1st Session.

VIRGINIA-INHABITANTS OF RICHMOND.

[To accompany bill H. R. No. 443.]

MEMORIAL

OF

THE CITIZENS OF RICHMOND,

Asking for an appropriation for the erection of a custom-house in said city.

MAY 25, 1840.

Referred to the Committee on Commerce.

JUNE 2, 1840.

Bill reported.

To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled:

The undersigned, merchants, traders, manufacturers, and citizens of Richmond, Virginia, would most respectfully bring to the notice of your honorable bodies the importance and necessity of making a suitable appropriation for the erection of a custom-house in this city. The growing importance of this place, in a commercial and manufacturing point of view, and the vast and various advantages it possesses of water-power and mineral wealth, viewed in connexion with the great railroad lines passing through or terminating here, as, also, the western improvement by the James river and Kanawha canal, seem to warrant the confident belief entertained by many that it is destined soon to become a large city. Including its suburbs, &c., it already numbers nearly thirty thousand inhabitants. Its exports of raw produce, always large, are certainly augmenting; its imports from abroad and coastwise, and its sales of foreign and domestic goods, quite considerable: while its manufactures of cotton, iron, flour, tobacco, &c., are very large. If there was time, the most satisfactory data as to all these important facts could be easily furnished; but, as they are known to some of your honorable bodies, going into detail is deemed the less important.

Allow us to say, in conclusion, that, at present, we have no customhouse, except a rented establishment upon a small scale, and that a building of ample dimensions and convenient construction seems to be demanded by the present and prospective business of the place. For the attainment of this important object, we ask your honorable bodies to appropriate the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, to be expended in conformity to such directions as it may seem to you wise and proper to give.

1st Session.

HARBORS ON LAKE MICHIGAN.

[To accompany bill H. R. No. 446.]

JUNE 2, 1840.

Reported from the Committee on Commerce, and ordered to be printed.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

Washington, January 17, 1840.

DEAR SIR: The citizens of Wiskonsin, and the commercial men of the lakes have petitioned Congress to make appropriations for harbors on the western shore of Lake Michigan, for the protection and security of com

merce.

Permit me to solicit from you a statement of the observations you may have made upon this subject in your visits to the western country, and especially whether the interests of navigation, as well as the trade of that country, and the protection of the lives of passengers and mariners, do not demand the immediate construction of harbors on the lake border, within the limits of Wiskonsin.

I make this request of you, having learned that you are about to leave this city for your residence. If you favor me with a reply, be pleased to address it to the chairman of the Committee on Commerce in the House, as I am desirous to place before that committee all the information I can obtain in aid of the petitions of our citizens.

I remain, dear sir, with much respect, your obedient servant,

Hon. O. HOLT, of Connecticut.

J. D. DOTY.

WASHINGTON, January 22, 1840.

SIR In compliance with a request from the Hon. J. D. Doty, Delegate from the Territory of Wiskonsin in the House of Representatives of the United States, I hasten to lay before your committee such information as E gathered in Wiskonsin and its vicinity during a considerable portion of the last two years, respecting the hazardous navigation of Lake Michigan, and the necessity of the immediate construction by the General Government of harbors on the lake border.

If I deemed the construction of harbors on the western lakes a work for individual benefit alone, or could I perceive that the remotest influence could arise therefrom, uncongenial with the free and equal institutions of a democratic government, I would not, for a moment, urge the necessity of their projection or erection. I have seen the deleterious influence of corrupt incorporations to the fullest extent, and have hitherto opposed in Congress and out of it, all systems of internal improvement whose objects were not strictly national in their character. It would be inconsistent then, with a