land, and afford the easier and readier intercourse of water conveyance. But these vast lakes required also harbors and lights and breakwaters. And were these lawful objects of national legislation? To me, certainly, they have appeared to be such as clearly as if they were on the Atlantic border."

The First Congress committed the Government to the policy of the bill. The act passed on the 7th of August, 1789, the act referred to by Mr. Webster, and which was approved by George Washington, for the establishment of light houses, beacon-buoys, and public piers, was a contemporaneous construction of the Constitution admitting the power of Congress to legislate for rendering the navigation of inlets, or harbors, or ports of the United States easy and safe. There was little internal commerce at that time and our foreign commerce was very limited; and yet, in 1790, Congress enacted and passed another law. In August, 1790, an appropriation was made for the security of navigation. In March, 1791, in April, 1792, in June, 1794, and in March, 1795, other laws were passed upon the same general subject. In March, 1796, the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Oliver Wolcott, recommended an appropriation of $16.000 for four new piers in the Delaware river, and in April, 1798, a further sum of $60,000 was recommended for

the same purpose. The reasons given by Mr. Wolcott in the report which he made are of great significance at this time. They will be found in the Report on Commerce and Navigation for that year, volume one, page 390. He says:

"A question arises whether expenses of the nature proposed ought to be general or whether they ought to be defrayed by a duty imposed on tonnage of vessels employed in the river Delaware. On this point it is respectfully suggested that though it may be difficult to form general rules by which to determine in all cases what establishments ought to be supported at the expense of the United States, and that though it is certain that many of the bays, rivers, and harbors of this country are susceptible of improvements which it would be inexpedient for the Government to undertake, especially at present, yet it is equally certain that national interests of the first importance are concentered in the principal commercial cities which cannot, consistently with public interests, be submitted to the direction of local policy. The Secretary has considered the river Delaware, below Philadelphia, as entitled in respect to establishments for the security of navigation to the same consideration as any part of the coast adjoining the high sca. The proposed piers will be useful to foreign vessels and to American vessels from all the States. Commercial ports upon the river within the jurisdiction of three States will, in proportion to the extent of their trade, be nearly as much benefited by the establishments which are desired as the port of Philadelphia."

Now, we have at this time many "Delaware rivers," rivers and harbors in the interior which were then hardly known, but which have become now of as much relative national value as the river Delaware was at that time, and the arguments applicable to that river are all with the same force applicable to those covered by this bill, and every appropriation which we ask for here comes fairly within the principle upon which the old Delaware appropriation stood. The laws, during our early history, concerned light-houses, buoys, piers, &c., but as the wants of commerce increased, as the nation grew in resources, other laws were passed applying more generally the same principle. In April, 1798, a law was passed to stake out the channel of Warren river, Rhode Island, and moneys were appropriated for similar purposes in May, 1802, and March, 1805. After that time during different years other appropriations were made for like purposes in States upon the sea-board and away from the sea-board, but all for the general objects indicated in the first act approved by Washington.

I have here a report made by General Delafield at this session, in reply to a communication which I was directed by the Committee on Commerce to address to the Secretary of War, and which will be found as Executive Document No. 18, and if gentlemen will examine it they will find that from 1824 down to 1856, appropriations were made for building piers, for building break-waters, for removing obstructions in rivers, for improving harbors,

In one appropriation asked for here, more than five million people are directly interested. And yet the States where they live are mere children in the Union-urdy young ones and hard strikers-they have done some splendid fighting during these four years past; they have sent their hundreds of thousands of men to help save that flag, and we should see to it that it shall securely wave over their lakes and rivers.

for improving navigation, for deepening chan- ||provement than achieved our independence nels, for the preservation of harbors, and for cannot be properly denied. the construction of sea-walls. I believe that these will be found to embrace substantially all the classes of appropriations which are contained in this bill. The years when these appropriations were made will be found upon examination of this same document to cover the Administrations of Presidents Monroe and John Quincy Adams, of General Jackson and Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Tyler. During the early history of our Government we had comparatively no inland commerce, no lakes valuable for commerce; we had no valley of the Mississippi; we had no West; but all that was wanted was done.

The State of Illinois, if I recollect aright, was admitted into the Union in the year 1818. That State, young as she is, was six years old before a dollar of money was appropriated by the General Government for the improvement of harbors upon the classic waters of Lake Erie. There have been during these latter years other waters which have been dyed red with patriot blood; there have been other battle fields than those thereabout where the blood of Union men has been freely poured out to save the nation. But yet, during all the life of the nation to come, I believe we shall turn back to no waters with more pride than to those where Perry first achieved his brilliant victory, the waters of Lake Erie. It would have been well if the Government of the United States had looked to that lake some years before it did. In 1824 the first appropriation was made.

During the war of 1812, as you know, Great Britain proposed to hold command of Lake Erie, and with her squadron there was blockading the port of Erie. Perry was stationed upon those waters to defend the interests of the United States. He then contrived to build and equip his small fleet within the harbor at that port; the British squadron being outside the bar in the deep waters of the lake, and his vessels within. His fleet at last was ready, but the Niagara and the Lawrence could not move because there was a bar which the Government had not yet seen fit to remove. It so happened that the British commander hoisted sail and went off one day with his squadron. leaving Perry, who had been providing some means to get his vessels over the bar, to execute his purpose if he could. With the greatest labor the Lawrence and the Niagara were lightened of their armaments, and means were used, which the skillful commander had before provided, by which the vessels were lifted over the bar and floated in the deep waters of the lake. Before the British squadron returned, the American fleet was prepared for its reception; and well we know that it was not long afterward that the battle of Lake Erie was fought and Perry's victory was won.

Now, Mr. Speaker, one of two courses must be taken. Either the Government must lift up its hand from the sea-coast and from lake and from river; it must say to the people, "You have fought for and made the nation and saved its life; but now within your own State borders you must protect and take care of your own interests;" or else the sea-coast, East and West, so far as it shall be necessary for the security of navigation, and the mighty rivers and the great lakes of the continent must be cleared of their obstructions and their harbors rendered secure, so that they may be entered with safety by the vessels of the United States and by the vessels of commerce, and I hope the members of the Thirty-Ninth Congress will upon this question be found upon the side of the people.

Sir, if the action of the early Government and of our early Presidents appropriating moneys for roads and canals and the various improvements of rivers, then of some commercial value, and of harbors on the sea-coast, was pursuant to constitutional powers granted or fairly implied, the question must be deemed fairly settled, and at this time the demands of more millions of men whose interests are involved in one im

Sir, we have seven great lakes: Superior, Huron, Michigan, St. Clair, Erie, Ontario, and Champlain. Without estimating at all the rivers and the canals which connect those lakes, it will be found that there is a straight line of lake navigation of one thousand five hundred and seventy-three miles in length. But that does not state the whole truth, for the lake coast is five thousand miles in extent, of which three thousand miles are within the territory of the United States.

Leaving the lakes and going to the rivers, we find that, taking the rivers Mississippi, Mis souri, Arkansas, Ohio, and Red river, with their tributaries, we have a length of navigable waters of sixteen thousand six hundred and seventy-four miles. The inestimable national importance of the navigation of these lakes and rivers cannot be overstated. The whole Mississippi valley, with its fourteen States, the eight States upon the lakes, depend upon these lakes and rivers as their natural highways to a commercial market. We can estimate the present commercial value of the products of the West; but we cannot tell how that value will be multiplied. Yet for many years from the time when the last general bill passed by Congress found its death in the Pres ident's portfolio, every dollar of appropriation has been earned by the earnest advocates of these improvements before it was authorized by Congress and became a law.

I do not propose to occupy the time of the House now by reviewing at any length the action of Congress upon the subject of river and harbor improvement. And yet it may be well to recur to that action briefly, and I propose to do so.

In 1808 Albert Gallatin's famous report was made, recommending a grand appropriation of $20,000,000 for turnpike roads, canals, and inland navigation. Within the range of his recommendations were immensely long public roads and canals running north and south, and east and west. There were large appropriations recommended for improving the navigation of the great rivers. That recommendation of Mr. Gallatin was not acted upon.

seen.

It will be remembered that shortly after that time there were heard in the air the distant mutterings of thunder. Soon afterward a cloud not bigger than a man's hand was The eyes of all and the attention of all were directed to what was to come. The war with England, which followed, put a stop to appropriations of that description. But from about 1808 until the presidential term of Mr. Tyler, through contest and through tribulation, and notwithstanding now and then a presi dential veto, appropriations to the following amounts, according to a very valuable report made by Colonel Abert to the War Department, were made: during the presidential term of Mr. Jefferson, $48,500; during the term of Mr. Madison, $250.800; during the term of Mr. Monroe, $707,621; during the term of Mr. John Quincy Adains, $2,810,475; during the term of General Jackson, $10,582,882; during the term of Mr. Van Buren, $2,222,544; during the term of Mr. Tyler, $1,076,500.

President Tyler, in his annual message to the Twenty-Eighth Congress, made at its first ses sion, strongly recommended to the attention of Congress the western lakes and rivers. During that same session, however, he declined to sign, but returned with his veto, a bill provid ing appropriations for eastern harbors, known on the records of that day as the "eastern har

273,363,730

Or more than one fourth. Ajuster standard by which to measure the productiveness of these States would be a comparison of the amount of their respective products, since the value is so largely affected by the distance from market.

"The great staples of agriculture are wheat, corn, beef, and pork. Comparing these, we find that the total number of bushels of wheat produced in all the States and Territories in 1864 (except the cotton States, whose production was almost nominal, probably not more than one sixth of what it was in 1860)

was.......

Illinois produced..........

Missouri.

Wisconsin....

Iowa...........

Minnesota....

.33,371,173 3,281,514

..14,168,317

.12,649,807

2,634,975

Or a fraction less than one half.

...160,695,823

66,105,786

The total number of bushels of corn produced

Or about one seventh. "Thus it will be seen that these five States possessing only one seventh of all the population and one sixth of all the improved land, nevertheless in 1864 produced more than one fourth in value of the entire crop: more than one fourth in value of all the live stock; more than one third in number of all the cattle and hogs, and nearly one half of all the wheat and corn grown in the United States. Here we find four and one half millions of agriculturists along the upper Mississippi, producing in a single year from one third to one half of all the production of the leading staples of an estimated value of $677,056,204."

"A glance at the commerce of the Mississippi will show how necessary it is that this work should be done immediately and effectually. Thirty years ago steamboats engaged in the river trade aggregated but a few score. Now there are over a thousand.

"In 1865 the imports of St. Louis, Cincinnati, Louisville, and two or three minor Mississippi towns were of the value of $730,000,000. As the export trade of these places was about equal to their imports, we have for the entire commerce of these points nearly $1,500,000,000. But this does not include the commerce of New Orleans, Memphis, Dubuque, and other important towns. Include the trade of these points and the aggregate value of the trade of the Mississippi and its tributaries, the Ohio and Missouri, in 1865 was more than $2,000,000,000, a sum equivalent to three times the whole foreign commerce of the United States."

"Remove these obstructions and the producers of these States will then have a convenient and adequate outlet to the markets on our own sea-board and of Europe. They can market their grain in London and Liverpool, be successful competitors of European producers on their own soil, and eventually control the price of breadstuffs in the very center of the world's trade. In Europe land is scarce, and rents ruinously high. The consequence is that our farmers, who have cheap lands and mechanical labor, can produce grain with profit at figures that would ruin the European farmer. The only obstacle that prevents the western producer from underselling and by successful competition driving foreign producers from their own markets, is the want of cheap transportation. For the past five years the average price per bushel of wheat in London and Liverpool has been $1 37 in gold, or $1 90 of our own currency. The English farmer cannot produce it at a less cost with any profit. The land is mostly held by the nobility, who exact as a rental therefor forty per cent. of the productions. Improve these rapids, and grain can be sent from Dubuque tó New Orleans for twenty cents and thence to Liverpool for seventeen cents, including cost of transhipment, thus netting our farmers at least $1 50 per bushel and giving them the power

to undersell the English farmer in his own market, and eventually compel him to seek other pursuits. Wheat could be shipped from this point to New York for thirty-three cents per bushel by the way of New Orleans, while the average cost by present transportation from the Mississippi river to New York is sixty-five cents per bushel. Here is a saving of thirtytwo cents per bushel. This on thirty million of our surplus crop of fifty million bushels annually raised, would make the enormous sum of $9,600,000.”

Now, the total value of the crops for 1864 throughout the country is shown to have been $1,564,543,690. Of that immense amount the five States of Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota produced in value more than one fourth part. But that statement does not show the whole truth, because these values are values which are estimated in the States where these cereals are produced.

But in Boston, Massachusetts, corn last year was $1 21 per bushel; in Illinois, it was twenty-nine cents per bushel. It will be seen at once, therefore, that if those five States produced more than one fourth of the value of the whole crop of 1864, estimated at home prices, what an increased proportion would be shown if values were more equalized than they are now. I understand that at this moment there are in the State of Iowa twelve million acres of unimproved lands where the plow has never entered.

It is not possible, perhaps, to demonstrate more truly or clearly the national importance of these improvements; but still I desire to present further a few later statistics, which I have prepared from documents subsequently published. I want to call the attention of the House to one single crop, and that is the corn crop of 1865.

In Maine, the corn product in that year was 1,692,020 bushels; in New Hampshire, 1,468,090 bushels; in Vermont, 1,796,356; in Massachusets, 2,863,245; in Rhode Island, 497,418; and in Connecticut, 2,265,818; making an ag gregate of 10,082,947 bushels as the corn crop of these six States for 1865. Now, if you add to that the corn crop of New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, you will have an aggregate of 170,638,279 bushels as the corn crop in that year of these nine States. The State of Illinois produced in the same year 177,095,852 bushels; that is to say, 7,000,000 bushels more than these nine States. Ohio yielded 94,119,644 bushels; Michigan, 17,520,305; Indiana, 116,069,316; Missouri, 52,021,715; Wisconsin, 13,449,405; Iowa, 62,997,813; and Minnesota, 5,577,795; making an aggregate of 538,851,845 bushels.

Now look at the values of corn in 1865:
Per bushel. Total value.
..$1 21

511

corn from Illinois to New York was sixty-five and three quarter cents, and the cost of transporting the corn crop of Illinois to New York city would be $116,440,522 69.

The whole crop of Illinois in 1865, taking the corn, wheat, rye, oats, barley, buckwheat, potatoes, tobacco, and hay was of the value of $116,274,821; that is to say, the whole crop was worth $166,201 69 less than the cost of transporting to New York the corn crop alone of 1865.

Now, with an unobstructed navigation of the Mississippi, that corn crop could be landed in New York city, at a saving of $63,311,769 09. In this estimate I have allowed thirty-five and three fourths cents as the cost of getting a bushel of corn down the Mississippi. But I received a letter this morning on that subject, some portions of which I ask to have read. The Clerk read as follows:

OFFICE ST. LOUIS LEAD AND OIL COMPANY, 142 SECOND STREET, CORNER WASHINGTON AVENUE, ST. LOUIS, April 26, 1866. MY DEAR SIR: I am in receipt this morning of a letter desiring me to transmit to you some information regarding present rates of freights from St. Louis to New Orleans, &c.

The present rates by steamers on grain and flour to New Orleans are: eighteen to twenty cents per bushel for grain and seventy cents per barrel for flour.

I am interested in a company lately formed for the purpose of transporting freight by barges towed by powerful tow-boats. Within the past three weeks we have sent out three tows of about four thousand tons each, and have been splendidly successful. A prejudice has always existed among our steamboat men and underwriters against this method of transportation, but it has been entirely overcome by the astonishingly successful operation of our theory; our boats making their trips in perfect safety and in less time than is generally required by passenger steamers. We are now taking freight to New Orleans at fifty cents per barrel for flour and twelve to fifteen cents per bushel for grain, and if the navigation of the upper Mississippi was not obstructed by rapids, and the lower river by snags and sawyers, it could undoubtedly be carried at these prices with profit, from St. Paul to New Orleans, over two thousand miles.

The advantage to the whole country by this method of transportation can readily be perceived, and its operations can be greatly facilitated and cheapened by the improvements contemplated in your bill; and I cannot conceive how any person having the interests of the whole country sincerely at heart could for a moment oppose it. Yours, truly,

W. H. PULSIFER. Hon. T. D. ELIOT, M. C., Washington, D. C.

Mr. ELIOT. The produce of the five States of Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota in 1865 in cereals and potatoes was in bushels, 466,629,652. The produce of the same articles in the nine States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey. and Pennsylvania, was 321,494,367 bushels. That is to say, the nine eastern States produced less than the five Mississippi States by 145,131,285 bushels, and yet Illinois, the oldest of the five States named came into the Union in 1818, Missouri in 1821, Iowa in 1846, Wisconsin in 1848; while Minnesota did not begin to be a Territory until 1849, and was not a State until 1857.

[Here the hammer fell.]

Mr. RICE, of Maine. I move that the time of the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. ELIOT] be extended for fifteen minutes.

No objection was made.

Mr. ELIOT. The five Mississippi States to which I have referred are all of them younger than the State of Ohio, a great deal younger, and yet the first child born in the State of Ohio is now living in a very serene old age in his native State; and he does not now number so many years as may be counted by our friend, the patriarch of the Pennsylvania delegation, [Mr. STEVENS.]

Now, we on the sea-board want to have cheaper corn; and the people on the lakes and western rivers want to get more money for their prod

by Colonel Graham, which will be found in volume five of Senate Documents of the third session of the Thirty-Fourth Congress, in the year 1858. I read the following extracts:

"The immense amount of commerce before alluded to, and which is shown by the accompanying statistics to be dependent upon this channel for its prosperity, ought not to be subjected to so long a delay in securing its practical benefits.

"The States of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, and the Territory of Minnesota, have their shores washed by the great inland seas: whose intercommunication by ship navigation is much interrupted by the want of a safe and sure channel over these flats.

"The States of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and a portion of Michigan, on the one side, are crippled in their important commercial relations with the remaining portion of the State of Michigan, and with the States of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, and the Territory of Minnesota, on the other side, by this intervening obstacle.

"Something would seem, then, under the purview of the Constitution, to be necessary to be done in order to regulate the commerce between these States. Viewed in this light the subject becomes one of great public concern. The value of the articles of commerce and navigation which passed over these flats during the two hundred and thirty days of open navigation in the year 1855, say between the middle of April and the 1st of December, will be presently shown to have amounted to the immense sum of $250,721,455 50, that is to say, two hundred and fiftynine millionsseven hundred and twenty-one thousand four hundred and fifty-five dollars and fifty cents, or per day during the navigable season $1,129,223 72. The improvement, then, when undertaken should be executed with a degree of permanency and celerity combined commensurate with its importance and the magnitude of the interests involved.

"It is making no more than a reasonable allowance for the effect of the obstruction to commerce now existing at St. Clair flats to say that had that obstruction not existed the value of the merchandise and produce that would have passed in 1855 would have been full fifty per cent. more than it actually was, or that it would have amounted during the navigable season of 1855 to $376,751,558 95. This would have been an average value per day of $1,638,050 25, or per day more than three times the estimated cost of the work to be done in a permanent manner, and with a channel-way six hundred feet wide and full twelve feet deep. It should be borne in mind that such a channel would admit as free and safe a navigation at night as during the day. In the present state of the flats no navigator ever thinks of attempting to pass them, except by daylight. This cause of detontion, added to that of vessels grounded often for several days before they can be got afloat and tugged over, actually shortens the navigable season to quite one half of what it will be when the improvement shall be completed in the manner that shall best obviate all the difficulties."

Now, what are these St. Clair flats, and where are they? Lake St. Clair, which connects by means of the Detroit and St. Clair rivers the three lakes of Huron, Michigan, and Erie, is eighteen miles in length, and has a mean width of about twelve miles. The St. Clair flats are at the head of the lake. At the point where the river widens itself into a lake and forms the lake, sands brought down by the flow of the river are accumulated. The flats or sand-bars are made in that way; and a channel of about one mile in length must be cut through. For the last ten years nothing has been done by the Government; nothing since the date of the report from which I have just read.

At that time a channel was cut through one hundred feet wide and thirteen feet deep. That channel is said to be to-day about fifty feet wide and ten and a half feet deep. Now, the value of the commerce which during the last year passed over those flats was more than one hundred and forty-six million dollars. But that is exclusive of the value of the vessels, which amounted to $250,541,846; making the total value of the property which passed over those flats in one season to be $396,546,896.

I desire to call the attention of the House to a statement of this commerce over the flats. This statement, prepared by Mr. Edmund Trowbridge-a brother, I believe, of my friend from Michigan-conveys a very full and a very minute idea of the value of this improvement: "At the time the above appropriation was made, 1857, the average carrying capacity of the vessels on the lakes was from ten to twelve thousand bushels of grain, but the rapid and enormous increase in the commerce of the lakes has made it necessary to build much larger vessels, and now it would be safe to say the average capacity of each is double that amount. Then the greatest amount of water that vessels could draw was from nine to ten feet, but now from twelve to thirteen and a half feet.

"It is no uncommon thing to see several of our

argest propellers aground on the flats at one time, working all the powers of their engines to extricate themselves. The water being shallow, the action of their wheels digs up, as it were, thesand under them, and deposits it in small hills or ridges in the channel, on which the next passing vessel is likely to stick fast.

"The navigation of the rivers connecting Lakes Erie and Huron has always been attended with much risk, and often with serious loss, owing to shoals, sunken rocks, and swift currents, even before the vessels were anything like the size they now are. This has made it necessary to bring to the aid of sailing vessels tow-boats to tow them through these rivers. These boats take in tow from two to seven vessels, and in passing over the flats the tug, or some of the vessels in tow, are very apt to stick fast on some of these ridges, formed by the propeller wheels, or owing to the narrowness of the channel, they strike on one bank or the other, and, not having room to work these vessels, the consequence is, those astern are sure to come in collision with those aground, causing, in the aggregate, an immense amount of damage, all of which would be avoided by having a sufficient breadth and depth of channel through which to do the business. The channel is now so crooked that it requires an expert pilot to take any ordinary sized craft over.

"The extent of the bar or flat is very insignificant, and the amount of money required from the Government is a mere trifle, when compared with the importance of the work sought to be accomplished.

"The entire length that would be required to cut the channel would not exceed one mile. Your committee are informed by competent engineers in the Government employ that the small sum of $200,000 would give a channel three hundred feet wide and fifteen feet water.

While your committee fully agree with and heartily indorse all the schemes proposed by conventions and Boards of Trade to enlarge our canals, build new ones, and open up greater facilities for getting the vast produce of the West to tide-water, they cannot but think that this work of enlarging the channel over the St. Clair flats is of quite as great importance as any that has been or can be proposed.

"Asitis, one vessel can entirely close the channel by striking on one bank and swinging across the channel, thus effectually sealing it up, so far as the passage of other vessels is concerned; and your committee have known within the last two years a large propeller closing entirely the channel for four days, making it impossible for any loaded craft to pass or repass, and detaining at one time more than two hundred loaded vessels for that length of time. Your committee would recommend that an appropriation of $200,000 be asked from Congress to accomplish this muchneeded work.

Your committee would also recommend that an appropriation be asked from Congress of a sufficient amount of money to build three range lights on the flats, in accordance with the recommendation of Colonel William F. Raynolds, made to the Light-House Board, which would enable vessels to pass over the flats as well at night as in the day. The necessity for

these range lights is proven from the fact that temporary ones have been kept there by private subscription since the channel was opened. If not for them there would be large accumulation of vessels above and below the flats during the night, and at the earliest daylight each would try to be the first over. They would meet on the flats in such numbers and to such an extent that there would be an almost interminable jam, and the damage from loss of time and collision would be incalculable.

Making entire number passing for the season.....22,274 Which is an average of those passing daily of eightysix. At the above valuation in vessels, for each vessel we have the daily valuation in vessels without cargo passing.

..$971,112 And for the season we have the value of vessels that pass the flats $250,546,896

It is estimated that there is an average of two vessels detained on the flats cach day, at an actual loss to the owners in time and expense of getting off, each $150, making $300 per day, and for the season of two hundred and fifty-eight days...... .....$77,400 This in addition to the damage done to vessel and cargo, which damage can safely be put down at $50,000 for the season, making on the aggregate a loss to the owners of the property of ..$127,400 It is estimated that forty thousand passengers are transported over the flats each year.

Your committee can form no definite idea of the loss to the passengers who from time to time are detained there, but think such loss may safely be put down at many thousands of dollars per annum, all of which loss would be avoided by having a sufficient channel through which this enormous amount of property could pass in safety.

The following is the amount of property transported over the flats during the season of 1865:

673.250

Hogs, number.

679*

16.975 00

Pig lead, lbs...........

196,800 00

Sheep, number..

436*

3.488 00

Railroad iron, tons....

17,741

418,400

Marble, tons

3,114

100.00 130 00

177,410 00

404,820 00

5,521,900

9

"Hereafter your committee will show the number of vessels, with their cargoes, that have passed the flats during the season of 1865, with the valuation of the same as near as possible. In some instances we have been obliged to estimate the value of cargoes, but feel assured that our figures are below rather than above the actual value.

"When we think that there are no less than fifteen

States of our Union directly or indirectly interested

in the commerce of the lakes, it seems as though they could, by a united effort, demand of our Government that this barrier or obstruction should be removed, and that demand should not go unheeded. "With the foregoing remarks your committee beg leave to offer their statistical report, and would earnestly recommend that the report, orso much of it as is necessary, may be laid before the different Boards of Trade around the lakes, asking their cooperation in bringing this important subject before Congress, with a recommendation that the appropriation of $200,000 be made to remove this barrier, and a further

appropriation of $10,000 per year he made to keep

the channel open and clear for all times.

NUMBER OF STEAMERS AND VESSELS ON THE LAKES IN 1865.

Steamers. Propellers.... Barkentines Brigantines.... Schooners.

Total......................1.778 Add 40 per cent, for gold...

Total

Average valuation of each vessel, $11,292.

$20,086,500

In the class schooners" is included schooners, scows, sloops, barges, &c. These 1,778 vessels are manned by 17,780 seamen, at a daily cost to the owners of.... $62,230 16,955,340

And cost for the season..................................................................

Fire brick, number..... 376,069

30.132 40 3,823 75

353,400 00

33,846 21 $146,289,411 40

E. TROWBRIDGE,
G. W. BISSELL,
P. J. RALPHI,

Now, Mr. Speaker, it seemed right to say thus much-it is only the beginning of what might be said concerning these improvements in the Mississippi and upon St. Clair flats to

enable the naval and commercial vessels of the United States to navigate safely the lakes and the rivers of the West, and to enable the great agricultural interests of the country to add to the national wealth their heavy contributions and to find a market. The harbors named in this bill are all national, and their improvement is a matter of national concern. I therefore, in behalf of the committee, invoke the common voice of this House in favor of this legislation. There is no party question involved in it; but in giving to it our support we both provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare.

Mr. ROSS. I ask the gentleman from Massachusetts to yield to me that I may offer an amendment.

Mr. ELIOT. I will hear the amendment. Mr. ROSS. I desire to move to amend by inserting at the end of line eighty-eight, page 5, the following:

That $200,000 be appropriated for the improvement of the Illinois river.

Mr. ELIOT. I cannot yield to allow that amendment to be offered. As gentlemen around me are pressing me to permit amendments, I ought to say that the bill contains no appropriation which does not rest upon careful estimates made at the War Department and upon recommendations which have emanated from there. I want to say, further, that there is not one point concerning which petitions have come from the people, so that the Committee on Commerce has had jurisdiction of the question, which has not been carefully examined; and I believe that in every instance where the people have desired the action of Congress, and where it has been possible to obtain from the Department such estimates as would enable the committee to determine with any accuracy what was wanted, appropriations have been reported. But it would not do to open the bill to amendments which are loose in their form and founded on mere guess-work.

Mr. DONNELLY. I ask the gentleman from Massachusetts to yield to me for an amendment which I can explain in a few words, and which I think will not be objectionable to the gentleman.

Mr. ELIOT. I will hear the amendment. Mr. DONNELLY. I propose to add after the word "Maine" in the sixteenth line of the fourth section the following:

"At the Zumbro river, Minnesota, at the Cannon

river, Minnesota.'

Mr. Speaker, these rivers penetrate into one of the richest agricultural regions of my district; regions overflowing annually with great crops of grain and whose importance is annually increasing. The Zumbro river can be, I am assured, made navigable for steamboats for forty miles from where it enters the Mississippi river; and thus develop immensely the country for a space of twenty miles around it, while it will have a beneficial effect upon the growth of the entire region in which it is situated, and the towns upon the Mississippi to which it is tributary.

The Cannon river can be greatly improved, and it is the belief of many in my State that a system of water communication can be created, reaching, by canal, from the mouth of the Cannon river through streams and water-courses to the Minnesota river. It will be for the officers who make the survey to determine how far so great an enterprise would be practicable at this time, or if not, how much of it shall now be attempted. Of one thing we can be assured, that such a work would have the most enormous and instantaneous effect in settling and developing all that rich region of country, second to none in the United States in fertility and intrinsic value.

The Legislature of my State has memorialized for both these improvements, and has asked for land grants to aid them. I prefer that an appropriation should be made in money; and as it is evident by the appropriations already made by this bill that it is the intention of Congress to make liberal advances for the development and improvement of rivers and harbors, I can see no reason why the

young and rapidly growing State of Minnesota should not participate in the largesses of the Government; and as I cannot ask for definite appropriations without a previous survey and examination to ascertain the amount requisite, I therefore offer these amendments to the bill, so that these rivers can be examined and we may know distinctly, when the next session of Congress convenes, just what amount of appropriation will be necessary.

The bill also contains a provision for a similar survey of the Mississippi river between Fort Snelling and the falls of St. Anthony. The importance of the work contemplated in such a survey cannot be overestimated. It would carry the navigation of the Mississippi river up to the foot of the great falls of St. Anthony and make continuous navigation in an almost direct line north and south from that point to the Gulf of Mexico. The head of such a mighty valley cannot be unimportant. Around it are already clustering great cities-St. Paul, the capital and commercial center of the State, and the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Anthony, possessed of the greatest manufacturing facilities to be found in the entire Mississippi valley; and where already the hum of woolen and cotton mills is heard, with the clatter of innumer. able lumber mills. From these three great cities, now growing rapidly, and yet to spread over the intervening country until their expanding populations mingle and merge in one great metropolis, shall descend to the tropical valley far below them, there teeming with a crowded, happy, and free population, all the great productions of the temperate regions, lumber and wool, wheat and cattle, the productions of the field and the manufactured goods of the mill. It is right and just that the navigation of the great river should reach to the very foot of the falls and receive the cargoes of its floating palaces from the very doors of its factories; and I trust the time is not far distant when even above the falls the Government can be induced to make an appropriation sufficient to deepen and improve the river up to the falls above St. Cloud. We owe it to the West that, where

nature has done so much toward the construc

tion of a mighty highway, no niggardly policy should govern us in relieving it of any partial impediments to navigation.

Mr. ELIOT. As this amendment proposes simply a survey, without any additional appropriation I do not object. The gentleman from New York [Mr. VAN HORN] has an amendment of a similar character, which I am willing shall be adopted.

that amendment. It proposes wholly new legislation.

The previous question was seconded and the main question ordered; and under the operation thereof the amendment was agreed to.

The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time; and being engrossed, it was accordingly read the third time.

Mr. ELIOT demanded the previous question on the passage of the bill.

The previous question was seconded and the main question ordered; and under the opera tion thereof the bill was passed.

Mr. ELIOT moved to reconsider the vote by which the bill was passed; and also moved that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table,

The latter motion was agreed to.

PROVOST MARSHAL GENERAL FRY-AGAIN. Mr. BLAINE. I ask to send to the Clerk's table to have read the letter the reading of which was objected to this morning.

Mr. CONKLING. I do not object, but only ask, if the matter relates to me, to have oppor tunity to reply.

Mr. BLAINE. I wish to repeat what I said before.

Mr. ROSS. I object to the gentleman from New York making a speech.

Mr. CONKLING. The gentleman does not want a letter to be read relating to a member and then not permit that member to reply.

Mr. ROSS. I withdraw my objection. Mr. BLAINE. I want this letter read for the double purpose of vindicating myself from the charge of having made an untruthful statement on this floor, and to give, in the broad American sense, fair play and opportunity to a worthy officer to be heard in a forum where he has been assailed.

I wish further to say that if, on investigation, I had found I was in error in the statement I had made touching the member from the Utica district of New York [Mr. CONKLING] and Provost Marshal General Fry, I would, mortifying as it would have been, apologized to the House. Whether I was in error or not I leave to those who hear the letter of the Pro

vost Marshal General.

The Clerk read as follows:

WAR DEPARTMENT, PROVOST MARSHAL GENERAL'S BUREAU, WASHINGTON, April 27, 1866. SIR: I have to thank you for repelling as you did, in the House of Representatives, on the 25th instant, the very extraordinary assault upon me by Hon. Roscoe Conkling, of New York. It was a defense of me in a forum where I had no opportunity to be per

66

Mr. PIKE. I desire to offer an amendment of the same character. It is to insert, of the St. Croix river above the Ledge."

Mr. ELIOT. I have no objection to that. Mr. ROSS. I desire to move an amendment of the same nature, to add, "from the mouth of the Illinois river to La Salle."

Mr. ELIOT. I have no objection to that. The SPEAKER. These different propositions will be considered as one amendment. The amendment was read, as follows: Insert after the word "Maine," in the sixteenth line of the fourth section, the following:

At Zumbro river, Minnesota; at Cannon river, Minnesota; of the harbor and the mouth of the Eighteen Mile creek, at Olcott, New York; of the St. Croix river above the Ledge; from the mouth of Illinois river to La Salle.

Mr. ELIOT. I now call the previous question. Mr. SPALDING. I ask the gentleman to give way that I may offer a proviso which will not interfere with these appropriations. I propose to insert at the end of the bill the following:

Provided, That the Secretary of War shall at all times be authorized to place the public works of the United States mentioned in this act in charge of custom-house officers or other agents of the Government living near to said works respectively, who shall protect the same from unwarrantable obstructions or injuries of any kind, without additional charge for their services.

Mr. ELIOT. I cannot possibly yield for

sertions touching Mr. Conkling's difficulties with this bureau are amply and completely justified by the facts which this letter will disclose.

My official intercourse with Representatives in Congress during the past three years has been constant and in many cases intimate, and, with the solitary exception of Mr. Conkling, it has been marked, so far as I remember, by mutual honor and fair dealing. Mr. Conkling being thus an exception, it is my pur pose to give a brief summary of his connection and intercourse with this bureau.

In the summer of 1863 Mr. Conkling made a case for himself by telegraphing to the War Department that the provost marshal of his district required legal advice, which he was thereupon empowered to give. In April, 1865, Mr. Charles A. Dana, then Assistant Secretary of War, without notifying me, had Mr. Conkling appointed to investigate all frauds in enlistments in western New York, with the stipulation that he should be commissioned judge advocate for the prosecution of any cases brought to trial, and he was so appointed to prosecute, before a general courtmartial, Major J. A. Haddock. Mr. Dana vested him, by several orders issued in the name of the Secretary of War, without the sanction of Mr. Stanton, with the most extraordinary powers. Among these was the right to examine the dispatches in all telegraph offices in the western division of New York, which enabled a violation of the sanctity of personal and business correspondence. For his services in this connection Mr. Conkling received, on the 9th of November last, from the United States the modest fee of $3,000. Whether he received, as it has been reported, from his district $5,000 more for the same service, and whether he received additional fees from guilty parties for opposing proceedings at Utica, I am unable now to say, but, as hereafter shown, he was as zealous in preventing prosecutions at Utica as he was in making them at Elmira; and the main ground of difficulty between Mr.Conkling and myself has been that I wanted exposure at both places while he wanted concealment at one. I suppose there can be no doubt among highminded men as to the character of Mr. Conkling's course in this matter. Whether his action in exer