The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-09-13

cation. Col. BUTTERFIELD, indeed, has proposed
to establish line of steamships which shall be
constantly employed in making the circuit of the
Gulf touching, at stated intervals at its
several ports, and carrying the mails of
both nations For this service he has
already charter, conditional subsidy.
and liberal privileges from the Mexican Gov
ernment and he asks of our Congress also an
annual subsidy for carrying the mails from the
UNITED STATES. Advantageous as the organiza-
ton of such line of coasting steamers would I'M
queshonably be to the commerce of this country
hsmemoralhasy yet to be acted upon, and the proba-
bity is that thenext Congress will be more deeply
engaged in forming plans and combinations for the
next Presidential campaign, than in attending to
their legitimate duties. Passing southwark, we
find the principal commerce of the Amazon and
its tributaries in the hands of the English 1t is
the same case with Rio Janeiro and the more
Southern ports of Brazil, and with respect also to
the river Plate and its various affluents Even orr
mails from South America reach US uia England.
These lucrative fields for commercial enterprise
have been wholly neglected by us, and by this ne
glect other nations are not only reaping a rich
of the trade which, if not met by well directed
competition on our part, will, in the course of a
lew years, secure to them the almost complete mo-
nopoly of those markets. The Pacific Steam Navi-
cation Company have already in active service on
the Pacific coast of South America eight steamers
varying from five hundred to fifteen hundred TONS
ourthen, and are about to put on two more to meet
the exlgences OF trade which is annually increas-
ing IN value On the Atlantic coast there are also
regular lines of English steamers. We have thirty
two English steamships, and eight Others owned
by merchants of the Hanse Towns, plying between
European ports and the ports of the UNITED
STATES and opposed to these forty vessels, having
an aggregate tonnage of eighty thousand tons, we
have eight American steamships of twelve thou
sand tons burthen, two only of which are REGULAR
ly employed all the year round. 1t has been well
urged by the merchants of Philadelphia, that
ocean steamers have become, in fact the sine
qua non of foreign trade and that the port which
'fails to employ them, especially if contiguous to
Zone that does must sooner or later sink
"into a condition of commercial vassal-
cage and insignifcance" But the truth of the pro-
position is not limited to the commerce between
rival parts OF the same country, it applies with
still greater force to the commerce between nations
Every body acknowledges that we are rapidly
losing the ocean carrying trade and that our sail
ing ships, except for the transportation of bulky
commodities, are being superseded by steam
propeers. Ship owners complain that they can
not find adequate employment for their vessels.
The ship building interest languishes. Our regu-
lar seamen, as class, degenerating, and thus
one arm of defence, in case of war with foreign
power, is gradually becoming crippled. The day
may come when we may be called upon bitterly to
regret our error in this respect. The commerce of
nation forms one Of the principal elements of its
power also forms one of the chief bases of its
material prosperity 1t will not do for us to ignore
the revolution which is now going on in the car
ryng trade of the world, to cling to old fuse and
'wont in opposition to the scientific progress of
the age. At present, unhappily, we are retrograd-
ing. We shut our eyes to the fact that other ma
tons are taking advantage of our supineness Our
merchants and capitalists hesitate to make invest
mens for fear of possible loss, where foreign cap-
talists and diplomatists are building up princely
fortunes. 1t is time that some change was effected
i'll our commercial policy. 1t is especially time
that we devoted ourselves energetcally to the
development of the vast resources of Southern and
Central America but to do this it requires con-
cert of action between our leading commercial men
and the General Government