A motion was then made for the committee to rise, and carried—75 voting in favor of it.
Tuesday, December 8.
Fortifications and Gunboats.
On motion of Mr. Burwell, the House went into a Committee of the Whole on the bill from the Senate for building gunboats, and the bill for fortifying our ports, as reported by the Committee of Aggressions.
The bill from the Senate being still under consideration,
Mr. Milnor said, when he was on the floor yesterday, and interrupted by the message from the President, it was his intention to have moved an amendment. The bill provided for building one hundred and eighty-eight gunboats; he moved to strike out the words “and eighty-eight,” so as to reduce the number to one hundred. He thought a hundred gunboats in addition to those they already had, would be fully sufficient, if they also adopted other modes of defence. He had yesterday stated that he did not believe the building additional fortifications, and an additional number of gunboats, would effect the object which appeared to be contemplated by the committee. He confessed he did not place as much reliance in gunboats as some gentlemen did. While he thought they might be useful in aid of land batteries or frigates, it was also his opinion, that if gentlemen examined the statement respecting different aggressions by a certain power, they would find that not one single act of aggression could have been prevented or punished by any batteries on land or gunboats in aid of them. They were not committed in the face of our batteries, or in that part of our ports and harbors where the gunboats could have acted with effect; they were committed within the mouths of our rivers, or just outside them. He thought the construction of a few frigates would be expedient, in addition to those now in our possession. They might act with gunboats; and might drive any foreign nation either to the necessity of bringing a large force on our coasts, and keeping it all together, by which the number of their aggressions would be lessened, or expose their fleets to a force which would be able to avenge the insults offered to us.
Mr. Burwell said he should vote against the amendment proposed, and in favor of the number reported by the Committee of Aggressions, as contained in the bill from the Senate now under discussion. It appeared to Mr. B. that the gentleman from Pennsylvania had taken a very incorrect view of the subject. That gentleman has objected to this law because it did not make provision for ships of war to serve as a defence to our commerce, and because he supposed the committee had taken up this mode of defence to the exclusion of any other. Mr. B. said it must be obvious to every gentleman that it was almost impossible to have crowded into one bill all the measures of defence which might become necessary; thus it contained no provision for arming the militia, for raising a standing army, building or repairing frigates, &c. The only question now was, on building a number of gunboats, for defence against the attack of a foreign nation. He thought a sufficient number should at once be authorized: for if the number were insufficient to answer the intended purpose, the money expended in their purchase would be so much thrown away; so much expended from which the public would derive no benefit. The opinions of those men best acquainted with the force which might be necessary, which had been communicated to the Committee of Aggressions, has stated this as the competent number.
With respect to the expense of building gunboats, it would be found that the cost of building a frigate would be much greater than a number of gunboats equal to the number of guns carried by a frigate. The Secretary of the Navy had estimated the annual expense of gunboats at $11,000. Mr. B. admitted that the sum appeared enormous, and it remained for the consideration of the House whether they would expend so large a sum for that purpose. The estimate of the Secretary of the Navy went upon the ground that during the whole of the year, forty men would be required to man each of these boats. Mr. B. thought that regulations might be adopted, that would render eight or ten men sufficient to be regularly employed on board these boats; a sufficient force fully to man and use them upon occasion might be organized from the different ports or seaport towns; and it would be found, by recurring to the President’s Message, that the same idea had been entertained by the Executive. And he believed, that although the Secretary of the Navy had estimated $11,000 as the sum necessary for the annual expense, he had done it on the supposition that forty men would be employed during the whole year in each gunboat. At times when Europe and the United States were at peace, it would not be necessary that more than a small portion of those boats should be afloat; they might be kept in ordinary, relying on the seamen of the port for any sudden emergency.
With respect to the propriety of building gunboats, he would observe that they were not a mere experiment; they were sanctioned by the practice of Europe, and were very beneficial for the defence of ports against sudden attack. The French, Spanish, Dutch, and other nations, in the vicinage of the British Navy, had combined their boats with land batteries, for the purpose of defence against the assaults of that formidable Navy. These boats were also a part of a system heretofore practised in other countries, and proposed to be further pursued here.
Mr. Crowninshield said that there was some inconsistency in the observations of the gentleman from Pennsylvania; he had said gunboats would be useful with the aid of large vessels, and at the same time said they were entirely useless in the mouths of rivers or deep waters. [Mr. Milnor explained that he had meant they would be useless when acting alone.] Mr. C. said he had formed a very different opinion, indeed, from that expressed by the gentleman from Pennsylvania with respect to gunboats. It was well known that no longer ago than the year before last, this Government had employed eight or ten gunboats to assist in the attack on Tripoli; they all crossed the Atlantic in safety, except one boat. Although they did not come into the attack on Tripoli, because a peace was prematurely concluded, yet he himself had heard the late Commodore Preble say that, without them the squadron would not have been competent to have made an effectual assault on the city. These boats then kept the sea in very tempestuous weather, a fact which the despatches from the commanding officer had announced. He believed that they could not at this time adopt a better mode of defence than that proposed by the bill. He should be sorry to see the proposed number reduced, because he believed they would render important services, if at any time our ports or harbors should be attacked. These gunboats were not boats that would sink the moment they got into rough water; they were boats of 60 or 70 tons burden, which might navigate the globe with safety. He spoke from experimental knowledge. The gentleman surely did not mean to say they could not swim. In Mr. C.’s opinion, there could be no better system of defence in aid of fortifications than that proposed by the bill.