The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1864-02-13

! OF the people VINO are peculiarly lnteTaSt0d
in com saerce, and residing in the section OF
| the country in which the Senator himself
resides ?" He would have been compelled
to answer that question in the affirmative,
and thus tho amount would be reduced to
81, OoO, 900 in place of $l42, 600, 900.
Then l would have asked him, if, during
the debates of tho last Congress, he did not
several times assert in his place in the Sen
ate that we were paying our naval officers
aud our seamen much greater compensa-
ton than was paid III any naval service in
the world and he would have answered
again in the affirmative. Then would have
followed the inquiry, "Is not the pay of all
officers now in the naval service Of the Uni
ted States fixed by u law Of Congrees:" and
should again have received an affirmative
answer.
| would have asked him still further,
"Do you not, in making your charges
against the Department, accuse them'-tor
1t virtually amounts to an acCusation--"of
making exorbitant and improper estimates
when they make estimates for salaries
amounting to $IS, Goo, $50 Of the 81 1000
based wholly upon the laws Of Congress
which Tx the compensation for the officers
and men," He would have been con-
strained to answer in the affirmative
Why, sir, ii you had that witness before
you under such circumstances you would
further have developed the fact that, iii the
navy-yards in France and England. and
all over Europe, from which the Senator's
figures are drawn, the skilled artisans to
whom We pay from two and n half to three
and half dollars per day can be secured
at from seventy-ive cents to ninety cents
and one dollar?
The Senator then goes on and says
ut may be said, and said with truth, that
these are expenditures III time OF peace. l
have been at some pains to look over the
expenditures of England and France in the
gigantic struggle of the Crimean war. That
war was declared ON the 9TH of March, 1854,
and the Crlmea was evacuated by the allies
July Il, 1857, lasting little more than
three years and five months. The total ma
val expenditures OF Great Britain during
the war were $262, O52, 30, and OF France,
Isl 1913, making total of $3i9, 909 7S8 for
| the whole naval expenses OF France and
England during the Crimean war, which
WAS less than Sl00, 900 year, SO that we are
called upon this year to appropriate for our
Navy SO, 900, 900 more than was spent by
the combined nations of France and Eng
land in any one year during the Crimean
war;"
| Now, Mr.. President, j: witness had
made that statement upon the stand and
| there had been any one present authorized
| to lnterrogate him III regard to the facts, it
could be made to appear that the expenses
OF England during the Crimean war rang
dollars per annum in specie. 1t would also
have been discovered that England had y
navy already built, and that she was not
compelled, as the Government OF the Unit
ed States has been compelled during this
war, to build their navy AS well AS to main
tain it and enlarge it's navy-yards. ltwouid
have been proven by the witness, if he were
informed in regard to it, that about the on
ly vessels built by the British Government
during the time of the Crimean war were
those celebrated gunboats with which we
were threatened by writer in the London
| Times during the Trent affair, and which
SO frightened some OF my friends in the
Northwest, that they Immediately conceiv-
ed the great canal project, all of which gun
boats have since been abandoned by the
British Government, and TO one of which
could ever have got through the canals into
Lake Ontario.
submit, Mr.. President. that it would
have been fair to have stated that the Brit
ish navy was already built, ana that there
were NO expenses, or comparatively no ex-
penses, incurred during the Crimean war
in constructing a navy with which to carry
it on. Then another fact would have been
ELECTED on that examination, and a very
important one. Ii had been authorized
| to interrogate the Senator as IA witness on
stand, l should have asked him what was
the character Of the ships which the British
and French then had. Were they sailing
vessels or were they steamers, ana what is
the difference in cost between supporting a
steamer in keeping up blockade and sup
porting a sailing vessel? Why, Mr. Presi-
dent, the facts were that nearly all of the
vessels employed by the French and the
English during the Crimean war were sail
ing vessels. Russia had but very little
coast to blockade. and the old sailing hulks
were taken into the Black and Baltic seas,
and set down before their principal ports.
There they remained during the whole war,
and it cost little more to support them than
in their own dock-yards and in ordinary at
home. While England and France thus
blockaded Russian ports in what may al
most be called inland waters with sailing
ships, we have kept up the most complete
blockade ever known in naval warfare
with steam vessels, and along nearly four
thousand miles of coast, besides keeping up
an armament of nearly one hundred steam
vessels on the western waters.
Mr.. President, do not know that shall
havea better opportunity to say two or three
things in connection with naval matters
not Immediately connected with the sub
ject in hand than the present; and if the
Senate will pardon me will proceed to do
so. wish the Senate to understand that 1
am not "thick and thin defender o! the
4 Navy Department.. claim no infalibilitv
| for that Department, or for any other. l
have condemned some of its acts, as l have
condemned some of the acts of every De-
partment OF this Government. They know
that l often differ from them. 1 have
frankly told them when condemned them.
I have always gone before them and told
them what my opinions were in regard to
any particular measure that disapproveed.
Sometimes I have convinced them that
they were wrong; sometimes they have
convinced me that was wrong; and some
times we have both remained of The same
opinion as before. differed from the Ma
Wy Department in regard to their treatment
of Commodore Du Pont. I tod them so
frankly. But l have not allowed my pri-
vate grief in that connection, or on any
other subject, to control my action as a
Senator. / believe that that gallant admit
raj would be one Of the first to rebuke and
condemn me if he supposed that allowed
my feelings in his behalf to influence me in
the slightest degree in my conduct here
He loves the country, and he loves the ser
vice of which he is so distinguished an or
nament too much for that. 1 disagreed
with them in regard to the restoration u
certain officers who had resigned several
years ago, and had recently come back to