Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1859-08-31
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP.

THE TRANSATLANTIC CARRYING Trade DE-
PRESSING OF AMERICAN SHIPPING INTERESTS
LIFE AND MOVEMENT IN NEW YORK HARBoR-
SEvENIY-FIvE STEAMERS IN SIeHr-SrArES
IsLAxD-LoNe IsLAND-GovERsMENr FoRrI-
FICATIONs-AN ANIMATED SCENE, &c &c.
Editorial Correspondence Of Tbs Star.]
OK THE STEAMER KESNEBEC, }
Atlantic Ocean. bsticesn ". York aad Cape Navy
Il no. 80 August II, 1859. y
Reaching New York yesterday morning on the
| way home. am again on the wing. 1 shall not
weary the Stars readers with further descriptions
| Of men and things as they now existin New York,
4 except in one connection Of great national inn
pOrtanee. mean the citys transatlantic carry
iSg trade, the state of which is such should NIL
/ American statesmen Of all parties and sections
with alarm. Five years ago, no branch Of Ameri-
/ can business more prosperous than Its trans
oceanic frcighting business. Now it is dead,
| dead, dead! Except for voyages too long for
steamships and to foreign ports unfrequented by
steamships our sailing vessels can get no feights.
ForCign ocean steamers now monopolize the
business five years ago, only, almost monopolized
| by our sailing vessels The consequence is, that
not single ship is being built in any New York
| ship yard, and thousands of captains and mates
| are out of employment. Foreign governments aid
| the steam lines Of their subjects as ours do not.
| Hence they carry freight absolutely at cheaper
rates than our sailing vessels can transport it,
when the difference In insurance and interest on
the difference In time is taken into consideration.
| Thus, man in business will ship by an Ameri-
can sailing vessel when he can save money by
shipping by an English, French, or German
| steamer. ... ?
| The mistake of Congress In failing to encour-
| age American competition in trans-oceanic steam
| eighting, has thus been most unfortunate one
;,t.r So 81
can prove more disastrous in the long run than
| the virtual destruction Of our European carrying
trade-not long since the especial nursery for
| American naval scamen. Congress commenced
the system improperly in giving out special ia
vOrs) contracts at stipulated rates Of compensation
Instead of rigidly letting all such contracts to
| lowest bidders. In granting such special fivors,
| they gave monOpolists the means of exact'ny un-
justly through fraudulent combinations enormous
exac'ions from the people at large The case Of
the old special contracts with the California lines
for instance. is in example in point. They paid
| some S1GO,oH per annum to two companies who
| in turn were thus enabled TO pay Mr. Cornelius
| Vanderbilt half million per annum for prevel t.
| ing any American competition to their lines-his
pay to continue while he succeeded in preventing
| such competition With competition thus pre-
| cludcd, they have been enabled to keep up the
prices of passages per steamer, to and from Cali
fornia, at figures through which they have ex.
acted millions annually from the people at large,
more than they could have Obtained but for their
annual use of S50O.cO0 paid them by the Govern
| ment as they did Use it.
| The sense of public justice has been so outraged
by the encrmty Of that transaction from beginning
| IN end, as that Congress, becoming frightened at
the result of its own laundering or worse Ieyisla-
ton on the subject has utterly refused to care for
| the American freighting interest involved in
| the question-leaving that to the tender mercIes
| of foreign competition aided by foreign govern
| ments nationally and TO a moderate extent
dare not occupy too much space in explaining
| this unfortunate condition of things, which has
destroyed the business of ship building throurb
| out tie country for the most part has laid IN
hundreds II not thousands of best ling sh rs
| and has forced thousands of our best sra captains
mates and sailors TO look TO other pursuits 1t Is
to be hoped that next winter Congress will take
steps to arrest tine injury TO the general business of
the country thus resulting from its own course
am now bound for Cape May, having deter
mined to come by sea, to avoid rail travelling. and
at the same time to get sight OF the magnificent
panorama Of the bay of New York, than which
there Is no more striking and charming water
view picture to be seen in the whole world The
kennebec, plying between New York and PhiIa-
delIhia, and touching at Cape May, left her moor
Inss Pier No. IL, North river) at this afternoon
Just when the Hudson river and Boston boats and
perhaps twenty-five or thirty other steamers des-
tined for suburban watering places or points also
left theirs, in sight from the Kennebec's deck rs
she started on her course. All these many steam
ers were crowded with passengers, apparently
some carrying as many as thousand each and
here and there one with fine brass band on
board, discoursing soul-stirring music Thirty
or ferry mammoth steam ferry boats and small
steam Ctow) boats were seen plying around
the harbor at the same time. So at the lowest
reasonable calculation we had In sight I'm an
hours sailing on the kennebec seventy-fve pro-
crossing steamers, nearly all Of them loaded to
their utmost capacity with human freight This
sight, added to the forests Of nasts of sailing
sells with which the docks were filled and the
busy hive Of labor on those vessels and the dock
wharves, completed picture Of enterprise-Ifc
in mOticn-suCh as one sees liz no other way In
America, except when oil the water in New York
harbor of Castle Garden. Our course Law down
between Long Island the left and Staten Island
upon tine right hand, both now thickly studded
With buildings of almost every conceivable mod
description, with beautiful foliage interspe .sed
around and among them. Tic numerous Govern
ment Notifications in the harbor and bay instantly
attract the Voya2ers eye as well as the highlands
of Staten Island covered with water ny place Ia
viions and private WILLIS from the bays edge to
| their very crown. We met hundreds of craft on
| the way to Sandy Hook, coming up; from ocean
steamers Of two thousand tons burden down to
icet cock-boats that will barely carry two persons
so animated scene is to be viewed nowhere else
oh the water, at least in this country, except Just
there. W.. VII
-
MR. DoUGLAs-HIs SCHEME. AND PROSPECTS
We make from a late number Of the New York
Herald the following extracts from an ed tcrial re-
viewing Mr.. Douglas and his Presidential schemes
and prospects. because they embrace views Which
are just and founded upon facts within the knowl
edge Of hundreds here familiar with the WORKINGS
of the wheels within wheels, which Mr. N il