Besides these, there were, in 1848, twelve more lines of Government steamers running between Great Britain and the continent of Europe; making a grand aggregate of one hundred and fifteen ocean steamships fitted for war purposes. Very recently the British Parliament has resolved to extend the mail steamship system to Australia.
The committee do not propose that our Government shall attempt to emulate this vast network of steam navigation, with which England has already encompassed the globe. But it is believed that the recent increase of our territory, on the Pacific and in the Gulf of Mexico, forms an additional reason for a considerable augmentation of our steam navy, whether by a direct addition to the navy proper, or by the encouragement of lines of steam packets, to be established by private enterprise under the auspices of Government. If the latter system should be adopted, as already commenced, the ships will be built under the inspection of a Government officer, at the expense of private individuals; they will be commanded by officers in the navy, and will be at all times available for the public service. It will be the interest of the contractors to adopt, from time to time, all the improvements which may be made in machinery and in the means of propulsion, and the ships will be kept in good repair. Besides being commanded by a naval officer, each ship will carry a sufficient number of midshipmen for watch officers, and thus a very considerable portion of the personnel of the service will be kept actively employed, with the opportunity of acquiring the knowledge and skill requisite to the proper management of a steam navy. A corps of trained engineers and firemen will be attached to each ship, and no doubt these would generally remain with her when the ship should be called into the public service.
The committee are of opinion that it is highly desirable to have ready for the public service some very large steamships of the description proposed by the memorialist. They would have great advantages over small ships, in their capacity to carry fuel sufficient for long voyages, and to transport large bodies of troops, and place them rapidly, in a fresh and vigorous condition, at any point where they might be required.
But it is chiefly for the great and beneficent objects of removing the free persons of color from this country to the coast of Africa, and of suppressing the slave trade, that the committee are disposed to recommend the adoption of the proposed measure. The latter of these has been the subject of treaties by our Government with other nations, with whom we have engaged to maintain a large naval force on the coast of Africa to assist in suppressing the inhuman traffic; while the emigration of the free blacks has long been an object of great interest in all parts of the country, and especially in the slaveholding States, where they are looked upon by the whites with aversion and distrust. The policy of all or most of these States has been to discourage manumission, except on condition of the removal of the liberated slave. In no part of the Union do the free blacks enjoy an equality of political and social privileges; and in all the States their presence is neither agreeable to the whites, nor is their condition advantageous to themselves. In some of the slave States stringent prohibitions have been adopted, and unpleasant controversies with free States have been thereby engendered. The emigration of this entire population beyond the limits of our country is the only effectual mode of curing these evils, and of removing one cause of dangerous irritation between the different sections of the Union.
The committee believe it is expedient to aid private enterprize in the colonization of the western coast of Africa, because it is the most effectual, if not the only mode, of extirpating the slave trade. The success of this measure will doubtless render the African squadron wholly unnecessary, thus reimbursing a large portion of the expense attending it, and at the same time better accomplishing the object for which that squadron is maintained. It may be expedient for some one of the great naval powers to keep a small force on the coast of Africa to protect Liberia, for a limited time, against the slave traders. But the attempt to suppress this unlawful traffic by blockading the coast has so signally failed that it will probably soon be abandoned by the great European powers. While the influence of the Republic of Liberia has been shown in the complete suppression of the trade along a coast of several hundred miles in length, the combined squadrons of Europe and America have not been so successful on other portions of that unhappy shore. In 1847 no less than 84,356 slaves were exported from Africa to Cuba and Brazil. In the opinion of the committee, it is highly important to prevent the further Africanizing of the American continents. An opposite movement, so far as the free blacks are concerned, is far more in accordance with the spirit of the age, and with the best interests of all American Governments. The people of the United States have shown their strong aversion to the slave trade by the provision in their Constitution against it, and by their unremitting and vigorous efforts to suppress it. The success which has already crowned the infancy of Liberia, indicates the true mode of making those exertions effectual, while it opens up the way for restoring the free blacks to the native land of their fathers.
The committee beg leave here to present some interesting facts which satisfy them that the territory of Liberia is eminently adapted to colored emigrants from the United States; that the establishment of this line of steamships by the Government will be a powerful stimulus to the cause of colonization, and will be the means of securing the emigration of great numbers of free blacks; that the slave trade will be substituted by a peaceful, legitimate, and valuable commerce, opening new sources of enterprize and wealth to our people; and that the civilization and christianization of the whole continent of Africa may be expected eventually to follow. The facts presented are collected chiefly from the publications of the Colonization Society.
That portion of the western coast of Africa, called Liberia, embraces a tract of country included between the parallels of 4° 21´ and 7° north latitude, extending about 400 miles along the coast. The first settlement was made by free negroes from the United States, under the auspices of the American Colonization Society, in the year 1820. The objects of that society were—
“1st. To rescue the free colored people of the United States from their political and social disadvantages.
“2d. To place them in a country where they may enjoy the benefits of free government, with all the blessings which it brings in its train.