Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 4 (of 16)

by United States. Congress

Monday, March 2.

Increase of the Navy.

Mr. Crawford.—The honorable gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Lloyd) thinks that nothing has been done by the Government for commerce, whilst commerce has done every thing for the nation; that commerce has paid into the public Treasury $200,000,000. If it is contended that this sum has been paid exclusively by commerce, nothing can be more incorrect. The money collected from imposts and duties is paid by the consumer of merchandise upon which the duties are imposed. It is collected immediately from the merchant, and ultimately from the nation. The only money paid into the Treasury which can justly be placed to the exclusive credit of commerce, is the sum retained by the Government upon debentures, which is only 7-10ths of one per cent. upon goods paying a duty of twenty per cent. ad valorem, and has never amounted to $400,000 in any one year. The export of foreign productions from the United States in the year 1807, exceeded $59,000,000, and the sum paid into the Treasury that year on account of drawbacks was about $390,000, which is the greatest amount received from that source of revenue since the organization of the Government.

The duty upon tonnage, like the duty imposed on merchandise, is paid by the consumer or grower of the cargoes transported by the ship-holders, of whom this duty is immediately collected. The ultimate payment of this duty by the grower or consumer will depend upon the relative demand for, and supply of the articles in the market to which they are exported. If the demand for the article is greater than the quantity in the market, it is paid by the consumer; if the supply exceeds the demand, it is paid by the grower, in the form of a reduction of the price of the article equal to the duty imposed.

Who are the most interested in commerce, the growers of the articles, the exchange and transportation of which constitute commerce, or the factors and freighters employed in the exchange and transportation of those articles? Can any man doubt for one moment that the growers, the rightful owners of the articles to be exchanged, are more deeply interested in commerce than the merchant and ship-holder, who only make a profit from the sale and transportation of the articles exchanged? If the profit they derive from commerce should be so enormous as to exceed the original value of those articles in the hands of the growers, still it can be demonstrated that the interest of the latter is more vitally affected by a prosperous or adverse state of commerce, than that of the merchant or ship-holder. The merchant will be regulated in the price which he gives to the grower, by the state of the market and the price of transportation to the market. Let the price be what it may in foreign markets, the merchant is regulated by it, and can only be affected by sudden changes in those markets which may be prejudicial or advantageous to him. It is a matter of small moment to him whether the articles in which he deals bring a high or low price in the market to which they are sent, if that price is not variable, because he will regulate the price he gives for them by the price which he can obtain. But the price which those articles will bring in the market to which they are sent, is all-important to the grower, because it will regulate the price which he is to receive for them beyond the power of his control. Every circumstance which tends to destroy competition and reduce the number of markets to which our produce is sent, vitally affects the interest of the grower. The planter, the farmer, is, therefore, more deeply interested in the prosperity of that commerce which finds a market for the annual surplus productions of his industry, than the merchant or ship-holder. This direct commerce is indispensable to the internal growth and improvement of the country, and to the comfort and happiness of the people, and more so to the people of the Southern and Western States than any other part of the United States. Sir, we are not so grossly ignorant as to mistake our interest in this matter. We know that, without commerce, without a market for the surplus productions of our labor, we should be deprived of many of those articles which long habit has made necessary to our ease and comfort. If, then, we are not grossly ignorant of our true interest, nothing can be more unfounded than the accusation of the gentleman from New York, (Mr. German.) The charge must be the result of ignorance or prejudice. Mr. C. said he would not follow the example of that gentleman by saying, "perhaps this prejudice might be an honest prejudice." No, he would not insult the feelings of that gentleman; he would not question his veracity or integrity by stating hypothetically, "that perhaps his opinions were honest." Whilst he repelled this unfounded charge in the manner which its nature imperiously demanded, he had no hesitation in admitting that the opinions of that gentleman, whether the result of prejudice or of ignorance, were strictly honest. Mr. C. said there was no man in the nation more friendly to that commerce which he had described than he was, and that no part of the nation cherished it with more ardor than that which he in part had the honor to represent on this floor. But, sir, there is a commerce which has been prosecuted to a very great extent by the commercial capitalists of the United States, for the prosperity of which the agricultural part of the nation do not feel the same solicitude.

In the year 1807, the United States exported upwards of $59,000,000 of foreign productions. This commerce has no connection with or dependence upon the annual surplus productions of the country, which is the only commerce that essentially promotes domestic industry and multiplies the domestic comforts of the great mass of the people. This commerce, which is the legitimate offspring of war, and expires with the first dawning of peace, is prosecuted principally by our commercial cities to the east and north of the Potomac. The landholders, the country people, the great mass of agriculturists in the United States, never had, and never can have any direct interest in it. The farmer of the Eastern and Middle States, and the planter of the Southern and Western States, stand in the same relation to this commerce. Whether it be prosperous or adverse, is a matter of small concern to them, and nothing but an effort of pure, disinterested patriotism could induce them to jeopardize the peace and happiness of the nation, and stake the prosperity of the direct commerce of the country, for the protection of this mushroom commerce.

The use proposed to be made of these frigates, if built, certainly meets my approbation. The idea of protecting our commerce by a naval force, which has been pressed with so much vehemence by some of our navy gentlemen, is worse than visionary. A navy can injure commerce, but cannot afford it protection, unless it annihilates the naval force of the adverse nation. Unless, therefore, we have the means of creating and supporting a naval force able to contend successfully with the British navy for the empire of the seas, we must abandon all idea of protecting our commerce against that nation. Great Britain, with her thousand ships of war, is unable to protect her commerce even in sight of her own coasts. According to my understanding of the views of the honorable gentlemen, these thirty frigates are to be employed in destroying the commerce of the enemy, and not in fighting her public armed vessels. They are in fact to be national privateers. In this point of view, the proposition to cashier the officer who should strike the American flag seems to be at war with the nature of their employment. They are to direct their efforts to the destruction of merchant vessels, and to avoid collision with the ships of war. It is to be apprehended that men, whose duty it is to avoid serious conflicts with the enemy, will grow timid from habit, and will resist but feebly when inevitably forced into them. The character of the naval officers of the United States makes a regulation of this kind wholly unnecessary. Their enterprise, their courage, and intrepidity, are too well established to require a regulation of such severity. As then the gentleman does not intend to dispute the sovereignty even of our own seas with our expected enemy with this naval force, but intends to employ it in the destruction of merchant vessels, an increase of that force appears to me to be wholly unnecessary and impolitic. Individual enterprise, directed by individual interest, will more effectually destroy the commerce of the enemy, than any number of frigates in the power of this Government to build and employ. The Baltimore Federal Republican states that a French privateer in the Atlantic Ocean has captured about thirty merchant vessels, and that the impression made by this single privateer was so serious that thirteen vessels, several of which were frigates, were employed in cruising for her. The truth of this statement may be relied on, because that paper is not in the habit of exaggerating French successes, or of aggravating British sufferings. But it is said that, although our privateers were successful at the commencement of the Revolutionary War, before the conclusion of that contest they were entirely destroyed. Admitting the fact to be true, it does not necessarily follow that such will be the result of the war now in contemplation. After the first years of that contest, the British forces were in possession of the principal ports and harbors of the United States, which made it extremely hazardous for our privateers to approach our own coasts, or enter our own harbors. It is expected that our situation will be very different in the event of war at this time. Instead of possessing the principal ports of the United States, we expect to expel them from the whole of their continental possessions in our neighborhood. If this should be the result of the war, their means of annoying our commerce, and of destroying our privateers, will be greatly diminished, and their power of protecting their commerce from the depredations of our privateers will suffer an equal diminution.