The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-06-24

erly opposed the policy of fostering the fisheries
! as school for seamen. Had he'been persuaded,
as the men of all parties are at the present day,
| of the utility and essential importance OF that
arm of the national defence, | cannot doubt that
his recommendation would have been entirely
| different Could he have foreseen the glory
which the little nucleus of a navy won for the
| country during the administration of his success
| sor, he would never have done anything calcu-
lated TO cripple that navy or to weaken the
| sinews of its strength
Sir, navy cannot be spoken into existence, at
the fat of the greatest conqueror, with unlimited
resources of money and landsmep at his command.
Bonaparte had all these in abundance but he
was compelled to acknowledge his inferiority to
J England upon the sea. He had had sad eyi-
dences of this inferiority before the battle of Ira
J falgar swept his navy out of existence and for
ever sealed his fate.
| How marked the contrast, if we turn TO the
history of American engagements with England
| France could command every element of naval
greatness but one, viz men trained to manage
| ships We, in our struggles with the great ma
val Powers of the world, lacked everything but
men. Our exchequer was meagre, our policy
had been narrow, and, as experience has demon
strated, most unwise; but our little ships were
| manned by intelligent, disciplined, and brave
American seamen, who in large degree, were
| graduates of these very fisheries. Sir, 1 need
not do them justice. 1t is the task of a poet
| The reports and dispatches from our naval he
roes read more like the creations OF poetry and
| fiction than sober realities and am not sur
| prised that our great master of romance, our
| American Scott, has been charmed away from
his realms of fiction by the truths stranger
than felton," to be found in the archives of the
! Navy Department.
Mr. Jefferson lived to see his error He ad-
| mtted in numerous letters from his phlosophi-
| cal retreat at Monticello, that his prejudices
against the establishment of a navy had been
ill-founded, and that his great rival, Mr.. Adams,
was chiefly entitled to the credit of building up
the navy. Those who cling to the secondary
error of Mr.. Jefferson, regarding the fisheries,
long after he has himself abandoned and refuted
the primary error, in regard to a navy, show
themselves singularly superstitious in their rev.
for the letter, when the spirit has left it.
He was opposed to the system of supporting
school for seamen, because he was opposed to
the establishment of navy; his modern pro-
fessed disciples are continually augmenting the
navy, and are willing to expend millions in the
construction of ships and the establishment of
naval schools for the education of officers, while
they will not allow a cent for the instruction and
discipline of men sailors.
Our fathers pursued different policy; they
first took care to have their naval vessels well
Manned by training men to the service, and il
somehow happened that the same training served
the double purpose of fitting some to command
and others to obey. The Hulls, Perrys, and De-
caturs, were not educated in naval schools; but
the men whom they commanded were, in large
degree, educated in the fisheries, whose pros
perity, if not their very existence, is dependent
upon the system of bounties.
In 1913, the country returned to the system of
salt duties and bounties to fishermen. In the
mean time during the six years which inter
= I
their revival, the fisheries had no other support
than that derived from the tariff on the mporta-
ton OF foreign fish. That tariff was seyenty-ive
cents per barrel on imported picked fish, and
fifty cents per quintal of dried fish.
The act of July 20, 1913, not only renewed the
system of bounties, but increased their amount, |
and, like the acts repealed in 1907, it gave the
bounty to the ship-owners and seamen, in con-
sderaton of their spending four months of the |
year in fishing No condition was annexed, re-
quirng the expectation, or even the catching of
iisha clear proof that the object of the act was
the protection and encouragement of fishing as a
school for seamen. -~-E
The first section imposes a duty of twenty
cents per bushel upon the importation of salt.
The second section provides for the payment of
twenty cents per barrel upon the expectation of
picked fish of the fisheries of the United States,
cured with foreign salt The fifth section gives
a bounty to vessels engaged in the cod fisheries,
and is as follows:
'SEa. s. That from and after the last day OF
December, thousand eight hundred and
fourteen, there shall be paid on the last day of
December, annually, to the owner Of every ves-
sci, or his agent, by the collector of the district
where such vessel may belong, that shall be
qualified agreeably to law for carrying on the
bank and cod fisheries, and that shall actually
have been employed therein at for the term
OF four months, at the least, of the fishing
next preceding, (Which season is accounted to
be from the last day of February to the last day
of November in every year, for each and every
ton of such vessels burden, according to her ad-
measurement, licensed or enrolled: if OF
twenty tons, and not exceeding thirty tons, two
dollars and forty cents; and if above thirty
tons, four dollars of which allowance, three
eighth parts shall accrue and belong to the
owner of such fishing vessel, and the other five
eghths thereof shall be divided by him, his
agent, or lawful representative, to and among
the several fishermen who shall have been en-
ployed in such vessel during the season afore-
said, or part thereof, the may be, in
such proportions the fish they shall respect
lively have taken NAV bear to the whole guam
tity of fish taken on board such vessel during
such season: Prorided, That the allowance
aforesaid on one vessel, for season, shall
not exceed two hundred and seventy two dollars"
The sixth section gives one dollar and sixty
cents per ton to vessels or boats under twenty
tons, and with the condition annexed that they
land not less than twelve quintals of FISH for
every ton of their admeasurement. (See Stat
utes at Large, vol. 3, page 49, 1t will be seen
that the same discrimination is made in favor of
large vessels, which | formerly pointed out.
There can be no installing the object of this
discrimination. 1t is clearly the principle
that the larger vessels the better calculated
to discipline seamen The duration of this act
WAS limited to one wear after the termination of
the war with Great Britain.
The act of February ., 1916, continues in force
the former act of July 30, 1913, indefinitely. 1t
is as follows:
:" That the act entitled An act laying duty
on imported salt, granting a bounty on picked
fish exported, and allowances to certain vessels
employed in the fisheries passed on the goth
day of July, in the year 1872 shall be, and the
same hereby is, continued in force, anything
IN the said act to the contrary nOtwithstand-
ing" (See Statutes at Large, vol 3, page 254
The act of March lst, 1917, goes still further
to Illustrate the object of the bounty system to
nshermen IL requires the owners and three
fourths of the crews of fishing vessels claiming
the bounty to be citizens of the United States
Section third is as follows:
"That after the 3Oth day of September next.
the bouutes and allowances as now granted
by law to the owners of boats and vessels en-
gagged in the fisheries, shall be paid only on
boats or vessels the officers and at least three
quarters of the crews of which shall be proved
to the satisfaction of the collector of the district