US Presidency
1872

The report of the Secretary of the Treasury will show an alarming falling off in our carrying trade for the last ten or twelve years, and even for the past year. I do not believe that public treasure can be better expended in the interest of the whole people than in trying to recover this trade. An expenditure of $ 5,000,000 per annum for the next five years, if it would restore to us our proportion of the carrying trade of the world, would be profitably expended. The price of labor in Europe has so much enhanced within the last few years that the cost of building and operating ocean steamers in the United States is not so much greater than in Europe; and I believe the time has arrived for Congress to take this subject into serious consideration. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.