Sir, the expenses which are necessarily connected with a Naval Establishment, constitute a very serious objection to it. At this time, the annual expenditures for the British navy amount to nearly £17,000,000, or $80,000,000. Every succeeding year brings with it an increase of expenditures. This has been the result year after year since the commencement of the institution. Our prospects will be the more evident when we take a view of the expenses which have been already incurred for the infantile establishment of our country; we shall be led to the same conclusions. The American navy was commenced in the year 1794, and by the end of the year 1811, the expenditures amounted to $27,456,979—a sum much greater than the one-half of the public debt on the 1st of January, 1812. This would have been much better applied, had it been placed with the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund. I will ask the gentleman from South Carolina, what has the nation benefited for this enormous expenditure? What would have been the amount expended, had this engine been Herculean, with Admirals of the Red, White and Blue squadrons, with numerous dock and navy-yards, placemen, &c.? For we shall gradually advance to all this, if we do not stop short at this time. For the benefits of such appendages, I will refer you to a statement made to this House, the last session, concerning the navy-yards belonging to the United States; especially to the details of the expenditures of that connected with this city. The document I refer to, was laid before this House on the 25th February, 1811. It will inform you, sir, that the value of the work done from the 1st of January to the 31st of December, 1810, was $73,947 52. The commandant confesses, in his returns made to the Secretary, that this work, in many instances, is rated twenty per cent. above the prices paid in other places. The salaries in this same yard, for the same year, (1810,) amounted to $95,637 64¼. So that the pay for the salaries and the wages at this navy-yard, exceeded the value of the articles manufactured, even when rated far above the fair prices, in amount $21,790 12¼! This establishment is under the immediate eye of the Government; we might suppose every attention was paid to economy; if so, who will desire further proofs of the advantages of a navy!
Sir, I further object to a navy, because it will be the means of exciting many wars, which, without the establishment, may be honorably avoided. It is said, nations are involved in war, in proportion to the extent of their navies; and some assert (Brougham) that a perpetual war is one of the two modes which are necessary to support a powerful naval establishment. Sir, a naval establishment will create a new and a dangerous interest in our country. Nothing is more common than to be told, that such are the wishes of the naval interest of Great Britain, and that this or that war must be entered into to gratify them. For my part, sir, I shall be very sorry indeed, if ever the period arrives in the United States, when any particular interest or community shall direct the Government, whether it be naval, agricultural, manufacturing, or commercial—the general welfare should be the sole great ruling principle in the National Councils.
Sir, I am deterred, when I consider the fate of all those nations who at different periods have been famous for their navies. The naval strength of the Hanseatic League was such, two centuries past, as to excite terror on the part of England. These, sir, distant free cities, are now the appendages of mighty France, and have no political existence. Who has not heard of the once formidable fleets of Venice and Genoa? At one time England was indebted to the latter for officers to command her ships of war—alas! these republics are now consigned to oblivion. Denmark was at one time the mistress of the ocean; by means of her fleets she often invaded England, and held her in a state of subjection. The Danes heretofore burned London, Paris, and other great cities—they are now controlled by France, and they have had their Copenhagen defeat. Holland, with her Van Tromps, and De Ruyters, occupied the British Channel at pleasure; this power defeated the navies of England and France. Where is Holland now? Incorporated as a part of the French empire. Spain boasted her invincible armadas; Elizabeth of England, by nature haughty, proud, and ambitious, trembled at the very mention of them, until they were dispersed and destroyed by storms at sea; Spain is now the vassal of France. Not very long since the navy of France sailed triumphant along the British coast, looked into Portsmouth harbor, and taunted British spirit. I ask you, sir, where is the strength of which these nations formerly boasted? All are inoperative, and dread the gigantic power of the British navy—they are in part sick in dry docks, or are blockaded in their ports.
Mr. Chairman, Great Britain, though at this time triumphant in every sea, if she persists in her expensive naval establishment, with her present debt of £800,000,000, which was chiefly created for her navy—Great Britain, sir, I say, with all this, must sink under the heavy pressure. She will hereafter derive very little satisfaction from her brilliant victories on the 1st of June off Cape St. Vincent, Camperdown, Aboukir, and Trafalgar.
Shall I be pardoned, sir, when I fear our vessels will only tend to swell the present catalogue of the British navy? Of the 1,042 vessels which she possessed in July, 1811, one hundred and nine were captured from the French, forty-six from the Danes, twenty-five from the Spaniards, twenty-four from the Dutch, and three from the Italians; making a total of two hundred and seven captured ships, or one-fifth of her whole navy.
Small ships are proper for the service of the United States—by their agency we shall be able to annoy the convoys of an enemy. The privateers which were fitted out in every port during our Revolutionary war, destroyed much of the British commerce, even in the British and Irish Channels, whilst the frigates which were built by the Government did little or nothing—but two of them remained at the conclusion of the contest. The enemy will not watch your small vessels; they may enter all your small inlets, where heavy vessels cannot venture to approach them; and, at the conclusion of the war, they may be sold for the merchant service. I shall not follow the gentleman in his remarks on the bill before the committee; I shall vote against it, though it is my present intention to appropriate the sums requisite for the repairing and equipping our present ships of war. I will go no further. I tell you, sir, naval victories in the end would prove fatal to the United States; the consequences which have uniformly followed in other countries must take place here. If the United States shall determine to augment their navy, so as to rival those of Europe, the public debt will become permanent; direct taxes will be perpetual; the paupers of the country will be increased; the nation will be bankrupt; and, I fear, the tragedy will end in a revolution.
Mr. McKee rose, with deference, to perform a duty which he owed to his constituents, by delivering his sentiments on the very important subject before the committee, though he confessed himself very inadequate to do justice to it. He deemed the question of great magnitude; as he feared, if we were to proceed to build up a large naval establishment, it would affect the destinies of this nation to the latest posterity.
The gentleman from South Carolina has said, that he has great prejudices to encounter. Mr. McKee would have thought that the deliberate opinion of a majority of Congress, expressed upon more than one occasion, was entitled to a more respectful term than prejudices. Those decisions proceeded from the honest convictions of some of the best friends of the country.
Mr. McK. denied this doctrine, that "it is demonstrably clear that this nation is inevitably destined to be a naval power;" and he believed that, if the attempt were made to make it such, it would prove the destruction of our happy constitution. He would proceed to show on what ground he supported the opinion that the maintenance of a permanent naval establishment would prove ruinous to this country. For this purpose, he should be under the necessity of submitting some calculations to the House; for, though he had heard a course of this kind condemned, as fit only for the counting-house of the merchant, he considered it as the most conducive to correct legislation. It is certainly a matter of just calculation, when we are called upon to establish a permanent navy, to show that such an institution would cost more than any advantages to be derived from it would compensate.
[Here the Speaker went into detailed statements, taken from the authentic reports of the Navy Department, showing the enormous expense of building our ships, and the enormous expense of repairs; the great expense of manning and equipping them, and the pay of officers idle at home while the ship was rotting which cost so much, and which, at the time it was built, it was morally certain would have nothing to do until it rotted.]