Before Mr. Chandler entered the Senate there had been some work done by the United States upon the most serious natural obstacle to the navigation of the Great Lakes, the tortuous channels and extensive shoals at the mouth of the St. Clair river, known as the "St. Clair Flats." Largely through Senator Cass's efforts an appropriation of $45,000 had been made in the Thirty-fourth Congress (it was passed over Franklin Pierce's veto) for this work, and this sum had been expended under the supervision of Major Whipple in the clearing out of a channel through the shoals of about 6,000 feet in length, 150 feet in width, and nine feet in depth at low water. This improvement, valuable as it was, did not prove at all adequate, and was made much less useful in the few following years by a lessening in the depth of the water of Lake St. Clair. The rapidly-growing commerce of the lakes manifestly demanded the early construction and permanent maintenance through these shoals of a first-class ship canal, which could be safely used in all conditions of water and weather by vessels of the largest class. Mr. Chandler clearly perceived the necessity for this important national work, determined to rest not until its completion, and commenced at once his attack on the great obstacles in its way—namely, the disposition of the older States to undervalue the commercial importance of the Northwest, and the traditional hostility of the Democracy to all internal improvements. The first measure, which (on January 14, 1858) Mr. Chandler gave notice of his intention to introduce, was a bill "making an additional appropriation for deepening the channel of the St. Clair Flats;" when introduced it was referred to the Committee on Commerce. There an effort was made to strangle it by persistent inaction. Accordingly, on April 24, Mr. Chandler introduced in the Senate a resolution instructing the Committee on Commerce to report back this bill for action by the Senate. This resolution not receiving immediate consideration, on May 3 he called it up and demanded a vote. Mr. Clay, the chairman of the committee, opposed it with much temper, and moved to lay it on the table, but this motion was lost by one vote. Mr. Clay then attacked Mr. Chandler's resolution as insulting to the Committee on Commerce, and said he spurned the idea that the committee could be instructed to report in favor of a certain appropriation for a certain work, and that he should despise himself if he was capable of obeying such instructions. Mr. Hamlin, the sole Republican member, expressed his gratification at the fact that the Senator from Michigan (Mr. Chandler) had offered this resolution; he thought that it was appropriate, and that the action of the committee called for such instructions. Mr. Clay having inquired, "What is the use of having a Cabinet or an engineer corps, if the Senate is to take these matters into its own hands?" Mr. Hamlin replied, "What is the use of a Senate, if the Committee on Commerce, or the Cabinet officers, or the engineer corps, are to control these matters?" and insisted that the Committee on Commerce was a creature of the Senate, within its control, and that if it differed from the Senate in regard to any proposition before it, that body had the right to instruct the committee what action to take. He added that because the committee had agreed to make no appropriation excepting for certain specific matters, it did not follow that the Senate must adopt its views, and be controlled thereby; that the servant had no right nor authority to bind the master, and that the committee was the servant of the Senate. Mr. Clay finally yielded the point that the Senate had the right to order a committee to report back the bill, but still objected to the proposition to have it instructed to specify a certain amount to be appropriated, and Mr. Chandler consented to modify his resolution so as to instruct the committee to report back the bill for the action of the Senate without recommendation as to the amount of the appropriation. Mr. Benjamin, at this point, moved, as a substitute for the pending resolution, a general order to the committee to report on all public works upon which there had been any expenditure, and this motion prevailed. Mr. Chandler, who was after a specific point and not a mere generality, accepted this as a defeat, and began anew by giving notice on the spot that he should ask leave at a subsequent day to introduce a bill for the improvement of the St. Clair Flats, making an appropriation of $55,000, this being the amount estimated by the United States engineers as necessary at that time. On May 10 he presented this bill, but the Senate refused to refer it, and adopted a motion to lay it upon the table. Mr. Chandler met this second defeat without discouragement, and later in the session did succeed after two efforts in procuring the addition of this item of $55,000 to the civil appropriation bill. But the threat of an executive veto of the whole measure, if this appropriation was not omitted, proved potent with the Senate, and it was ultimately stricken out. Mr. Chandler closed his last speech on this measure at that session, with a demand for a vote by yeas and nays, and these words:
I want to see who is friendly to the great Northwest, and who is not—for we are about making our last prayer here. The time is not far distant when, instead of coming here and begging for our rights, we shall extend our hands and take the blessing. After 1860 we shall not be here as beggars.
Of this resolute struggle of his first Congressional session, Mr. Chandler said in an address at St. Johns, in Michigan, on Oct. 17, 1858:
When I took my seat in the Senate I supposed every section of the country would be fairly heard in the details of business. There were twenty Republican Senators representing two-thirds the revenue, business and wealth of the country. How were they placed on committees? Out of seven in the Committee on Commerce they had one. I call attention to this fact. It bears the mark of design. How does this work?... I introduced at an early day a bill appropriating money for the St. Clair Flats, and it went to this Southern Committee on Commerce. I procured all the necessary maps and plans and estimates, and gave them into their charge. One hundred days rolled away and they had not deigned to examine them. I then introduced a resolution instructing them to report. Subsequently I introduced a bill myself which was laid on the table. By the most untiring efforts I succeeded in getting the desired appropriation tacked upon an appropriation bill and passed. But the President's friends threatened a veto of the whole bill unless this was stricken out—and that was done. Thus committees were packed against us and we were thwarted at every turn. Thousands of dollars can be obtained for almost any creek in the South, while the inland seas of the North are denied a dollar, and we are left to take care of ourselves the best we can.
The second session of the Thirty-fifth Congress began in December, 1858, and on the 21st of that month Mr. Chandler moved to take his St. Clair Flats bill from the table. This time it was passed by a vote of 29 to 22, and sent to the House where it encountered a vigorous opposition but was finally passed, its introducer working for it with the utmost energy in the committee-rooms, on the floor, and by private solicitation. It reached Mr. Buchanan in the last days of that Congress, and he killed it by withholding his signature but without a formal veto. The Thirty-sixth Congress met in December, 1859, and on the 4th of January Mr. Chandler's bill to deepen the St. Clair Flats channel made its appearance. On February 2 Mr. Buchanan informed Congress, in a special message, of his reasons for "pocketing" the measure at the last session. This veto took the position that the improvement of harbors and the deepening of the channels of rivers should be done by the respective States, and suggested that Michigan in conjunction with Upper Canada should provide the necessary means to carry out the contemplated improvements in the channels of commerce between those two countries, whereas the plain fact was that the interest of that State in such works was a mere tithe of that of the whole Northwest. Mr. Chandler reviewed this message at length in the Senate on February 6, exposing Mr. Buchanan's misstatements in detail, and denouncing the Democratic construction of the constitution. Jefferson Davis at once came to the defense of the veto on constitutional grounds, and a running debate followed on the subject between Messrs. Chandler and Bingham of Michigan, Hamlin, Crittenden, Davis, Toombs, Wigfall and others. Mr. Crittenden condemned the veto, while Toombs and Wigfall joined Davis in its defense. Thus the plotters of rebellion assumed a hypocritical attitude as defenders of the constitution. Their treasonable daggers were yet concealed beneath their Senatorial togas, as they stood in their high places and assumed a virtue that they never had, that of being patriots with a deep regard for the fundamental law of the land. No action followed this debate, but on February 20 Mr. Chandler moved that his bill be made the special order for the 23d. This motion prevailed, but when that day arrived the Senate refused to proceed with its consideration, Mr. Chandler protesting against this delay in a speech pointing out the necessity for prompt action. On March 13 he moved to take the bill from the table but the Senate refused. Six days later he renewed the motion with the same result. Eleven days after that he did succeed in getting the measure made the special order for April 10, but again other business displaced it, and so no action was taken before adjournment. The second session of this Congress commenced in December, 1861, with civil war imminent and no chance for the consideration of any project of internal improvement. At the meeting of the next Congress the Democracy found itself in a petty minority, and remained powerless at Washington for many years. As soon as it became plain that rebellion could not destroy the life of the nation, Mr. Chandler brought forward again his bill for the improvement of the channels at the head of Lake St. Clair, and with the powerful support of his colleagues and the commercial interests of the Northwest obtained without difficulty from Republican Congresses such appropriations as were required for the prompt construction of a great ship-canal, ranking to-day among the most important and useful of the public works of this continent. Its history and statistics are given in this extract from an official report for the year ending June 30, 1879:
This canal (according to its present plan) was projected by Col. T. J. Cram, of the Corps of Engineers, in August, 1866, as the best method of improving navigation at the mouth of the St. Clair river. He proposed opening the lower tortuous reach of the south channel, and making a direct cut from its mouth proper to deep water in Lake St. Clair. His project was approved, and construction began on the 20th of August, 1867, under contract with Mr. John Brown of Thorold, Canada. The original plan was a straight canal 300 feet wide in the clear, and 13 feet deep at low stage of water, protected by dykes 5 feet in height and 58 feet wide on top, built of the material dredged from the channel and thrown behind a pile and timber revetment. The canal was completed in the autumn of 1871, and turned over to the charge of Maj. O. M. Poe, Corps of Engineers, on the 11th of December. As completed, the banks are 7,221 feet in length, and constructed mostly of dredged sand thrown behind a revetment consisting of piling in two rows driven 13 feet apart and parallel, and capped with a timber superstructure 5 feet high, the front row being supplemented with a single row of sheath-piling to prevent the sand bank from washing back into the canal. As originally planned, the reverse faces of the embankment were to be permitted to take their natural slope, but as it was found that the banks if left so would be gradually washed away, they were secured eventually by a pile and plank revetment. The timbers in the superstructure were carbolized to prevent rotting, but the process proved a disastrous failure, owing to its imperfect application, and the timbers thus treated are as a general rule at this date a mere shell with a core of dry rot. The banks were planted with willows and sodded in some places. The history of the work since Major Poe took charge, excepting as regards the deepening of the channel for 200 feet of its width to a depth of 16 feet, as projected by that officer, has been a monotonous routine of stopping leaks on the canal face, due to the imperfection of the single row of sheath-piling, which permits the sand to be sucked through by passing vessels, and propeller-wheels working near the revetment. These leaks have been stopped from time to time at various points by various devices, such as marsh sod, etc.... The deepening of the canal was begun under Major Poe's direction by contract with Mr. John Brown of Thorold, Canada, in June, 1873, and finished September 23, 1878, under the direction of Major Weitzel, who had in the meanwhile relieved Major Poe.
THE SHIP-CANAL AT THE ST. CLAIR FLATS.
Up to the time when the canal was turned over as completed to Major Poe, it cost in construction and repair $472,837.84. There was subsequently expended by Majors Poe and Weitzel $101,533.63, partly in repairs, but mainly in deepening the canal; and afterward, up to the close of the present fiscal year, $19,162.78 were expended in repairs and protection. It will thus be seen that the canal has thus far cost $586,111.56 in construction, improvement and repair.... Colonel Cram's original estimate of the cost of this work was $428,754. The whole amount appropriated has been $590,000. The annual cost of maintenance is $5,000. There are two light-houses on the banks.
The value of the commerce which annually passes between the willow-clad piers of the canal is estimated by hundreds of millions, and in every season its cost has been more than made good by the disasters and delays it has averted. Mr. Chandler regarded his efforts to secure its construction as the hardest fight of his Congressional service, and there is nothing in his public life more thoroughly characteristic of the man than the skill, energy, and persistence with which he championed this measure in the face of the strongest obstacles, and in spite of repeated defeats, session after session and Congress after Congress, until entire success crowned his labors. Many others co-operated with him and aided in securing the ultimate victory; but circumstances and his indomitable will placed him at the front in the decisive struggle, and this great public work is an enduring monument of the value of his services to the vast commercial interests of the Northwest.
At the second session of the Thirty-fifth Congress the earnest protests of the year before bore fruit, and the Committee on Commerce then appointed was composed of Senators Clay of Alabama, chairman, Bigler of Pennsylvania, Toombs of Georgia, Reid of North Carolina, Allen of Rhode Island, Hamlin of Maine, and Chandler of Michigan. This commenced Mr. Chandler's connection with that committee; he remained a member of it throughout all his Senatorial terms, and was its chairman and inspiring spirit during the years of its greatest activity and usefulness. It is one of the most important standing committees of the Senate of the United States, and during Mr. Chandler's chairmanship its labors were gradually increased, partly through the growing business and commerce of the country, and partly by having new topics assigned for its consideration and action, because of the prompt attention and rigid scrutiny given to all matters coming under the supervision of Mr. Chandler as its head. To this committee are referred under the rules nominations of collectors of customs, appraisers of merchandise, surveyors of customs, of officers appointed to or promoted in the revenue marine service, of the chief officers in the life-saving service, and of all incumbents of consular positions. It also considers bills fixing the compensation of such officers; bills relating to marine hospitals and the customs, consular and life-saving services; bills concerning the interests of the commercial marine of the country, including the registry, enrollment and license of vessels, their inspection and measurement, tonnage-tax, entrance and clearance fees, names and official numbers, the lights to be carried, the steam pressure allowed, the providing of small boats and life-saving apparatus on passenger steamers, and restrictions upon the number of passengers or kind of freight; and bills granting medals for heroic service in saving life in case of shipwreck or similar disaster. To it are referred all measures for the improvement of rivers and harbors in the interests of commerce; for the construction of breakwaters, harbors of refuge, ship-canals, and locks for slack-water navigation; for the building of bridges across navigable rivers, or other waters of the United States; for the establishment of ports of entry and ports of delivery; for the establishment of customs collection districts or changing the boundaries thereof; granting American registers to foreign vessels (usually passed where a wreck of a foreign vessel has been purchased and rebuilt by an American citizen); and relating to the duties and districts of supervising and subordinate inspectors of steam craft. There is hardly any conceivable question relating to vessels of the United States that Congress has not power to act upon, and such matters, unless pertaining to the naval service, are always referred to the respective committees on commerce of the Senate and House, Congress as a rule following their recommendations where no political question is involved. In addition to an immense mass of measures coming under the classes enumerated, the Senate Committee on Commerce, during Mr. Chandler's connection with it, considered and reported bills to admit ship-building material free of duty, to prevent the extermination of the fur-bearing seals of Alaska, authorizing the appointment of shipping commissioners, and defining a gross of matches. All these facts are recited to show the great variety of questions that are referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce—greater than are sent to any other Congressional committee.
No particular changes took place in the personnel of this committee as already given until in the last year of Buchanan's administration. At the closing session of the Thirty-sixth Congress it consisted of C. C. Clay, chairman, Bigler, Toombs, Clingman, Saulsbury, Hamlin, and Chandler. Senator Hamlin having been elected Vice-President, resigned (in January, 1861) his Senatorship, and Mr. Baker of Oregon was appointed to fill the vacancy thus caused on this committee. In the middle of January Mr. Clay resigned to join the rebellion, and A. 0. P. Nicholson of Tennessee was made a member of the committee in his place. On the 24th of January, 1861, by the unanimous consent of the Senate, the Vice-President filled all the vacancies on the standing committees caused by the retiring of the Southern Senators, and the Committee on Commerce then, as re-constituted, consisted of Senators Bigler, chairman, Clingman, Saulsbury, Chandler, Baker, and Nicholson.
At the special session of the Thirty-seventh Congress (in March, 1861) the Senate committees were radically reorganized, and the new Committee on Commerce, the first appointed by the Republican party, consisted of Zachariah Chandler, chairman, Preston King, Lot M. Morrill, Henry Wilson, Thomas L. Clingman, Willard Saulsbury, and Andrew Johnson. Mr. Chandler continued in the chairmanship until he ceased to be a member of the Senate in 1875. Mr. Clingman soon joined the rebels, and his place on the committee was filled by Mr. Ten Eyck of New Jersey. From session to session changes were made in its membership, and among the names on its rolls during the fourteen years that Mr. Chandler sat at the head of its table were Edwin D. Morgan, James H. Lane, Solomon Foot, Timothy O. Howe, James W. Nesmith, Justin S. Morrill, John A. J. Creswell, George F. Edmunds, James R. Doolittle, William P. Kellogg, George E. Spencer, Roscoe Conkling, William A. Buckingham, J. R. West, John H. Mitchell, John B. Gordon, George R. Dennis, and George S. Boutwell. Mr. Chandler was succeeded in the chairmanship when he left the Senate by Roscoe Conkling of New York; soon after he was re-elected in 1879 the Democrats regained control, and the Committee on Commerce of the Forty-sixth Senate was organized by them. Mr. Chandler was made a member of it, and at the time of his death it consisted of Senator Gordon of Georgia, chairman, Ransom of North Carolina, Randolph of New Jersey, Hereford of West Virginia, Coke of Texas, Conkling of New York, McMillan of Minnesota, Jones of Nevada, and Chandler of Michigan.