The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1852-09-19
CITY OF WASHINGTON SUNDAY MORNING. SEPTEMBER 49, 1885,

have enjoyed this privilege You have improved the har
oois and BUN up the Giles OF the Atlantic seaboard by ap
preparations iIom The treasury and by permission levy
duties oil tonnage You have thus enabled them 10 monop
olze the commerce; and the question now arises are
you gong TO deprive the ports upon the Gulf OF Mexico
and upon the great lakes and the Pacific, OF the pow
er OF making their own harbors while you withhold ad-
equae appropriations from them LII so, you have adopt
ca scheme by which the commerce OF this country can
De confined IN great degree, 10 particular section, and
excluded IRON other sections OF the Union To grant
these privileges to the Atlantic ports until their harbors
are improved and their built up and then withhold
the same privileges from the ports on the Gulf and the
Pacific, and the lakes, is calculated concentrate the
Union.
/ The old States have been securing these harbor i'm
poyemenis for more than half century, while but few
narOofs nave oeen commenced IN the States, and
what lew we have remain in unfinished and dapda-
ted condition. And the question is presented,
whether we are TO have appropriations withheld from
us by Congress the same time that Won deprive of
the power OF making our harbors, by moi, allowing
levy tonnage duties have never known this consent
refused when asked for the seaboard have in
yesgaed The subject thoroughly until recently; but il
has occurred 10 me singular TO find that the old States
have had from time to time permission to levy tonnage
iaties and have also had appropriations OF money Tor
rivers and bnrbors have always voted 10 allow them
TO levy tonnage duties whenever II has been asked.
remember that application Is43 for Baltimore
ana how Baltimore has the privilege OF evyng tonnage
iuties, by the act OF 1850, up to 1861
| All we ask Is to be placed upon equality with the
ou olales Give your Consent, which is necessary
uct lidt may improve and
haroofs AS a friend OF these improvements-as a
tor representing this floor in conjunction with my col
league more rivers and harbos than any other SENATOR
ask Tor this privilege. The bill that pending is
mere mockery so far the northern lakes and western
rivers are concerned. You have embraced on these
lakes one barbor in ten You take one and leave ten
that ought TO be made, and still you call il and
tarbor bill Where you do appropriate the money you
do not give us enough TO make work sufficiently strong
to resist The storms which follow the very dunng
which the work is constructed. You give pit
tance Tor the Mississippi that will make the slight
est impression upon the distractions that there and
upon the whole coast OF the Pacific you do give
dollar. Your river and barbor system has found
out that the American Union extends the Pacific coast
Sir II there is part OF the Union where river and har-
Dor improvements necessary, II upon the coast OF
the Pacific, California has more shipping within
her limits than any State OF this Union perhaps,
less is New York yet she has not light house upon
her entire coast OF more than thousand miles,
public pier within the limits of the State not buoy, not
beacon planted at the expense OF the federal
and here yon have river and harbor bill without SOL
ary item for that entire coast yet you call it fair
general bill 4
am induced TO bring forward this proposition at this
time from variety OF reasons, and will state them
plainly One is, that your and harbo appropra-
toDs that have been made by Congress have done no
perceptibe good, so far western rivers
cerned. never a steamboat captain or pilot upon
the Ohio river VINO did not say that the government had
injured the navigation OF that river than il had ben
ehted u by the appropriations which had been made.
know il is bold statement, and which will astonish
the Senate but have travelled that river many times and
have stood upon the upper decks with captains and
pilots and observed the wing dams you making, and
have heard their curses the policy which the gov
ernmen was pursuing in destroying the navigation. i
never saw OF them who said Uncle Sam had YET
improved the navigation OF that river but they IN
hopes that IN the course OF time some good might be
compshed So far as the Mississippi river is concerned,
there has been, once 10 while, snag extracted bot
when those that have been taken out are compared with
those remaining, you have made about much impress
sion that river to dip bucket OF water
OF the Potomac would make IN the navigation OF that
stream As long you place these improvements under
the direction the who
and society OF the large cities the snakes and mosqui
toes on the banks OF the river, your money will be
pended IN the immediate vicinity OF your large towns,
and scarcely dollar upon the channels OF the streams
where the snags are the most dangerous 10 life and prop
eriy.
| / am speaking plain and bold truths | have stood
upon the deck OF steamboat, n the OF sinking by
snag, at place called the Grave Yard where could
the wrecks OF nine other boats where three hundred peo
pie had died, and millions oil property had been lost.
never snag boat IN that vicinity. The money is
expended in the vicinity OF the towns and il you wish
your money appropriated TO any valuable purpose you
put into the hands Of those who have practical
knowledge OF the country-whose sympahes in the
cause, and whose property at hazard upon the bosom
OF those waters
Congress being given TO The evyng of those tonnage du
ties, because AN satisfied that and barbor inn
proyemens can never progress under the policy you are
now pursuing. Here you all know that for the last
nine years, II has been death struggle IN the last nights
Of the sesson--a trial Of physical strengh-whether the
river and harbor bill should be defeated, should be
passed, by all possible combinations am free say that
our river and harbor bills have always been combination
OF items. selected with reference 10 the number OF votes
necessary 10 carry them through the two houses OF Con-
gress and we have been compelled to admit items that
would not receive five votes in separate bulls But we
justified ourselves the ground that lite and property
al stake, that the sacrifice fearful, and we
must not fail TO do everything that could be done to
rect that OF destruction and to furnish that protec
ton which necessary. We therefore justified our.
selves in taking those bills they came 10 And the
opponents OF the bills have justified their opposition on
the ground that OF them believed the principle 10 be
unconstitutional others that the bills were bills OF
abomnation in consequence OF combinations made
by their friends in forcing improper items into them.
The consequence has been, that every year have
been in Congress, either house. II has been strug
gle, not OF argument, not OF discussion not OF rea
sit out the longest either to pass defeat the bills
have for series OF years the opposition to these
bills triumph; and western people living around the
borders OF these lakes and the banks Of these rivers
with their lives and property exposed 10 all these haz
ards, have been looking anxiously 10 you 10 do some.
thing 10 put check 10 this course-somehIng TO pro-
tect them from destruction. We have gone home and
told the people that the opponents OF the bill defeated
this tme for the Of time. but should be to
succeed next year that we would commence at the
opening of the session The next session il was The
same thing, and defeated al midnight, on the
last night OF the session We have held out to them the
next and the next and the session, until am sas
fled that rely upon this uncertain, irregular
policy OF granting appropriations here Suppose this bil
should pass now, nearly all the appropriations you have
10 II would be expended in building dredging machines
and snag boats and improvements necessary TO commence
WITH IN contracts for material, IN preparations without
biy struggle will defeat the bill thus every faThng
in his hill will he wasted