Gazette and sentinel., 1860-09-08
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
John C. Breckinridge,
OF KENTUCKY.
CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK.

our OCan mail system has been pald on
the principle Of contract, and the Gov
ernment was supposed to receive a val
uablc consideration. The two objects
avowed were to obtain for a fair price
the transportation of the mails and the
germ Of an economical marine. But
the question now presented is wholly
different. We are urged to open the
Federal Treasury for the purpose OF
sustaining certain commercial lines IN
Il national competition We are told
they must go down in the rude contests
Of commerce unless they are Sustained
by the public money. The true ques-
ton, when stripped of all DISCUSSES, Is,
shall the Government become the part
ner of individuals and companies iii
commercial operations, thus inilicting a
double wrong, by giving peculiar adj
vantages to a small fraction of the com
munity, and at the same time collecting
the capital it subscribes by taxation
from those who are to be oppressed by
the monopoly?
"If, by the adoption Of this amend
ment, the principle is established that
Government money shall be expended
to support private commerce, what limit
shall be. assigned to the application Of
this principle ? The precedent, if adop-
ted for the benefit of the Collins line,
like every other bad precedent, will he
the fruitful parent of a perniciouS brood
Of laws, and will engraft a radically
false policy upon the Legislation Of the
country.
"Sir, in my judgment, the proposition
before the committee involves the high
est interests of trade and the true policy
of America. As we shall decide it, So
will we determine whether commerce
shall be free or fettered !; whether the
carrying trade of the country shall be
fastened upon the public treasury !;
whether the free ocean shall be covered
with the hullS of commercial monopo-
lies, welded by the power of the Gov
eminent, and levclled against the enter
prise of its own citizens"
Having exhibited elaborate tables to
show the present character and cost Of
the ocean postal service, and of the ad-
ditional expense of similar propositions
pending before Congress, he says {:
1.-THE lines will involve a yearly expcn-
diture to the Government above the
present contracts of at least four and
a half millions of dollars. This esti-
mate is sufficiently low, though not, per-
haps, strictly accurate, because ali the
applicants have not specified the COM
p%ensation. If to this amount bc added
the present appropriations, we have a
total annual expenditure for this single
branch Of the public service of about
six millions of dollars, and after these
are established we shall, doubtless, as
heretofore, have numerous applications
for new lines, pressed with great indus
try and ability, as well as for increased
pay TO those already in operation"
Besides, however, exposing the vast
expenditures which the proposed sys-
ten involved-a system exceeding,
''both in the number of lines and amount
of appropriations to them, the whole
net work of navigation with which, we
are told, England has compassed the
globe"-in continuing his speech, Mr..
Breckenridge showed how the steam in
terest had escaped the responsibility of
their first engagement to furnish an
auxiliary steam navy, and he proved,
10y official data, that the vessels built
by Collins & Sloo, and others, for naval
service, were unfit for that purpose.
In the course of his able argument,
which exposed the unconstitutionality
extravaganza, and inexpediency of
granting this gratuity, he paid a beau
tiful compliment TO our navy and COM
mercial marine. He said
81 am a friend to our commerce, and
favorable to all proper facilities for ex-
ending our communications with foreign
countries ; | am a friend, also, Of the
navy. The history of my country pre-
sents too many pages adorned by its
achievements to allow me to speak
aught in its disparagement. | never
a be false to the memories that con-
meet it with the crisis of l176 and 1912,
nor forget that when the COM
merce of America retired from all the
seas, and hid itself under embargoes
and acts of non-intercourse, our gallant
navy contended, not ingloriously, with
the first powers in Christendom, and
avenged the wrongs we had long suffer-
ed from England.
81 am by no means insensible to the
national honor and commercial renown
which the Collins steamers have con