gretted very much the absence of the Senator from South Carolina, as he would greatly have preferred to have replied to him in his presence; but as he had no remarks of a personal character to make, he could not consent to delay the bill by a suspension of his argument.] Mr. W. proceeded: He had nothing to add on the subject of this great change of opinion on the part of the Senator, except that it had surprised and disappointed him, coming from that quarter.

Another position of the Senator was not less singular and extraordinary, and called for a reply. It was the assertion that the bill was not intended to expedite the construction of fortifications, but to retain the public money in the banks where it was now deposited; and he went so far as to say, that were the objects of the bill what they purported to be-the erection of fortificationshe would support it. Mr. W. said, in the absence of that Senator, he would take no notice of this unjust and ungenerous imputation upon the motives of the friends of this bill, but would examine the position, supposing it had any foundation in fact. The bill upon its face contains as direct and positive appropriations as any other appropriation bill which has been presented to Congress. If passed, it will devolve upon the proper executive department the immediate duty of obtaining the proper sites and commencing the several works, and of proceeding in their construction with all possible despatch, so far as the means appropriated will go. Has any one suggested, or will any one believe, that any sinister intentions, on the part of those who may vote for the bill, will influence the executive officers in the prompt and faithful discharge of their duties under it? Had the Senator from South Carolina suggested, or could he suggest, any change of the form of the bill, so as to make the appropriations more positive and unconditional, or the duty to expend the money more imperative and urgent? He hazarded nothing in giving a negative answer to these inquiries. Language could not improve the bill in these particulars; nor had it been intimated that there was either doubt or condition to be found upon its face. He would, then, leave the Senator, and the Senate, to determine how far he was sustained in placing his opposition to a proper and positive law upon the ground of his suspicion that some who support it entertain intentions unfavorable to its execution.

He must present this objection of the Senator in another light, and see whether it may not be made quite as applicable to himself, as to those who advocate and support the defence bills. His charge is, that they desire to retain the money in the deposite banks. What disposition does he propose to make of it? for he is the author of a variety of propositions upon the subject. The last, and that one upon which he presumed the Senator intended to rely, was, to deposite the money in the treasuries of the several States, without interest. But when, and upon what terms, is the money to be transferred from the deposite banks to the several State treasuries? When, and as soon as, the Legislature of each State shall have passed a law, pledging the faith of the State for the repayment of the money upon the call of Congress. Nearly all those Legislatures have closed their annual sessions, and all probably will, before this proposition can become a law, if it is to become a law at all. Much the larger number of them do not again convene until November, December, and January. The money, therefore, according to the disposition proposed by the Senator himself, must remain in the depos ite banks for the whole of the present year, at the least; while, in several of the States, the legislative sessions are biennial only; and, in one State at least, it is said its constitution prohibits the Legislature from contracting a debt for any purpose. Mr. W. said, were he to charge the honorable Senator with a design to continue VOL. XII.-94

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the money in the deposite banks, and assert that he had made this dilatory proposition for a different disposition, to accomplish that design, would the Senator consider him courteous or just? Would the Senate consider the imputation of such motives to any member of the body. parliamentary or proper? It was not his purpose to make any such charge. It was not his habit to impute motives to the members of this body, for acts done under their official responsibility; and he did not believe'that such a charge, if made against the honorable Senator, would be founded in fact. He did not believe the Senator, in making the proposition upon which he had commented, had been actuated by any design to retain the money in the deposite banks; but the reverse. Yet he did believe that such a design imputed to that Senator would have precisely as much foundation in justice and truth, as the similar charge preferred by him against the friends of the defence bills; and he trusted he had shown that the effect of the Senator's proposition would be to retain the money in the banks much longer, and much more certainly, than any effect to be apprehended from the passage of these bills.

Mr. W. said his intention and desire was to apply the money in the Treasury to a constitutional use. The money is the avails of "taxes, duties, imposts, and excises," laid and collected by, or under the authority and direction of Congress, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States." The first great constitutional use to which the public moneys were to be applied had been fully performed. The debts had been fully paid. The second, to provide for the common defence," it is the object of this bill to prosecute more vigorously and efficiently. For that reason he supported it, and most earnestly hoped it would be successful. Yet it was not for him to impute improper or unworthy motives to those who thought the constitution and the public interests would be better served by giving away this money to the States, or what was, in his judgment, precisely equivalent, lending it to the States without interest, and upon a declaration upon their respective statute books that they would repay the principal whenever their representatives in the two Houses of Congress should order them to do so. He thought, however, so long as he abstained from the imputation of motives to those who advocated such a disposition of these moneys, he was entitled to an exemption from imputation as to his own motives, in urging a use of the money such as the honor and interests and safety of the country required and demanded; and such as the constitution not only authorized, but

directed in terms.

After Mr. WRIGHT had concluded, Mr. RUGGLES rose, and addressed the Chair as follows:

Mr. President: This bill has been slumbering on the table for more than two months, without any disposition being manifested by a majority of the Senate to take it up. The inquiry throughout the country is, where is the fortification bill? What has become of the fortifica tion bill? Why does not the Senate act on the fortification bill? All the seaboard-all that part of it which has not been already provided with works of defence-is alive to this subject. No measure is more imperiously demanded by the exposed condition of the seaboard, and none more loudly called for, in connexion with liberal appropriations for an increase of the navy, by the general sense of the country.

This matter has been delayed and put off till it is now too late to do much else than to prepare for entering upon the contemplated works at an early period of the next year. An 1 why it is that this important bill has been postponed to others of much less consequence, and suffered--nay, made--to lie on the table, while the season for operations has been passing away, I am un

these conflicting views of the subject can be reconciled, I cannot very well understand.

With a view, however, of diminishing the amount appropriated by this bill, it is proposed to strike out the fortification for the defence of the Kennebec waters, and that is to be followed by another to strike out the proposed fortification for the Penobscot. My purpose is to resist these propositions as unjust to the State I represent here, unwise in regard to great and important national interests, and as being an utter departure from the constitutional obligation resting upon Congress to provide for the common defence.

The geographical position of Maine renders the question of fortifying her maritime frontier one of great interest to the State as well as to the Union. She occupies an intermediate position between the rest of the Union and the possessions of a foreign Power. Her ports and harbors are within a few hours' sail of the ports and harbors of a nation that may be, as she has been, our enemy. The coast of that State, for many leagues at sea, is the most frequented cruising ground in time of war, of any portion of the coast of the United States. It is literally whitened with our commerce. It is there that an enemy's cruisers would reap their rich harvest of prizes, and do more injury to the commerce of the country than they could do at any other point of the Atlantic coast. Leave that coast undefended, and it would be swept as with the besom of destruction. All the commerce, foreign and coastwise, which is carried on by two hundred and fifty thousand tons of navigation, would be swept from the ocean; our valuable fisheries would be annihilated; and the whole seaboard would be lighted by the conflagration of our ships, our towns and cities, and every thing accessible to an incendiary foe. If the harbors on the coast of Maine should not be fortified and occupied by us, they will, in time of war, be occupied by the enemy. If they shall not be made places of refuge and protection, they will be places of exposure and destruction. There are a number of important positions on that coast which would be immediately seized upon by an enemy, and made places of rendezvous for his cruisers, privateers, and ships of war; whence they could sally out to intercept our commerce, and "sink, burn, and destroy;" and where they could refit and levy contributions of supplies upon the defenceless inhabitants.

Sir, this does not rest upon conjecture. It is matter of history. With us, it has been matter of experience. In the last war with England, she at once perceived the advantages of occupying a position on the coast of Maine. She early fitted out an expedition, which seized upon Castine, a position on the Penobscot waters, where the enemy fortified himself. From that position he was enabled to commit havoc and devastation upon our com merce. The number of merchant vessels which that position enabled him to capture, I have no means of estimating.

It is for the protection of these waters, the waters of the Penobscot bay and river, that one of the fortifications is designed. There are a number of commercial towns on the bay, whose shipping would, in times of peril, seek refuge in the river, above the contemplated fortification. Among them is Belfast, the proposed Atlantic termination of the Belfast and Quebec railroad. Above the position to be fortified are several others, and at the head of navigation is the city of Bangor, which ships annually from 300 to 400 million feet of lumber. This city has just sprung into existence. Six years ago its population was only 2,868; now, it is 9,000. Its increase in wealth and enterprise exceeds even that of its population. It bids fair to be one of the most considerable cities of the North.

Kennebec river, which is proposed to be left defence

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less, is one of the largest in New England. It is naviga ble for large ships of war to Bath, and for smaller vessels to Hallowell and Augusta. Bath is a highly commercial town. More shipping is built in the district of Bath than in any other in the State, and a quarter more than is built in all the southern States put together. Above Bath, on the river, there are several thriving and prosperous towns. At the head of navigation is the capital of the State, and at that place is situated the arsenal of the United States. Yes, Mr. President, the United States have there property in buildings and the materiel of war to a large amount. Would you leave that undefended? Would you leave not only the valuable commerce of that river and adjacent ports, and the thriving towns that adorn its banks, but also your own arsenal, exposed and unprotected? Did you erect your buildings there, but for the accommodation of your enemy in time of war? Was it to supply him with arms and munitions of war that you exposed them on an unfortified river in (as it may be) his own neighborhood, where he could have ready access to them? Sir, to leave the mouth of that river unfortified, would be a palpable invitation to an enemy to come and help himself. He would so regard it, and accept the invitation, His very first expedition would be to the capital of the State. Without an hour's notice or warning, favored by a fair breeze, he would run up the river, set fire to the shipping at Bath, demolish that and the other towns above it, seize upon the arsenal, turn its guns upon our capital, and, having supplied himself with whatever he might stand in need of from the arsenal, return musing upon the marvellous wisdom of a nation that, with a bloated Treasury, with overflowing coffers, could leave such a position unfortified,

But, is there nothing else to be protected by fortifying that coast? Are there no other interests to be regarded? Sr, there are there more than half a million of your population, an industrious, moral, enlightened, enterprising, patriotic people, who are neither insensible to what they owe to the national Government, nor ignorant of what the national Government, under the constitution, owes to them. The State possesses a great amount of commercial and agricultural wealth, and manufacturing enterprise is spreading rapidly over the State. I find, by a report made to Congress in 1832, by the Secretary of State, founded on very partial and incomplete returns and estimates, that the manufactures at that time amounted to upwards of seven millions of dollars. They may be safely estimated at the present time at ten millions. Add to this the value of lumber cut and sawed annually, estimated at ten millions, and the market value of lime manufactured in that State, estimated at one million, and we make an aggregate of twenty-one millions, independent of its agricultural products. The article of wool alone, grown in that State in 1832, was estimated, from the returns, at one million six hundred and forty thousand dollars. It must now exceed two millions. There are no means of estimating the amount of other agricultural products. But I have already shown enough to entitle that "peninsular State," as the Senator calls it, to some little consideration. one of the Atlantic States possesses so great natural resources, nor one which is making more rapid progress in wealth and population.

Not

The Senator, in his speech preliminary to the motion under consideration, took occasion to speak of the great amount of exports from the southern States, and adverted to the small amount of exports from Maine. The inference was, that more should be appropriated for the defence of the southern, and less for the northern frontier. The returns show only the exports to foreign countries. There are no returns which show the amount of our coastwise commerce. We must arrive at

that by inference and estimation. In 1833, the exports of South Carolina amounted to upwards of eleven millions of dollars. That, with a small amount of exports coastwise, deducting what was retained for home consumption, may be regarded as the product of the labor of the producing class of the population of that State. Some allowance is to be made for what was grown beyond the limits of that State. Maine has a population somewhat less than South Carolina, but it is an active, industrious population of freemen. It does not there take one half to keep the other half employed. The product of industry and enterprise in Maine cannot be less than that of South Carolina. I have no doubt it is greater. But the exports from Maine to foreign countries, for 1833, were short of a million of dollars. What, then, became of the residue of their products, making the same deduction for home consumption? The answer is, it was shipped coast wise. The difference, then, between the commerce of Maine, and that of South Carolina, is this: the latter State shows a greater amount of exports to foreign markets, and the former a greater amount to ports in the United States. They ship more to foreign countries, we ship more coastwise.

Now, I would ask, which is most entitled to the fostering care and protection of the Government-the commerce carried on by a State with a foreign nation, or the commerce of the States with one another? How would it be in time of war? which is the true question, in reference to our protective policy. Would a cargo of flour shipped from Alexandria or Petersburg be more entitled to protection when destined for Europe, than when shipped to Portland, Bath, or Bangor? Would you regard as more important the safety of a cargo of cotton, when shipped from Charleston to supply the manufactories of Europe, than when shipped for Boston or Portsmouth for the use of the factories at Lowell or Dover? The answer must be, two to one in favor of domestic.commerce which finds a market for the products of one State and a resource of supplies for another; and Congress is under the same constitutional obligation to protect the commerce carried on between the States, as it is to protect foreign commerce.

Sir, there are other considerations to which I ask the attention of Senators from the South and Southwest. It is not difficult to show that the whole South and Southwest are directly interested in the fortifying the northern frontier, especially the frontier of Maine; and I cannot but marvel that a motion which goes to defeat an appropriation for that purpose should come from the South. The great amount of exports from the southern States has been adverted to. The following is an abstract of the value of exports of domestic produce to foreign countries, for the year 1833. It is made up from the latest returns that have been published:

[MAY 19, 1836.

Here we see that the whole amount of the exports of the United States was eighty-one millions; of which fortyeight millions were from the four States of Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina alone. To this must be added a large amount of coastwise exports. Now, let me inquire of southern Senators by what means this vast amount is transported to their foreign and domestic markets? Do you ship it in your own vessels, or in foreign vessels? To a very great extent, you do not. Let us see how this is. The following is an abstract of the tonnage built, the tonnage owned, and the permanent registered tonnage in 1833.

By this abstract it appears that the whole amount of shipping owned in the four States mentioned, is 92,495 tons: 40,225 of the 60,903 owned in Louisiana, is steamboat tonnage employed on the rivers, leaving 52,259 employed in foreign and coast wise commerce. The permanent registered tonnage is that which is engaged in foreign commerce, with but few exceptions. Of that, these four States have but 20,215 tons, while the whole amount of American tonnage employed in foreign commerce is 641,091. Adopting that proportion, South Carolina should have about 70,000 tons instead of 3,000, having upwards of seven millions of exports in American vessels. The four States mentioned, with more than half of all the exports of domestic produce, own less than a thirty-fourth part of all the American tonnage employed.

There is, then, this very great deficiency of vessels at the South; and to supply that deficiency, she is necessarily indebted to those States which have an excess above their exportations; the principal of which is Maine, having over 70,000 tons of shipping engaged in foreign commerce, with less than a million of exports. Yes, Mr. President, Maine, hitherto overlooked, forgotten, of her seaboard, owns nearly 40,000 tons more shipping and disregarded in every thing relating to the defence

than all the southern Atlantic and Gulf States south of the Potomac. Nay, I may say she has more spacious of entry and delivery, more facilities for commercial and harbors, more deep and convenient waters, more ports naval operations, than all of the southern States together, south of the Chesapeake. Sir, I do not speak extravagantly. The facts, on examination, will be found to

bear me out.

But, sir, I will go further, and inquire where the South obtains the vessels she owns. If I am not much mistaken, it will appear that she is indebted to the North for them, and, to a great extent, to Maine herself. By adverting to

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Now, sir, leave the maritime frontier of Maine without defences, leave her harbors exposed, give up that "peninsular State" to the enemy, and a declaration of war would put an absolute stop to ship-building. Her five or six hundred shipyards would be desolate; and the first six months after the commencement of hostilities would see our shipping destroyed and its owners ruined. The effect such a state of things would produce on southern interests dependent on the ship-building and ship-owning States, cannot be accurately estimated. The price of freights would be greatly increased. Such a diminution of the number of freighting vessels would destroy all competition for freights, and southern producers would be compelled to pay whatever northern carriers should choose to demand. And thus is the South directly interested in the defence of our harbors in Maine, and in the protection and preservation of our shipping. We do not build ships for ourselves alone; we build them also for the South. The shipyards of the South are in Maine. She is the great ship-building State of the Union. Throughout the whole South and Southwest, every producer of a bag of cotton, a hogshead of sugar, or any other article of export, has a direct interest in this matter; for they will feel the effect of the increased price of freights in the diminution of the home value of their products.

Mr. President, there is one other consideration to which I cannot forbear calling the attention of the Senate, involving a matter of great national interest. I have reference to the long pending and still unsettled controversy between this Government and that of Great Britain, relative to the disputed territory on our northeastern border. It is a large and valuable portion of the State of Maine, claimed, and to some extent occupied, by Great Britain; but which is clearly our rightful domain, and should be held within our sovereignty and jurisdiction.

The Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. DAVIS] laid before the Senate, some time since, resolutions emanating from the Legislature of that State, which relate to this controversy and to the territory in question. It was at a time when I was absent from the Senate a few days from indisposition. I have since seen a published report of his remarks on that occasion, in which I find an extract published, as having been read to the Senate from the report of a committee sent by that State, some months since, to explore and examine into the condition of the country in dispute between the two Governments. A part of that extract is as follows:

"The committee have thus briefly noticed the outline presented in its passage across this important portion of our domain. When it shall be explored more fully, it will be found to contain an inexhaustible treasure, in its deep forests, its rivers, and its soil. The condition of

all that portion now held in the custody of England, presents matter for serious and anxious reflection. Are we humbled by the lofty pretensions of a Power from whom we have twice conquered an honorable peace? or from what cause is it that our pride seems subdued, while our interests are sacrificed? No American, and especially no man of New England, can traverse this region, and shut out from his mind the conviction that wrongs have been perpetrated under the cover of diplomacy, that dare not be defended in the open field. This land, which we claim belongs to us of right, has, for some cause, or to answer some purposes, been most ignominiIt does not fail to impress one strangely, that, after a possession of more than a quarter of a century-after the full exercise of sovereignty, we should quietly permit that possession and that sovereignty to pass into the bands of a foreign Power, and thus be held, until that Power shall find leisure to establish over it a permanent legal title. But your committee will not dwell upon a topic so fruitful of unpleasant emotions; they were sufficiently harassed by them, while traversing this region; they could not look abroad without witnessing the depredations and waste everywhere committed; they could not fail to appreciate, at its just value, the guardianship exercised over it. They were not blind to the trespasses once suppressed by our own agents, but now renewed, upon the timber and the lands, and that seemed to be pursued with an eagerness and an ingenuity that scorned resistance or defied detection. They did not complain, for there was no power to redress. Nor do the committee now arraign the conduct of the British agent; he is powerless on this subject. The great mass of the population consider the lands as waste; and each plunders and ap propriates as his inclination or interest leads him. There have been some devices thought expedient as a cover for some of the grosser acts under the eye of the authorities. 'Location certificates' are granted by the Government of New Brunswick to old soldiers; these are made to cover one tract, until the timber is stripped, and then it is changed to another-a sort of roving commission, protecting the aggressor, when the power to punish needs but a slight apology to quiet it. Large portions of this region held in trust, thus formally, have recently been claimed as belonging to Canada; thus taking it out of the jurisdiction of the trustee, the Governor of New Brunswick, and freeing it from all rule, or law, or agency."

I have read this extract for two purposes. One is, to have the opportunity of reminding the Senator, who has made it a part of his speech, that, whatever errors of diplomacy have been committed in respect to that matter, were committed by those for whose acts the present administration cannot be held responsible. Whatever wrongs have been perpetrated under the cov er of diplomacy, that cannot be defended in the open field, have grown out of measures which had not the consent of Maine, and which were as much against her wishes and interest as they are against the principles and policy of the present Executive Department of the Gov. ernment. I need not be more explicit. That Senator was, I think, a member of the other House during a period now gone by, where he was a distinguished and able supporter of the then existing administration, in most of its measures, if not of its diplomacy.

There is another honorable Senator on this floor, who has doubtless some faint recollections of interesting circumstances that have taken place in respect to this question, with which his official duties, always ably performed, must have made him acquainted. What reference the Massachusetts committee had to the "diplomacy" at Ghent, in which that Senator took a distinguished part; or what reference was intended to what took place in