2d Session. MAINE-DUTY ON COAL. PETITION OF SUNDRY CITIZENS OF PORTLAND AND VICINITY, For a repeal of the duty imposed upon coal. JANUARY 23, 1837. Referred to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union to which is committed the bill H. R. No. 829, to reduce the revenue of the United States to the wants of the Government. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled: The undersigned, citizens of Portland and vicinity, represent to your honorable body, that coal is, with us, an article of first necessity; that the present duty on foreign coal is an unnecessary tax upon the means of subsistence; that the present overflowing condition of the treasury does not require the aid of a tax on articles of common use for the purpose of revenue: and, therefore, as the reason for the laying duties on such articles has ceased, the law should also cease. Nor is it, in the opinion of the undersigned, a just or sound policy to levy a tax to enable the owners of coal mines in the United States to make exorbitant profits on their product, or, in fact, to enable them to work their mines at all, if the consumers can obtain the article cheaper from other sources. They, therefore, hope that Congress WILL REPEAL all laws laying duties on importations of coal, forthwith; and, as in duty bound, will ever pray. Blair & Rives, printers. JOHN S. KIMBALL, and others. 2d Session. War Dept. ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT-ESTIMATE LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF WAR, TRANSMITTING A special estimate of the further sums which will be necessary for the Ordnance Department during the present year. JANUARY 28, 1837. Laid before the House by the Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, and ordered to be printed. WAR DEPARTMENT, January 24, 1837. SIR: I have the honor to transmit, herewith, a letter from the Colonel. of Ordnance, accompanied by a special estimate of the further sums that will be necessary for the service of the Ordnance Department during the present year, and beg leave to request that the committee will cause them to be embraced in the proper bill. Very respectfully, Your most obedient servant, B. F. BUTLER, Hon. C. C. CAMBRELENG, Secretary of War ad interim. Chairman Committee of Ways and Means, House Reps. ORDNANCE OFFICE, Washington, January 21, 1837. SIR: I have the honor to transmit, herewith, the special estimate for additional appropriations for the service of this department for the year 1837. I have the honor to be, sir, Respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. BENJ. F. BUTLER, Secretary of Wer ad interm. Blair & Rives, printers. Colonel of Crdnance. SPECIAL ESTIMATE for additional appropriations for the service of the Ordnance Department for the year 1837. For the National Armory at Harper's Ferry, Va. A. For constructing a river wall in the range of the shops on the Potomac, 1,624 feet long, 9 feet at base, and 3 feet at top; extending from the upper corner of the tilt-hammer shop, to a point on the river near Doring's brick house, containing 6,246 perches of stone wall, at $2 45 per perch For making the embankment to the same, con- For the completion of the tilt-hammer shop, com- Total for Harper's Ferry armory Arsenals. B. For the purchase of a site for constructing a new magazine, to contain from 2,500 to 3,000 barrels of gunpowder, at the United States arsenal, Baton Rouge, Louisiana Frankford, Pennsylvania. C. For enlarging the site at this arsenal Mount Vernon, Alabama. D. For the purchase of three acres of land on the Alabama river, at $300 per acre $15,302 18,916 3,960 2,450 6,656 6,459 $53,743 5,000 1,000 $900 00 For building a brick warehouse and A. The construction of a river wall along the range of shops on the Potomac river is rendered highly desirable, in consequence of the confined state of the buildings; hemmed in on one side by the river, and by high and precipitous ledges of rocks on the other. Besides, it will be the means of reclaiming a space of fifty feet wide by sixteen hundred and twenty-four feet long, in the rear of the shops, and render it available for building pur poses. The superintendent in charge of this armory states that the appropria-, tion for the construction of the tilt-hammer shop has proved insufficient: partly in consequence of the great rise in price of materials and labor since the original estimate for this object was prepared, and partly owing to the change of the location of the building, as it became necessary to increase the width and depth of the foundations from five to seven feet, and enlarge the thickness about six feet more than was originally deemed sufficient, which greatly augmented the amount for excavation, walling, and filling; and the substitution of cast iron water wheels for tub wheels, which, though decidedly preferable, are more difficult in their construction, and of more expensive materials, yet more durable. It appears to be indispensably necessary to make one of the sides of the new canal impervious to water; it is now faced with flat stones, through |