag. Large subsidies are paid to foreign companies for the transportation of our mails. More than ten million dollars of profits are annually drawn from our own trade to fill the coffers of foreign capitalists, while our own ship-yards lie idle and our ship-artisans and mechanics are out of employ. Even emigrants attracted to our coun¬ try encounter indignities and abuses in some cases on these foreign steamships reaching the horrors of a middle passage, which seriously checks immigration setting in upon our shores. All these facts exist, and press upon the attention of the Senate the imperative necessity of breaking off these shackles upon American commerce and of entering without delay upon a policy which shall build steamships in Amer¬ ican ship-yards. Give to our own merchants the profits of our own commerce and build up a merchant marine that shall be the basis of our prosperity in peace and our arm of defense in time of war. Such a policy, no matter at what expense, is alone compatible with the resources of the Republic, her geographical position, and the honor and welfare of the United States. Our great sea-ports on the Pacific and the Atlantic are the gateways through which the commerce of the vast interior of the Republic will flow out upon the world, and through which the wealth of Europe and Asia will pour in upon our country; while the transcontinental railways, in connection with American steam¬ ship lines, should turn the currents of the world’s commerce across our continent, and place in American hands at no distant day a controlling influence as the leading maritime Power among the nations of the earth. 4 In presenting the merits of the bill in aid of the Mediterranean ^nd Oriental Steam Navi¬ gation Company to i lie Senate, which I regard ns the lirst. step in the right direction toward the revival of American commerce. I propose to show its bearing and importance as con¬ nected with my own State, as well as with the whole South, and then to show its bearing upon the whole Union, North and South, East and West. This broad and liberal character of the bill demands the attention of the Senate and presents the strongest claim upon its sup¬ port. The present paralysis of American commerce presses heavily upon my own State of Arkansas, and Senators will pardon me in presenting a few remarks going to show what her present position is and what it should be among her sister States in the American Union under the revival of American commerce, and the con¬ sequent development of her immense natural wealth. Arkansas has an area of 52,198 square miles, or 33,406,702 acres. Her population was in 1860 435,450, and is now about 700,000. In her soil, climate, and productions she re¬ sembles the other cotton-growing States, with an abundance of hill lands suited to general farming purposes and stored with inexhaust¬ ible treasures of mineral wealth. With the exception of broad belts of l^nd along her great rivers her climate is salubrious, and her productions are cotton, tobacco, the cereal grains, potatoes, garden and orchard products, wool-growing, and stock-raising. Lying upon the Mississippi, which sweeps her whole eastern border, she is intersected by its great affluents, the St. Francis, the White, the Arkansas, and others with their branches, and in the southwest by the Ouchita, Saline, and Ited rivers, which in the aggregate give a steam navigation of more than three thousand miles. These streams, never obstructed by ice, water forty-three out of the s’ixty-three counties of the State. Her mineral deposits of zinc, manganese, lead, copper, marble, whet and hone stone, rock crystal, paints, kaolin, gran¬ ite, limestone, marls, green sand and slate, may well justify the assertion that Arkansas is des¬ tined to rank as one of the richest mineral States of the Union. Her climate is such that she has been called “the Italy of the United States.” In the mountainous sections of the State her climate and productions are assim¬ ilated to the northern and middle States, while in her southern borders are found the products of a tropical climate. No country in the world, except perhaps along the coast of Georgia, can produce as much cotton per acre and of so fine a quality as my own State. Yet with these advantages, after having been a State in the Union thirty-four years, her present population does not exceed some seven hundred thousand. Until within a few months she has had no common-schools nor public seminaries of learn¬ ing. Her manufactures are feeble ; and there is to-day less than one hundred miles of rail¬ roads within the State. In direct contrast with all this the State of Iowa, possessing about the same area, her ter¬ ritorial position not superior, her mineral and agricultural wealth inferior, with a climate more rigorous, and admitted into the Union nine years later than Arkansas, has now a population of more than one million, has thou¬ sands of miles of railway, seventy colleges, academies, and universities, and a taxable property of $300,000,000, or about double that of my own State. Now, Mr. President, why is this wonderful difference, which exists not alone between Arkansas and Iowa, but between the southern and northern States generally? While we are willing to concede much of this disparity to the late peculiar institutions of the South, this alone will not account for the present difference between the sections of our Union. A more satisfactory solution is found in the fact, the State of Arkansas, in common with the whole South, has failed to share in the common ben¬ efits of foreign immigration into the United States. The disadvantages resulting from this state of things since the close of the war have been most remarkable, and have fallen with crushing power upon the industry of the South. The disruption of the social relations here¬ tofore existing has greatly disturbed the labor of the South and made it relatively dearer than at the North, while the devastations of war have increased the necessities for multiplied employment and increased the price of that which was available. Under these disabilities we have struggled on and have laid deep the foundations of our future wealth. Yet the fact remains that we are still in pressing need of an intelligent laboring population to aid us in the development of natural resources; and how to supply this want is the great problem that now engages the southern mind. It cannot be denied that much of the admitted prosperity of the great northwestern States results from the fact that while the South has been as yet almost wholly excluded from the benefits of immigra¬ tion into the Union within the last fifteen years, the North and Northwest have engrossed almost the whole of this element of wealth and power. We do not complain of these results, nor envy the better fortunes of the northern States, but we do press upon the Senate the justice of entering upon such a policy as shall hereafter admit us to participate in this source of pros¬ perity, which shall not only benefit us without prejudice to the North, but, on the other hand, promote the general welfare of the whole coun¬ try. In this connection it is pertinent to refer to the diversion of a large amount of the labor of the South, which has been heretofore em¬ ployed in agricultural pursuits, to the construc¬ tion of railways and the requirements of our 5 steamboat navigation. The number of laborers thus diverted from their usual employment has rendered field labor scarce and greatly enhanced its price. This removal of the colored laborers of the South from their usual occupations bears most heavily upon Virginia, and is depriving her of a large proportion of her valuable population, and that, too, without conferring any percept¬ ible advantage in the increase of agricultural labor in the more southern States, since it by no means supplies the want of labor diverted by the causes before adverted to. The ben¬ eficial results of labor are diminished by spread¬ ing it over a larger space of country ; and hence while Virginia is exhausted the States which receive her population are not benefited in a degree corresponding with her loss. The same course of remark will apply with more or less force to the other more northerly of the late slaveholding States. The Mediterranean and Oriental Steam Navigation Company comes before Congress with a charter comprehensive in its provisions granted by the State of New York, and asks for such aid and recognition as shall give it a national character and enable it to cope with foreign corporations, powerful in their colossal wealth, drawn from our own trade and upheld by subsidies both of our own and their respective Governments. A steam¬ ship line of fifteen or twenty vessels, of not less than three thousand tons measurement each, plying between our own ports and those of southern Europe, bringing into commercial relations with us more than one hundred mil¬ lions of our own race who are now almost strangers to our people, cannot be established and maintained without a large expenditure of capital and a credit of national reputation. The bill proposes to construct such ships upon the most approved plans, under the im¬ mediate supervision of the Government, capa¬ ble of being readily converted into war vessels whenever the exigencies of the Government shall require it, fitted up for general freight and passenger traffic .; and one of its leading features is to introduce into the southern States a valuable class of emigrants who would not go into the northern and northwestern States, and who now, in numbers from forty to fifty thousand, go annually into South America and Australia, but who, if American steamships were established would, in increasing num¬ bers, greatly prefer to cast in their lots with us, and thus, without prejudice to the North, bring to the South a just participation in the advantages of foreign immigration, thus adding to the common wealth of the whole Republic. Statistics are at hand showing the import¬ ance of immigration to the wealth and pros¬ perity of the United States, and of the rela¬ tive advantages hitherto derived to different sections of our country from this source. From the port of New York alone eight lines of foreign steamships are now plying between it and different ports of Europe, own¬ ing one hundred and nineteen steamers, of an aggregate of 311,000 tons burden, namely: T0H8. The Bremen line to New York, 18 steamers, of 3.000 tons each. 54,000 The French line, 4 steamers, of 3,000 tons each. 12,000 The Hamburg line, 11 steamers, of 3,000 tons each. 33,000 The Inman line, 16 steamers, of 3,000 tons each. 43,000 The National line, 12 steamers, of 3,100 tons each. 37,200 The Williams & Guion line, 6 steamers, of 3,100 tons each. 18,600 The Cuna d line, 24 steamers, ot 3,000 tons each. 72.000 The London lino, 4 steamers, of 2,000 tons each . 8,000 The Anchor line, 24 steamers, of 1,200 tons each. 28.800 Total. 311,000 The cost of this immense merchant marine is put down at $75,000,000, and is manned by at least fifteen thousand men, who derive their supportand that of their families from the trade of Europe to and with the city of New York. The gross annual earnings of these steamships are estimated at $20.01)0,000, yielding a net profit of $10,000,000 per annum, which are derived from the American trade, but which our foreign cousins put exclusively into the pockets of their own shareholders, owners, and iusurers. But this is not all. Our ocean-bound Re¬ public, with its unrivaled commercial advan¬ tages and its forty million inhabitants, is in like manner dependent upon France for a por¬ tion of her foreign trade. The French Transatlantic Steamship Com¬ pany runs several of their steamers to New York, and on two other lines—one to the West Indies, and the other to Guadeloupe, Vene¬ zuela, and Aspinwall. In 1868 the ships of this company made twenty-five trips to New York, the average receipts of which were— The gross sum of..$50,000 per trip. In 1864 the average receipts were. 28.000 per trip. In 1865 they were. 42 800 per trip. In 1866 they were. 44,200 per trip. In 1867 they were. 48,400 per trip. making a gross amount in five years to French capitalists, derived from the xltuerican trade, of $5,213,400. The whole number of steamers of this com pany is twenty-one, with an aggregate of eighty thousand tons. The capital of this company is $10,000,000, and the cost of their ships 13 $13,120,000 in gold. This company is largely aided by the French Government, having received an advance in way of a loan of $3,000,000, payable in ten years without interest. Their total annual receipts are $4,500,000, of which $1,000,000 is paid by the French Government as a direct subsidy. Their receipts derived from their 6 / trade with New York, as shown above, is con¬ stantly increasing. The cost of those New York trips have not exceeded each $25,000, showing immense profits, and yet the net profits of this French company is probably less on the capital invested than of other European lines engaged in our trade. These important statistics of these European lines are stated not out of hostility to them, but in order, Mr. President,to awaken an American sentiment in Congress to imitate the example of our great commercial rivals. Will it be said, sir, that we have not the means to enter upon the arena of commercial rivalry; that our private capital is insufficient for this contest? Sir, these foreign steamship lines were not established by private enterprise alone, but were, and still are, liberally subsi¬ dized by their respective Governments. But besides these subsidies those companies re¬ ceived large loans of money and credit from their respective Governments, without which they could never have established their lines. In regard to governmental aid the history of the French line is, in the main, the history of them all. How long, sir, will Congress refuse to come to the aid of our citizens in redeeming our own trade from these intolerable burdens, and to vindicate our national honor from this com¬ mercial degradation? We do not ask for sub¬ sidies in money, but in the way pointed out in this bill, without embarrassment to our over¬ taxed Treasury, and in a manner effectual to the success of this American enterprise. But, Mr. President, I have not done with statistics. The Senate will bear with me while I plead with them for the welfare of the South, and that, too, in a manner compatible with the common wealth of the whole Union. In 1869 these great European lines, plying between New York and English, German, and Prussian ports, introduced into our country 258,000 immigrants; and since 1864 there have arrived through the same lines, 1,350,000 in the United States. By a sound principle of olitical economy each of these immigrants may e estimated worth to our country $1,000 irre¬ spective of the capital brought with them— making the aggregate of $1,350,000,000, which would distribute nearly thirty-four dollars to each of our forty million inhabitants ! Of this vast army of immigrants all but thirty thousand have settled in the northern and northwestern States, and of this latter number only three hundred have come to my own State, while twenty-two thousand have gone to tha State of Iowa and one hundred and eleven thou¬ sand to Illinois; while correspondingly large numbers have gone to other western States. On the basis before stated this gives nearly to the northern and western States the sum of $1,320,000,000 And to the southern States the sum of... 30,000,000 And to my own State the sum of. 300,000 Sir, we do not complain of these results. We would not strike a single brilliant from the northern crown; we would not impede the onward and upward course of our sister States; but we do ask to participate in this common heritage of the Republic. The immigration which upon the establish¬ ment of an American line of steamships to south¬ ern Europe would come to the southern States would be drawn from Spain, southern France, Italy, Switzerland, southern Germany, Aus¬ tria, and the Christian provinces of Turkey. For want of such a line to the United States large numbers go annually, as before stated, into South America and Australia. In 1869 ten thousand people emigrated from Switzer¬ land, and only five thousand came to this coun¬ try, but not one to the southern States. Over four hundred thousand people emi¬ grated from France and Italy during the past five years, and ot these none came to the United States, for lack of direct means of transport¬ ation, but were carried by cheap steam trans¬ portation to Brazil, La Plata, Buenos Ayres, Montevideo, to Africa, and other countries to which steamship lines ply regularly from Italy and France. Mr. President, is it not palpable that a large part of this emigration from southern Europe could be turned in upon the South if an Ameri¬ can line of steamships like that contemplated in this bill were established ; and will Senators doubt that a large majority of these emigrants would prefer to come among us if cheap and comfortable passage were provided for them? Why should they not come to our shores? Surely our country holds out to them far stronger inducements than can be offered in any of the countries before named to which they now emigrate. Why should not the French people prefer to emigrate into the rich and grand valley of the Father of Waters, first settled by their own race, where they would meet the descendants of a noble common ancestry, and where the geo¬ graphical nomenclature of the country would continually remind them that they were in the land of their own countrymen? They would find a hearty welcome from our citizens, many of whom are the descendants ofthe early French pioneers of the great valley. The descendants of the Huguenot French colonists are among the best citizens of Virginia, and the Catholic French, who colonized Louisi¬ ana, number their descendants by thousands. The Italians, too, with their industry and frugal habits, handed down in their posterity, are still found on the Mississippi in the same State, around Lake Pontchartrain, and below New Orleans the sailors of the lake and river, and the market gardeners of the city, descended from a colony of Italians planted there nearly a century ago. In Texas the southern Germans in later years, by slow and tedious passage by 7 sailing sliips, have come and colonized to the number of several thousands. How would this colony have flourished had direct communica¬ tion by steam been offered us by the ships of this line? How with the colony of Moravians from Austria, who settled in North Carolina, and whose industry and frugal habits, honesty and thrift, have made them a credit to the State that calls them sons and daughters. "Without direct communication for many years these people keep in remembrance the kin and blood in fatherland, and look to the day when steamships from Genoa may arrive at Norfolk with people of their blood and faith to come with them and swell the population and wealth of that great State. During the last six years the mail money of the United States has averaged the sum of $500,000, paid as an annual subsidy to these foreign steamship lines. From the present postal arrangements of the Government this amount has been nom¬ inally greatly reduced ; yet from the increased postage the aggregate amount of our postal earnings will probably not fall greatly below the amount last mentioned. Whatever the amount may be, it will go to swell the profits of these foreign companies and indirectly take the same from our own citizens. From this large annual expenditure the South derives no special benefit beyond that enjoyed in common with the whole country. But more than this, $050,000 are annually drawn from the public Treasury to sustain the Pacific steamship line and the line to Brazil; in which, besides the common advantage to the whole country, the South has no interest except to bear her part of this expenditure. Of this we do not com¬ plain. We only ask of the Government that the commerce of the South may come in for its share of its commercial patronage—sharing alike with the North. Now, may not my State and the other south¬ ern States in good faith ask of Congress that this postal money so paid to foreign steamship lines shall be given indirectly and by the equiv¬ alent mode provided in this bill to an American steamship line, owned and managed by our own people, and sailing from the ports of Norfolk and Port Royal in common with New York, so that hereafter the benefits from emigration and direct trade with Europe may inure to the com¬ mon welfare of all the States of the Union? Surely there can be but an affirmative an¬ swer to this question, and especially so since my own State and the other States whose inter¬ ests are identical seek not to deplete the public Treasury of a single dollar, and only ask, under the provisions of the bill, that the Government, as trustee, shall pay the interest and principal of the bonds of the company, holding as an indemnity our State bonds to an equal amount, together with a mortgage upon the steamships of the company, giving thereby to the Govern¬ ment the most ample security. On account of our present embarrassment it may be said in relation to some of our State bonds that in the market they are below par ; but it is presumed no Senator will undertake to discredit our States under the new order of things opening upon us in connection with the legitimate results of this company, upon the speedy development of our unbounded natural wealth, or to pretend that the Government will not be perfectly secured under the pro¬ visions of the bill to pay the interest and prin¬ cipal of the company’s bonds as aforesaid. On the other hand, there is every reason to believe that under the wise and liberal legislation of Congress sought by the Mediterranean and Oriental Steam Navigation Company our State bonds will soon take rank in the market with those of any of the northern States. I presume, Mr. President, that Senators will believe me when I declare my own State to be loyal to the Union, and that she will not im¬ pute to the northern States a devotion less sin¬ cere, or presume to believe them so recreant to the honor and welfare of the Republic as to disparage in any way the credit of any of the sovereign States of the American Union. I would not trouble the Senate with this remark did it not relate to the very life-feature of the bill. In the name of Arkansas—and I believe other Senators from the southern States will concur with me—I ask the North and the West to believe me when I declare my confidence in the ability of the southern States under a generous and liberal policy of Congress to lift themselves to a higher elevation and pros¬ perity than ever before, and with the other States to press onward in the advancement of the civilization and welfare of the United States. In this connection I feel a just pride in referring to the late action of my own State in nobly vindicating her financial honor by fund¬ ing her State obligations, some of which, in strict legal contemplation, she was not bound to recognize. Not a stain remains upon the escutcheon of her State honor. Arkansas, sir, in her proud position in the Union, in her genial climate and varied productions, in her undeveloped resources of natural wealth, has all the elements of a prosperous and power¬ ful State ; and aroused from sleep she now like a young giant enters upon a course of generous rivalry with her sister States in advancing the happiness of her own people and adding to the common glory and strength of the American Republic. With her there will be no looking backward ; but she will press forward with untiring energies, diffusing knowledge among all classes of her citizens by the establishment of common schools and colleges, and by the construction of railways and canals, and by the introduction of immigrants to share with her 8 own people the grand future of her social and material prosperity. In relation to the postal feature of the bill, I desire to say that the company proposes to carry the mails of the United States at the lowest rates which may be imposed by Con¬ gress; and this, sir, upon the principle that cheap postage increases correspondence, and especially will such be the effect upon our foreign correspondence. The potent influence such increased letter¬ writing between our adopted citizens and their friends and relatives in the fatherland will swell the tide of foreign immigration, and pro¬ mote alike the profits of the company and in¬ crease our national wealth. Spread broadcast over Europe the most learned and exhaustive treatises upon the subject of our immense re¬ sources and of the advantages of our country to foreign emigration, yet their influence-will pale before the magic power of the simple lines of the humble immigrants who have settled among us, and who in their artless manner tell of their improved condition, and invite their friends at home to follow them and share with them the advantages of their adopted country. In this connection, Mr. President, allow me to say that my State, in common with the other southern States, has made large appropria¬ tions of money in the establishment of emi¬ gration agencies, both at home and abroad, to induce immigration into our States. These efforts, while they are creditable to ourpeople, have been as yet unproductive of advantage to us, for the obvious reasons that their efforts have been directed to northern Europe, where the trade is with the Northwest, and that we have no lines of steamers to bring emigrants into the South. Hence thousands who would come among us, under the influence of existing for¬ eign steamship lines are diverted from their purpose, and are drifted along the currents of trade and commerce into the north and west sections of the Union. Establish the Mediterranean and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, opening up a direct trade with Europe, and no law of nature is more certain than that emigration will follow in the wake of trade and commerce into the South. We fully recognize the certainty of this law, and do not propose to disturb it. We bid God speed to the northern States in this behalf. But, sir, we propose by the establishment of this company to open to the influence of the South, &3 I have before said, one hundred million population in southern Europe already accus¬ tomed to the culture of our great staples, and who, under the patronage of this company, following the isothermal lines of climate, will inevitably emigrate into the southern States, as the people of northern Europe now emigrate to the northern and western States. Surely no northern or western Senator upon this floor will begrudge to the South the benefits to arise from such a line of American steam¬ ships, since it will not only not trench upon the interests of the North or West, but will, by its reflex influence, add to the common welfare of the Union, and tend to increase emigration from all European countries to our own. In this connection, Mr. President, I find ready to hand some important statistics in the report of Mr. J. D. Walker, chairman of the committee on immigration of the Tennessee Legislature. This report is the more pertinent since it was made in reference to giving the aid of that great State to the cause of immigra¬ tion under the auspices of this company : “The .actual value of immigration to a State or to our whole country is far from being appreciated. It is computed that since 1790 about seven million im¬ migrants have arrived in the United States, and these, with their descendants, comprise nearly twenty mil¬ lions of our population. “ In 1800 the population of the United States was only about live millions, and without any immigra¬ tion whatever, it would now be less than fifteen millions. From May 5, 1847, to December 31. 1858, there arrived at the port of New York 4,038,991 immigrants, and these nearly all settled in the northwestern States. They have added ten Scnatprs and over forty Representatives to the American Congress. “ Had immigration been stopped in 1825, there would have been comparatively small numerical change in the population for 1805, a period of forty years, and yet how great has been the country’s growth. Without immigration the yearly increase would have been only one and thirty-eight hun- dreths per cent. “ The actual increase from 1840 to 1850 was thirty- five and eighty-one hundreths per cent., and from 1850 to 1860 was thirty-five and fifty-nine hundreths per cent. “Immigration has pushed our country forward forty years in national progress, and the increase in wealth and political power is in the same ratio. To this source wo owe at least one half of all the taxable property of the nation. “The total increase to our national wealth, esti¬ mating both property and labor, by immigrants who arrived from May, 1847, to December 31, 1858, was $5,149,713,525, a sum nearly double the amount of the entire national debt. The aggregate value of all immigration to the United States at this time is esti¬ mated at $380,000,000 per year, or over one million dol¬ lars per day.” The average value of the personal property of immigrants arriving at Castle Garden, New York, has been found to be $150 for each per¬ son, man, woman, and child. German immigrants alone have for many years brought an average yearly amount of about eleven million dollars. In 1859 this accretion of wealth at Castle Garden was $37,500,000 ; and to this source the North owes a large part of its material advancement in population and wealth over the southern States of the Union. Again, sir, the Mediterranean and Oriental Steam Navigation Company propose, under the provisions of their charter, to transport the cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco, and other produc¬ tions of the southern States in American bot- 9 toms direct from Norfolk and Port Royal to the ports of southern Europe, avoiding the expense and delay of shipping the same into Italy, Austria, southern Germany, France, and Spain by the way of Liverpool, Bremen, and Hamburg, thereby promoting, in the economy of direct transportation, the interests of the pro¬ ducer and consumer, both in the outward and return cargoes. Few persons have any definite idea of the magnitude of the exports of the southern States, or of the increase of that trade which would certainly follow from the opening of a direct trade between them and Europe, and ulti¬ mately, through the Suez canal, with the ports of southern Asia. The following statistics, taken from the pro¬ ceedings of the national commercial conven¬ tion held in Boston in February, 1868, and from other reliable sources, will throw light upon this important subject: The direet exports from the United States to France and Spain in the Atlantic and Mediterranean ports were.$57,173,394 Our wholeimportsfrom thesame ports were 40,614,099 Of these exports, tobacco, raw and manufactured, was. $5,731,820 And of cotton. 28,792,559 Aggregate of tobacco and cotton alone...$34,524,379 From this showing it appears that nearly two thirds of our exports to France and Spain were in cotton and tobacco alone, and I have not included in this estimate the indirect southern trade through England with these countries which may be fairly put at $40,000,000 more. But a better idea of the magnitude and value of the commerce of the southern States will appear from the fact that in 1868, 2,500,- 000 bales of cotton were produced. If the population of the South were sufficient we could as well raise 8,000,000 bales. Before the war our product was 5,500,000 bales. This additional 3,000,000 bales, had it been raised in 1868 and 1869, at $100 per bale, would have produced the sum of $500,000,000. The estimated demand of cotton for the world is put down at some 6,500,000 bales per annum. If it be objected to the increased cultivation of this great staple at the South that the market would be glutted, it is sufficient to say that no people can compete with us in its production, and that at rates at which we can make it a most profitable crop it cannot be produced in India. Besides, it is admitted that the culture of cotton in British India to meet the demand, while our supply during the war was limited, cannot long be continued, for it is threatening a famine in that country, by divert¬ ing from the production of breadstuff's lands for the growth of cotton, thus raising the price of breadstuff’s by their limited supply, so that the increased cost of bread exceeds the profits of the cotton culture; and, indeed, with a further decline, say to fifteen cents per pound, it could not be produced at all in India or Egypt. We have, therefore, nothing to fear from this source in the production of our cot¬ ton. Besides, the vast and rapid increase of our population, and the influence of our free institutions upon the style of living and better clothing of our citizens, will increase the demand for cotton and fully justify the conclu¬ sion that 8,000,000 bales of cotton may be reckoned as the amount which may be profit¬ ably produced in the southern States. Indeed, when we contemplate the future of the Repub¬ lic, who will dare limit the demand of this great staple for the supply even of our own country? In one province of China 4,200,000 bales of cotton are produced, the whole of which is con¬ sumed within the country of its production, and even then foreign cotton is imported to supply the unfilled home consumption. Shall the Uni¬ ted States in this respect be placed, in its future progress, on a lower plane than that of China ? In 1867 our exports to the Asiatic and East India ports were: To the Dutch East Indies. $204,395 To the British East Indies. 381,141 To Australia. 5,102,355 To Philippine Islands. 45,636 To other Pacific islands. 85,137 To China. 8,788,145 $14,606,809 Our imports were: From British Indies. $8,932,485 From Australia. 262,401 From China. 12,112.410 From Philippine Islands. 3,473,371 $24,784,697 Total exports to the Mediterranean and East In¬ dies. $71,780,203 Total imports from same, as above. 65,394,796 Total exports and imports. $137,174,999 The whole imports to the United States in 1867 were. $417,831,571 Total exports from the United States were. 438.577,312 Total exports and imports. $856,408,883 From these statements it will be seen that about one sixth of the whole commerce of the United States in 1867 falls within the scope of the intended operations of this company, and this trade must be greatly increased by the opening of the Suez canal, as well as by the stimulus which the company will impart to the whole South, increasing her great staples for the demands of a direct trade with foreign ports. In 1857 the whole value of our commerce was $536,000,000. Of this was carried under a foreign flag only $131,000,000. While in 1867 our commerce was $874,000,000, and there was carried in alien vessels $577,000,000. The mouthly report No. 24 of the Deputy- Special Commissioner of Revenue, in charge 10 of the Bureau of Statistics, showing the statis¬ tics of our commerce and navigation for the months of October, November, and Decem¬ ber, 1867. and also for the year ending Decem¬ ber 31, 1858, is as follows: Imports. October.$32,170.353 November. 28,863,914 December. 21,935,650 12 months, 1868..381,336,657 Exports. Reexports. $29,197,641 $1,553,760 37,638,344 1,032,231 44,225,855 1.640,420 341,347,528 20,855,802 The proportion of the foregoing carried by American and foreign vessels during the three months ending December 31, 1868, show that fifty-seven per cent, of our imports and forty- one and a half per cent, of our domestic exports for the period mentioned have been transported in foreign vessels. The gross foreign steam tonnage of Great Britain in 1867 was 775,000 tons, while that of the United States was only 175,520! In 1853 our commerce was fifteen per cent, greater than that of Great Britain. In 1864 it had fallen to less than half as much, and in 1866 it was probably not one third as much as that of our great commercial rival. Furthermore, while in 1860 two thirds of our imports and more than two thirds of our ex¬ ports were carried in American bottoms, in 1866 nearly three quarters of our imports and more than three fifths of our exports were car¬ ried in foreign bottoms! From the report of the Secretary of the Treasury for 1868, the decline of American tonnage was as follows : during ten years from 1852 to 1862, the tonnage of the United .States entered for foreign countries was 30,228,475 tons; of foreign vessels for same period, 14,699,192 tons. In five years, from 1863 to 1868, the tonnage of American ships was only 9,299,877 tons, and of foreign vessels, 14,116,- 427 tons, showing that American tonnage fell from two hundred and six to sixty-six per cent, of foreign tonnage in the same trade. Mr. President, these are humiliating exhibits, and I would not spread them before the Sen¬ ate, did I not hope to arouse an irrepressible determination to arrest this downward course of our commerce and to restore its former prestige. In view of this startling evidence of the de¬ cline of our commerce, and the corresponding emoluments resulting to our great rivals en¬ gaged in our carrying trade and in the trans¬ portation of our foreign mails, need we be surprised that our ears should be assailed with rumors of united efforts on their behalf to pre¬ vent congressional legislation to change this downward tendency of American trade? Can we be surprised, sir, at the somewhat arrogant tone of some of our foreign rivals in the late adjustment of our postal arrangements? Can we expect that this golden prize will be wrenched from their grasp without a struggle? I ask the Senate, sir, whether as the guardians of American honor and American interests, they Avill longer hesitate to grapple with this great subject and restore our commerce to the proud stand it held in 1861, when our tonnage exceeded that of Great Britain by 732,987 tons? Or when in 1853 our commerce, as I have before stated, was fifteen per cent, greater than that of the now greatest maritime Power of the earth? It is true, sir, that the United States have not the same necessity to increase her mari¬ time power as Great Britain. They have within themselves greater resources of national pros¬ perity than are contained within the boundary of any other empire upon earth. “These resources are so vast that scores of years, and perhaps centuries, must run out before they can be well and fully developed. In carrying on the great internal enterprises continually necessary for the development of American resources great cncrgj 7 , business capacity, and intelligence are indispens¬ able, and large amounts of capital and labor are con¬ stantly required. All minds are not, therefore, so exclusively directed to the study of external trade and commerce, as of necessity they are in Great Britain. A hundredfold more attention and capital are now given to opening up thewealth and provid¬ ing for the internal trade of America than to main¬ taining and strengthening our maritime commerce and international trade. While all this is necessary, and of the soundest policy, yet the shipping interests should not be overlooked, nor, in any particular im¬ portant to its support and full success, be neglected, but it should, as of old, be watched over and sus¬ tained as the worthy handmaid and partner of our agriculture and manufactures.” Sir, this is not an age of isolation, when great nations should coil themselves up within their own boundaries. On the other hand, the spirit of the times is expansive and benevolent, inviting mutual intercourse and participation in the common blessings of the earth and in the elevating power of Christian civilization. The mighty powers of nature are harnessed to the car of progress, and the wire ways of thought are encircling the earth, bringing into common brotherhood all the families of mankind. Shall America falter in this grand work of advancing the welfare of our race ? Shall we not rather, while we surpass all nations in our internal, material progress, seek by expanding our external commerce to share the blessings of other nations, and invite to our own country the overcrowded populations of less favored lands ? These considerations appeal to our patriotism and to the higher sentiments of our nature as citizens of the Republic. But the Senate will bear with me while I pre¬ sent this subject of immigration in a different light, which, upon principles of political econ¬ omy, can hardly fail to arouse us from our lethargy and stimulate us to activity to expand our commercial relations with foreign nations. It is not extravagant to assume that the Mediterranean and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, when once established under the provisions of this bill, would bring into our country from southern Europe at least forty 11 thousand of most valuable immigrants, a large proportion of whom would settle in the south¬ ern States. By reliable estimates recently made, each of our mechanics and common laborers on an average pays an amount in revenue equal to $1 87 per week; but for greater cer¬ tainty letitbeassumedat$l 50perweek. Now, sir, at this rate, these forty thousand adopted citizens would pay into the national Treasury the sum of $60,000 per week, or $3,120,000 per annum ; and in twenty years the same yearly accession to our population would pro¬ duce theenormoussumof$65,528,000. Should it be objected that no allowance is made in this calculation for minors, it may fairly be answered that the increase of population with these adopted citizens would in twenty years more than counterbalance this deficiency. This vast amount of $65,528,000 would be thus added to the revenues of the country, without taking into account the large amount of specie and other property which these immigrants would bring into the country; and the still more important fact that their labor and me¬ chanical skill, employed in developing the nat¬ ural wealth of our country, would vastly exceed every other accretion to our national prosperity. But, sir, this is not all. These immigrants would add largely to the revenues of the States in which they settled. From the same reliable sources of information it is stated that the poll- tax paid by these forty thousand immigrants would average $1 50 per annum, which would be $60,000 per annum, or, with the same immi¬ gration yearly for twenty years, would swell the amount of State revenues derived from this source to the sum of $12,600,000 ! It will not, I presume, be urged that this esti¬ mate of the number of immigrants that would be introduced by the company under favorable auspices is exaggerated. Two hundred and fifty-eight thousand immigrants landed the last year upon our shores from northern Europe, as I have shown, and nearly as many left the south¬ ern parts of Europe for countries far less invit¬ ing to them than the United States. It is not, therefore, improbable, but rather morally cer¬ tain that the Mediterranean and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, with their large and ele¬ gant steamers, fitted up for the especial comfort of the immigrants, would divert from this large exodus of population from the south of Europe at least forty thousand to our land ; nay, more, that other American lines of steamships estab¬ lished in the wake of this company, to meet the increasing demands of southern as well as of northern commerce, would find full employ¬ ment in this line of trade and commerce. Now, I put the question to the Senate, consid¬ ering only these vast accumulations of wealth arising directly from national and State rev¬ enues which cannot be considered as over¬ estimated, and which, as above shown, would come from forty thousand imigrants introduced annually for twenty years, amounting in the aggregate to $667,880,000—I put the question, whether merchants, with this almost fabulous amount of income from the investment of the comparatively trifling capital of fifteen or twenty million dollars required by this company to insure its successful operation made reason¬ ably certain to them, would hesitate to embark in such an adventure ? Why would it not be wise and prudent for the Government, if required to do so, to draw this amount of fifteen or twenty million dollars from the public Treasury and donate it without interest to this or any other company for twenty years in order to produce these grand results? But instead of requiring this advance of cap¬ ital, not a single dollar is demanded from the Treasury. The company only ask the stipula¬ tion to pay the interest and principal of their bonds, secured not only by a first lien upon their vessels, constructed under the supervision of the Government, and devoted to the use of the nation whenever the public exigencies shall require it, but also secured by the pledge of an equal amount of the bonds of sovereign States of the Union. These States are to be the recip¬ ients of values far greater in amount than the bonds deposited by them in behalf of this com¬ pany; for if, as is on all hands conceded, each immigrant has in political economy a cash value of $1,000, these forty thousand immigrants in one year would add to the wealth of the southern States $40,000,000, aud this same number intro¬ duced annually for twenty years would increase their material wealth by $800,000,000! This showing in mercantile transactions would be regarded a most ample security for $20,000,000. Is it not, therefore, the duty as well as the interest of the Government to grant, not money, but the credit required by this company, to enable it to embark in this enterprise with ample resources and a national reputation that shall sustain it under all opposition from the colossal wealth and governmental patronage of foreign competition? But it may be asked why, if such are the prospects of success of this or any other com¬ pany started upon the basis adopted by this company, should not private capital, always seeking large profits, be found sufficient to com¬ pass this enterprise? The answer is at hand. The depression and decay of American com¬ merce and the colossal strength of foreign steamship companies, built upon the ruins of our shipping interests, the expense and dis¬ abilities of entering at once upon the construc¬ tion of iron ships to compete with these for¬ eign lines, and the power and patronage which they derive from their respective Governments, preclude the successful competition of mere private capital. To show how easy it is for a foreign steam* 12 ship line to increase the number of its ships as required from time to time at our expense I would state that a promising foreign steam¬ ship company can establish a credit with our importing merchants, and can through its agent in New York draw upon the company or its bankers in Liverpool or Glasgow, pay¬ able in London ; or they can draw on Hamburg or Bremen. These bills find a ready sale in New York to our merchants, who use them as remittances to their correspondents abroad. It is easy for such a company to float these bills, drawn at sixty days’ sight, to an amount of £100,000, or $480,000. These bills would be worth $480,000 in gold, which can be remitted by the agent of the company in New York by other bills drawn against shipments of cotton or otherwise to the company’s bankers; so that this sum is placed in England by means of the credit given by our merchants, and is there used as needed. By redrawing before matur¬ ity of the first bills of exchange and remitting to take up the first from the proceeds of the second bills, this sum of $480,000 can be kept floating; and if it be necessary to build a steamship the means can thus be provided by the credit given by our own people. An American company cannot do this, because they have no bankers abroad who are simply themselves under another name, but of one and the same responsibility. Our steamship lines can only be constructed upon the credit and means furnished here. To construct a line with the number of steamships required by this line under this bill would take a capital equal to that of any of the foreign lines before named, or, say, $15,000,000. Weknow thatallourgreatrailroads, requiring such large amounts to build them,cannot be con¬ structed by subscriptions to their stock, but must be by credit or by bonds of the company, mort¬ gaging the road and appurtenances, good tangi¬ ble security. Hence it is folly to talk of capital¬ ists constructing steamships by money raised upon the stock of the company. Credit must be used to an equal amount as in constructing railroads. The security upon steamships is not so reliable as upon a railroad, its rolling-stock, and appurtenances. Something further will be required than mortgages upon the ships in order to sell the bonds running as long as railroad bonds. For this reason the bill asks for a credit upon a pledge of the State bonds and the steamships, as heretofore stated, the policy of which, 1 trust, has been fully vindi¬ cated. This argument in favor of granting the credit of the United States iu some shape to aid in building up American steamship lines is of general application to all the United States ; but the Senate will pardon me for urging another argument of special application to the southern States. Some sixty million acres of the public do¬ main have been granted in aid of construct¬ ing railroads in the northwestern States. No one questions the wisdom of this liberal pol¬ icy. The South as well as the North rejoices in the common increase of the Republic, and in the power and wealth resulting to the States thus favored by the General Government. If these more than princely donations of land have enriched these particular States they have also promoted the general prosperity. May not we of the South in turn ask of the Government, in the way provided in this bill, aid in favor of the Mediterranean and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, whose success, though in some respects of special benefit to the South, will, as before stated, add to the strength and honor of the whole country. It will confer especial advantages upon fourteen of the sovereign States of the Union, and I cannot bring myself to believe that any Sen¬ ators upon this floor will oppose the passage of this bill, but will give it God-speed as the harbinger of a brighter era dawning upon the Republic for the revival of her former com¬ mercial greatness and renown. I crave the indulgence of the Senate while I urge the adoption of the amendment re¬ ported with the bill by the unanimous concur¬ rence of the Senate committee. This amendment embraces three points, which may be briefly stated : 1. To grant eighty acres of land for every tons measurement of the ships built by the company. 2. To grant six hundred and forty acres per annum as a compensation for the support and education of each American youth on board its ships for the marine service of the United States. 3. A grant of one hundred thousand acres of the public lands situated in southern States for each $100,000 of their bonds deposited under the provisions of the act in aid of immi¬ gration by these States. In relation to the first point, it will require for each vessel of the company of three thou¬ sand tons measurement a donation of eighty acres of land for each ton’s measurement. I think I have fully shown in the course of my remarks, saying nothing of the outlay of the Government for the construction of war ships of the class of the proposed ships of the com¬ pany, that it costs the country a much larger sum annually to keep in commission one of its war ships ; that this annual cost is at least $365,000, or $125,000 more than the grant of land at one dollar per acre, and $65,000 more than the same at $1 25 per acre. This difference in ten years, even calling the land $1 25 per acre, will be $650,000, and in twenty years $1,300,000. Can there be any doubt on this point on the ground of political 13 economy? There is, however, another con¬ sideration rising above the value of dollars and cents. The honor and dignity of the Republic is at stake in building iron steamships in com¬ petition with our great commercial rivals of England and France. Can the Government refuse to make this donation of eighty acres of land for each ton’s measurement in aid of this great policy, so necessary to vindicate the honor of the coun¬ try, especially when in a pecuniary point of view it will save to the Treasury a large amount of money? But the equity of this grant of land in aid of constructing the steamships of the company will perhaps appear in its strongest light from the fact that the cost of building a first-class iron steamship in this country of American materials and in American ship-yards against the powerful competition of Great Britain and France, will at the outset be at least $300,000 more than one of the same class builtabroad. A vessel of the character proposed by the com¬ pany, built in this country, will cost $800,000, while on the Clyde it could be built for $500,000. For this reason it is that we ask for this land, to bear up the company against this powerful competition. In a brief time, under the stim¬ ulus given to American artisans, if the steam¬ ships of this line are built, the ship-yards of the North, as well as those of the South, will be able to compete with those of England and France. Besides, large expenditures will be required to be made by this company to pre¬ pare its ship-yards and a dry-dock at Port Royal and for the necessary landing sites and depots at Norfolk. Certainly, Mr. President, Congress will not impose upon private enterprise and capital the great expense of initiating this policy so inti¬ mately connected with the public good. The Mediterranean and Oriental Steam Nav¬ igation Company of New York is not incorpor- rated exclusively to build, own, and navigate steamships and other vessels, and for running iron steamships between this country and Eu¬ rope, the Mediterranean and India, via Suez, but is, as well, a great emigrant company for the introduction of emigrants into the south¬ ern States. By the bill the company is re¬ quired, with the consent of States, to establish institutions like the Castle Garden emigrant commission of New York, for the encourage¬ ment and protection of immigrants, in the harbors of Norfolk, Port Royal, and Brunswick, and thus to accomplish for the South and Southwest what the Castle Garden commission has done for the Northwest. The eminent success of the latter, as Secretary Seward de¬ clared, “rendered a national bureau of immi¬ gration at present unnecessary.” The plans of Castle Garden in its organization and regu¬ lations, approved by more than twenty years’ experience, will be adopted by the company as far as practicable at all of its depots in the harbors named. The encouragement of emi¬ gration from Europe is one of the main pur¬ poses of this company. This company will introduce by steamships, through its emigrant depots, and distribute throughout the South yearly, more than fifty thousand people. When the labor and expense of collecting an army of this number of men and transporting it a distance of a few hundred miles are considered, we may obtain some con¬ ception of the magnitude of the great work this company has in hand. To gather together through its agencies in southern Europe fifty thousand people yearly, to embark and transport them safely with their household goods across the ocean three thou¬ sand miles, and again distribute them over the length and breadth of the southern States, re¬ quires the aid of a powerful corporation, of a large number of employes, and millions of cap¬ ital invested in steamships, emigrant depots, agencies, and supplies. Government lands—the title perfect, and the method of purchase so simple as to be com¬ prehended by the European peasant—will do more to populate the South than all other means combined. Wherever and in whatever country the working classes are land-owners the prosperity, independence, and welfare of the rural population advance in proportion to their ownership of the soil. “ There is, in fact, an indescribable something in the owner¬ ship of land, and especially in the cultivation of one’s own land, that elevates, ennobles, dig¬ nifies—something that has raised the European serf and peasant of fifty years ago to be the terror of kings and the main prop and support of liberal government.” The European work¬ ing classes are ambitious to be land owners. It can be said that these people now emigrate, not in proportion as they become poorer and more wretched, but as they become more com¬ fortable and better able to try their fortunes in the New World. For these reasons the Mediterranean and Oriental Steam Navigation Company have asked that certain of the public lands be placed in their hands, to the extent of eighty acres lor each ton of iron steamship they may construct for mail, freight, and emigrant business, as pro¬ posed, with southern Europe; that patents for these lands shall be issued in warrants of eighty acres, which shall be located only by the settler, and in quantities of not more than one hundred and sixty acres to each. Thus, instead of this steamship company becoming a land monopoly through the land clause con¬ tained in the bill, the lact is the company is only the almoner of the United States, and extends to the other side of the ocean, through means of these land warrants, the homestead 14 law; makes that law operative and practical there. The company asks for the lands in eighty-acre warrants, showing conclusively that it does not contemplate locating the lands for itself, and holding them under patents, and hence it cannot become a land monopoly. When the emigrant reaches our country, by law he can take up and become the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of the public domain. Why should not this steamship com¬ pany be granted lands for the purpose of plac¬ ing the same in possession of the working peo¬ ple of the better class on the other side of the water, to induce them, by actual ownership before leaving their present homes, to come here and settle under these Government war¬ rants on lands in the southern States? What the South wants and the country requires are intelligent and industrious emigrants, with their families. To obtain these we must hold out inducements; and in no way better than through the medium of this company and in the way pointed out can this be done; that is, by means of land warrants placed in the company’s hands, to give to the emigrant be¬ fore leaving Europe the possession of a home after he arrives here. The plan proposed of distributing lands in Europe to the emigrant, who is to become an actual settler, is one of the grandest ideas of the age. Mr. President, let us have one American steamship line that shall be not only an honor to us, but that shall extend, by means of pow¬ erful steamships, and increase our commercial- relations, attracting emigration to us througli the whole length of the Mediterranean sea and all its tributaries, the Black sea, Sea of Azov, and the Adriatic sea, and add to our commerce by the way of the Suez canal, with rapid and direct intercourse with India, the Malay archi¬ pelago, and China. A steamship line, com¬ posed of vessels built by Americans, of Amer¬ ican materials, owned by Americans, manned and sailed by Americans, opening and increas¬ ing our relations with nearly two hundred million people of Europe, and over six hun¬ dred million in the East, is what our country requires immediately, when it can be done without cost to the Treasury as by this plan. But I beg to press upon the Senate another important consideration of public economy. It should be kept in view that the steamships of the company are all to be of such a charac¬ ter that they may at once be converted into powerful war ships whenever required; that they will be kept in good repair at the expense of the company and always ready for the public service. Erom the highest source of informa¬ tion I am told that it costs the Government to keep in commission a Government ship of the class of the vessels to be built by this com¬ pany at least $1,000 per day, or $365,000 per annum. At this rate twenty such ships would cost the sum of $7,300,000 per annum, or, for twenty years, during the existence of the mail contracts under this bill with the company, the snug sum of $146,000,000. Now, why should this vast annual expense of $365,000 for each such ship be incurred by the Government to keep in commission vessels lying idle in our ports or in the ports of Europe, where they are of little or no use except for ostentation and a continual drain upon the Treasury of the Union? They are not needed in European ports for the protection of our citizens, whose rights are there secured by treaties and supervised by our diplomatic agents. In the East Indies, or in semi-barbarous countries, the national power and character should be represented by the flag of the United States. But a large and pow¬ erful merchant marine, always ready for the public service, and that too at a merely nom¬ inal expense to the Government, would seem to be a wiser policy than to keep in commis¬ sion a large 'number of warships not only idle, but at a ruinous expense to the people. Let me not be understood as disparaging the importance of our gallant Navy. I only pro¬ pose another way of promoting its efficiency. Build up without actual or with merely nominal expense to the Government in the way pro¬ vided in this bill a powerful marine, which would be continually adding to the material wealth of the nation, and at the same time always ready to protect our national honor, under the control of naval officers of a high grade, who should always be found in charge of the few war ships necessary at all times to be kept in commis¬ sion and sufficient to protect the citizens of the United States wherever demanded by the honor of the Republic. In regard to the second point, if any further argument were necessary to recommend this bill to the cordial and unanimous support of the Senate it is found in the provisions for the support and education of American youth in practical seamanship, thus forming a nucleus of a powerful merchant marine. Upon every vessel of the company fifteen or more young men of sixteen years of age and upward will be in constant scientific and practical training for this important service. The present cost to the Government for each youth in training as a midshipman at the Naval Academy is at least $1,400 per annum. To supply this de¬ mand, adding to the theoretical knowledge obtained at the Naval Academy a thorough practical training in seamanship, the company proposes to educate hardy young American boys, for the consideration of a grant of six hundred and forty acres of the public lands yearly for four years for each apprentice so educated on board the company’s ships. Allowing twenty ships employed by the com¬ pany, with sixteen apprentices each, there 15 would be in training yearly, for the maritime service of the Union, three hundred and twenty apprentices, at a cost to the Government of twenty thousand four hundred and eighty acres of land, which at $1 25 per acre, would be $25,500. The cost of sustaining the same number of boys at the Naval Academy, at $1,400 per annum for each would be $50,800, making a saving to the Government of $31,300 per annum. Besides this annual saving it should be borne in mind that the lands so donated, under the policy of the company, would be settled with valuable immigrants, thereby adding to the com¬ mon wealth vastly more than the price of the lands; and also that the practical training of the apprentices on shipboard would better prepare them for the public service than the education acquired at the Naval Academy. In relation to the third point, these lands in the southern States are regarded of little value, and by the provisions of the bill are given to the States in which they are situated for the special purpose of promoting immigration. If lands of the public domain are granted to immi¬ grants under the homestead laws, why should not these refuse lands in the South be granted to aid the same policy of introducing immigrants into these States? But large quantities of land in the northern and western States have been granted by Con¬ gress for canals, railroads, and for educational purposes. Why should not the southern States share in the same advantages? Why should not Virginia be heard in this behalf? In the infancy of the Republic, with more than royal bounty, she donated to the Republic 2,642,- 000,000 acres of land. Is it too much now, in the greatness and strength of the United States, for this grand old Commonwealth, on behalf of herself and her sister States of the South, to ask of the Government the grant of a few million acres of land to promote this great American enterprise? Of the unappropriated public lands there are 11,700,000 acres in Arkansas, 1,800,000 in Missouri, 4,900,000 in Mississippi, 6,900,000 in Alabama, 6,500,000 in Louisiana, and 17,500,000 in Florida; in all 49,300,000 acres. These lands have been long considered as nearly worthless, and have been almost for¬ gotten and out of mind. They have remained unoccupied because they were unsuited for cotton and sugar lands; but if under the care of the States in which they lie and the cooper¬ ation of this company they were brought into market and settled by frugal and industrious emigrants from Europe, they would become valuable as grazing lands for the culture of the vine, for silk, for orchards, and for the mineral wealth which they contain. If so appro¬ priated, they would enrich the South by intro¬ ducing new and varied industrial pursuits tend¬ ing to the wealth and prosperity of the southern States. Lands similarly situated in the north¬ ern States have been so appropriated by Con¬ gress, and why may not we of the South ask for similar favors at the hands of the Federal Government? Before I resign the floor I desire to refer to sundry memorials from different parts of the country, showing the deep interest manifested by the public in the success of this great Amer¬ ican enterprise. I hold in my hand the resolutions of the Louisville Commercial Convention, in favor of granting aid to this company and earnestly commending it to the support of Congress, with letters accompanying the same from our for¬ eign ministers, Messrs. Jay, Washburne, and Marsh, at the Courts of Austria, France, and Italy—all expressing an earnest desire for the success of this enterprise. Judge Shellabarger, our ex-minister at the Court of Portugal, ex¬ presses the liveliest interest in the success of this company. I have also the resolutions of the Board of Trade of Norfolk, urging upon Congress the importance of this line of steamships and ask¬ ing the aid sought in this bill. From the boards of trade iu Richmond and Alexandria memorialists urge upon Congress the policy of this bill. Tennessee has shown her appre¬ ciation of this important measure by having already passed an act reincorporating the ori¬ ginal charter of this company and giving it S uthority to locate immigrants and supervise |eir interests within her State, and authoriz¬ ing aid to be extended to the company by its citizens, companies, and corporations; and her noble example, it is believed, will soon be followed by the other southern States. From Massachusetts also I have the honor to present a memorial signed by the Governor and prominent citizens of that State, commend¬ ing the objects of this bill; aud we commend this memorial to the honorable Senators from that distinguished State, and feel confident it will meet their full concurrence and command their support of this bill. From the Empire State, too, which gave this company its charter, memorials are before the Senate numerously signed by eminent mer¬ chants and citizens of the city and the country, and from the Governor and members of the Legislature, without respect of party, showing a deep interest felt in that powerful State in behalf of this great enterprise ; and I trust that the distinguished Senators from that State will gratify the wishes of their constituents, aud give the bill their powerful support. All these memorials and legislation in be¬ half of this company show the full apprecia¬ tion of this great enterprise as a national meas¬ ure, and thereby strengthen its appeal to the aid of Congress. 4 Mr. President, I will not longer detain the Senate. I cannot but hope that when the great objects of this company, as provided in this bill, when the comparatively small aid required of Congress in order to insure its complete suc¬ cess, and when the more than compensating advantages to the whole Republic are consid¬ ered, when the higher considerations of honor and patriotism involved in this American enter¬ prise, and its tendency to restore the commerce of the United States from the humiliation of its present crushed and abject condition are taken into view, I am free to confess that I shall feel deeply pained if this bill does not command on its passage a full vote of the Senate.