The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1810-02-03

posed to be repaired from entire destruc-
ton.
The other to employ them as instruments
OF protection and defence in the event of
war, &C.
With respect to the first object, il. is to be
remarked. the Secretary OF the Navy in
forms you, and this Information. he believed,
founded upon an actual examination of the
vessels that they required mat erial repairs.
that they would probably DE damaged so
per cent. by delaying the repairs for one
year, and shortly thereafter be totally un
worthy of repair. That the present cost of
repairs would be about equal TO one half of
the original cost ct new vessels; and that
when repaired they would be better vessels
than could be built OF green timber. That
the repairs of the whole of them, could be
completed by next fall, if the work was ali
to be done at this place. Whereas to fell
timber for new frigases: and to complete
them out OF timber now to be procured,
would require two or three years. &c. &c.
Under th'se circumstances. the committee
were left To the alternatives either of giving
up these frIgates to entire waste and des,ruc-
tion, or to substitute new ones i'm their stead,
under all the disadvantages of encreaset
expence, delay in time, and the inconveni-
ence of building them of unseasoned timber,
&C. &c or to provide for repairing the fri
gates now in being as contemplated in the
bill. They preferred the last alternative
and surely, 1T is recommeudedb by every con
slderation OF economy in expencc, economy
in time, and the superior quality of the YES.
sells when completed, SC. &c
MIR. @. said he knew there were gentle
men who thought that it would be better
policy to let these frigates go to destruction
straightforward that the money expended
upon their repair was money thrown away
or worse, as involving consequential expen-
ces, &c &c. and that imputations had been
thro~n out against those who now favored
naval establishments even to a very limited
extent, and who formerly opposed them He
had reason to believe also, that these impu-
tations however unmerited, had not been al
| together without their effect
dc would. therefore, endeavor to put this
subject In its true point of view by bestow-
ing a few observations on it.
In the first place, he would call to the re.
collection of gentlemen. for they appear to
have forgotten or overlook ed the circum.
stance, that the present naval establish
ment was fixed in the years 1900, 1901,
under the administration of Mr. Jefferson
with the appreciation and consent of himself,
| ard he believed, OF every other republican
| then in Congress. That at that time, the
| reasonable one; and that after completing
the frigates now proposed to be repaired,
the establishment viii then be less by three
trigstes, than was thought proper and rea-
sonaOie by the republicans ut that time. He
asked, what circumstances had taken place
since 1900, 1901, to Justify a further eXcisi-
| sion ct the naval establishment, or with what
| propriety can those, who then consented TO
that establishment, be accused of incons,s.
tency of conduct, or change of political prin.
cipies, ter conserving TO an establishment
now. less by three frIgates, than they then
, thought both reasonable and proper?
Since that time, the United States have
been blessed with vast increase of popula-
ton, vast increase of wealth. particularly
mercantile wealth and increase of revenue,
&c. AT the same time. with an unexam-
pied dimiuution of public debt, and withal,
they have, in the mean time. had their
rights, commercial rights particularly. as
| sailed by both the great belligerents Of E.u-
rope without any prospects of relaxation
from either. &c He asked, whether they
could find in any of these circumstances,
causes to justify, at the present moment,
dlsmantilng their navy, cutting off or un
nerving the naval arm of their government
lie presumed, the whole OF them wouldna
| turaiy produce Contrary tendency. He
SAID, these imputations had been thrown out
by sons gentlemen, for whom he had the
highest respect, and he believed with the
most candid, though mistaken, convictions
ON their minds but their errors would be
easily corrected by an attentive review of
the events, which preceded, the causes
which produced and the events which fol
lowea change of administration in 1900,
During the federal administration the fe
derai party conceived the erroneous opinion
and acted under the mistaken impression.
that the Constitution of the United States
wanted energy and to supply this want,
they undertook to legislate energy into it
For this purpose, they devised expedients
to Justify it, and resorted to physical force !
armies and navies, to supply this miscoa
ceiVed fatal defect in the Constitution and
to form the essential substitute for energy
which was, in their view, the great beside
ratum of the government.
These measures required enormous ex
penceS; taxes were imposed on the people
to defray them and when they were inform
ed, that these expenses were intended to
procure energy, they did not believe that
they were in want of any such energy
L hey found their rrlers were acting under
mistaken vision ; that they had departed
from the necessary practieal objects of the
government, and gone in quest Of visionary
theories, which existed only In their own
Ideluded imaginations, which could be of no
practical use to the people, and which cost
them vast sums of money, &c. &c. They,
therefore, took the government out of fede.
raj hands, and put it into the hands Of their
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