Weekly national intelligencer., 1848-04-15


consideration sound reasoning also requires us TO
place the trade OF the Western rivers. Men ac-
cussomed to the navigation Of these rivers, or to
that OF the lakes, acquire fondness for the sea-
faring life, and readily become expert seamen
These two sources now employ annually about
i 32,OSb hands, as mariners of all kinds. state
1 : OF war with commercial Power would OF neces-
slty throw many of them out of their accustomed
employments, and their habits would naturally in
duce them 10 seek the kindred employment of the
ocean, II II be supposed that this necessity should
4 not extend over more than third of their num-
/ Der, 1t would now furnish upwards of ten thou
i = sand young active, able-boded men, accustomed
10 the water, for military marine, either for SER
vice ON The lakes or on the broad Atlantic. We
think 1t may therefore be said, without fear Of
error, that the lake and the Western river commerce
is at this moment the greatest nursery of seamen
possessed by any nation ; nursery as vet but
partially developed, occupying most luxuriant
soil, and daily increasing beyond all known pre-
cedents.
Surprising this nursery to increase in no
greater ratio than general population, it will in
ten years from 1916 produce 43O27. But rea-
sonable calculations on the sound data Of expert
ence. would bring that number in that time about
$4,000; that is, the inland nursery, the nursery of
the Western rivers and the lakes not including that
| of the sea-coast and of sea-service."
At the conclusion of the remarks upon lake and
Western river commerce, we find the following sum
mary OF facts: The nett moneyed value of the com
merce of the Western rivers and the lakes amount
ed in 1916 to S246,774, ,635 The population de-
pending upon the lakes and Western rivers as means
OF communicating with market, for the same year,
(ls46,) was 9,5O4,952. The number of hands
employed mariners in this commerce, for the same
year, is 320s6. And (most singular, after all that
has been said this subject) it appears, from
positive examination of the appropriation laws, that
the sums appropriated for lake harbors and for the
Western rivers, the Mississippi and its tributaries
direct and indirect from the year 1906, when these
appropriations commenced, up TO and including the
last appropriations of ls45 do not amount to more
than S5,549 800.
The next subject of the report relates to the fa-
cilities of communication by railroads and canals
by the way of the lakes, with the Mississippi and
the Atlantic These means of communication are
divided into two classes: First those which con-
g meet the lakes with the valley Of the Mississippi
/" second, those which connect the lakes with the
" Atlantic" The canals and railroads under each
class are named; their points of departure and term-
nation stated; and, in reference to canals, length
BREADTH and depth Of waterway sgiven, and also d.
mensions and number oflocks. The report also treats
of the adaptation of the commercial means of thelake
to military operations and as means of military de-
fence, showing very satisfactorily how powerful an
auxiliary fleet can be made in the shortest time from
the steamboat aotila of the lakes. The author of
the report is decidedly of opinion that, in reference
to the lakes, above the Falls of Niagara, the pre-
ponderance Of commercial tonnage is so decidedly
in our favor that, reasoning from the advantages
flowing from this preponderance, he concludes that
the command of these lakes is unequivocally in us,
and not easily to be wrested from US. But, in ref
erence the lakes below the falls, particularly Lake
Ontario, the is different. On this lake the pre-
/ ponderance of commercial tonnage is vastly in IA
vor of the British and candid reasoning from SINH
lar facts obliges the report to give the command of
this lake to the British.
The British superiority this lake is accounted for
BY the very great attention which has been bestow-
4 ed upon its harbors on the Canada side, and the
comparative neglect on These views and de-
ductions open interesting field of argument in
favor of lake harbors as means of defence. We
do not find this field 10 have been entered upon in
the report, beyond views consequent upon the COM
mercial tonnage the omission being probably due
10 the desire of the author of the report 10 adhere
rigdly to the queries included in the resolution of
the Senate. They not, however, entirely omit
ted, as we find in the report short paragraph ex-
pressing in few words the military advantages re-
sulting from these harbors. Ii is under the head
" of the British commercial means of the lakes
as adaptable for military purposes:
"Those means, without doubt, eminentIy consist
Of the facilities which the general population OF
the country, and population concentrated IN towns,
can furnish. Wherever harbor is made, popu-
lation concentrates the adjacent country becomes
thicky inhabited and better cultivated manufac-
lures spring up; artisans of all kinds assemble
workshops are established provisions are col
lected in storehouses and all those facilities 10
military operations belonging TO population, to sup
plies Of all kinds and TO mechanical means are at
I command. What these are on the Canada side of
the lakes is not in my power TO say, as have no
reliable data on these subjects. / have therefore,
Of necessity, to confne myself to the rigid COM
mercial means and to the facilities of transferring
those means from lake to lake and from lake to
river"
There is highly interesting chapter in the re-
port upon the extent of lake coast and Of the
| same in different States ,-the harhors in fhs