,.

1874. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. '4507 - we slillll go so far as to vote appropriations. to build a canal through recites that it is no longer for the interest of the United States to Illinois and complete the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers system of naviga­ continue the said treaty in force. tion through Wisconsin, and shall make the Upper Missis ippi beyond The joint resolution therefore provides that notice be given of in­ the Falls of Saint Anthony capable of carrying the commerce of the tention tq terminate the treaty according to the provisions of the northern portion of the count1:y, I suggest to the chairman of the seventeenth article thereof, and that the President be authorized to committee and to the Senate that you have then only prepared a communicate such '0-0tice to the government of the kingdom 'Of Bel- route for six or seven months in the year.- The other four or five gium. . months or sometimes six months that whole route is blocked up. The Mr. ORTH. Not wishing unnecessarily to consume the time of the southern route, I am told, will be open. It so happens that our wheat House, I will state that this resolution meets the approval of the and corn and pork and beef have heretofore not :?Ought and perhaps State Department, and its passage· is unanimously recommended by never will seek a route to the ocean over the top of the Alleghany the Committee on Foreign Affairs, but if any gentleman desires an Mountains by way of the James and Kanawha Rivers, or up the Ten­ explanation of the matter I am prepared to give it. I will only add ne ee or Chattahoochee or any of those small streams through the that a-s the-fourth article of the treaty operates injuriously to the in­ Southern States. They want to go rapidly to Ne'Y York; they want terests of our commerce, it is desirable that notice for its termination to go by railway, not by canal. We utilize the Erie Canal in New be giYen at as early a day as practicable. • , York now as a competing line simply for the heavy, bulky freight from Mr. TOWNSEND. I would like to know in very brief terms the the West. All the other freights go with railroad speed through the subject of the treaty about to be annulled. country, and we must not give up the idea of railroad transportation. :Mr. ORTH. The treaty concluded with Belgium in 1858, and now . I shall vote for the resolution, Mr. President, but I hope before the in force, contains this article : Senate adjoUI'ns that the Railroad Committee will report back the bill .A,RT. 4. Steam-vessels of the United States and Belgium, engaged in regnla.r to which I have referred, that we may have some expression from navigation between the United States and Belginm, shall be exempt in both conn­ this body as to whether we will charter by ~ct of Congress private . tries from the payment of d~ties of tonnage, anchorage, bnoys, and.light-honses .. _ companies to construct railways across the Union and limit their With no other nation has our Government directly any such treaty charges for the transportation of persons and property. That is what stipulation or engagenrent. Under our tonnage laws, American ves­ the bill does. sels which shall 'be entered at any custom-house in the United States Mr. LEWIS. I move that the Senate proceed to the consideration from any foreign port or place are subject to a duty of thirty cents a of executive business. ton. By virtue of the fourth article aforesaid, as well as by the pro­ The motion was agreed to; and the Senate proceeded to the con­ vision of the tonnage laws, Belgian vessels are exempt from the pay- sid~ration of executive business. After twenty-eight minutes spent ment of this tax. . in executive session the doors were reopened and, (at five o'clock and This exemption, which discriminates against American steam-ves­ twenty minutes p. m.) the Senate adjour.p.ed. sels, does not apply alone to Belgian vessels, for by virtue of treaties with several other nations we have agreed that all favors in naviga­ tion or commerce which shall have been granted by us to any other ... nation shall inure to such nations under the operation of what is known as the "favored-nation clause;' in such treaties. Among the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 1 powers thus cl.a.iming the privileges specifically accorded to Belgium by our treaty may be named Italy, Brazil, Nicaragua, and Mexico. WEDNESDAY, June 3, 1874. And the same privilege is claimed in favor of Dutch and Swedish The House i:net at eleven o'clock a.m. Prayer by the Chaplain, steamships, but not yet accorded. Rev. J. G. BUTLER, D. D. · So long as we continue. this treaty with Belgium, we cannot deny The JoUI'nal of yesterday was partly read, when the same privilege of admitting free or tonnage dues the steam-ves­ Mr. RANDALL moved that the further reading of the Journal be sels of those nations claiming by virtue ofthe "favored,.nation clause" dil pen cd with. - in existing treaties. There being no objection, the motion was agreed to. By terminating the treaty with Belgium, we release ourselves not only from this discrimination against our own vessels so far as Bel­ TEXAS PACIFIC R.A.ILROAD. gian vessels are concerned, but as well from all similar obligations Mr. SAWYER. I ask unanimous consent that the Sena.te bill sup­ arising from the "favored-nation clause" to which I have already re­ plem'entary to an act entitled "An act to incorporate the Texa-s Pacific erred. It is desirable that our vessels should be relieved from this Railroad" be taken from the Speaker's table and referred to the Com­ funjust discrimination. We ]).ave the right reserved thus to relieve mittee on the Pacific Railroadr with leave to report it back at any ourselves in the seventeenth article of the treaty, ·Which ·provides time. . that "either of the high contracting parties" reserves to itself the Mr: HOLMAN. I object. I would notobjecttothemerereference. right to terminate after twelve months' notice. The joint re olution .. nRIDGE ACROSS MISSISSIPPI RIVER. provides for such notice to terminate the entire treaty, although it is Ur SAWYER b · · only the fourth article which is sought to be abrog!>ted. · , Y uuammous consent, introduced a bill (H. R. No. Mr. TOWNSEND. I am satisfied with the gentleman's explanation. 3583) to authorize the construction of a brid1e across the Mississippi _ The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed for a third read­ River at or near the city of La Crosse, in t e State of ·wisconsin; ing, read the third time, and passed. which was read a first and second time, referred to the Committee on Mr._ORTH moved to reconsider the vote by which the joint resolu- Commerce, and ordered to be printed. _ tion was passed ; and also moved that the motion to reconsider be laid CAPTAIN CHARLES E. GREBLE. on the table. Mr. WILLARD, of Michigan, by unanimous consent, introduced a Th_e latter motion was agreed to. bill (H. R. o. 3587) for the relief of Captain Charles E. Greble; which ORDER OF BUSINESS. wa-s read a first and second time, referred to the' Committee on Mill- Mr. LAWRENCE. I rise to make a privile~edreport from the Coin- tary Affairs, and ordered to be printed. · mittee on War Claims upon the bill regulatrng the taking of testi­ HEIRS OF GE!mRAL RICHARD WL."'W'. mony touching the loyalty of claimants. 1.Ir. WALLACE, by unanimous conseO:t, introduced a bill (H. R. No. Mr. MOREY. I raiBe the question of consideration for the purpose 3588) for the relief of the heirs of General Richard Win..D.; which was of having a morning hour and bringing up the bill relating to the read a fhst and second time, referred to the Committee on War Claims, ·Louisiana levees. and ordered to be printed. - Mr. HAWLEY, of illinois. I understood that the bill in reference to the mouth of the Mississippi River was to come- up to-day. TERMINATION OF THE TREATY WITH BELGIUM. The SPEAKER. That will come up later in the day on the ques­ Mr. ORTH. By direction of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, tion of reconsideration. autho~ed to report on this subject at any time, I report a joint reso­ Mr. HAWLEY, of Illinois. As to the bill in regard to the mouth of lution(H. R. No. 107) providing for the termination of the treaty be­ the Mississippi River, will it make any difference which one of these tween the United States and His Majesty the King of the Belgians, two bills be now taken up f _ concluded at Washington July 17, 1858. The SPEAKER. The Chair apprehends the gentleman from Louisi­ The joint resolution was read a first and second time. It recites ana [Mr. MoR~Y] will consume an hour, but does not know that the in the preamble that it is provided by the seventeenth article of the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. LAWRENCE] proposes to debate his bill. treaty between the United State Of America on the one part and His­ Mr. LAWRENCE. I think it necessary to explain the bill at some Majesty the King of the Belgians on the other part, concluded at length. Wa h~o-ton July, 17, 1858, that the present treaty shall be in force Mr. HAWLEY, of Illinois. I wish to make a further inquiry. If during ten 'years from the date of the exchange of the ratification the gentleman from Louisiana gets the :floor, the question will then and until the expiration of twelve months after either of the high be for the House to determine which bill shall first be considered. contracting parties shall have announced to the other its intention The SPEAKER. The House can determine between the gentleman t o terminate t he operation thereof, each party reserving to itself the from Ohio and the gentleman from Louisiana. right of making such declaration to t ho other at tho ond of .the ten Mr. HAWLEY, of Illinois. But suppose the gentleman from Louis­ yetus above mentioned; it being agreed that after the expiration of iana should now get the floor for the consideration of the bill in ref­ twelve months' prolongation accorded on both sides the treaty and erence to the Mississippi levees. all its stipulations shall cease to be in forco. Tho preamblo fm·ther · Tho SPEAKER. The House can afterward dotermine between the 4508 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. JUNE 3, bill of the gentleman from Ohio and the bill for the improvement of din"; and of stationery, including blank books, for the Quartermaster's Depart­ ment, certificatesofor di charged soldiers, blank forms for the Pay and Quartermas­ the Mississippi. River. . ter's Departments, and for printing of division and department orders and report , ., Mr. HAWLEY, of illinois. The House Will determine now between $4,250,000. the gentleman from Ohio and the gentleman from Louisiana. 'l'he committee recommended concurrence, with an amendment as The SPEAKER. The question is, Will the House now consider the follows: bill which the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. LAWREXCE] reports from .After the word "dollars," in line 2, on page 3 of the bill, add the words: the Committee on War Claims Y Provided, Th~t $300,000. thus appropriated may be applied by t.he Commi.Missouri and for other Mr. BECK. I wish to make an: inquiry of the gentleman from Ohio, distant posts. and that is whether all the war claims are not suspended until the Mr. RANDALL. That is in the nature of a deficiency for the C.Jll'­ House shall determine on this report what view it will take- f rent fiscal year. Mr. LAWRENCE. This provides for the appointment-of agents, Mr. WHEELER. Not at all. It simply enables the Commissary­ and is absolutely necessary to enable. these commissioners to go on General to anticipate the time, so that he may take advantage of the speedily with their work. · proper stage of water on the Mis ouri River. The House divided; and there were-ayes 57, noes 35; no quorum Mr. RANDALL. The word.s would rather imply that this was a voting. deficiency. ' Tellers were ordered; and Mr. LAWRENCE and Mr. MOREY were The amendment of the Senate was concurred in with the amend­ appointed. ment of the Committee on Appropriations. Mr. McCRARY. If the motion of the gentleman from Ohio pre­ Mr. CONGER. I desire to ask the Chair whether the first amend­ . vails, will the bill from the Committee on War Claims be considered ment of the Senate, with an amendment by the Committee on Appro- in the morning hour t priations, has been acted on by a vote f · 'The SPEAKER. If the motion should prevail, the bill which the The SPEAKER. It has. The Senate amendment has been con­ gentleman from Ohio proposes to report from the Committee on War cuiT'ed in with an amendment. Claims would proceed, subject only to the Chair recognizing the gen­ Mr. CONGER. My attention was otherwise occupied when the tleman from New York, [Mr. WHEELER,] who has a privileged mat­ .amendment was concurred in. Will the Chair permit me to a-sk the ter in charge in connection with the Army appropriation bill. gentleman who has charge of this bill. a question in regard to the Mr. HAWLEY, of Illinois. I should like to know the exact stand­ amendment of the committee t ing of this bill. Mr. WHEELER. I will explain to the gentleman what is the The SPEAKER. The Chair will explain if gentlemen will be in object of that amendment. The bill reduces the enlisted men of the order, and he asks members not to wa.ste time in settling order of Army to twenty-five thousand men, and would reduce the Signal Corps business. There is no greater waste of time than what is spent in de­ in that-proportion. We desire to retain the Signal Corps in its pres­ termining the order of business. A great deal of business could be e~t force, and not take away from it the few men it would lo e in con­ dispatched during the strug~le to get the floor to have it t~ken up. sequence of the general reduction of the enlisted force of the Army. The gentleman fromlllin01s, [Mr. HURLBUT,] representing the Com­ Mr. CONGER: Would not this prevent the enlargement of the mittee on Railways and Canals in reference to the bill for the im­ signal service by establishing additional signal stations 7 provement of th~ mouth of the Mississippi River, proposes to call up Mr. WHEELER. This has nothing to do with that. That question the privileged motion to reconsider the vote by which that bill was will come up in connection with the sundry civil appropriation bill, recommitted, and thegentlemanfromOhio, chairmanoftheCommittee which will soon be reported. on War Claims, has the right to report his bill at any time. They are Mr. CONGER. There are demands for additional signal stations of equal privilege. / which it is very necessary should be met, and that would require The gentlema,n from Louisiaga [Mr. MOREY] has a bill in the morn­ additional signal officers. ing hour in reference to the Mississippi levees. If other business is :Mr. WHEELE~ . That must be done by additional legislation. objected to by the House, that perforce brings on the morning hour. Mr. CONGER. Then I desire to recon ider the vote by which the At the end of the morning hour the Chair will be left to recognize amendment was concurred in with an amendment. business in its order, or the Honse byraisingthequestion of consider­ Mr. WHEELER. I object to returning to that amendment. If ation will determine which shall have precedence. there iB any question about it I prefer that it should be raised in the Mr. HAWLEY, of Illinois. I understand from the Chair now that committee of conference. the bill in charge of my colleague [Mr. HURLBUT] in reference to the :Mr. GARFIELD. If there is any proposition to increase the num­ improvement of the mouth of the Mississippi River is of equal privilege ber of signal stations, that will properly come up in connection with with that in the hands of the chairm:~;n of the Committee on War the ~cellaneous appropriation bill. If any increase is to be l)lade Claims, so that if the House shall vote down the motion to take up it must be effected there. the bill in charge of the gentleman from Ohio it will be in order to Mr. CONGER. And when an increase is asked for there, the point call up my colleague's bill. of order will be raised. The SPEAKER. It is always in the power of the majority to de­ Mr. HALE, of Maine. Let me suggest to the gentleman from Michi­ termine which shall take precedence. gan [Mr. CONGER] that th.e increase of these stations does not draw . Mr. HAWLEY, of Illinois. Then I hope the ij:ollile will determine upon the military force provided here. If we givemoneyforincreas­ to take up the bill for the improvement of the mouth of the Missis­ ing the number of stations it will be in the sundry civil bill; and the sippi River. men appointed are not fi:om these soldiers, bnt from a different cla-ss 'l'he House again divided; and the tellers reported-ayes 75, noes 72. entirely. This provision does not conflict with the object the gentle­ So ,the motion of Mr. LAWRENCE was agreed to. man has in view. Mr. CONGER. I think the gentleman is mistaken. His under­ ARMY APPROPRIATION BILL. standinu of the matter is not the same as mine. Mr. WHEELER. I call up the Senate amendments to the bill (H. Mr. WHEELER. The point of order will lie against the gentle­ R. No. 1009) making appropriations for the support of the Army for man's proposition that it is a change of existing law. The number the fiscal year endin~ June 30, 1875, and for other purposes. of the Signal Corps is fixed by law, and yon cannot enlarge it except The recommendation of the Committee on Appropriations were by law. It iB new legislation. And if it is necessary I must make agreed to without question, except in the cases which will be indi­ thepoint of order, first, that the gentleman cannot, without unani­ cated. mous consent, return to an amendment which has already been con­ The first amendment of the Senate was to insert "including Indian curred in; and, second, that he is asking for new legislation in an · scouts;" so it will read : - appropriation bill. Forexyensesof recruiting and transportation of recruita, $105,000. .And no money Mr. CONGER. I think I will :find my way to get at it, notwith- appropnated by this act shall be paid for recruiting the Army beyond the number standing these points of order. · of twenty-five thouaand enlisted men, including Indian scouts. Mr. WHEELER. No doubt; my friend is adroit at that. The Committee on Appropriations recommended concurrence, with Mr. CONGER. In order to be able to say what I wish to submit to an amendment as follows : the House in connection with this matter, I move to reconsider the N othing however, in this a-ct shall be construed to diminish the signitl service, vote by which the Senate amendment No.1, with an amendment of and the Signal1 Corps shall be maintained as now organized.under the authority of the committee, was eoncuned in. the Secretary of War. The point I wish to make is this-and I ask the attention of the The amendment was agreed to; ·and the Senate amendment, ·as gentleman who reports the bill. This amendment renews tbe legis­ amended, was concurrecl in. lation which confines the Signal Corps force to its present numbers. The sixth amendment of the Senate wa.s read, as follows: . Now, there is a demand for additional signal stations which are im­ peratively needed in behalf of the commerce of the country. That Strike out "500" and insert " 250 ;" so.it will read: demand for the establishment of these stations on the lakes and sea­ For regula.r su1r lies of the 9uarterma ter's Department, to wit: For the regular supplies of the artermaster s Department, consisting of stoves for heating and coasts ought not to go unheeded.. My point is that this a!I).endment cooking; of fue for officers, enlisted men, guards, hospitals, store-houses, and pTevents by new legislation here the increase of Signal Corps stations, offices ; of forage in kind for the horses, mules, and oxen of the Quarteriilllster 's and that it ouuht not be put into this bill. Depn.rtment at the several posts and stations and wit.h the armies m the field; for Mr. GARFIELD. I would ask my friend from Michigan whether the horses of the several regiments of cavalry, the batteries of artillery, and such companie of infantry and scouts as may be mounted, and for the authorized num­ repeating a law makes it any stronger Y If he wants to enlarge the ber of officers' horses, including bedding for the animals; of strawforsoliliers' bed- signal service, it must be done by new legislation just as much after ' 1874. .CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 4509 this amendment passes a before. Whether this amendment passes is perhaps familiar to members of the House, at the Indian depl'e­ or not, what t}le gentleman proposes will st ill require new legisla­ dations committed last fall, not yet a year ago, in Nebraska, when tion. .A:ny increase of the force of the Signal Corps will have to be the Sioux entered the very heart of the western part of tlie State made in connection with the bill which includes that subject-matter. and had a contest with the Pawnees resulting in the slaughter of Mr. CONGER. I desire that this clause in the amendment shall seventy or eighty persons, occurred in organized counties of the State be stricken out : of Nebraska because of the want of this military post. If we had And the Signal Corps shall be maintru.n~d as now organized under the authority had such a post there we could have intercepted their approach. of the Secretary of War. They came immediately from the ·north into the part of Nebraska As the Signal Corps is now maintained under the authority of law, named, and this ])OSt would have been directly o·n the line which they that clause is unnecessary. must necessarily have passed over, and its establishment now would Mr. WHEELER. If the gentleman strikes that out, he will work promote the safety and security of the settlements of Nebraska. This the oefeat of his own proposition. For, as I have stated, this bill appropriation is not only asked in the interest of Nebraska, but of all reduces the enlisted force of the Army to tw·enty-fi ve thousand men, emigrating to and interested in the settlement of theWest . Nebraska and without that clause would take away from the Signal Corps its ha-s asked nothing at the hands of Congress during this term but this, proportion of the reduction. and this is a measure in behalf of the security of life and the advance­ Mr. CONGER. If I understand the gentleman correctly, when the ment of civilization. It is as little as Congress can do for the State; appropriation bill comes up for dealing with this subject the com­ and in view of t.he fa.ct that all the officers of the Army, the Secre­ mittee will listen to amendments-- tary of War, the General of the Army, and the general in command Mr. WHEELER. I will, most cheerfully. of the department, indorse the appropriation in the strongest languarre Mr. CONGER. To amendments for increasing the number of sig­ I hope it will be made. · ~ ' nal stations. I do not cace about increasing the number of signal Mr. WHEELER. I want to repel here at once the idea implied in officers. I withdraw my motion now with the understanding that what the gentleman has said that Nebraska ha asked for nothin(J' when the proper bill comes up the chairman of the committee or the during this Congress. I want to repel the idea that there ought t~ gentleman having charge of it will not oppose an amendment that be h~r.e at ev~ry session. a .general division of the public funds by increases the number of signal stations, but will aHow such an amend­ localities. This appropnation has not been recommended by either ment to be offered for the consideration of the House. of the standing Committees on Appropriations of the Senate or of the The SPEAKER. The Chair does not understand precisely what House. That some sort of fort may be necessary there I do not ques­ will be the effect of that agreement. tion, but that a _Permanent fort costing $50,000 is necessar.v I do deny. Mr. GARFIELD. I do not consent that there shall be a special under the standing law of the country to have sent in here his estimat.e agreement as to what points of order shall not be insisted on. I say that if it be necessa,ry, it was the duty of the Secretary of War Mr. CONGER. The gentleman said that when another bill came for it as provided by the law of 1859, that no permanent barrack.\ or up that would be the proper time for the consideration of this amend­ quarters shall hereafter be constructed until detailed estimates shall ment; and I ask if when the proper time comes he will permit the have been previously submitted t.o Congress and shall have been ap­ amendment to be offered 7 proved by a special appropriation. I say that there has been no Mr. GARFIELD. I cannot promise that no one shall make the estimate for the construction of a permanent fort at this point. point of oi·der, of course. Let me call attention to the rapid settlement of Nebraska. If yon Mr. CONGER. Then I cannot see the force of the gentleman's construct this permanent fqrt it will not be twelve months before the remark. · tide of immigration will press on beyond it, and it will become use­ Mr. GARFIELD. I will merely say that this is not the place to less. The Secretary of War is authorized to expend money for the legislate about signal stations. That is all I have to say about it. consti:uction of a fort anywhere in Nebraska ont of the 1,400,000 ap­ Mr. CONGER. I withdraw my motion. propriated for that purpose, and if the House is to maintain that The sixteenth amendment of the Senate was read, as follows: economy which so far has characterized its conduct in the considera­ tion of this bill, it will.not concur in the amendment of the Senate. Insert after line 226 of the printed bill the followin«: . For the construction of a post on the north fork of Loupe River in Nebraska. The question was taken; and the amendment of the Senate was non- $50,000: Provided, That the cost of said post shall not exceed the amount hereby concurred in. • appropriated. Mr. WHEELER. I ask the House to non:.concur in the remaiuinrr The Committee on Appropriations recommended non-concurrence. amendments of the Senate, :Yo. 17 to 24 both inclusive, as they all Mr. CROUNSE. With respect to that amendment I really hope relate to one subject-matter, that is the adjustment of the claims of that the House will concur in it. I did desire the opvortunity of loyal cit.izens in insurrectionary States. If the Senate system shall appearing before the Committee on Appropriations in reO'ard to it be adopted, in committee of conference or here in this House I am and.asked that privilege, and I think if it had been acco~ded tom~ informed by the Auditor of the Trea-sury that it is defective and can- · the committee w9uld have recommended concuri·ence in this amend­ not be made to work, unless it be changed in some particulars as to ment. I was accorded the right of appearing before a sub-committee; the balances in the respective Departments. For myself I am c~ntent but they failed to notify me as they promised they would do. with any system which brings the southern claims to some tribunal Mr. WHEELER. It was forgotten. for revision, and not have them retained wholly in the Departments. Mr. CROUNSE. The gentlema:u from New York says that the I think the better way is to non-concur in all these amendments and let the whole subject go to the committee of conference. ' matter was forgotten, and I am .~ sure that it was no fault of• his. I absolve him from all blame in the matter. I can only say that I re­ The SPEAKER. ·If there be no objection it will be so ordered. gret that I had not the opportunity of pressing this matter before No objection wa made, and the amendments were non-concurred in. the committee, because I am satisfied that if they had had all the :Mr. ALBRIGHT. I would like to ask a reconsideration of the vote information which I possess they would have recommended concur­ upon concurring in the fourth amendment of the Senate to this bill. rence in the amendment. I send to the Clerk's desk and ask to have The fourth amendment is to add to the para(J'raph in relation to I'ead the recommendation of General Ord, who is in command of that transportation these words, " except in cases wh~re a greater sum ha-s district, in favor of this appropriation. been paid for actual and necessary traveling expenses; " so that that The Clerk read as follows: portion of the paragraph will read as follows : Provided further, That nothing herein shall be construed to allow more than ten I.ha.ve again to.ca.ll attention to the exposed condition of Nebraska., north of the cents a mile for such transportation, except in cases where a greater sum has been Umon Pacific Railroad, and extending from the Mis ouri River for three hundred paid for ~Wtual and necessary traveling expenses. mil~s westward, in whic!I there is not a single military station. This country is as n ch as any other portion of Nebraska, but the fear of Indians has retru-ded its Mr. WHEELER. That provision is vague and ·indefinite, and s ~,ement. It has been subject, to freque~t raids from the Sioux, from Spotted needs to be put into some proper shape. The House has non-concurred Tail s, and now from Red Cloud s reservation. When on a recent visit east of in that amendment of the Senate upon the recommendation of the tbtJ first-named chief he did me the honor to call, with his lieutenants and con­ Cl1bines, at my office, I called his attention to a raid which some of what were Committee on Appropriations. considered to be hiR people had just committed on the 'peaceable Baptist and Mr. ALBRIGHT. In many instances officers are ordered from one Danish settlers on the Loup,. he replied in quite a. haughty manner that he had not station to another, compelled to break up their house-keeping arran

three months, and then presents his accounts of his expense there. That the.., House recede from its disagreement to the amendments of the Senate Everybody can see that this clause of the Senate will allow it. nmnbered .. , 13, 17, and 1!>. That the House recede from its disagreement to the amendment of the Senate .Mr. ALBRIGHT. "Actual and necessary expense ." num~,red 4, a~,fl a~t;e tn to reconsider was not agreed to. J. HANCOCK, Mr. LOWNDES. I understood that the twenty-fourth amendment -Managers on the part of the House. of the Senate was to be voted on separately. .A. • .A. SARGENT, The SPEAKER. The gentleman from New York [Mr. WHEELER] LOT M. MORRILL, H. G. D.A VIS, asked that the amendments of the Senate from No.17 to No. 24, both Managers on the part of the &nate. inclusive, be non-concurred in. :Mr. WHEELER. That was my motion. Mr. HOLMAN. I believe this report bas not been printed. Mr. LOWNDES. I clid not so understand it. :Mr. HALE, of Maine. Yes, sir; it has been. The SPEAKER. If there be a misunderstanding it would perhaps Mr. HOLMAN. I sent for it and did not obtain a copy. It is im­ be better to take a separate vote on the twenty-fourth amendment. possible to exrunin9 such a report at once; and ina-smuch as there is The twenty-fourth amendment of the Senate was to strike out sec­ no public necessity for immediate action on the report, I trust it will tion 4 of the bill passed by the H<,>nse ; which section was as follows: be laid over till to-morrow. Mr. HALE, of Maine. I expect to be called away to-morrow. This (24) [SEc. 4. That all claims of citizens who remained loyal adherents to the cam;e and GOvernment of the United States during the war for stores or supplies taken report has now been held back for some time. I was about to pre ent or furnished during the re ellion for the use of the .Army of the United States, it la_gt week, when the same point which the gentleman now makes ami for the use or loss of vessels or boats while employed in the military service of was raised. I said then that I would let it go over. the United States, including any such claims now pending and undet~rmined in Mr. HOLMAN. In view of the fact just stated by the gentleman any Department of the Government, shall be presented, before the 1st day of No­ vember, 1875, to the commissioners of claims created by act of March 3, 1871, who from Maine I will not insist on deferring action upon the report. sllall have exclusive jurisdiction to hear ancl determine the same: Prov-ided, That The report was agreed to. all uch claim now pending and undetermined in the Department of the Quarter­ Mr. HALE, of.Maine, moved to reconsider the vote by which. the mru r·Generaland the Department of the Commissary-General of Subsistence shall, report was agreed and also moved that the motion to reconsider on the passage of this a.ct, be transferred to the said oommi sioners of claims · and to; such transfer shall be regarded as presentation within the meaning of this a.ct. be laid on the table. .And all evidence taken in reference to said claims, and now on file in the office of 'fhe latter motion was agreed to . the Quartermaster-General or Commissary-General, and admis ible under the rules and regulations of their departments, shall be tra.nsferred With the claims, and be PENSIONS. considered as if taken under tile rules and re"'U1.'1tions of said commission. .And Mr. RUSK. There are on the Speaker's table two bills returned to there. hall be appointed by the President, witll tho advice and consent of the Son­ ate1 two additional commission~rs of claims, with the powers, duties, and compen­ the House with Senate amendments. I desire that those amendments sation of the commiesioners created under the act of -:ruarch 3, 1871, and who shall may be disagreed to and the bills sent to a committee of conference. devote their time exclusively to the claims transferred to the oommission by the The hi~ls are House bill No. ?35, to increa e the pen~Sions of soldiers provisions of this act; and the decision of the said two additional commis ioners and sailors who have been totally disabled, and House bill No. 2453 thereon shall be taken and held to be the decision of the oommission, unless in case of disagreement of the two, when the decision of the presiding commissioners shall to amend an act entitled "An act to revise, consolidate, and amend bo given, and shall be decisive. .And all sl!ch claims which shall not be presented the laws relating to pensions," approved March 3, 1873. to aid commis ioners on or before said da.y shall be barred and shall not be enter­ Mr. HOLMAN. I ask that the amendment of the Senate to the bill tained without further authority of Con;;ress: Provided, That nothing herein shall last named may be read. be deemed to affect or impair the limitation for the time for the presentation of petition prescribed by seation 2 of the act of March 3, 1873. Such commi ioners The Clerk read as follows: shall, under the provisions of the act of March 3, 1871, and the oots in amendment thereof, receive, examine, and consider the ,justice and validity of such claims as Strike out all after tho enacting clause and insert the followin"': shall be brought before them, and shall make report of their proceedings, and of That all persons who are now entitled to pensions under existfh"' laws and who each claim con idered by them. at the commencement of each session of Con!!Tess have lost an arm at or above the elbow, shall berated in the second' class' and shall to the Speaker of the Honse of Represent..'l.tives, who shall lay the same before Con: receive twenty-four dollars per month. ' gress for consideration.] Mr. HOLMAN. I desire to offer an amendment which I think will The Committee on Appropriations recommend non-concurrence in strike ,every member as eminently proper. It is to insert after tho the Senate amendment. word '·elbow" the wor~s "or leg at or above the kne~." This puts The question was taken upon concurring; and upon a division there ·the two classes of penswners exactly on the same footmg. were-ayes 48, noes 55; no quorum voting. Mr. RUSK. I am entirely willing that this amendment should be Tellm·s were ordered; and Mr. WHEELER and 1\Ir. LOWNDES were adopted; and I wish to offer a further amendment to the bill. appointed. . Mr. ELDREDGE. This id~a of calculating the value of. .the frac­ The House a~ain divided; ana the tellers reported that there wer~­ tional parts of a man's arm vwlates to my mind every feelirig of pro­ ayes 69, noes 7'J. · priety and humanity. I think that every man who has lost any por­ So the amendment was not concurred in. tion of his arm ought to receive the same amount of pension. I do . Mr. WHEELER. I move that a committee of conference be re­ not believe in any such discrimination as this bill contempilltes. quested on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses upon this bill. :Mr. HOLMAN. My amendment is manifestly proper and just. I The motion was agreed to. · . hope there will be no· objection to it. . l\1r. WHEELER moved to reconsider the vote last taken; and also 'fhe amendment of Mr. HolMAN to the amendment of the Senate moved that the motion to reconsider be laid on the table. was agreed to. The latter motion was agreed to. Mr. GARFIELD. Has the gentleman from Wisconsin [.Mr. RusK) any estimate as to the increa e which this bill will make in the total TIMBER LAl~DS IN CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON. appropriations for pensions 1 Mr. BRADLEY, by unanimous consent, from the Committee on the 1\fr. RUSK. It will make but a very small increase. The increase · Public Lands, reported back, with amendmt:nts, the bill (H. R. No. 410) in the case of those who have lost a leg at or above the knee is from for the sale of timber lands in the States of California and O.regon eighteen dollars and fifty cents per month to twenty-four dollars per and in Washington Territory; whiC?h was ordered to be printed, and month. recommitted to the Committee on the Public Lands. · Mr. GARFIELD. Has the gentleman any estimate to show what the total amount of the increase will be f · - SAINT JAMES MISSION, WASHINGTON TERRITORY. Mr. RUSK. I believe there has been no estimate of that increase; Mr. PRATT, from the Committee on Private Lands, reported, back, but it will not be large. J\1r. Speaker, I ask that both these bills be with amendments, a bill (H. R. No.1450) for the relief of the mission sent to a committee of conference. · of Saint James, in Wa_ghington Territory; which, with the accom­ The SPEAKER. It would not be regular in a parliamentary point panying report, was ordered to be printed, and recommitted to the of view to amend the Senate amendments and then send the bill to a Committee on Private Land Claims. · committee of conference before the Senate has had an opportunity to concur. NAVAL APPROPRIATION BILL. 1\fr. RUSK. Then I ask that the bill be further amended by adding Mr. HALE, of Maine. I rise to present a privileged report-the this provision: "This act shall take effect from and after the 4th day ,report of the committee of conference on the naval appropriation bill. of June, 1874." If any gentleman desires an explanation, I will-havo The Clerk read as follows : read the letter of the Commissioner 'of Pensions. The committee of conference on the disa!!Teeing votes of the two Houses on the Mr. GARFIELD. Whydoes the gentleman fix June 4 as the date! amendments o~ the Senate to th~ bill (H. R. No. 1013) making appropriations for Mr. RUSK. That is when the pension qun.rter commences. the naval semce for the year ending J nne 30, 1875, and for other purposes, having 1\f.r. GARFIELD. Why should the pension q©rter cqmmence at met a!ter full 1!-Dd free conference have agreed to recommend, and do recommend, to tnm.r1 respective Houses as follows: • any other ti~e than the beginning of the fiscal year f That the Senate recede from its amendments numbered 5, 8, 9, 12, a.ncl 2(1. The amendment was agreed to. 1874. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 4511

,1tlr. ELDREDGE. I 1fish to move an amendment, if my colleague The SPEAKER. It is not. The bill was in Committee of tho Whole ' [Mr. RusK] will allow me. I desire that the provi ·ion with refer­ on the state of the Union, and that committee was discharged from enco to those who have lost arms shall apply as well if a man has lost its further considerat.ion under a suspension of the rules. merely his hand as if he has lost his arm above the elbow. Practi­ Mr. H.A.WLEY, of Illinois. Then, by reason of that order of the cally a man is as much disabled in the one case as in the other; and I House, the bill is fortified against the point of order which would send can see no reason for a discrimination in the amount of pension. it to the Committee of the Whole. 1\fr. RUSK. There is a great deal of difference between the case of The SPEAKER. The bill was in Committee of the Whole, but the a man who has lost his arm above the elbow and .that of a man who House suspended the rules, discharged that committee from its further has merely lost his hand. consideration, and recommitte9- it to the Committee on War Claims Mr. ELDREDGE. It seems to me that both cases should stand with authority to report at any time. upon an equality in respect to the amount of pension. I move an Mr. H.A. WLEY, of Dlinois. I did not know that it had been in Com­ amendment to that effect. mittee of the Whole. 1\Ir. D,A. WES. I wish the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. RusK] The SPEAKER. The Chair had the Journal examined and found would let this bill go to a committee of conference. such to be the fact. The SPEAKER. That was the original suggestion. But it is not Mr. L.A.WRENCE. ~fr. Speaker, I invite the attention of the regular after the House has amended the Senate amendment and be­ House to some of the provisions of this bill. It has been in part ex­ fore the Senate has had an opportunity to concur to s~nd the bill to plained in a report submitted to the House on the 9th of- February last, a committee of conference. That cannot be done with any propriety (House Report No. 91, first session Forty-third Congress.) The proposed Mr. RUSK. I am entirelywillingthat this as well as the other bill amendments make some additions and changes. I will very briefly should go to a committee of confere-nce. .But the gentleman from In: state some of the features of the bill and amendments, and I believe diana [Mr. HoLMAN] offered his amendment, which the Honse adopted. that they will, if properly understood, find but very little, if any, The SPEAKER. The gentleman from Wisconsin [1\Ir. RusK] need opposition. not have yielded to the gentleman from Indiana. If he had not done By well-settled principles of international law the Government was so the bill would have gone to a committee of ~onference. and is not in sti.·ictness under any obligation to make · compensation Mr. H.A. WLEY, of Illinois. I move to reconsider the vote by which to any citizen of the States proclaimed in rebellion for any property the amendments were adopted, so the bills may be sent to a commit­ taken, used, or destroyed in those States during flagrant war, so far tee of conference. as requisite for necessary military operations. This severe rule of Mr. RUSK. The amendment& have both been agreed to. public law was wisely mitigated by acts of Congress and proclama­ 1\fr. HOLMAN. I move to lay the motion to reconsider on the table. tions of the President. The act of March 3, 1871, provided for the l\1r. HOLMAN's motion was disagreed to. · appointment of commissioners of claims, to be commissioned for two The. votes by which the amendments were agreed to were reconsid­ years, whose duty it was to receive, examine, and consider the justice ered, and a committee of conference was asked on the disagreeing and validity of claims of loyal citizens for stores or supplies take~ votes of the two Houses on both bills. or furnished during the rebellion for the use of the .Army of the United The SPEAKER appointed as managers of said conference on the States. The act of March 3, 1873, continued the commissioners in part of the House Mr. RusK of .Wisconsin, 1\fr. SMALL of New Hamp­ office to March 10, 1877, but limited the right to receive claims to shire, and Mr. HOLMAN of Indiana. March 3, 1873. The time for :filing claims has therefore expired. CORRECTIONS IN PRIZE~USTS. The first section of the bill now under consideration extends the Mr. LAWRENCE. I yield to my colleague to make a report from time for filing claims to the 3d day of March next-only about nine the Committee on Naval Affairs. · · months-and only in tho~e "cases where a sufficient reason is shown, Mr. LAMISON. I am instructed by the CommitteeonNavalAffairs to the satisfaction of the commissioners of claims for the failure to to report back the bill (S. No. 229) authorizing corrections to be made present (phe claims) within the time prescribed by law." in errors in prize-lists, with amendments. . It will be seen this is a~ extension only for a brief period, and cure­ The bill wa-s read. fully qualified besides. It seems to me this section of the bill is just. The first section. provides that in all cases where corrections in the It should be remembered no provision was made for these claims distribution of prize-money have or ·may become necessary, and in until March 3, 1871. Claimants had only two years to file their claims. all cases where.the names of parties entitled to share in prizes have There are doubtless some, but probably not a very great number of been or ma.y by error be omitted from the prize-lists, the Secretary of persons whose claims have not been presented, either because they the Navy is hereby authorized to direct the proper accounting officers were not informed of the law, or were unable to incur the expense of the Treasury to correct and pay the same, the former upon the necessary to prepare and present them. I know there is danger that principle that the provisions of the act in force at the date of final some fraudulent claims may be presented, and that a-s ten years, more adjudication govern distribution, and the latter to receive their pro­ or less, have elapsed since the claims arose, it may be difficult to portion of the prizes claimed the same as all others of like rank and secure evidence to meet attempts at fraud; but all these are circum­ pay who may have been paid, said payments to be made out of the stances which the commissioners may and should consider, and require naval pension fund. convincing proof accordingly. The second section provides that the second. and third paragraphs It is better to incur the risk of some fraud than deny to meritorious of the tenth section of the Navy prize law, approved June 30, 1864, loyal citizens a payment which the policy of the law has accorded to which relate to the shares of commanders of divisions and fleet cap­ so many. Equity delights in equality. Justice should be done alike tains, shall apply to officers serving in those positions from .April, to all. I cannot enumerate the causes which have delayed the pre­ 1861, (the commencement of the"late war,) and the shares shall be sentation of claims. I will refer to one. The Tennessee Legislature paid in the mariiler as provided for division commanders in said sec­ passed an act February 19, 1868, appointing a commission to audit ond paragraph. .And all acts inconsistent with the provisions of this and state the amount of property taken from or damages done to act be, and the same are hereby, repealed. · loyal citizens of that State by our military authorities during the The amendments were read, as follows: rebellion, with a view to procure, payment from Congress. These claims were presented and proof made in numerous cases. They very Strike out the first section; and in section 2, line 8, after the word "par~aph," insert the words "said payment to be made out of the naval pension fund.' often included some items for "stores or supplies taken or fm·rushed for the use of the .Army," and others for" damages," which the Gov­ The amendments were agreed to. ernment is under no obligation to pay ru1d probably never will pay. The bill, as amended, was ordered to be read a third time·; and it The claimants, often supposing some provision would be made for all was a~cordingly read the third time, and passed. these or perhaps th~t State officers in Tennessee would see to their Mr. LAMISON moved to reconsider the vote by which the bill was collection, omitted to present to the commissioners of claims the items pMsed ; and also moved that the motion to reconsider be laid on the which they could have properly com~idered. One claim of this kind table. ' is now before the Committee on War Claims, from the widow of tho The latter motion was agreed to. late Governor James C. Jones, of Tennessee. CONTRACTORS 'FOR STEAM MA.CHTh'ERY. I hope no objection will be made to the first section of the bill. Mr. RANDALL. I ask, by unanimous consent, to have printed No general extension of time will probably ~ver again be askecl or Senate bill No. 141, for the relief of certain contractors for the con­ granted. . struction of vessels of war and steam machinery; the bill not to be Mr. MAYNARD. These claims have been presented at considerable removed from the Speaker's table. expense. The great body of thepJ.-I do not mean all, but the people, There being no objection, it was ordered accordingly. who did not keep themselves informed of the Statutes at Large, supposed they had made out their cases and they would get a hear­ WAR CLAIMS. ing. Mr. LAWRENCE. I am instructed by the Committee on 'Var Mr. LAWRENCE. · The object of this section of the bill is to meet Claims to report back a bill (H. R. No. 1565) relating to the ·commis­ cases of that sort, and claims also on behalf of indigent persons who sioners of claims and for other purposes, :with four amendments. perhaps did not learn of the exist.ence of the law or had not the I propose to submit some remarks in explanation of the provisions means to present their ca.ses. I hope no objection will .be made to of the bill, and I would not do so at this late day of the session if I this provision of the bilL I will not occupy any further time in ex- (lid not deem it necessary. " plaining it. . Mr. HAWLEY, of illinois. I should like to know whether the uill The second section explains itself. The necessity and propriety of is not subject to the point of order which will send it to the Commit- it are apparent. It requires every petition for the allowan~e of a 1 tee of the Whole 1 . . claim to state it by items in detail. It requires a statement ·of aU 4512 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. JUNE 3,

payments made on account of property taken, furnished, or used by Oxaminations of witnesses doubtless fully justify this cousiderablo expenditure of time upon them. But it leaves us with a narrow margin of time for the transac­ the military forces of the United States. tion of aJJ our other official business, and especially for the examining and report­ This is desi

1874. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 4513 a question on that point. While the agent is_ c~rrying in his :pocket iion of the commissioners of claims from the Quartermaster and a list of int errogatories prepared by the co1Il1Il1Ssl0uers ill Wa-shington Commissary Departments to the commissioners. of the most stringent and searching character and a form of cross­ The Quartermaster's Department holds that it has jurisdiction of examination, and when each witness is subjected to that cross-exami­ such claims, while the Commissary Department on the contmry holds nation according to a prin~e~ form, and must answ~r each and ever! that the act of March 3, 1871, creating the commissioners of claii~s, question put by the commisswners her~, does not th1s make the testi­ gives them exclusive j~isdiction of all cla~ for ~o~missary ~up plies mony ex parte in favor of the Government and not in favor of the arising during the war .m the. S~a~s proclrum~d m. msurrec~o~. _It claimant f is better to have one uniform Jurlsdiction. While this double JU.nsdiC­ Mr. LAWRENCE. It is all right that there should be searching tion exist.s there is some danger that claimants will, as they are doing, inquiries. Certainly no just claimant ha.s any right to obJ~ct to that. prosecute claiins both before the commissioners and in the Quarter­ I now call tho attention of the House to another proVl.BIOn of the master's Department, and in a few instances the same c laiin has been bill. twice paid. • . . . . The fourth section of the bill provides- The same claim may be fraudulent.ly prosecuted m the name of dif­ That whenever the coJll.Iirissioners are satisfied that a claim is fmudulent in ferent claiinants. whole or in part, or that. the claimant is corruptly_ at~mptinj; to J?rocure,. by fraud, I now come to a provision of the bill which I deem of the utmost false evidence, or colluswn, the allowa;nce of a. ch1>1m, m whole or m part, It shall be iinportance. It isM follows: their duty to disallow the entire claim. SEc. 8. That the commissioners of claims shall receive, ex..'\mine, and consider This applies to claimants a salutary rule. It is an admonition to the justice and validity of such claims, growing out of the late war of the l'ebel­ them that "honesty is the best .Policy." ~tis designed to p~omo~e lion, as may be referred to them by eHher House o~ Congress, upon tho reoommend~­ public and private morals. 1s substantmlly the rule applied m tion of a standing committee,; and · s~d commissiOners. shall ma~e repo~ of t~eiT It proceedings, and of each clann considered by them, With the eVIdence m relation the Court of Claims by the eleventh section of the act of March 3, thereto and their conclusions of law and fact thereon. at the commencement of 1 63, (12 Statutes, 767.) The payments made to these claiina~ts are ea.oh s~sion of Congress, to the Speaker of the House of Repreaent.l.tives, who shall all gratuities-they flow from the bounty of Congress. And 1t ha-s lay the same before said Honse. been well and truly said- The purpose of this provision is to withdraw from Congress as far That he who asks equity should do equity, that he who appeals to the discretion as possible the investigation of facts and the consideration of claims. and to the rrenerosity. * * * of a. power or tribunal should be clean-handed as There are so n1any reasons in favor of this ch:mge that I cannot fully t.be first step. as the first title to be heard. If he comes with his hands soiled, if he comes as one seeking to overreach, to snatch from the Treasm-y a sum of money to state or present them. My experience on the Committee on !V ar which beyond all :peradventure we are authorized * * * to say he was never Claiins has more than ever befor~ satisfied me of the urgent demand entitJed, he discredits himself, he discredits his claim, and * * * he gives up for a change in the mode of examining claims. the day to which he.is entitled in com-t, provided his case be as this case is, ouly There are four considerations in favor of the change which I will an appeal to generosity a.nd to discretion. (RoscoE CONKLING, in Senate, May 15, 1874.) first mention. They are: (1,) the iinpossibility of properly investi gating in Congress all tho claiins which require examination; (2,) the The next section of the bill is designed to define and prescribe a unjust reproach which the investigation brings upon Congress; (3,) punishment for perjury, and in the form in which I propose to amend the danger of frauds practiced upon Congress; and (4) the possibility it will read a.s follows: of fraud or corruption in connection with some of the claims. In SEC. 5. That every person who knowingly and willfullyswearsfalselyinanyoath or affidavit which is or may be authorizea by law, or in any oath t.tken or affidavit support of these suggestions let· me present what is said by a ~s­ made, to be used as evidence in any com-t, or before either House o~ Congress or tino-uished judge of the Court of Claiins. In Brown vs. The Umted any committee or offic~r t1!-ereof, or before any- officer or _person ac!Jng under the States (6 Court of Claims Reports, 191,) Judge Nott says: a·uthority of the Constitution or law, shall be aeemed guilty of perJury, and shall When the work of esta.blishing the Com-t of Claims was before Congress, it ap­ be pnni.Shed by fine not more than $2,000, or imprisonment at hard labor not more peared by- the reports of their own committees thn.t as long ago as in 1848, of 17,573 th:»,n five years, or both, in the discretion of the court. And in every case where private claims which within ten years had been presented to Congress, 8,948 had such oath or affidavit is subscribed by the person making the same, proof of such never been in any way ooted upon, and but 910 had passed both Rouses. (Report fact shall be sufficient evidence of the officia,l authority of the person before whom by Hon. -J. N. Rockwell, from Committee on Claims, House of Representatives, the same purports to be made or taken to administer and certify said oath or afti.­ April 26, 1848, first session Thirtieth Congress, volume 3, No .. 498.) That such a. davit. number of American citizens should have been left by therr own GQvernment All offenses heretofore committed may be prosecuted or punished, in the same wif,hout a hearing, and to that extent at least without redress, was of itself a manner :tS if this a.ot had not been passed. great and grievous wrong. But while the great mass of credito~ were left '!ill· lieard, claims of doubtful character p~sed through Congress, some ~ forms wJ;Uch As the bill authorizes agents to administer oaths, it was deemed a attracted attention, and others of which the country never heard, m the dubious matter of prudence to make it peijury to swear falsely in the oaths disguise of ex parte arbitrations and awards. they might administer. In declaringthus, at leastMa matter of pru­ Th~ same melancholy history of justice denied or long delayed dis­ dence, by wa.y of abundant caution, the usage of Congress has been tingUishes the whole period since April, 1848. There have been pre­ pursued. The commissioner who recently revised the statutes de­ sented to the Committee on War Claims during this session of ·Con­ clared that- gress about 1,184 claims, besides ~,465 reported from the commiss~on­ The legislative practice is to affix the pains and penalties of peljury anew every time an oath is required in any statute to be ta.ken either before a judicial or a.dmiri­ ers of claiins, and there yet remam undisposed of about 1,000 claims istrative officer. (House Report No. 91, first session Forty-third Congress, page 3.) besides the cl:tiins reported rejected by the commissioners of claiins. The House and Senate Committees on Claims are abundantly crowde

Son ate acting UP.on it. A. distinguished member of the Lower House the other day, But this in practice has failed, for two reasons. Tho jurisdiction wln was friendly to a cla.ima.nt whose bill had passeu the House but which was only extends to three classes of cbims; and as to this it has been a laill over in the Senate, was hearu to exclaim, ·• D-n a man who opposes' a bill because he dan't know what it means." failure, because the provision "unless otherwise ordered" has totally defeated its object. It is always "ordered" that claims when pre­ I would withdraw from Congress the investigation of claims, so t~at sented shall go to committees. even unjust accusations should not be heralded over the land to brmg It is in fact not possible that the Court of Claims could hear all reproach upon the nation. claims presented to Congress; and another tribunal is needed, wit.h no Congress is always in great danger of being imposed on by claims limitation on. its jurisdiction except the discretion of either House fraudulent in character or amount. This danger is almost insepar- of Congress in referring claims. able from the system now pursued of considering claims. - • The commissioners of claims have the best machinery yet devised A committee of Congress is not a court. No means have been pro­ to secure evenhanded justice, alike to claimants and the Government. vi rdon's case, 1 Court of 23 and 24 Victoria, and it is shown in Brown vs. The United States Claims Reports, page 1) discloses these e}..-traorrlina.ry facU!: There was allowed to·tbe (o Court of Claims Reports, page 191) that it covers almost overy claimant for property destroyed by United States troops $8,873_; then $100 for an eiTor of calculation in the :first ''award;" then ~,99 7.94 for interest; then 10,004.89 conceivable case where a claim can be preferred against the Govern­ for more interest; then $39,217.50 for property previously found .not t-o. have been ment of Great Britain. (House Report No. 262, first session Forty­ destroyed by United States troops; and finally $66,519.85 on a '· reVlSIOn" of the third Congress, page 2, note 2.) previous "awards." Such claims, so far as I can ascertain, do not go to Parliament. But even this record of a fn.mous and almost immortal case did not There is no committee of claims either in the Lords or Commons in quiet its undying demand. Mn.rk Twain wrote its history, and gave England. And it is shown in Sir Erskine May's Parliamentary Prac­ what he alleges were " the bets in the ca e of (the claim of the heirs tice that all private bills for other purposes are considered with a of) George Fisher, deceased," in the January(187_1)numberof the New scrutiny and care which might well be ·adopted here both for the York Galaxy, page 152, and he concludes by saymg : . credit of Congress and in jnstice to the Government and nll con­ It is my belief that as long as t.he continent of America holds together the heirs cerned. They are investigated by "examiners," one of whom · of George ll.sher, deceased, will still make pilgrimages to WMhington from the Is required to give at least seven cloar days' notice in the private-bill office of swamps of Florida to plea.d forjustalittlemorocashon their bill of damages; even the Commons of the day appointed for the examination of each petition. * * · * when they received the last of that $67,000 they said it wa,s only one-fourth what The public sitting of the examiners commence on the 18th of January, being the Government owed them on that infernal corn-field; * * ~ This is not the about a fortnight before the meeting of Parliament. only hereditary fraud (if fraud it i , which I have before repeatedly remarked is not proven.) that is being quietly handed down from generation to generation of Witnesses are examined, and every precaution is taken to secure a fathers antl sons through the persecuted Treasury of the Unitecl States. knowledge of every material fact to ascertain the truth and guard Mark Twain was not mistaken. The heirs·of George Fisher appeared the public interest, as well as to do justice to all "whom it may con­ in this Congress, and House Report No. 330, first session Forty-third cern." Congress, made I know honestly and in perfect good faith by the Parliament is so omnipotent that it can exercise judicial power, but Committee on Military Affairs, Mn.rch 27, 1874, concludes thn.t- even with this it does not venture to examine mere claims. The claim bas been acknowledged to be just so often, that it is useless for your Mr. MAYNARD. It was originally provided that the Court of committee to go further into the 'aetails of the case; and your committee sees no Claims should have jurisdiction of all ca~es sent to it by resolution rea ou to doubt that the sum of $34,952, with interest, according to the award of of either House of Congress. I am not aware that we have in recent tho Secretary of War, subject to sums of money paid, is still due the cla.imants in years sent claims to them for adjudicn.tion. It has been by no means this case. But in view of the almost invariable practice of the Gi>vernmen tin such ca.<;es established in the last few years and of the large amount of interest due iu a usual thing for committees to make such a recommendation. this ca e, your committee recommend a. proviso to this bill3imiting payment under Ur. LAWRENCE. I hn.ve said thn.t. And now we propose to pro­ it to 16,848, the principal sum due; and with this proviso they recommend the p:lB­ vide a tribunal to which all claims may {SO· Though we cannot com­ sage of the bill. pel either House of Congress to send clmms,·for one I shall advocate (And see Senate Report No. 518, third session, Forty-second Con­ the propriety of sending every claim there, where there can be the gress, February 27, 1873.) On subsequent consideration the report lea ·t controversy over any question of fa.ct connected with it. was recommitted to the committee for further examination. There Mr. MAYNARD. I wish to ask the gentleman a further question. is dn.nger that it may sleep perhaps until the sublime nonsense of Many of these cases are in the nature of claims ex contractu,, and I "rotation in office" shall take from these Halls those who n.re most ask whether it would not be proper and fair to send them to the Court familiar with its merits, whenit will doubtless reappear, and for aught of Claims¥ I know it may be justly, again in the garb of injured innocence. Mr. LAWRENCE. The Court of C1nims already has jurisdiction I do not undertake to say whether the claim isjustorunjust. But in cases of contract, express or implied, and in cases founded on a.ny it proves one thing, that some tribunal should be provided where an regulations of the Executive Departments. And now I propose to pro­ early hearing can be had when evidence is fresh, when both sides may vide a tribunal to which claims may go over which the Court of be heard, and an award made which sba.ll be regarde.d as final. Claims now has no jurisdiction. The Court of Claims, as I ha,ve said, One of the evils of attempting to hear claims in Congress, then, is has a limit.ed jurisdiction; but there are many claims coming up out­ that too many of them n.ever die j they are never finally decided; side of contracts, express or implied, and outside of claims founded they "flourish in "immortal youth." . on regulations of Executive Departments; and I propose that Congress But if claims are referred to the commissioners of claims, the evi­ shall have the right to send claims other thn.n these to the commis­ dence will be taken on both sides; it will be reported to Congress sioners of claims. and preserved. Their report will generally be final. An effort to re­ It might well be urged here that it is a duty of Congress to estn.b­ new the conflict will arouse a proper wa.tchiulness~ criminal fraud lish a court wit~ power to hear all claims of whatever character, and will be discouraged, the public morals promoted, and the Treasury that this power t.o consider and pass on claims is a judicial function saved from plunder. which cannot properly be exercised by Congress. Congress will be relieved in large measure of the importunities of The Constitution provides that- cln.imants and claim agents. I do not mean or seek to clispamge any The judicial power shall extend to controversies t.o which the United States shall of these; but I would send them to another tribunal, which, unlike be a party. Congress, should -always be open to every claimant and every honest At the time this was adopted the "petition of right" was a recog­ and honor~ .ble cln.im agent or attorney. Let this be done, and then nized common-law mode of reaching the conrts of England with claims the public business will not suffer, as now, by time and attention against the government. It is fair to presume the Constitution was devoted to private claims. designed to give an equivalent remedy. The occupation of those who sometimes hope, however erroneously, It has been urged with much force that- to carry claims through by personal or political influence, on grounds The Government is composed of three co.ordinate branches : the legislative, judi­ of friendship or favor or to promote political prospects, will be" gone," ciary. an(l executive, to each one of which are delel!atecl certain powers and duties. it is hoped forever- It is tlie duty of tho legislative department to provide t.he mea.n.s or rem odie .bY which the right of parties may be determined, but not tv pas upon or determme Gone, where the woodbine twineth. such righU!. This latter power is exclusively vested in the judiciary. It is there­ 3, 1863, fore not within the power of t.he Ie~?slative body to pass a.nyaot of:~ , jmlicial nature. The act of March amending t.he act establishing the Court ;r ones vs. Perry, 10 Yer~er, 59 ; Holden vs. J arns, 11 Massachusetts, 400 ; Pioq uet's of Claims, sought to avoid all these evils by providing (12 Statutes, Appeal, 5 Pickering, 6:>; Lewis vs. W ebb, 3 Greenleaf, 326; Ex parte to Bedford, 765, section 2) as follows: .r urist and Law Magazine f_?r October, 1833, page 301, 4 ~ew. Hampshire, 572; La.ne That all petitions and bills praying or providing for the satisfaction of private vs. Dorman, 3 Scammon, 23;>; Davenport vs. Wood, lllliin01s, 551. claims a.garnst the Gi>vernment, founded upon any law of Congress, or upon any But I will not pursue this inquiry. regulation of an Exeoutivo D Ci purtment, or upon any contract, expre s onmplied, The Court of Claims has said in the case of Brown vs. The United with the Government of the Uuited States, shall, unless otherwise ordered by r eso­ lution of the House in which the same are presented or introduced, be transmitted States that- by the Secrct:>ry. of the Senate or the Clerk of the House of Representatives, with Our popular orators ancl writers have impressed upon the public mind the belief ail the ac\jom oanying documents, to the court aforesaid. • that in this Republic of ours private rights receive unequa.leu protection from the . 1874 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 4515

Government; and some have actually pointed to the establishment of this court as a tinned after that time which rendered necessary many or all of the act which are sublime spectacle to be seen nowhere else on earth. The action of a formerConwess, complained of, and those ads when sifted will probably prove to constHute as little however, in requiring (act J nly 27, 1868, 15 Statutes at Large, 243) that aliens snonld foundation for claims against the United States as the acts committed within the not maintain certain suits here unless their own go>ernment.s accord a correspond­ date named in the treaty of Washin!!ton. ing right. to citizens of the United States, hasreverued the fact that the legal rellress The powers whose subjects have ~ad their claims deferred to ~hose of British given to a citizen of the United States, against the United States is less than he can subjects, as well as Great Britain herself, on behalf of British subjects -whose have a

SGc. -. That submission to the de facto authority of any State or part of a S~te power to hear and determine, all claims and rights of action on the part of aliens ~roc.::t imed as in insurrection, while the authority and protection of the Umted against the United States, which shall be pre ented to the Secretary of State bv t)ta.tes were subverted or in abeyanc£1, or service in the enrolled militia of an:y State petition, in the nature of a. petition of ri~rht, and which shall be by him referred tO where~ service was compulsory after enrollmfln~ und~r laws enacted prevwus to said court, by the President of the United States, or by either House of Con!ITess. tho Iato rebellion, or serVIce ~ person or by substitut.e m the fo~ces of the so-called An appeal shall be allowed from all judgments rendered as in other cases. b Confederate States, or of any msurr~'-ctionary State, o~ the holdmg ~f a local.offi.ce, shall not be held by said commissioners to be conclusive proof. of oisloyalty m any Mr. BECK. I desire to ask a question. case where there may be satisfactory evidence in other respects that the claimant .Mr. HOLML~. I rise to a question of order. Do I understand the was a loyal adherent of the cause and Government of the United States. gentleman from Ohio [Mr. LAWRENCE] to have accepted the amend­ SRc. -. That it shall be the duty of the said commissi~ners of claims, befo~e reporting any claim examined by them to Congress, to certify the result o~ therr ment offered by the gentleman from Iowa, [Mr. KAssoN Y] examination of the claim, and of the evidence in support thereof, :to the claiiDa~t, l\fr. LAWRENCE. If any member of the Committee on War Claims with notice of the time granted in which to rebut any presumptiOns or matenaJ object.s to my accepting that amendment, of course I will not do so. evidence a,g;ainst the validity of the clai.m ; and sl~ould th

The question was taken upon the amendment; and upon a division Hooper, Hynes, Jewett, Killinger, Lawson, Lowe, Luttrell, Marshall, .Alexander S. there were-ayes 73, noes 25; no quorum voting. McDill!.-..Mc.Jun~n, :UcKee, Myers, Negley, P.ackarcl, P~ge, Ho~ea \V .. ~arker, James 1:1. Platt, Jr., Potter, Pratt~ Purman, Ramey, Ransier, Rapier, William R. Tellers were ordered; and Mr. LAWRENCE and Mr. THOR~BURGH Roberts, r..oss, Scofield, Sessions, Sherwood, Sloan, Smart, George L. Smith, H. were appointed. Boardman Smith, Snyder, Stephens, St. John Stowell, Swann, Waddell, Waltlrou, Mr. MAYNARD. Is it in order to call for a separate vote upon the Wilber, Wilshire, Ephraim K. Wilson, Jeremiah M. Wilson, ·woodford, and Pierce separate clauses of this amendment! The first relates to the appoint­ M. B. Young-67. ment of additional commissioners, and the others to the presentation The SPEAKER pro ternp01·e. On this question the yea-S are 111 and of claims. There seems to be three separate sections in this proposed the nays 111. The amendment is not agreed to. amendment taken from the draught of some other bill. · During the roll-call the following announcemenl3 were made : Mr. LAWRENCE. They are all one amendment. Mr. SAYLER, of Indiana. My colleague, Mr. PACKARD, is neces­ The SPEAKER pro tempo're, (Mr. DAWES in the chair.) The Chair sarily absent from the Honse, and will not be present during there­ thinks the amendment is capable of division, and that each part can mainder of the day. stand by itself. 1\Ir. KASSON. The gentleman from Ohio, Mr. SHERWOOD, is de­ 1\Ir. MAYNARD. Then I call for a separate vote on the first sec­ tained frorrrthe House by sickness. tion of the proposed amendment, providing for the appointment of 1\fr. ARCHER. My colleague, Mr. SwANN, is absent by leave of the additional commissioners. House. The question being taken on the first division (being the first sec­ Mr. BARRY. My colleague, General McKEE, is absent on account tion) of the proposed amendment, it was agreed to. of sickness in his family. If here he would vote " ay." The question being then taken on the second division, (embracing The result of the vote was announced a.s above stated. the remaining sections of the amendment,) it_was agreed t.o. Mr. RANDALL. I move to reconsider the vote just taken. The SPEAKER pro temp01·e. Thequestion willnextbetakenon the Mr. HALE, of 1\faine. I move to lay that motion on the table. amendment of the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. COBB] which Mr. GARFIELD. Did the gentleman from Pennsylvania vote on has already been read. the prevailing side Y The amendment was again read. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The prevailing side is the negative. Mr. COBB, of Nort.h Carolina. I call the previous question on this The gentleman from Pennsylvania voted in the affirmative. He is amendment. not therefore entitled to move to reconsider. The question now recurs Mr. GARFIELD. I see that t.he first section of this amendment on the remaining sections of this amendment, which, unless some contains wha,t we have been struggling against for so many years- a gentleman demands a separate vote, will be considered as one propo­ provision to pay rent for houses and grounds occupied by the Army. sition. Mr. HOLMAN. I wish it understood that this amendment is not Mr. COBB, of North Carolina. I ask for a separat-e vote on ea-ch of recommended by the Committee on War Claims. the two remaining sections. . Several members objected to debate. The SPEAKER pro tempore. A division being demanded, the Clerk The previou question was seconded, and the main question ordered. will read the section of the amendment upon which the vote is next Mr. LAWRENCE. I wish to state- to be taken. :Mr. HARRIS, of Virginia. I object to debate. The Clerk read as follows: Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. This amendment contains three SEc. - . That submission to the de facto authority of any Stnte or part of a State separate subjects. I call for a division of the question, so that the proclaimed as in insurrection, while the authority and protection of the United vote may be taken separately on the first section. States were subverted or in abeyance, or service in the enrolled militia of auy Sta,te wherein service was compulsory after em·ollrnent under laws enacted previous to Mr. LAWRENCE. I wish to state that these three sections have the lato rebellion, or service in person or by substitute in the forces of t.he so­ not the sanction of the Committee on War Claims. calle~, James \Yilson, anil Woodworth-111. ' NOT VOTING-Me,srs. Adamf:l, Averill, Blancl, Bri.,.ht, Freeman Clarke, Cla-y. confer upon aliens privileges withheld from our own people 1 ton, Clymer, ~rooke, Crounse. Curtis, Dobbins, Duell, 't;mott, Fort, Fry~ P..obert Mr. KASSON. Our own people can come to either House of Con­ S. Hale, Ham1lton, HaM10rn, Havens, John \V. HJ.zelton. Hersey, George.!!". Hoar, gress aud have their claims referred. 4518 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. JuNE 3,

:Mr. HOLMAN. Let the amendment be again read. So the yeas and nays were not orderecl. The amendment was again read. The motion of l\lr. MAYNARD was agreed to; and the bill was re­ .Mr. KASSON's amendment was adopted. committell to the Committee on War Claims . The question reoUITed on the engrossment and thircl reading of the Mr. MAYNARD moved to reconsider the vote by which the bill was bill. recommitted; and al o moved that the motion to reconsider be laid The House divided; and there were-ayes 81, noes 50; no quorum on the table. voting. The latter motion was agreed to. Tellers were ordered; and :Mr. LAWRENCE and Mr. HoLMAN were Mr. LAWRENCE. I ask that the bill as ordered to be engrossed, appointed. with the variou~ amendments, be printed. - The House again divided; and the tellers reported-ayes 98, noes There was no objection, and it was so ordered. 40. So the bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time ; and RECIPROCITY WITH THE BRITISH PROVINCES. being engrossed, it wa-s accordingly read the thir~ time. Mr. KELLEY. I ask unanimous consent to submit for present con­ Mr. BUTLER, of Tennessee. I ask for the reading ot the engrossed sideration the following preamble and resolution: bill. Whereas by section 7 of article 1 of the Constitution of the United States it is The. SPEAKER te:mp01·e. It is too late, as the bill ha-s already provided that "all bills for r;1ising revenue shall originate in the House of Repre­ pro sentatives;" and by section 8 of said article it is further provided that "CongTess been read. · shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises," and ·• to J\ir. MAYNARD. I mov:e to lay the bill upon the table. reJ?:Ulato commerce with foreign nations:" Therefore, . The House divided; and there were-ayes 76, noes 70. Be it resolved, That the President of the United States be, and is hereby, requested to inform this House whether the executive tlepa.rtment of the Government is at this l\Ir. LAWRENCE. I demand the yeas and nays. time en"aged in considering the terms of a treaty by which commerce between the The yea and nays were ordered. United 'St.ates and the British provinces of North America is to be regulated and The question was taken; and it was decided in the negative-yeas by which Congress will be deprived of its constitutional right to control these im­ 81, nays 133, not voting 75 ; as follows : portant subjects thus specifically confided to it by the express terms of the Consti­ tution. YEAS-Messrs. Barnum, Barrere, Begole, Biery, Bradley, Buffinton, Burchard, Burleigh, BurrowsJ Roderick R. Butler, Cannon, Cason, Clements, Clinton L. Cobb, .Mr. KASSON. Does this resolution come from the Committee on Conger, Crutchfield, Dawes, Donnan, Earn~ Farwell, Field, Foster, Garfield, Ways and Means f Gooch, Gunckel, Hancock, Harrison, John B.11a.wley.,.Joseph R. Hawley, John W. Mr. WOOD. It has never been before that committee. Hazelton, Hodges, Holman, Hoskins, Hunter, Hurlout, Hyde, Kelley, Lamison, Mr. KELLEY. I made no suggestion of that kind. Loflancl, Magee, Maynard, James W. McDill, MacDougall Merriam, Monroe, Nunn, O'Neill, Ortli, Pa.ge, Pelham, Pendleton, Pike, Thomas d. Platt, Pratt, Rah, Rice, Mr. COX. It is a reflection on the Administration. I would like to Ellis H. Roberts. Rusk, Henry B. Sa,yler, Shanks, A. Herr Smith, John Q: ;:;mith, amend the resolution so ae to encourage the Administration in the ·william A. Smith, Speer, Storm, Strait, Strawbridge, Taylor, Thornburgh, To&!, matter of reciprocity with Cana{\a. . Tremain, Tyner, WaJdron, Walls, Jasper D. Ward, Wl1eeler, George Willa.rd, Wil­ , The SPEAKER. The resolution requires unanimous consent. Does liam Williams, William B. Williams, JameH Wil on, and Woodford-81. T NAYS-Messrs. Albert, Albright, Arl'.her, Ashe, Atkins, Bannin~Barber, Barry, the gentleman from New York object Beck, Bell, Blount, Bowen, Brom'-berg, Brown, Buckner, Benjamin 1'-- Butler, Cain, Mr. COX. I do. Caldwell, Cessna, Amos Cla.rk, jr., John B. Clark, ,jr., Clymer, Stephen A. Cobb, :MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE. Coburnt.-.Comingo, Cook, Corwin, Cotton, Creamer, Crittenden, Crocker, Crossland, Curtis, vanford, DarraH, Davis, Dobbins, Duell, Dunnell, DW'ham, Eldredge, Fort, A message from the Senate, by 1\fr. SYMPSON, one of their clerks, in­ Freeman, Giddings, Glover, Ha,.,011ns, Harmer, Henry R. Harris, John T. Harris, formed the House that the Senate had pas ed bills of the House of the Hatchert.-...Havens, Hays, GerryW. Hazelton, Hendee, Hereford, E. Rockwood Hoar, following titles, with amendment!'!; in which the concurrence of the llooper, 11onghton, Howe, Himton, Kasson, Kendall, Knapp, Lamar, Lansing, Law. renee, Leach, Lowndes, :Marshall. McCrary, Alexander S. McDill, McLean, Me· House was requested : Nulta, Mitchell, Moore, Morey, Morrison. Neal Niblack, Niles, O'Brien, Isaac C. A bill (H. R. No. 3421) making appropriations for the payment of Parker, Parsons, Perry, Phillips, Pierce, James H. Platt, jr., Randall, Read, Rich· invalid and other pensions of the Unit-ed States for the year ending mond, Robbins, James C. Robinson, James W. R

· The business of tho week is disposed of as follows : the gentleman reports of th~ C.on;uni~tee on Commerce, he will recognize the gentle­ from Illinois [Mr. HURLBUT] has tbe floor now upon the bill in rela­ man from l\fisslSSlppt [1\fr. LAMAR] fmm the Committee on Elec­ tion to the improvement of the mouth of the Mi sissippi. That bill, tions. It will be for the House to determine whether.the question of if it shall occupy the remainder of this day without being dispo ed privilege shall proceed. of, will go over until to-morrow as unfinished business. To-morrow IMPROVEMENT OF MOUTH OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER. morning it would have to be laid aside for two hours, beca,use the Committee on Commerce is entitled to that time under a suspension 'l'he House resumed the consideration of the motion to reconsider of the rules. The gentleman from Mississippi, [.Mr. LAMAR,] from the vote by which the bill (H. R. No. 3342) for the improvement of. the Committee on Elections, as the Chair understands, desires at the the mouth of the .Mississippi River was recommitted to the Commit­ end of that two hours to call up the contested-election case from Loui­ tee on Railways and Canals. siana. A majority of the House can set aside this bill for the purpose 1\fr. SHELDON. I desire to offer as a substitute the bill which I of considering that case ; it would be for a majority to determine have iutrouuced on this subject .. I ask that it may be considered as that question. On Friday there is no assignment except that under pending. the rules, it being objection day for the Private Calendar, the first Mr. HURLBUT. I have no objection. Friday of the month. Saturday, after one hour from the reading of Mr. Speaker, the. question of the improvement of the mouth of the the Journal, has been given to the Committee on the Post-Office and l\fi issippi River, which was submitted early in the session to the Post Roads. · · C~mmit~e on Rail'Yays and Can~, has bean considered !)y that com­ Mr. McCRARY. I understood that there was no objection to chang­ ~ttee With all the care and attention they have been able to give to ing the order in relation to the Committee on Commerce from to-mor­ It. They have endeavored to get all possible information concernin(T row to Saturday. the various projects pre entecl to them. They have heard testimony The SPEAKER. The chairman of the Committee on the Post-Office wherever :;tny one desired to sub~t it. Two conflicting systems have and Post-Roads [Mr. PACKER] declines to give up his time on Satur­ bee:n pending before that committee. In one of the e projects-that day. whiC~ h.as b.een rep?rted by .the maj.ority of the committee-a gentle­ :Mr. SPEER. Should the House to-morrow morning determine to man livmg m the mty of Samt Loms well known to the scientific aml take up the contested-election case first, and we should occupy the mechanical world as a successful inventor and a successful carriei·-out entire day and go over until Saturday, when would this Mississippi of great works, proposes to the Government of the United States to jetty bill come up again Y t~ke upon himse1f the re_spo~ibility of giving an uninterrupted, open The SPEAKER. On Tuesday next. nver mouth b;y: mea?-8 of Jetties or embankments extending the nat mal Mr. SPEER. I underst:md there is already a special order set for banks of the nver rnto the deep water of the Gulf. This proposition Tuesdav. modified by the committee, is submitted in the bill, printer's numbe~ The SPEAKER. That is so; Tuesday has been given to the Com­ 3!)30, being printed aB a substitute. The committee have endea-vored mittee on E;xpenditures in the Department of Justice, under a sus­ so to guard this proposition that it shall be impossible for any one pen ion of the rules. who may undertake this work to receive from the Government any Mr. RANDALL. I would suggest that the gentleman from illinois pay until an actual success has been accompli hed. When the bill [Mr. HURLBUT] proceed now with this bill, and take his chance. comes to be read gentlemen will see the care which the coinmittee has The SPEAKER. The Chair thinks that no arrangement that could taken in gua.rding this important subject. now be agreed upon would work more smoothly than that suggested Upon the other side propositions have been presented here for the by the gentleman from Pennsylvania, [Mr. RA.l~DALL.] construction, either under the Engineer Corps of the United States Mr. RA}\"DALL. To-night's session I do not object to, of course. or by private contract, of a canal with locks leading from the Missis­ The SPEAKER. The session of to-night, as the Chair understood, sippi River, below Fort Saint Philip, into the pass known as "Isle au was ordered for debate only, upon this bill. Breton" pass, on the east side of the delta of the Missi sippi. The Mr. MOREY. As there is nothing in this arrangement that will importance of this inquiry as well as our own po ition as H.epresenta­ conflict with what I am about to propose, I ask unanimous consent tives, ~ll: of us, whe~her ~ving in the Miss.issippi Valley Q.f el ewhere, that one hour on Saturday next, before the bu ine s on the Commit­ ~ecogmzrng the.natiOnal_unporta:nce of this great artery- of commerce, tee on the Post-Office and Post-Roads shall come up, be as igned to mduced us to give to this questiOn the greatest posstble considera- tho Committee on the Mississippi Levees. That time hns not been tion. . assio·ned in n,ny way. I will state as briefly as I can the two pla,ns before the House as I The SPEAKER. The gentleman asks that the hour immediately understand them. One is to use the existing forces of nature to after the reading of the Journal next Saturday may be assigned to work in harmony with those great forces, to assist the river in fo{·m­ the Committee on the Mississippi Levees to conclude their reports. ing below the delta out into the deep waters of the Gulf its natural Mr. PACKER. I shall have no objection to that if all the remain- banks by arLifi.cial aid; to condense and gather into olid column the der of the day is awarded to us. · waters of the great river, so that they will do their own work and The SPEAKER. The Chair hears no obiection to that arrangement, scour out the obstructions which have accumulated iuto the bar ; so and it is so ordered. that the united force of the water will clear its way along until it ARKANSAS ELECTION CONTEST-GUNTER VS. WILSHIRE. re~ches that great ~epth of. water which, as our Coast 8urvey shows, mus~s but a few miles outs1de of the pre. ent bar. All engineers, all Mr. ROBINSON, of Ohio, from the Committee on Elections, pre­ sensible men, all men who know anything at all of the inconveni­ sented a report on the contested-election case from the third district ences of the best constructed canal with locks that the ima!rlnation0 of .Arkansas. of man can devise, recognize the fact tha,t the uninterrupted aucl un­ The resolutions reportecl by the committee were as follows : obstructed navigation of the river by its own natural mouth with Resolved, That W. W. Wilshire wa.a not elected and is not entitled to a seat as sufficient and permanent depths of water is in efficiency

1874. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 4521 -- man nn opportunity of testing by practice a thing in which he has looking at their own great commercial interests, they would be will­ the most abounding faith, and in which he is backed by two-thirds ing to inflict upon those whose interests are connected with the mouth of the engineering talent of the country. of the l\fi sissippi River so slow, so insecure, so unsatisfactory a means The bill then provides that Mr. Eads and his associates may be au­ of communicating with the great ocean, the common highway of com­ thorized to improve one of the passes of the Mississippi River by jet­ merce, as is provided by a canal, unless it turns out as a matter of fact­ ties or other works at his own expense. It also provides he shall not of opinion, but of experiment and fact-that no other thing can be not receive a dollar of money until he shall have succeeded in dem­ devised which is better. onstrating that his plan is a success. Mr. COBURN. Will the gentleman yield to me for a moment for a He is required by the bill to obtain twenty-two feet of water, and question to maintain it by the construction he puts there for twelve months, 1\Ir. HURLBUT. Certainly. unbroken and continuously, before he can touch a dollaJ' of the pub­ Mr. COBURN. I would like to have the gentleman state what lic money. The bill as reported by the committee provides that he proportion of the commerce .that comes in and goes out of the Missis­ shall 'obtain by these jetties of his a depth of twenty-two feet of sippi River will require the depth of water that is proposed either by water, an(l shall maintain the same without interruption for twelve the jetties or the canal, and what proportion can go out without the months, and in that case he shall be entitled to receive from the United clearance of the jetties or the construction of the canal. Are there States $2,000,000. I am authorized, however, by Mr. Eads to say, and any estimates of that kind t I shall move the amendment when the time comes, with the permis­ Mr. HURLBUT. There is an average of sixteen feet of water on sion of the House, he is willing, in order t.:. show the completeness of the most passable bar. his good faith in the matter, that this amount of $2,000,000 may be 1\!r. COBURN. Will the gentleman allow me a word further f He reuuce(l to $1,000,000, and that $1,000,000 taken from his first pay­ talked about the bloeking up of the commerce of New York and Bos­ ment shall be applied upon the last which is provided for in the t-on. I want to know what proportion will be locked up ancl com­ bill. pelled to go through this canal Y The bill further provides, after having obtained twenty-two feet Mr. HURLBUT. All of it that draws over sixteen feet of water. of water and maintained it for twelve months, if he shall obtain an Mr. COBURN. What proportion is that f additional depth of two feet and maintain the same he shall be enti­ 1\Ir. HURLBUT. The commerce of the city of New Orleans, as tled to an additional compensation of $1,000,000 ancl so on, giving nobody knows better than my friend from Indiana, ha8 fallen oft' 1,000,900 for every two feet of permanent depth he obtains at the vastly, and has fallen off by reason of this great hinderance at the bar. river's mouth until the sum of $5,000,000 shall have been paid to And one of the objects which I, living afar off from that great State, him, which will bring it to a depth of twenty-eight feet of water. have is to restore this discrowned queen of the delta to something To gentlemen who know anything about the navigation of the Mis­ like her former situation. I want to have depth of water enough, sissippi River, either by their personal experience or by information either by the canal, if that is the way of doing it, or by a natural from the newspapers or from scientific sources, it is useless for me to mouth, which I think is far the better plan, to allow any sea-going sa.y more than this: that the present bar of that river is more an ob­ vessel, such as the ships that come into New York, or Boston, or Port­ struction to the commerce of the whole Mississippi Valley than any land, or any other of the great ports of this country, come without other one thiug which exists. Year aJter year Congress has been en­ obstruction and without hinderance into the city of New Orleans, and deavoring to scratch this bar, dragging harrows over it, but the tide restore to her if yon can the commerce which' her situation and her of the great river and the tide of the great ocean soon closes up the natural advantages demand that she should have, and of which she ptmy work of our engineers. No man who imports anything into the has been deprived. If that is done, it is impossible for any man to tell city of New Orleans has any assurance what depth of water his vessel what the growth of our commerce will be. will have when it comes to port. It may be eighteen feet when the My object has been merely to explain briefly the tenor and purpose vessel starts from Europe and when she comes into port it may be of these several measures, and I shall, after bearing other gentlemen only fourteen feet. It is changing, fluctuating, uncertain, and noth­ who may desire to speak on this question, reserve to myself the oppor~ ing in the world so interferes with the commerce of a great city like tunity, when the previous question shall have been ordered, of that as this uncertainty as to the time and mode of entrance to the answering whatever arguments may have been brought forward; and. river by which the cityis reached. I now yield the floor to my colleague on the committee, the gentle­ After the sum of $5,000,000 shall have been paid, and every install­ man from Iowa, [Mr. McCRARY,] who represents the other side. ment is dependent on the continued success of the work, upon main­ But before sitting down, I find that my frienrl from Indiana [Mr. tenance of every foot obtained as a permanent cha.nnel-after that CoBURN] thinks that I did not understand the question he addres ed is done, then comes in the other provision of the b~ll which allows to me, and from the explanation he makes to me I presume that I did him other sums of money for the purpose of maintaining and per­ not. His question was in regard to the amount of commerce. There fecting these works. is properly speaking no sea-going commerce which comes to the city 1\!r. SPEER. Do not the engineers of the United States estimate of New Orleans now. We want. at all events to secure to that city the actual cost of these jetties will be less than :five millions, and twenty-six feet of water, for the purpose of accommodating the pro­ when he gets this sum will he not be paid for the cost of and a fair duce which we hope will float down the Mississippi River, and tako' profit on the work done 1. that among other routes to the great marts of the world, the present 1\ir. HURLBUT. They estimate it will require seven millions construction of sea-going vessels requiring at least that depth of altogether. water to secure the proper efficiency and a reasonable cheapness of Mr. SPEER. As the bill appropriates ten millions and the work sea transportation. · will cost five, then the otller five millions he will get as a gratuity. Mr. McCRARY. Mr. Speaker, the importance of this subject justi­ Mr. HURLBUT. No; but for keeping up and maintaining the fies me, I think, in asking of every member of this House its care­ work. ful consideration. There are two questions to be settled: First, is Mr. SPEER. What risk is there when the Government pays the the improvement of the mouth of the Mississippi River of sufficient cost of the jetties f national importance to justify Congress in entering upon the work Mr. HURLBUT. The risk of failure, which some of the engineers at this time f And second, if that question be answered in the affir­ say is certain. mative, shall this improvement be made by means of a ship-canal, as Mr. SPEER. But he has his money, the cost of the work and a recommended by the Engineer Department of the Government, or fair profit on it. shall we clo it by a contract with Captain Eads for the construction Mr. HURLBUT. If by this process a depthof water over twenty­ of jetties f two feet can be secured at the mouth of the Mississippi River for :five Upon the first question, 1\Ir. Speaker, I shall have but little to say; years, the man who does it, whoever he is, and whatever way it is because upon that qnestion there is nq difference of opinion amoDg dono, is entitled to far more than this bill gives. the members of the committee, and I apprehend there cannot be This is an enterprise, then, of private capital, seeking of course much difference of opinion among the members of the Rouse. The compensation, for no man supposes that capital goes into this kind of vast and rapidly increasing importance of the commerce of the Mis­ business without extra compensation. Hm·e is a man who comes for­ sissippi Va,lley is so well,known, so well understood, that nothing I ward and undertakes to do a thing which some engineers say. that it could say could add at all to the information which every gentleman is impossible to do, and that it will he demonstrated in the first twelve already has upon that subject. I shall take leave, however, to print months that it cannot succeed. He stakes on ·it his reputation, his with my remarks a table of statistics which will show at a glance money, and the money of his friends. And of course h1) asks for something of the vastness and importance of those great States whigh compensation. And speaking on behalf of the people of the Missis­ border upon the Mississippi River and its two great tributaries. sippi Valley, and I believe I can say on behalf of the people of the From these statistics it will be seen that within the fonrtJCen States whole nation, who have a regard to the vast interests that are involveU. bordering upon these rivers will be found almost half the population there, I say that no sum of money that could reasonably be asked of the Union; that their increase of population between the years 18GO is too much to secure such a result. and 18i0 was about 49 per cent.; that they contain nearly six hun­ On the other side of this proposition the minority of the committee dred million acres of land; that only about one acre in five is im­ have reported in .Qtvor of a canal. I shall leave my colleague on the proved ; so that the development of this vast region has only been committee who represents the minority to explain for himself and for commenced. These tables show also that these States, in 1A70, pro­ those whom he represents what the peculiar virtues of the canal are. duced more than a thousand million bushels of grain, besides va t But I submit to any gentlemen from New York or from Boston how quantities of other produce. They embrace only a part of this great they would like to have their port locked so that vessels could only valley, since they take no note of the Territories bordering on the pass in and out through the slow process of lockage; and whether, Upper Mississippi and the Upper Missouri, or of the other States of 4522 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. JUNE 3,

the Union which are largely, if not so directly, interested in the com­ that Captain Eads, under the invitation of a bill like this, should en­ merce of our great river. gage in the efi'ort to improve the mouth of the river by mean of jet­ Here, Mr. Speaker, we have a great natural water-way, fnrnishinO' a ties, and should expend two or three or four million dollars a.ntl shonlu line of navigation more than twoth()usand miles in.length, through the fail in the effort, and then come here to Congress five or ten years heart of the richest agricultural region on the globe, and in a g~·eat hence a,nd tell us that we thought enough of this proposition to author­ measure blockaued at its mout.h. When this blockade is removed and ize this contract to be made with him; that it was n. great qne ·tion the few other obstructions to mtvigation cleared out, we shall have in which the country was interested, and tha,t he has expended hi opened a tran portation route to the sea which cannot be monopo­ fortnne and that of his friends in solving the problem for the Govem­ lized by any corporation, which can and will carry vastly cheaper ment of the United States, does anybody believe that he would not than the railroads now do, and which will either carry om vast prod­ be remunerated orindemnifieu by an approprjation from the Trca ury ucts, or by competition bring down railroad char~es. Hence I say 'Vhy, s· , I fiml that the passage of this bill is urged at the other end that tho importance of the improvement in question must be con­ of the Capitol upon the ground that it will be worth millions to the ceded by every one. Government to have Captain Eads try the experiment, even if his Let us, then, come at once to the consideration of the principal failure shall demonstrate the worthlessness of his jetties. The Senate matter of discussion, namely, whether we shall adopt the recom­ report upon this bill sn.ys: mendation of the Engineer Department and. construct a ship-canal, or An open river mouth is the first desideratum. If a J.>rivate individual shall make a contra-ct a.s proposed with Captain Eads. As to the prac­ demonstrate that it cannot be made, that uemonstration IS worth millions to the ticability of the ship-canal there i no difference of opinion. Every Government, leading with entire certainty to the adoption finally of the Fort Saint Philip Canal as the only alternative for the outlet which is to work such incaloula­ one of the many Government engineers who has ever examined the ble benefit in the future. subject concurs in the opinion that it is entirely practicable. It is recommende~ as I have already said, by that department of the Gov­ I have no doubt, even if Captain Eads should attempt this work ernment in which we all have so much confidence, and I think justly, under such a bill as is proposed, anu hould expend his woney on it theEngineerDepartment,with greatuuanimity. A boardofengineers, and should fail, that upon this plea. he would be indemnifieu. consisting of seven of the ablest perhaps in the whole corps, were But I sn,y again that this is not a subject to be dealt with in this detailed to·make examinations and inve tigations and report their wa.y. ·If it is the judgment of the Honse that this experiment should conclusions· upon these two propositions. Six of the seven reported be tried, let it be tried lmder an act of Congre s through our own that the canal is entirely practicable and that the jetty system must engineers and a.t as little expense as may be; but let us pay for it in the end prove a failure. 'vhatever it is reasona.bly wort.h. My friend from lllinois says that One of the seven expresses his opinion, not as my colleague from Mr. Eads is to h:ive a rea onable profit in case of succes . I do not lllinois [Mr. HURLBU'l'] says that the jetties will undoubtedly suc­ see how he a.rrives a.t that conclusion. It strikes me, from all the ceed, but that there ought to be further inquiry and investigation as information that I can get, that if this is a correct system for the to the practicability of securing an open river mouth be!ore resorting improvement of the mouth of the river, it can be carried out for vnstly to the canal. This cUssenting memiJer of the board, General Bar­ less money than we are proposing to pay to Captain Ead . General nard, very guardecliy says : Humphreys, Chief of Engineers, in a letter which has been printed I feel that I am justified in recommending it (the jetty system) :18 probably fur­ and which I suppose most gentlemen have seen, states that an esti­ nishing the most speedy attainment of a deep-water channel, and one which will mate has been made of the cost of jetties, and that it has been found have some features of permanence. tha.t if the Southwest Pass is selected for tho experiment, where the N"ow, sir, I do not question that it would be better to P.ave an open jetties must be about five miles in length, and ii they are built down river mouth, if that could be accomplished. It would certainly be to a solid foundation, the cost of them will be 7,000,000; but that if botter than an artificial outlet for the river. But I do not con­ the 1·ecommendation of General Barnard is taken, n.nd they are not ceive that we ought to make this contract with Captain Ea.ds, even put down so deep as they ought to be for entire permanency, the cost if it is deemed nece ary to try the experiment of improving the will be , 4,000,000. river by means of jetties. This, mark yon, Mr. Speaker, is nt the Southwest Pa s where the Mr. LAWRENCE. Will the gentleman allow me a question f jetties must be about five mHes long. But General Barnard strongly Mr. McCRARY. Certainly. recommends the South Pass, where the jetties are only two and a half Mr. LAWRENCE. Did not Mr. Fontaine, an eminent engineer, miles long, a.nd no doubt Captain Eads will select the South Pa s, say, in n.n aJ"gument which he made in a lecture delivered here and although, perhaps, for a purpose he has directed our attention to the which was printed and laid upon om tables, that a ship-canal was Sont.hwest Pass. utterly impmcticable, and that ~he system of jetties was the only Mr. STONE. I would ask the gentleman what the revisory board means by which a permanent outlet from the river could be secured. sa.y would be the cost of t.he jetties' 1\ir. McCRARY. I cannot say what Professor Fontaine may have Mr. McCRARY. I understand the gentleman's point. and I wlll said. I did not hear his lecture or read it. answer it. The revisory board made a.n estimate of the cost of these Mr. LA. WRENCE. He made a very able argument to show the jetties on the theory that they must be extended every year, and maue impracticability of a. ship-canal. it very large, as it certainly woulU be if that ha.d to be dono. Captain - Mr. McCRARY. I do not don bt it. I said the engineers employed Ends says that they need not be extended, ~nd General Humplu-eys by the Government, who have reported on the subject from time to makes an estimate on the assumption that it will not be nece sary t.o time-and they are very nruperous n,nd embrace many eminent men extend tho jetties. He says: in that profes ion-are unanimous in reportinO' that a ship-cang.l is It is perceived, then, that tiling the most expensive pa.ss as an example, the bill entirely practicable. If this gentleman, IJrought here fTom the city proposes to pay Mr. Eads in the one c:lSe 3,000,000 more than the estimate and in of New Orleans to advocate Mr. Eads's proposition, gave a different the other 6,000,COO more than the estimate. opinion, it is only what my friend from Ohio and myself sometimes I will remark that that is 1,000,000 too small, becau e ince that O.o when advocating the cause of a client. letter was written by General H run phreys the bill ha been so changed Mr. LAWRENCE. 'Will not the month of t.he canal encounter the as to add 1,000,000 to the amount to be pa.id to Captain Eads, mak­ same difficulty as the month of the river doesf . ing the amount $11,000,000 instead of $10,000,000. Mr. 1\fcCRARY. Not by any manner of means, because the canal is ~o that it is proposed to pay $4,000,000 more than the estimate, if forty miles above the mouth of the river, and is entirely exempt from the jetties are put down to a solid foundation, ancl $7,000,000 more all the d:tngers which will beset any attempt to improve the mouth than the estimate if they are built as General Barnard recommends, of the river. But I shall come to these point·s, if the gentleman will and if they are built at the longest pass. ·But if they are bnilt at the allow me to proceed. shortest pass, of course they can be built for :tbout one-half of whntit I undertake to say, Mr. Speaker, that ifitis the opinion of this House would cost to build them a.t the Southwest Pass. Gentlemen will see that the experiment of improving the mouth of the river by means what enormous profit there will be in a contract of this kind if Cap­ of jetties ought to be tried, it does not comport well with the dignity tain Eads is right in his theory that he can succeed by this means. If of the American Congress to make such a contract as is propo ·eel in constructed at the shortest pass and built as recommended by Genera~ this bill. If we are to try the experiment, let it be tried by tbe nation Barnard, and if, as Captain Eads contends, they will not have to be and at the nation's expense. Let us not propo e to any citizen that annually extended, he would receive under this bill about $9,000,000 be shall try it at ills own risk, and that if he succeeds we will pay over and above the estimated cost. him three or four times as much as it ts worth, and hllat if he fails So far as the mode· of construction is concerned there is nothing in we will pay him nothing. That is too much like the Sanborn con­ the bill on that subject. Captain Eads may adopt the very cheapest tract business. If this is a thing that ought to be tried by the or he may resort to the most expensive means. There is no provision United States, we are able to try it at our own expense, by our OiYn in the bill regarding the m11nner of the construction of these jetties. agents, and under the control and direction of our own engineers. He is not under the control of any engineer of the Government. He The gentleman from Illinois [Mr. HURLBUT] says that this e},_·-peri­ may select his own material and take either oue of these pa es and ment is to be tried at the risk of this individual and that the Govern­ improve it as he pleases. There is nothing in the bill to prevent him ment takes no risk whatever. I do not agree to that statement. I from resorting to dredging as well as to his jetties; and I apprehend do not believe that Captain Eads takes the :tisk if this bill sha.ll pass, he will resort to that. But I will come to that again in a moment. an(1 I think I can show the House that such is not the case. But be­ Now, I say that Captain Eads does not take the entire risk. There fore I pass to that point let me ask this question: Is there any gentle­ are a number of engineering problems to besetHe<1 bythlsexperiment. man upon this floor who desires to make a contract of t.bis kind with One is, will the jetties stand the efiect of one of those great storms any citizen of the_United ~tates at the risk of that citizen T Suppose that periodically visit that country, and which are sometimes called 1874. CONGRESSIONAL REC-ORD. 4523 cyclones when they are very severe f Another question is whether be entitled to great weight. I allude to a report by a.n officer whose the jetties will stand ~n the ki.nd of soil so recent.ly d~posited, a~d.so name is familiar to the whole people of the country. In 1839 Lieu­ soft n.ud uncertain as 1s the soil at the mouth of the r1ver. It 1s m­ tenant George G. Meade, afterward a major-general in the United sisted by n.ble engineers that they. ~ill gradually settle and in .a f~w States Army, was detailed by the W3;r Department for the purpose of years sink to the level of the ongrnal bn.nk. Another question IS, examining and reporting upon this very question. He went to the whether the mud-lumps which are continually upheaving in that mouth of the Mississippi, he remained there and made experiments, region: an4 which ac?ording to the opinio~s o~ s~me ~ngineers hn.ve and this is his report : a lift~ng power suffiCI~nt t~ break these Jetties rn pieces, h~weyer At the southwest bar many observations were made to determine the existence solidly they may be bmlt, will not sooner or later destroy the Jett.Ies. of a littoral CUlTent. And another and very important question, as I shall show presently, is whether even if the bar is moved from the pla-ee where it now is After describing some of these experiments, he continued : by means of these jetties, it will not in the course of a few years The velocity is increased when the tide is falling and diminished when it is rising. reform a little farther out in the Gulf, and become as much of an If there is any wind, the current will obey the impulse given to it by its direction. obstruction as ever. If from the east, the set of the current will be to the west, more or less inclined t~ the axis of th~ pass as the force of the wind is greater or less. So if the wind is No man can say that a single one of these engineering problems can from the wes~ the same circumstances will be perceptible wit.h regard to the set of or will be solved before Capta.in Eads will draw a large part of the the current to the east. The bottom velocity is slightly less than that of the sur­ money to which he will be entitled under this bill. What security face and is affrcted in the same way, though not to so great a degree, :mil is much sooner neutralized by the resistance of the sea. The prevailing winds being from have we¥ He is to secure and maintain for twelve months a depth the east an(l the axis of the pass Southwest, the general set of the current is to of twenty-two feet of water. As I observed a while ago, in order to the west; hence may have arisen the idea of a "westerly littoral cur·ront." secure that depth of twenty-two feet he may resort to dredging in connection with his jetties, because there is nothing in the bill to pre­ Care was t.'tken- vent his doing so. We know that Captain How?ll~ br ID:ea~s of the I call the attention of the House to this statement. It was not appliances he already has at the mouth of the MISSlSSlppl R1ver, has made by a gentleman who had any interest in any of these questions; secured a depth of twenty feet at several 'times. But if there is any it was not macle pending acpy controversy of this sort; it is not a vol­ efficacy in these jetties when they are used· in connection with the untary opinion; it is the cleliberate, matured opinion and official ~·edging process, especially if improved methods are adopted, t.here report of Generall\Ieade, ma-de upon this very question after careful 18 no reason to doubt that a depth of twenty-two feet of wat.er may be experiment : obtained and maintained for twelvemonths, at the end of which time Care was taken to make the observations under all circumstances of wind and Captain Eads would receive, accoriling to this bill, his first $2,000,000 tid~J and no tra-ces of the existence of such a current is shown Wtthin seven miles or $1,000,000, as I believe it is proposed to amend it. of tne land-the extreme point to which the observations were carried. There is bnt one question upon which Captain Eads takes the risk; that This report will be found in full in the Appendix to Physics and is the question whether he can obtain a depth of twenty-two feet of Hydraulics of the Mississippi River, by Humphreys & Abbott. water and maintain it for twelve montllS. Every other problem that Now, sir, so far as I know, no en~eer who has ever made experi­ is involved. in the controversy is left unsettled; and I repeat that no ments of this kind-no report of any engineer or any competent per­ man can say tha.t they will be determined and settled within twelve son, so far as my researches extend-has ever expre-ssed an opinion to months; no man can say that we may not expend ·5,000,000 under the contrary of this given by General Meade. And if that littoral the Eads bill, and yet find ourselves at the end of five years in a worse current is not there, or if it has not sufficient strength to take np and condition so far as an outlet is concerned than we are to-day. If we carry away this inlmense mass of earthy matter which is pushed into are to require insurance, if the Government of the United States is to the Gulf by the current of the river: then thejettiesmust fail as cer­ be relieved from all responsibility and risk, we must pass a very dif- tainly a-a to-morrow's sun wm rise. ferent bill from this. · Again, sir, if any gentleman will take the trouble to examine this Therefore it is the duty of the House to inquire and to decide which question carefully with reference to all the great sediment-bearing one of these proposed methods of improving the navigation at the rivers of the world he will discover this fact: wherever there is a month of the Mississippi River ought to be adopted. If the House strong, decided, littoral ·current of this character the river is not able decides f'Jr the jetties, let them be constructed in the ordinary way, to push the bar out into the sea or gulf with much mpidity. At the by the Goyernment itself. If the House decides that in the end the mouth of the Danube, the only place on the face of the earth where a jetties would be a failure and that a ship-canal is the only mode of sediment-bearing river has been improved with any success by means improvino- permanently the mouth of the river, then I think it is the of jetties, there is this littoral current; ancl it is so strong, so ma.rked, duty of the House _to adopt that method, and with all reasonable that, as engineers will tell you, the bar at that point has not percept­ promptness aud dispatch proceed to the construction of the canal ibly advanced during a long period of time. Speaking of the mouth I will not detain the House very long, and although it is a little of the Mississippi, General Humphreys in the report already quoted late I ask to be permitted to proceed and finish what I have to say. says: ' What we want and what we must have is permanent success, not a The very shape of the delta. is indicative of the absence of such current. Its in­ temporary success. I think it is beyond all question th·at the adop­ oreaso in the direction of the mouths of the pas es, and the existence of such area.s tion of this jetty system, if it shall have any effect upon the bar of water as Blind .Bay, Garden Island Bay, and East and West Bays, which woultl which exists at the mouth of the Mississippi and forlllS an obstruc­ have been gradually filled in the course of the delta formation by deposit if such tion to navigation there-the only effect would be to move that bar current baa. existed, all point to its absence. to another position a little farther out in the Gulf. This question And concerning the Danube he states· the facts as follows : depends largely upon another question, and that is, whether there is Further, the sea-shore line at the month of the Sulina is also stationary, and we w hn.t engineers call a littoral current, or a shorewise current, run­ do not find any recent delta iorma,tion at its mouth. The characteristic of a delta­ ning across the mouth of the Mississippi River along the shore coast. forming river is the constant annual extension of the shores at its mouth, the con­ If it be settled that there is no such current there of sufficient strength stant advance of the crest of its bar and of the whole bar, and tile constant annual to carry away the sediment, then no engineer will pretend that the advance of the deep channel inside of and behind the bar. None of these cha-rac­ jetties can do anything more than to move the bar to another -posi­ teristics are found a.t the mouth of the Soolina, which lias long since ceased to be a tion a little farther out in the Gulf. Now, s.ir, I am fully convince11 delt.'t.-forming river. that there is not at the mouth of the Mississippi River such a littoral While there is no advance of the oar at the mouth of the Danube, current as is capable of taking up and carrying away the vast deposit we find that at the mouth of the Mississippi, at the mouth of th~ of earthy matter which is carried out into the Gulf by the Mississippi Nile, at the mouth of the Rhone, at the mouth of all rivers where River. there is a large body of sediment constantly collecting, and where Sir, this is not a matter of mere opinion; it has been the subject of the littoral current is not strong enough to take it up ancl carry it careful examination and of experiment. I cannot now go into the away, the bar advances. We know as a matter of fact that the subject so fully as to quote from all the reports of our engineers upon land at the mouth of the Mississippi River has been extending for this question. I call attention to the following st.atement of the re­ centuries from a point far n.bove Now Orleans to the point where it sults of their investigations and inquiries, which I quote from the now is; and it is now advancing at the rate of about four hundred recent report of the Chief of Engineers: feet every year. This is because there is no littoral current there, or If there was a littoral current of force sufficient to carry off any large quantity because if there is one it is so slight that it has not t.he force and of this earthy matter it would not have been deposited where it is now and always strength to pick up and can-y away this mass of matter which is lla.s been found. What has been said respecting the recent soundings of Captain poured out by the river as it goes into the Gulf. Howell oxhibits this fact clearly. If there is not and never has been a current there sufficiently strong Further, upon examining the horizontal curves of equal depth on Captain How­ ell's recently prepared map, going out as far as a depth of three hundred and fifty to move the mass of earthy matter which forms the bar a it is car­ feet, we find that from the crest of the bar to one hundred feet depth the greatest ried out by the river, where will you find a littoral current to carry amount of deposit is made east of the axis or mid-line of the pass prolonged; be­ away the same mass after the jetties are constructed f You will not tween one hundred and two hundred feet depth the greatest amount of deposit is find it. You may perhaps increase the force of the current; you may made west of that line ; and between two hundred and three htmdred and fifty feet the greatest amount of deposit is made east of that line. Further, the investiga­ push the bar a little further out, but it will accumulate and pile up tions into the currents made under Captain Talcott's direction in 1838, for the very again; and when a great storm comes it will be thrown back into the purpose of ascertaining whether there was a littoral current, failed to detect its mouth of your jetties, and the obstruction will be as great as ever. existence off any of the passes, the investigations in the case of the Southwest Pass Consider for a moment the inlmense quantity of earth which is car­ extending seven miles seaward of the bar. (Executive Document No. :!20, page 3.) ried down by the ~fississippi River 11nd deposited in this bar. There Allow me also to call attention toone more report, which I think must have been different estimates as to the quantity, but the Chief of En· 4524 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. JUNE 3,

gineers gives the opinion-and I believe it is concurred in generally­ experiments which have been made for the improvement of sediment­ that at the very least the quantity of earthy matter depo ited in this bearing rivers by jetties. These rivers are the Danube, the Oder, the bar in a.ny one year is sufficient to cover a mile square two hundred Vistula, the Rhone, and tbe Adour. and forty-one feet deep; · and the effect of your jetties, if they have One of them, however, (the Oder,) is not a sediment-bearing rivE-r, any effect a.t all, will be simply to push this immense mass a little and therefore ought not to be taken into account. Of the other fonr fart.her out into the Gulf; and unles yon have some current there to there is no claim made by General Barnard that at any place except take it up and carry it away, it will accumulate there and the bar at the Soolina mouth of the Danube has there been ;:tnything like a will reform. Now, I think the testimony is overwhelming on this success. ' point: that if );here is any littoral current there-and I do not think Now, sir, as the mouth of the Danube is cited as a precedent for there is-it is not of sufficient force to have any effect upon the vast the improvement of the Mississippi River, let me repeat what! said a mass of matter when carried out in this, way. little while ago, that there is scarce any similarity between the two I think, Mr. Speaker, I am s:rle in saying that engineers are com­ rivers. The bar af the mouth of that river has not been advanced. petent to discover such a current as this if it is there. I think I am Whatever amount of earthy matter was carried out by tho river was not mistaken in saying the House of Representatives ought not to carried in suspension and not, aa at the mouth of the Missi sippi, make a contract involving $11,000,000 with an individual citizen in pushed alon(J' the bottom. The littoral current, which was di cov­ ignorance of the fact that there is such a current there, if it is there, ered by Sir Charles Hartley, the engineer, before he tmdertook the and in view of the great importance of that fact if it exists. work and before he would undertake it, is strong enough to carry ltfr. CONGER. The bars have advanced two or three miles since away whatever sediment is founed at that point. 1838. Now, sir, another experiment upon this subject was at the mouth Mr. McCRARY. They have advanced at the rate of four hundred of the Rhone. This river is more like the Mississippi than any other feet a year, and in the aggregate some two or three miles. river upon whic4 this experiment has been tried. It is a river which Mr. PARSONS. Has not the entire teatimony shown this current bears a large quantity of sediment, although only one-fourth the is not sufficiently strong to carry away that bar at all unless taken quantity which is carried by the Mississippi. Its bar is being rapidly up by mud-rakes and made to move by arvlficial means¥ extended, though not so rapidly as that of the Mississippi. Hs ex­ Mr., CONGER. That refers to the river current, but the gentleman tensionisfifty-twofeetperyear; that at the mouth of the Missis ippi is now talking about the Gulf current. · four hundred feet. And yet the attempt to improve the mouth of Mr. McCRARY. I am speaking of the current of t.he Gulf. the Rhone by means of jetties has entirely failed; and after spend­ Mr. KASSON. Moving at right angles. ing millions and millions of dollars they have been obliged to im­ Mr. McCRARY. There is another question among engineers which prove that river by a ship-canal to connect the river with the Gulf has an important bearing upon this case. There is a dispute, though of Fos. The canal is now completed and is a success. I have before not much of a disput{\, as to the manner in which the earth which is me a very able work by a distinguished French engineer, Eli ee carried down to this bar is transported. It is a~reed, I believe, on Recliis, recently translated into our language and published in this all hands that a part is held in suspension, but it IS claimed by Gen­ country. In this work the engineer I have named treats of the e ex­ eral Humphreys and other engineers that the larger part is pushed or periments at the mouth of the Danube and also at the mouth of tho rolled along upon the bottom of the river. General Humphreys is of Rhone, and I wish to call the attention of tho House to what he says. the opinion that this mass of matter which is plished along the bot­ Upon the general ubject of the improvement of the mouths of these tom is the matter which forms the greater pa.rt of the bar. This has great rivers he says : an important bearing upon this question, becau e Captain Eads him­ Every engineer recommends his own special plan as bein(J' adapted to avert tho self will concede-! think he did before this committee-that if the danger; each promises that he will oorreot those ri>er outlets which Vaubao cha,r. principal part is pushed along the bottom it will not be carried out aoterized as "incorrigible." But only too frequentl.v operations are undertakf'n any farther by means of jetties. All the engineers agree on this ques­ without taking account of the numerous causes which determine the formation and fluctuations of the bar. Among all the immense works which havo been car. tion, and Captain Eads him elf on another occasion stated the fact ried out at the mouths of rivers many have become useless or oven a.b olutely precisely as I believe it exists. injuriona to navigation. Millions and millions of money have been thu.s oa t into Mr. LEWIS. Allow me to ask the gentleman a question. :the ocean and purely wMted, (page 425, 426.) Mr. McCRARY. I have not much time, if I a~ to conclude to-day; Then, speaking of the improvement of the mouths of the e rivers, but I will b glad to answer if it does not t.ake too long. or the attempt to improve them by means of jetties,he says, pago ~7 : .Mr. LEWIS. Does not General Humphreys state in his report the matter carried as sediment to the Gulf would make a solid mass a A system of moles and jetties is, therefore, the plan that has generally been re· sorted to by engineers in the improvement of the mouths of rivers. 'I' his plan is mile quare and two hundred and forty-one feet high, and does he somewhat similar to that of the embankments which have been employed, 'vith not also estimate the amount rolled upon the bottom of the river various degrees of success, on tho middle c~urses of rivers; but tho marino dikos would make a mas a mile square and only thirty-seven feet high 1 have not always produced favorable results, and a great many experiments which Mr. McCRARY. I have not seen any estimate of the kind. seemed to offer good chances of success ha>e entirel.v failed. Among tho umler· takings of this -kind, which have been the most costly :mel the most nscle , we Mr. LEWIS. You will find it so. may mention t~ose which have been oarried out at the delta of tho Rhone. Mr. McCRARY. What I wish to do now is to show by the testi­ mony of Captain Eads that there is this vast amount of matter push­ He says, further : ing alo~g the bottom of the river. In his report as engineer-in-chief In 1852, SureU. the engineer, closed up tho various graus through whlch the of the Illinois and Saint Louis Bridge Company I find, on page 21, this water of theRhonefouncllittoral outlet and'lengtbened the two banks of the princi­ pal mouth by means of dikes converging one upon another, thus doubling the statement, not of opinion but of fact, by Captain Eads hinu ~If: force of the current. I had occasion to examine the bottom of tho Mississippi below Cairo, during the flood of 1851, and at sll.'ty-five feet below the surface I found the bed of the river It cannot, I think, be claimed that the force of the current can be for at lea t three feet in depth a moving mass, and so unstable that in endea.vorin(J' very greatly increased at the mouth of the Mississippi River, becau e to find footing on it beneath the bell my feet penetrated through it until I coul:i there is no fall; there is almost a dead level for five miles, and when feel, although standing erect, the sand rushing past m:v hands, driven by a cur­ a storm comes in the current is apt to be the other way instea,d of rent apparently as rapid ll8 that at the surface. I could discover the sand in motion ttt least two feet below the surface of the bottom, and movin~ with a. velocity dimin­ toward the Gulf. ishing in proportion to the depth at which I thrust my banns into it. The water of the river dicl, in fact, accomplish the work of erosion, and cleared Now, Mr. Speaker, if that is the condition of the bottom of the out the channel; but fre.~h alluvium being incessantly brought down by the flow of the Rhone and thrown up by the waves of tho sea, a new bar formed aero s the Mississippi River in time of flood, I think it is easy to see how this mouth outside. Before the operations of embanking were lJegun, the average depth great baJ.' has filled up. Whenever there is a flood, it is not so much by of the ohaJIIlel was five feet ten inches; at the present time it i th same, after the quantity of sediment held in suspension by the river waters as havin~ varied from thirteen feet to six feet and one-half, and three feet eight inches, by this great rolling mass which is pu hed along the bottom by means aocoraing to the quantity of water sent down by the current. of the current of that mighty river, and which, when it strikes the As to the result of the experiments at the mouth of the Rhone ho salt water at the mouth and meets with resistance createcl by the says, page 432 : incoming forces of the Gulf, is dropped down and forms the bar. A work of this kind (a. canal) is being carried out at the mouth of tbe Rhone, lly That fact then of itself-and I prove it here by the testimony of Cap­ the digging out of the canal of Saint Louis. This navigable channel is two and tain Eads-is to my mind entirely conclusive against the success of a half mile long and sixty.six yards wide, and is intended to connect the river with this mode of improvement; for all will agree that the littoral current, the Gulf of Fos, so called from a former navigable canal dug out by Marins, (jossre even if it exists, cannot reach or affect this mass of matter moved marianre.) Ves els drawing twenty-four feet of water will thus be enabled to ascend ll8 far as the port of Aries, which at the present day is almost abandoned along the bottom. by commerce on account of the deficiency of water in the channel of the Rhone. I am not quite through, but I think I am detaining the House too long. Of the improvements of the mouth of the Danube the same author everal MEMBERS. Go on . says, (page 429) : bfr. McCRARY. I will encleavor to conclude in a short time. There The operations undertaken at Sulina, one of the mouths of the Danube, ~~>ppoar t.o have met with great success, bnt through an entirely special cat£se. Mr. Charles aro some things which I wish to say, but which for want of time I will Hartley, the skillful constructor of the Soolinajetties, has taken care to push Lhcm omit. · out more than a hundred yards into these.a, as far as a. point wheroa current g nor. l will now call the attention of the House to some experiments ally passes alongtheshoretending_from north to south. This currentcatches hold which have been made, because experience in this matter is more of all the alluvium, which glides aown over the bottom of the bed. of the river and .valuable tons than the opinions of engineers, however able. thus hinders the formation of afresh bar. Iu General BaruaTd's minority report, which is to be found in Exec­ It is said that the effect of jetties at the mouth of tho Mis is ippi .uti ve Document No. 220, page 119, he calls our attention to some four would be to push the earthy matter out into very deep water, so that -.

1874. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 4525

even if the littoral current did not carry it away the bar would be a Table shouting the numlJer of acres of land, improved and unimproved, long time in reforming. The answer to this is that the whole space tuithin the follmui?~g States. out from the mouth of the river for :five to ten miles is rapidly :filling up and the bar would not be pushed into very deep water. Cu,ptain Acres im- Acres un- Number of Howell's reports show that actual measurement has established that St:l.tes. proved !mproved acres not in Total. at a point three thousand feet seaward from the crest of the bar the in farms. m farms. farms. wu,ter is but forty-five feet deep. At the same point it was one hun­ dred and forty-five feet deep in 1838. Minnesota ....•....•...... •.. 2, 322,102 4, 161,726 47,976.012 53, 45a, 840 It is now so late in the day that I will not detain the House longer Wisconsin ...... 5, 899,343 5, 815, 978 22,796,039 34,511, 3&0 at this time. It is possible that I may wish to add a few remarks on ro,va...... ·•···· ······ 9, 396,467 6, 145,326 1!), 687,007 35,228, 80H points which have escapecl my memory because of the hurried man­ illinois .....•...... 19, 329,952 6, 552,902 9, 576,346 35,459, 200 Missouri ...... 9, 130,615 12,576,605 21,415,980 43,123,200 ner in which I have spoken, when the House resumes the considera­ Arkansas ...... 1, 859,821 5, 735,475 25,811,424 33,406,720 tion of this subject; but at present I am not sure whether I will or 6, 843,278 12,737,936 9, 602,786 29,184,000 not. For the present I yield the floor. The following are the statis­ 4, 20!), 146 8, 911,967 17,058, 728 30, 17!), 840 tical tables to which I ·have referred, showing the population, im­ e~~i:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-~:::::: 2, 045,640 4, 980,177 20, 690,023 27,715,840 Kentucky ...... 8, 103, 850 10, 556,256 5, 455, 094 24, 115,200 proved u,nd unimproved lands, number and value of live stock, amount Ohio ...... 14,469,133 7, 432,287 3, 875,540 9..5, !i76, 960 of cereal products, wool, &c., produced within the States bordering Indiana ...... 10,104,279 8, 015, 36!) 3, 518, OCJ2 21,637,760 on the Mississippi River and its principal tributaries, during the year Nebraska ...... 647,031 1,426, 723 76, 011,726 78,085,480 ll:l70: Kansas ...... 1, 971,003 3, 685,876 44,530,641 50,187, 520 Table showing population and per cent. in gain frQ'TJt 1860 to 1870. Total .. . • . • . • • ...... 96, 332, 660 98, 784, 603 328, 005, 438 521, 851, 720 Table showing the nU'Tnber and valzte of live stock in 1870. Population. Gain since States. 1860. Sta.tes. Horses. Mnle."'. Cattle. Sheep. Swine. Value. Per cent. Wisconsin ...... 1, 054,670 33.90 Minnesota ...... 91,011 230 310,379 132,343 148, 743 $20, 118, 841 11innesota...... 439,706 155.61 Wisconsin ....•.. 252,019 4,195 692, 2!)4 1,069,~ 512,778 45,310, 2 Iowa...... 1, 194,020 76.91 Iowa ...... 433,642 25,485 1, 006,305 855,493 1, 353, !)08 82,987,133 Dlinois ...... 2, 539,891 48.36 illinois ...... 853,738 85,075 1, 719, 586 1, 568,286 2, 703,343 194, 756, 698 Missouri ...... 1, 721,295 51.52 Missouri ...... 493, !)69 111,502 1,152, 095 1, 352,001 2, JOG, 430 84,285,273 Arkansas ...... 484,471 23.90 Arkansas ...... 92,013 36,202 357,935 161,077 841,129 17, 22-2, 506 Tennessee ...... 1, 258,520 25.91 Tennessee ...... 247,254 102,983 643,696 826,783 1, 828,690 55,084, 075 827,922 34.26 Mississippi...... 90,2-21 85,886 501,075 232,732 814, 381 21,940,238 ~~!:tt:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 726,915 26.35 Louisiana ...... 59,738 61,338 335,261 181,602 338,326 15,929,188 1, 321,011 23.98 Kentucky ...... 317,034 99,230 700,327 937,765 1, 838,227 66,287,343 ~:io~~~::;::: ::::::::::::::.:::::: ·::.: :·. ·.:: :·::::::::::: 2, 665,260 13.92 Ohio ...... •.. 609,722 16,065 1, 436,217 4, 928, 6~5 1, 728,968 120, 300, 528 Incliana...... 1, 680, 637 24.45 Indiana...... 497,883 43,259 1, 026,184 1, 612,680 1, 872,230 83,178,782 Nebraska .. t •...... 122,993 ...... Nebraska ...... 30,511 2,632 72,928 2-2,725 59,449 6, 551,185 Kan~ ...... 364, 399 240 00 Kansas ...... 117,786, 11,786 373,957 109,088 206,587 23, 173, 185 Total . . •...•. : ...... 16,401,710 ...... Total...... 4, 286,543 685,663 10,329,839 13,998,492 16,545,189 835, 725, 857

Table showing the amount of 'Wheat, rye, corn, oats, barley, buckwheat, tobacco, and cotton p1·oduced in 1870.

~ ------.------.------.------~~------.------~------.------.------J States. Wheat. Rye. Corn. . Oats. Barley. Buckwheat. Tob!Wco. Cott~n.

Bushels. Bu-shels. B ushels. Bushels. Buslwls. Bushels. Pounds. Bales. Minnesota ...... 18,866,073 18,088 4, 783,117 10,678,261 1, 032,024 52,438 8, 247 ······• ···•·• Wisconsin ...... 25,606,344 1, 325,294 15,033,998 20,180,016 1, 645,019 408,897 960,813 ...... Iowa ...... 2!), 435, 692 505,807 68,935,065 21,005,142 1, 960,779 109,432 71,792 ...... Illinois ...... 30,128, 405 2,456, 578 12!>, 921, 395 42,780,851 2, 480,400 168,862 5, 249, 274 465 Missouri ...... 14,315,926 559,532 66,034, 075 16,578,313 ...... 36,252 12, 320, 483 1, 246 .1\.rkansa,s ...... 741,736 .27, 645 13, 382, 145 5~,777 ...... 226 594, 886 247, 968 Tennessee ...... 6, 188,916 223, 335• 41,343,614 4,513, 315 ...... 77,437 22, 465, 452 181, 842 274,479 14,852 15, 637, 3!6 414,586 ...... 1, 819 61, 012. 564, 938 ~J!i~~~~ ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :·.:::: 9, 906 ...... 7, 596,628 17,782 ...... 260 ...... -...... 350,832 Kentucky ...... 5, 728, 704 1, 108,933 50,091,006 6, 620,103 238,486 3, 443 105, 305, 869 1, 080 Ohio ...... 27,882,159 846,890 25,347,549 25,347,549 1, 715,221 180,341 18, 741. 973 ...... Indiana ...... 27,746,222 457,468 8, 590,409 8, 590,409 356,262 80,231 9,325,392 ...... Nebraska...... 2, 125,0 6 13,532 1, 477,562 1, 477,562 .216, 481 3, 471 5,988 ...... Kansis ...... 2, 391,198 85,267 4, 095,925 4, 095, 925 98,405 27,826 33,241 ...... Total ...... 191, 440, 846 7, 703,221 553, 116, 276 162,828,591 I !), 743,0771 1, 150, !)35 175,144, 422 r 1. 348, 371

RECAPITULATION. with :tmendments, be ·taken from t.he Speaker's table and refened to ~~~: of\~b;~C:O~:: ·:: ::::: ~::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ~: i~;: ~~~ the Committee on Appropriations, and that it be printed with the B·Jes of cotton...... 1, 348,371 Senate amendments numbered. Population...... • .•• . • ...... •• . . . 16,401,710 The motion was agreed to. Acres of land improved...... • 96,332,660 Acres of land unimproved, (in farms)...... 98, 784, 603 EVENING SESSION FOR TO-!IIORROW. Acres of land, (not included in farms)...... • ...... • . . . . 328, 005, 438 Total number of acres of all cla.sses ...... : ...... • ...... 521, 851, 720 :Mr. STORM. I ask unanimous consent that to-morrow evening be · Live stock, (number)...... 45,845,726 assigned to the Select Committee on the Washington MonUlllent for Live stock, (total value of)...... • ...... • ...... $835, 725, 857 debate only. rJJtennmerated above, but from the same report, will be found the following Mr. SENER. And on the monument to the mother of Washington. Mr. HURLBUT. I am sorry to antagonize the gentleman, but we may need to-morrow evening in case we do not get through with this ¥~:~£~a;~~~:::::::::::~:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ~: gi~: g~~ bill sooner. . Bushels o(clover and grass seed...... • ...... 559, 426 Mr. STORM. I did not suppose that to-morrow evening had been Bushels of rice...... 15, 845, 012 asked for any other purpose. Of 1,387,299,155 bushels of grain raised in the United States the western division Mr. HURLBUT. It is possible it may be needed. produced 925,982,!>46 bushels; or, in words, about two-thirds of the total amount produced in the United States. . The SPEAKER. But in case it is not needed¥ In popnlfltion of 38,115,641, this division reJ?rosents 16,401,710 of that number in Mr. HURLBUT. Then I have no objection. 1870. At the same ratio of increase this terntory now represents a population of The SPEAKER. Then an evening session wHl be coosidered as about 18,0UO,OOU. ordered for to-morrow evening for the purpose of debate on the sub­ Of 100,102,387 pounds of wool we have a credit of 47,093,572 from that amount. Of 27,316,048 tons of hay produced, we :find 11,502,617 pl!Wed to the credit of this jects indicated. division. . COST OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. Of 1,222 865 bushels of grass and clover seed produced, we have 559,426, or about Mr. PLATT, of Virginia, by unanimous consent, from the Committee one-half of the whole amount, . on Public Buildings and Grounds, reported a bill (H. R. No. 3589) MILITARY ACADEMY APPROPRIATION BILL. to extend the limits as to cost of certain public buildings and tore­ Mr. GARFIELD. I move that the bill (H. R. No. 2545) making move certain restrictions in regard to the construction of the same, appropri::Ltions for the support of the Military Aca-demy for the fiscal and for other purposes; which was read a first and second time, ye.ar ending J tme 30, 1H75, which has been returned from the Sena.te recommitted to the committee, and orderecl to be printed.· 4526' CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. JUNE 3,

A-Ir. HURLBUT. I move that the House now take a recess until as to the .fitness of different routes. Thoy furnish :tbundant evidence half-past seven o'clock. that Providence, when He bestowed upon certain regions of our land Mr. HOLMAN. Is it understood that no business is to be transacted Y oxtraordina.ry fertilit.y, traced also for each one of them a natural The SPEAKER. No business whatever is to be transacted, and the route of cheap transportation by water flowing to the sea. debate is to be confined to this bill; that is to say, it is to have preced­ According to the census report of 1870, six of the most prodnctivo ence. If the debate on this bill shall be exhausted, the Chair does wheat- districts lie almost wholly west of •the Mississippi River. not suppose there would be any objection to any gentleman speaking The first in Mi.Imesota and Iowa, and produces, a,ccording to careful on any other subject, but the preference will be given to gentlemen estimates1 a surplus beyond consumption of about 45,000,000 bushels who desire to speak on the bill. of wheat. The second extends along the Missouri River, in !own, The motion of Mr. HURLBUT was agreed to; and accordingly (at Nebraska, and Kansas, and produces an estima,ted surplus of 3,000,000 .five o'clock and .five minutes p. m.) the House took a recess until bushels. A third lies along the Mississippi River;. in Illinois and Mi - half past seven o'clock p.m. souri. embracing every county from Quincy to cairo, and produces an estimated surplus of nearly 14,000,000 bushels. A fourth extends EVENING 'SESSION. along the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, and produces about 15,000,000 The recess having expired, the House reassembled at half pa.st bushels. A .fifth extends through Central Michigan, touch in rr North­ seven o'clock p.m., Mr. BURROWS occupying the chair as Speaker ern Iriuiana, producing not more than 5,000,000 bushels; while the p1·o te1npo're. sixth, ombracmg counties in the Miami Valley, in Indiana, produces an estimated surplus of nearly 11,000,000 bushels. IMPROVEMENT OF MOUTH OF ITSSISSIPPI RIVER. Detailed examination by counties shows that in adclition to an est.i­ The SPEAKER pro tentpore. By order of the House the session for matod surplus of 47,786,738 bushels produced in States wost of the this evening is for debate only on the bill for the improvement 0f the Mi sissippi River, more than 26,000,000 bushels of the surplus of whea,t mouth of the :Mississippi River. are produced in localities from which the .Mississippi and its naviga,blo ~Ir. WELLS. Mr. Speaker, the opening of the mouth' of the Mis­ tributaries afford a natural outlet. Thus, of an estimated surplus of sis ippi River to free and unobstructed navigation is of so much im­ 92,895,857 bushels of wheat produced in Northwestern ·states, abont portance to the people I in part represent on this floor that I caunot 741250,000 bushels, or nearly 80 per cent., are grown in district to let the present occasion pass without presen~in_s- some of the views I which material benefit from improvements of the Mississippi River entertain upon this subject, and which will innuence me to vote for and its tributaries would surely extend. the passage of the bill reported from the majority of the Committee on From the same source from which this information is derived, we Rail ways and Canals. For a number of years past the bulk of western see a like result in relation to the surplus crops of corn and oats, half produce to ea tern markets, 'and to consumers, ha -been very greatly the surplus of barley, and two-thirds of the packed meats, togeth r embarrassed, both by the enormous quantity of such produce supplied with the crops of tobacco, hemp, sugar, cotton, and molas es. All by the rich agricultural lands of the \Vest and the requirements of of these lie close to the navigable rivers of the '\Vest. More th:1n consumers in other sections of the country and in foreign lands. This 9,000,000 tons of agricultural products, not required for consumption embarrassment grows out of the small value per ton of these produc­ in these Western States, seek an outlet from districts to which the tions, when compa.red with other fruits of industry and chief objects of Mississippi aud its tributaries, if rendered avail:1ble, offer a route . commerce, which renders a co tly transportation peculiarly burden­ more readily accesSible and cheaper than any other. some to t.ho e who consume, and still more to those who produce them. ln the rapid development of this country, the location of the urplns The quantity of vegetable produce moved in a single year, 1873, by only of these vast productions has adva,nced so far to the westward that the five rout.es of transportation eastward from the valley of theMis issippi expense of moving it by the lines of rail and the la,kes of tho north amounted to more than 7,400,000 tons, and statistical fleta,ils are given have, in effect, closed these routes to a brge proportion of thi.q sur­ from ten States in theNorthwestwhich show thattheyhave a surplus plus. Such has been the high price of transportation by theso un­ availa,blo for shipment to meet deficiencies elsewhere in one year's natural routes of transport that the farmer of the West is reCJ.uired crop of 364,000,000 bushels of cereals. So small a quantity of this to pay two-thirds of his crop to get one-third to market. A route reaches the Atlantic sea-board th:1t it is reasonable to suppose that by southward, therefore, by this natural channel, cutting all these rail­ no moans an inconsiderable part remains unsold, and is wasted or con­ roads or their dependencies at a multitude of points, extending navi­ sumed, beyond the actual requirements of the people of that region, gable branches into almost every considerable surplus-producing dis­ in consequence of the lack of adequate facilities for its economical trict in the West, offering to almost every western raih·oad an inde­ transport:ttion. pendent route, to which it may move freight in a multitude of cases In addition to the cereals, during the past year over 2,400,000 tons more profitably than to either of the eastern trunk roads, seems to of other agricultural products were ready for the market. But the me to give absolutely the only perma,uent and generally effective pro­ routes upon which over 8,000,000 tons of agricultuml products have tection to producers. to depend for transport.ation eastwartl are at the same time required The opening of the mouth of the Mi i sippi River to tho uninter­ to move over 2,500,000 tons of forest produce, and 900,000 tons of rupted navigation of ocean vessels will break up and render worth­ petroleumJ besides 1,000,000 tons of manufactuTed iron and other arti­ less a host of combinations formed fur the control of the traffic of cle , toward tide-water, and these same routes move, though not this vast valley. When we consider the great number of navigable wholly eastward nor over thoir whole length, more than 9,000,000 streams upon which our western steamers ply, reaching out from tho tons of coal. Of these enormous quantities of western procluctions, Mississippi, the vast territory traversed by its branches, and tho pecu­ so large a proportion is moved ovm: the same parts of the chief routes, liar proximity of the chief grain-producing regions to those branche , aud in the same ·direction, that blocka,des ancl delays, costly alike to or to the river itself, it is clear that competition offered by that fi·ee commerce and the transporter, cannot always be avoided by the highway, unlimited in capacity, and closetl from Saint Louis south­ utmost skill. ward an average of only eighteen days in the year, will be worth The profitable cultivation of the soil is moving westward with sur­ more to the agricultural interests of the West and the consumers of prising rapidity. In 1850 Pennsylvania produoed more wheat than the East than all other competition atta.inable or conceivable by a,ny a,ny State in the Union. In 1573 Minne ota had the largest wheat other means. crop of any State. Growing population creates increa,sing demand It is unnecessary, Mr. Speaker, that I sho11ld proceed further to point from the older States. The region south of the lakes, which formerly out the importance to tlle section of the valley of the Mississippi supplied the Ea-st, ha steadily decreased in production, and in 1873 which I in part represent upon this floor of the permanent opening more than half of the wheat produced in the northwestern portion of of the mouth of the Mi sissippi River ; for notwithstanding the im­ tho country for the ea tern' market, or for export to foreign ports1 was mense surplus of agricultural products now sent forward by the va­ grown in States west of the Mississippi River. As the distance between riGus routes of tmnsport, these productions are yet in their infat.cy. the producer and consumer widens thus rapidly, the cost of transporta­ The teemin~ population pouring into these States, not only from the tion becomes every year to both a matter of more vital concern. sterile gramte hills of New England and the States borderinrr on the Financial and industrial disorder has impressed upon the public Atlantic sea-board, but from the industrial population of the Old mind the conviction that by some mode or other our exchange of World, will in a very short period of time so multiply the agricul­ products must be effectecl'at less cost. And the true and, to my mind, tural productions of these West-ern States, and develop the vast min­ only solution of this problem lies in the fact that a bushel of wheat eral resources that lie hidden within their borders, as to require every or corn, or any other production of the soil, if it be launched upon natural as well as artificial channel that can be constructed to b ar the navigable waters nearest to either of the chief producing districts off the surplus for consump.tion by less favored communities. of the West, aurl follows the natural water currents without inter­ The industry and commerce oftheMi i1-1slppi Valley need immediut ruption or other motive-power, will be found within forty days in the relief by the opening of their na,tural channels of trade to the high­ Atlantic Ocean, close to the harbor of New York, at less expense than way of nations upon the ocean. And this can only be done by o im­ any other. Nature itself supplies in the :Mississippi River and the proving the entrance of the Mississippi into the Gulf as to allow oc a,n Gulf Strca,m a route from the very districts in which the largest sur­ steamers and ves els of large tonnage to enter its mouth and receive plus of grain is produced to the very region in which the demand for their cargoes from the river craft bearing these surplus products to consumption most largely exceeds production. Upon that route nature New Orleans. adcls, free of cost, a motive-power, a,iding every oa tward-bound ves­ That the bill now under consideration does not a k for an appro­ sel in the natural currents, flowing at the rate of about four. miles an priation larger than the Stn,te bordering on the Mi sissippi River aro hotll', from Saint Paul to the Gulf, and from the Gulf along the Atlan­ justly entitled to will fully appear, I think, by referenco to a, few ta­ tic coast. tistics which I have collate1l from officia,l sources, and which I bog The loca,lities from which grain must be moved ::;ettle the question to present for the consideration of the House. I ,·

1874. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 4527

In the first place, the following table, derived from the records of ing an outlet at the mouth of the Mississippi River sufficient for the th('. General Land Office, will show the disposal of "tlhe lands of nine ingress and egress of vessels of large tonnage, that they may bear off States bordering on this river by the Government: to the ocean and markets of the world the surplus productions of the western States. .Approxintate statement of gross amount of cash receipts j oo1nbm· of aare. a straight Arkansas ...... -...... 3, 680, G50 16 line for the axis of the canal, but. also of selecting other points of termini than tho~e Louisiana ...... -············--····...... 30,158,187 94 ·recommended by Captain Howell. ----- 556,404, 329 17 It is evident, therefore, that at the time the board of United States engineers made their report in favor of a canal, they had not sufficient This, added to the ~eceiptsfrom lands sold by the United States, as data to determine its best location across the peninsula, ·inclucUng its shown in the table above, amounts to more than one-half of the rev- termini, and particularly its debouchm·e by jetties into Isle au Breton cnue collected in cash from all the States since the establishment of and it was therefore impossible to estimate its cost. the Internal Revenue Bureau. It is evident to every one who carefully Jooks into this report of :Mr. Speaker, these exhibits, I think, will show that liberal appro- the engineers, that neither the cost of the work of building a, canal, priatious are justly due these Western States for the improvement of the line of its location, the position of its terminal points, nor tho these natural channels of commerce. And you will find, by reference exact method of its construction, had been determined upon by these to the expenditures of the Government since the adoption of the Con- engineer~:! when they recommended this work. General Bernard, who stitution, that the appropriations made for the improvement of com- was the president of the board, and whose ability as an engiueer is merce and the development of the vast resources of the country have not surpassed hy any officer of the corps, after expressing his faith in been upon a meagre scale, especially in the valley of the Mississippi jetties as the speediest means of obtaining a permanent deep-water River. channel, thus protests against the canal on page 91 of the report: In this vast valley, the most fertile upon the face of the earth, ex- It is said the time has come when the needs of commerce demand the canal; 1m tending from the western slope of the Alleghany at Pittsburgh, Penn- I answer that the time will come when there will be the same cry for a navigation sylvania, from the Falls of Saint Anthony at the head of the Missis- unimpeded bv locks-an open-river mouth. But in whatever aspect the question sippi River, and from the Yellowstone at the foot of the Rocky be regarded, the use of tht. river mouth for the next ten years is simply inevita :Mountains in the West, we have a continuous communication bynav- bl~he conditions of the location and execution of a canal have received no ade· ign ble rivers of over twenty thousand miles, concentrating their forces quate study. The plan bolcliy and yet so imperfectly sketchecl out nearly forty ~mel a.ll bearing their products to one outlet in the ocean at the mouth years ago by one for seventeen years my commanding officer or professional assoc; of the Mississippi. And yet the Government, for the improvement ate, W. H. Chase, is 'yet in its engineering featw·es tho best plan extant, and the f b grave objections to that apply with even greater force to the present project, and o t ese vast avenues of trade, which a,re designed by nature to af- llemand new studies of location and an entire re\ision of plans of execution. It ford the cheapest and most ample facilities for the immense popu- would be a rash confidence which would contemplate a realize

thousand tons-mru.-t be secured. The numerous failures that have near the mouth of the Southwest Pass is one hundred miles south been made have not yet destroyed the hope of accomptlshing this of Mobile Bay. end. The admirable condition of the port of New Orleans, !!nd the All the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico near the mouth of the Mis 'l - urgent necessity which requires a cheaper route of transport for our sippi and .Alabama coast is shallowed, and its waters are clo d by produce than is furnished by the net of railroads and the navigation the turbid river and the washing of its bar, which goes to prove the of the lakes in the North, have turned the attention of our people to action and direction of this great current which forms the principal the incomparable superiority of the river route for all practicable part of the Gulf Stream. purposes. I have no faith whatever, Mr. Speaker, in the correctness of mathe­ After a careful examination of this matter by some of the most matical calculations, even if made by engineers, in regard to the experienced engineers of the country, they have expressed the opinion former or futur~ extension of the bars at the mouth of the Missi ippi that this object can be secured by improvements at one or more of which ignore the facts I have presented. All the facts of physical the natural mouths of the river. In the report made by General Ber­ georrraphy are in conflict with such mathematics. nard, (Executive Document No. 113, Forty-third Congress, first ses­ The ocean bottom at the Southwest Pass is not level; it slopes with sion, page 84,) he says upon the subject of jetties for this purpose: a descent of several hundred feet to the mile down to eight thousand feet in thirty miles, and then into depths more profound. The Mis­ I do not know how I can better define at the outset my position in relation to them than by quoting from a former report: " I can only reason on probabilities, sissippi River does not bring down into the Gnlf and drop on one deuuced froin study of the river and the lights of experience, and so long as, to spot or upon the whole surface of the bars a mile square of earth two establish the negative, there has been I need not say no trial of the system, but hundred feet thick, as is said in one report, or deposit upon one site not even a survey accompanied with a careful study and experiments directed any such mass-solid, fluid, or in any other form. It may convey to expres ly to develop the cost and character of the work needed, I feel that I am justified in recommending it as probably furnishing the most speedy attainment the sea that or ten times as much. Some of it is undoubtedly lodged of a deep-water channel, and one which will have some features of permanence." there, but the most of it is stTewn over the Gult bottom from its mouth to Pensacola, and some of it may frnd its way to "the tele­ Again, General Bernard, in his report, quotes from the Physics and graphic plateau" between Newfoundland and Irelan(l, as portions of Hydraulics of the Mississippi for the 'rationale of the jetty system: its dlift-wood certainly do to the western shore of Europe. And this The development of the laws which govern the formation of the bars has removed deep-sea current, which deepens the Gulf there and shallows its nort.h­ all uncertainty as to the principle which should guide an attempt to deepen the ern limits, certainly crosses the proposed line of these j ettie ; and channel over them. The erosion or excavating power of the current must be in· creased relatively to the depositing action. This may be done either by increasing while it will prevent their extension to Cuba it will convey what­ the ab olnte velocity of the current over the bar or by artificially aiding its action. ever they cast into it, which it can utilize as paving materials to the To the first class of works belong jetties and the closure of lateral outlets; to the north and east of their points, and will dump them there to make latter, stirring up the bottom by suitable machinery, blasting, dra o-gmg the mate· the shallows 'between Ship Island and Fort Saint Philip shallower rial seaward, and dredging by buckets. These plails are all correct m theory, and the selection from them should be governed by economical calculations. still. This ocea.n river will certainly conquer the Mississippi ultimately Such, says General Bernard, is the theory of jetties, "and no engi­ and capture and carry awa.y its bar, as it has alreat.ly vanquished the neer has yet expressed a doubt as to the fa.ct that concentration of Amazon and sunk its bar into its "unfathomed caves," or strande(l the w:1ters of one flf the pv.sses by jetties carried out to deep water it upon some new-made shore, whether we choose to assist it or not. toouldexcal'ate the 7'eqtti,·ed cleep channel.'' Tho only objection, be says, The future millions of the occupants of the valley of the Missi ippi is the difficulty and cost of construction, and the alleged necessity of will :fiml its mouth opened sufficiently to supply all the commercial co tly annual extension of these jetties to follow the bar thrown out wants of the cyclopean engineer, even if without our puny aid to at the mouth. But, Mr. Speaker, recent developments have shown hasten it in the performance of its natural work. that this objection has no foundation in fact. · That there will be any The cost of the two classes of work proposed, canal and jettie , has aclva:nce of the jetties necessary after they are built is not supported been left by me to be discussed by the committee that has had the by the experience of the improvement at the mouth of the river Dml­ subject under consideration. Having undoubted confidence in t he nbe, where tbe "jetty syst.em" has been put to practical test. There engineering skill of Captain Eads as well as in his ability to carry out the water has been increased by their use from nine to twenty feet in whatever be may undertake, I cannot come to any other conclusion. depth, and no advance in the bar is indicated. On the contmry, the When Ilook at that noble structure erected across the Father of Waters shore line has actually receded near the jetties. This experience at at Saint Louis-the finest bridge, so acknowledged by all who have the mouth of the Danube is sustained by the opinion of some of the seen it, either in this or any other country-when we consider that most eminent engineers in Europe and America. a convention of the most eminent civil engineers in this con~1try , Correct maps of the ocean currents, made since 1861 and on :file in twenty-seven in number, met at Saint Louis to examine the gronnd the office of the Coast Survey, giving the equatorial current of the and pla.ns of the bridge, and they with one voice pronounced again t ocean, place it as .fl.owinO' from Cape Saint Roque, in Brazil, directly the practicability of constructing it in accordance with the plans ub­ against the northern and eastern shore of South and North America mittecl by Mr. Eads-time, genius, and enterprise have proven t heir and around the coast of Mexico, Texas, and Loui iana, to the South­ error; for the work is.completed in accordance with the plans sub­ west Pass at tlle month of the Mississippi, and on to Cape Sable, in mitted to that convention, and stands as a monument to the great Florida, from which point it takes the name of the Gulf Stream. It engineering skill and genius of its projector. ill so desi~nated in all the standard German and European maps, ancl Mr. Speaker, this bill simply authorizes James B. Eads, with such is so marked upon the globe used in the office of the Coast Survey. others as may be associated With him, to proceed iu the w-ork of Examine all the soundings of the deep sea near the mouth of the deepening the channel of one of the outlets or passes of the Mi, sis­ .Mi is ippi River, and you will find its trough nearly eight thousan.

And now, Mr. Speaker, who is James B. Eads, who proposes to give tleman that the name of the man he has had the questionable taste us twenty-eight feet of water by improving the mouth of the Missis­ to speak of as an "outsider" in the profession is known in scientific sippi RiverY The man who makes the bold proposition embodied in circles beyond the limits of the United States, where the distinguished this bill is so well known throughout the United States and Europe ex-governor of Louisiana never was heard of; that in the technical that he stands the acknowledged equal of Telford, of Watt, of Ste­ schools and societies of Europe he will find the reports of this "out­ venson, or of any other engineer of whom the civilized world con­ sider" translated into French, German, and Italian, and that they con­ tains a record. Tbe lives of few men supply a record of results stitute text-books among gentlemen of his profession. achieved and obligations performed such as are contained in the If the gentleman were now to re-enter the academy at West Point, history of James B. Eads. It is a record of results accomplished de­ he would there be taught lessons in hydraulic engineering drawn from spite of predictions of failure; great works carried through success­ the experience of James B. Eads and illustrated by models and ex fully in defiance of misrepresentations, ridicule, and abuse, such as planations supplied by him to that institution at the personal request that which has booh so plentifully showered upon him recently by of its professors. the press of New Orleans for daring to suggest a means of opening 1\fr. Speaker, I assert that there is not in this world a man living the month of the Mississppi River. who has had such an intimate practical and theoretical knowledge of The plans of Sir Charles A. Hartley for opening the mouth of the the Mississippi River as James B. Eads. It is true he was not edu­ Dannbe.were declared impracticable by an international commission cated at West Point nor in any one of our scientific schools. The great of engineers which met in Paris by order of several of the great Mississippi River has been his alrna mater. It was chiefly upon her European powers interestecl in the improvement. Despite of that bosom that he studied the standard works of science in the earnest condemnation he was permitted to try them, and the result is that search for the solution of the problems constantly presented by the instead of wrecks, and sand-bars, blockadin~ that great river with currents and shifting sands in her chap.nel. It was there that the but nine feet of water at its entrance, it has, tnanks to Sir Charles A. curious phenomena of the diving-bell, of the steam-engine, of hydro­ Hartley, an open river month with twenty feet depth of water, and statics and hydrodynamics-in a word, where every law of physical for this great service to commerce the Queen of England conferred science connected with the prosecution of an arduous calling, involv­ the honor of knighthood on Sir Charles A. Hartley. ing a continual contest with its floods, its deposits, and its mighty Mr. Speaker, here comes one of our own citizens whose private forces were unriddled, and where the foundation of scientific knowl­ character is above reproach, and whose professional success gives as­ edge was laid, whichhas since placed him not only in the list of great surance of accomplishing any engineering work he is willing to under­ engineers, but has caused him to be recognized as one of the leading take, a.nd this gentleman says to this House and to the people of the scientists of the day. · United States," I will deepen the mouth ofthe .Mississippi River per­ On the outbreak of the late war James B. Eads was immediately manently a.t the sole risk of myself and associates, and will ask no pay telegraphed for at the request of 1\fr. Lincoln's cabinet, and came to for it until yon have satisfactory proof of the proposed improvement Washington to be consulted with reference to the creation of an in­ being accomplished and made permanent." land navy for the defense of the Mississippi River and its tributarie . I have known James B. Eads, Mr.Speaker;intimatelyfora quarter The result of his visit was the construction and equipment of a fleet of a century, and I may safely say that the man is not living who can of armored war vessels of great power and within a period of time say he ever failed to perform what he agreed to undertake; and, sir, which seems almost magical. No page of romance excels in interest no man living ha.s aright to donb"t his good faith in this present propo­ the recital by the author of the History of the United States Navy sition. There is not a man in the State of Missouri, where he is best during the Rebellion of how James B. Eads created in ninety days known, that will not tell you that his past record gives the lie to any the first eight iron-cla-d vessels this country ever owned. Long be­ such insinuation. fore the fight of the Merrimac and the Monitor the vessels built by A convention of engineers met, sir, in Saint Lonis, in the year 1867, him had been victorious under the gallant Commodore Foote at Forts and pronounced against the plans of the bridge which now spans the Donelson and Henry and were moving upon the defensive works at Mis issippi River at Saint Louis. They published a voluminous re­ Island No. 10. port to prove it was impra.cticable, which report was signed by twenty­ Mr. Speaker, these fa-cts are not referred to to recall any reminis­ seven of them. censes o_f a str.uggle which I shall ever regret, but simply in evidence But, sir, James B. Eads retained in spite of this professional array of the rndom1table energy and wonderful resources of the man to against his plans the confidence of the capita.lists of London, of New whom I hope to see the improvement of the mouth of the :Missis­ York, and of Saint Louis, and evinced such ability in refuting by sippi River intrusted. In rescuing from the depths of that river stubborn facts the arguments against his plans, that the millions where the sunlight never penetrates many millions of property su:t~.k required to construct tho bridge were supplied him, not by raih'Oads by its hidden dangers, in improving its harbors, and in removing ob­ as has been charged, but every dollar that was needed for the work structions from its channels, he has acquired a.n amount of practical by private individuals. knowledge of the Mississippi River unequaled by any other individual Mr. Speaker, must we of the Mississippi Valley be deprived of the living. Sir, there is not, 1\Ir. Eads assures me, a stretch of river fifty blessings of cheap transportation, and the inestimable national a-d­ miles long between Saint Louis and New Orleans that has not felt vantages of an open river mouth as an outlet to the sea for twenty the pressure of his feet upon its bottom in his explorations with the or thirty thousand miles of inland waters, because a learned board of diving-bell. When in 1he same person such intimate practical military engineers declare that the method proposed by James B. knowledge of this stream is united to a thorough comprehension of Eads is not practicable, when he backs up his judgment against the physical laws which relate to its various phenomena and a.pparent theirs by the proposition that the Government shall pay nothing if it eccentricities, we may safely hope for the most successful results. does not succeed, and that too when his method of improvement is sanc­ And when no compensation. is to be given until such results are se­ tioned by an array of engineering talent equal to any that ever cured, we hav~ the best possible assurance that the relief which the adorned any board in this country Y _ country is imperatively demanding will be secured in the least pos­ Parties interested in the proposed Fort Saint Philip Canal and in sible period of time. the lands in and about its site have been busy in declaring that all By the proposed bill the United States cannot possibly lose a dime, the distinguished engineers of this country favor the canal project. while Mr. Eads risks his money, his influence, and the enviable repu­ But, sir, this is untrue. We have no better engineers than Barnard, tation as an engineer which he has earned by a life-time of earnest Chaurette, Shaler Smith, Henry Flad, Milnor Roberts, James H. Wil­ effort and diligent study. son, Bayley and Cortheel, all of whom declare the jetties the only l'tlr. Speaker, I deem it proper to explain to the House that the true solution or this problem. \Vhat, sir, will the Government have original proposition made by Mr. Eads was $5,000,000 for constructing to pay if the Fort Saint Philip Canal does not sncceed Y jetties to produce twenty-eight feet of water, and $5,000,000 for main­ l'tlr. GLOVER. I desire to ask my colleague a question. Does not taining that depth for ten years more, the deferred payments to bear General Barnard say that in the estimates for constructing the canal. interest at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum, the first payment to so far as estimates have been made, the engineers have left entirely be made sixty days after obtaining twenty feet of water. It was out of the account the necessary protection on the ocean side' generally conceded by the members of the committee that as soon Mr. STONE. He does, sir. as the country enjoyed the benefits of the deep channel it was but Why, sir, they tell us in their report that they do not know what just to consider the money earned, and that for that reason if payment it will cost to build it, whether it succeeds or not; that they have not was deferred, to insure the Government against paying for a temporary determined what route it must take to avoid quicksands or where it benefit, the amount should bear interest. The interest on these pay­ is to commence or at what point it will end or how the Gulf entrance ments amounted to $1,300,000. is to be protected from storms and shifting sands, nor what methods The Senate committee by consent of Mr. Eads inserted in their of construction are to be adopted to insure its success. bill that payments should be made in five, six, seven, eight, nine, We have been &ravely told ih committee by one of the military en­ and ten years after obtaining twenty-eight feet of water, and the ~ineers who once had gubernatorial honors thrust upon him in Lou­ amounts increased from $400,000 to 600,000 each in lieu of interest, Isiana and was sent here to repre ent the canal scheme, that it is and the bill now provides for an appropriation of $11,000,000 to be unwise for the Government to trust this great work of improving the paid in a series of ten years from the date when twenty-two feet of mouth of the Mississippi River to the "crude notions of an ontsider ." water shall have been obtained, instead of $10,000,000 with intere t 'l'he distin?,nished gentleman who characterizes James B. Eads as an at 5 per cent. running through ten years beginning with the date "outsider ' modestly tells us that he himself was educated at West when twenty feet of water shall have been secured. By the present Point and outranked Sherman and Thomas, who were in his class; provisions of the bill no money whatever is to be paid until the coun­ in fact, that he graduated at the head of his class. I can tell the gen- try has had absolute enjoyment of an uninterrupted depth of twenty- 1874. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 4531 two feet of water through an open mouth of the·riverto the Gulf of which the C<'ngress and the Court of Claims is continually beset by Mexico for twelve consecutive months. ThiB is alone worth twenty contractors. times at least a.s much as the $2,000,000 then to be paid. Mr. Speaker, there is eviuently an honest difference of opinion If.ill'. Eads should, as some have intimated, then abandon the work­ among engineers themselves a~io the probable effect of jetties at the but as none believe he will do who know the man-his demonstra­ mouth of the Mississippi River, but the weight of tet~timony is quite tion that twenty-two feet of water can be maintained even from year as great in favor of them as against them. General Barnard, General to year will be worth more than can be estimated. But the amount Wilson, Sir Charles A. Hartley, and a host of distinguished engineers, of $9,000,000 in reserve after that payment and the necessary propor­ express every confidence in their success. When to these we add the tion of work that must already have been done to secure it gives the wei(J'ht of the views of James B. Eads himself, whose judgment I best possible assurance that the work will be completed. think worth that of the whole of them, I can confidently predict The long period of ten years through which these payments ex­ the most trinmphant success if his plans be adopted. tend insure the most substantial works as a measure of economy, and [Mr. CASON auuressed the House. His remarks will appear in the the profit, if any, which will inure to Mr. Ea

of jetties or walls on each side of the river. Those artificial banks water sufficient to float the largest steamer is made and maintained are to confine the water so as to make the current dredge out the now for a twelvemonth. Should he not be permitted to try the experi­ blockaded channel. That it will produce this effect no one ca.n doubt ment at his own expense, especially as it can be done before the sur­ who has ever noticed that all streams are deeper and the current veys, borings, and soundings can be completed for the canal T We swifter where they are most confined. lose no time by giving this permission, and we waste no money. Captain Eacls proposes to utilize this current and make it his agent I believe it is generally conceded that an open river mouth, unim­ t.o scour a canal through the bar to the deep ocean beyond. Every peded by locks and dam , is far preferable to a canal. A free channel man at all acquainted with the river knows it to be a fact, always to which our own or forei¥n commerce will pay no tribute, and large occurring, that where it is confined between banks one-lialfmile apart enough to accommodate the commerce of the Mississippi Valley now it scours out a channel one hundred feet deep. This occurs in sight and for ages to come, is what we are aiming at. You must remember that . of the spot where it is now proposed to erect the jetties, which forces this commerce is only in its infancy, and must go on increa~ng as the us to the conclusion t.hat if the river is confined to one-half mile from population and productions increase. &nppose the canal wa.s com­ shore to shore that the one hundred feet of depth will as surely fol­ pleted and came up to the full measure of expection; not many years low unless the current is diminished in velocity by coming in contact could elapse before the \Vest, so capable of subsisting a den,;e popu­ • with the sea. But that will not probably be the case from the fact lation, so rich in every kind of resources to invite the wealth and en­ that an ocean current flows continually a few miles from the South­ terpri e of other lands, would send such an enormous commerce down west Pass. This current has removed the bar at the month of the this river that could only find an easy and cheap outlet by a free Amazon, which flows directly into the deep sea. It has also swept channel to the ocean. away the delta of the Orinoco, Rio Grande, Colorado, Brazos, and It is evident to my mind that the experiment of jettie must be every river from the Amazon to the Mississippi. P1'ofessor l\!aury has tiied to meet the neces ities and demands of production. What sen­ established the fact of this current. The Texas rivers color the sea sible reason is there, then, for putting off the day, and in the mean for many miles to the eastward. The muddy waters of the Mississippi time go to the expense of many millions to build a canal that will not are found far out to the eastward of its mouth. Tropical trees and meet the demands of commerce f The canal is not even located. It plants found only in the far South are to be fonnd stranded all along has a name that indicates its locality; but there are many of great the shores of this ocean river. This current has so encroached upon experience and knowledge, accumulated by long familiarity with the the shore near the mouth of Southwest Pass that the light-house had Mississippi River, who believe it would be a great folly to expend to be abandoned and a new one built in 1870. The high island.of money on it at or near ~ort Saint Philip. An intelligent writer of Cote Blanche from the same reason is rapidly falling into the deep. this class, and I believe a citizen of New Orleans, in a recent article The bars have extended less rapidly of late years because the sedi­ on this very point utters the following timely waming: ment is carried to the eastward and left scattered on the bottom of But even if it were :pos ible within a reasonable time, and n.t a reasonable expense, the sea along the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama. The deep-sea to build this canal, it lS located at the wrong place. trough approaches within thirty miles of Southwest Pass, going down If the ground and snrronndinus were just as good at that place, as anywhere to a depth of nearly eight thousand feet. else, or even better, yet it should not be built at thab :particular place, simply for two reasons, the first of which is that the Mississippi River where it runs nearly or In considering the question of the extension of the bar at the month quite due we t, at the lower end of the great English Turn is washing away the of the Southwest Pass you must not ignore these facts, which must firm earth with such rapidity that already thousanda of acres have gone into the in the face of such data become less and less each year. Then we river, and but a. very narrow strip of hard l!md yet remains before the Mi is ippi have a current of the sea into which the jetties will throw the cur­ will join the salt water at that point, and if the junction is made when the river is at its flood Fort Saint Philip will be left high and dry; there will be no river and rent of the river, both moving on to the eastward, bearing away to no water for nearly forty miles above it. distant seas and countries the cotton-wood of the Mississippi, as the trees and plants that flourish on the banks of the Amazon are stranded These difficulties presenting themselveA at every turn, it will take on our own coast. As we remarked a short time ago, the depth of a long time before this location can be made, and all this time the the river being always shallowedor deepened according to the width, \Vest and South is to wait, her grain and cotton paying tribute to the there can be no doubt that the desired depth can be obtained by jet­ railroad monopolies that now do the carrying trade to the Atlantic f.ies-and be secured for all time to come if its walls will stand. Thus coast. far it requires no education as an engineer to understand that the Another reason for being very careful before money is spent is, Eads plan of jetties is made in accordance with and accommodation that the propo ed mouth of the c&nal will not be safe from the future to the known laws that invariably govern the currents of the 1\-fissis­ encroachments and blockade. Ii we go to the ex:peo e of millions to sippi River. There are many pilots, who have been weather-beaten build a canal and we find the termini or mouth of our great work so by the storms of the Gulf at this pass for from twenty to foTty years, embarrassed by physical causes that it may prove no better, even far who a~e almost nnanimous in the opinion that this is the ollly plan worse than the present river mouth, what a national folly it would that will succe fully deepen the channel, and I know that river-men be. Suppose we look at tho facts and see if we are not in danger of who from youth to old age have spent their lives on the bosom of running at full speed in the face of insurmountable ob tacles, and the Mississippi River have unlimited faith that it can be successfully in::~tead of our canal ending at Breton Bay we find the open deep sea carried out. The acknowledgment of this fact is sufficient to war­ still beyond. You will never master the situation until you have rant this Honse in voting for the bill, and leave it to Captain Eads emptied the waters of the Mississippi into the ocean near a sea cnr­ to test the question for us at his own expense whether the jetties rent, or the canaJ is constructed to the same ocean channel. will stand. I have no doubt but that they can be made secure and By an examination of a map of the Gulf States yon will observe permanent; but I will not discuss this question, as it has been so for­ the number of fresh-water streams which flow into the Gulf opposite cibly presented. the proposed location of the mouth of the canal. Those streams are We are asked to abandon the jetty plan and adopt. that of a canal similar in many respects to other western rivers, continually carry­ from the Mississippi River at or near Fort Saint Philip to the sea. ing down to the sea immense alluvial deposits ancl drift that, coming We do not pretend to say that the proposed canal is not a feasible into contact with no sea current, which is a hundred miles south of project, and when once completed may answer all the. expectations of Mobile, are left to be blown by the prevailing winds in the direc­ its most sangnjne advocates. It is stated that a short distance only tion of the canal. I am told that there is a continual piling up and from the MissiSsippi River in the direction of its proposed month you moving of the sand depo it, and for weeks strong winds, almost a "!ill find fir~ess and stability of soil sufficient to sustain any con­ gale, are blowing with such fierceness a.s in all probability will prevent siderable wetght, and that beyond all the way to the sea is a loose tugs from carrying vessels into the canal. Whatever doubt there mud partially covered with water into which you can easily push a may be in regard to au ocean current at or near the South Pass, there ·pole ~wenty-five feet, and underlying this.is a

. 1874. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 4533

Bear in mind that the canal proposed is to be at or near Fort Saint government was recommended not to sink its millions in the wild Philip, the ditches of which were filled with logs and drift. Suppose undertaking of confining the currents of a great river within walls, the canal finished, with its walls and ditch ready to catch the logs, so as to make it dig the necessarycanal that the commerce of interior drift, and sand, driven over this waste by the wind,s of a tempest, Europe might :find an outlet at the mouth of a river T"ery similar to with no current to dredge out and carry off the obstructions. At the the Mississippi. The accomplished success of the jetty system at recurrence of each of these storms the canal would be buried and the mouth of the Danube is a monument to the skill of Hartley as would be undergoing the continual process of being dug or dredged well as to the short-sighted condemnation of the enterprise hy an out by artificial means, of course rendering it useless for all com­ edncated board of engineers. mercial purposes. We must remember that the dredging process at I do not mean to undervalue the ability of our Government engi­ the mouth of the river, which has given partial relief, would be en­ neers, but they must have an actual experience of that which is to tirely dispensed with, leaving us with no outlet. If the canal should be investigated before they can pronounce the infallible opinion of be rendered unfit for use by one of these storms, to the prostration and failure. This is the experience which Captain Eads possesses, ancl ruin of all trade into and out of the Mississippi River; if an accident upon which he and his friends are willing to stake their fortunes, of this kind is possible, it is such an objection to the canal that it only asking the Government to pay them when they have demon­ should not be thought of unless it is the last desperate expedient, strated that the channel of the Mississippi can be made and main­ and all the science of en~neering is exhausted to demonstrate to the tained. The failure of the enterprise would be a terrible misfortune world that the mouth ot the river defies human skill, and cannot be to those who spend their money, but it would be a gain to the Gov­ utilized and made subservient to the necessities of commerce. ernment by demonstrating that some other plan must be devised for Another paramount objection is that a canal must utterly fail to the relief of the commerce of the country. It therefore seems to me meet the demands of the ever-increasing commerce of the great un­ to be past comprehension why this Congress can object to these gen­ developed intmior, which must in the nature of things go on to higher tlemen spending their own money in securing au object all devoutly and higher degrees of development until a commerce will pass down wish. especially when this cannot milit:tte against any other plan to this river on its way to the sea for distribution to foreign countries be tried hereafter. of which we cannot have a real conception. The Mississippi Valley The only real objection I have heard urged against it is that Cap­ is now fi.llccl with a population approximating to twenty millions, and tain Eaen­ support and co-operation of every man who feels any degree of inter­ ing. The project for the improvement of the mouth of the Mis is­ est in the prosperity of the South and the \Vest. There are those sippi has my entire and hearty approval, and will receive my vote who do not feel that interest, so far as the South is concerned, which when it is matured and submitted to the action of the House. But I would be glad to see manifested. We have seen the evidence of I rise to speak upon another subject. that to-day; and I have felt saddened at the spectacle which we have ThlPORTATION OF CHINESE COOLIES. witnessed here of rejecting a proposition proposing to give to the Mr. Speaker, I uesire to premise what I have to say upon the ques­ poor unfortunate people in our country, who claim to be loyal, a pit­ tion on which I am now about to detain the House for a few mo­ tance for the rent of their houses and lands, their homes, from which ments, for fear my remarks might be open to misconstruction, by they were driven after the surrender of their armies, after peace was saying at the outset that I do not share in the sentiments of that proclaimed by your President and all the authorities of this country. class who entertain prejudice a,gainst any people on a.ccount of race or The proposition to give them a mere pittance of compensation wa color, but h:we ever been, and hope I may ever be, willing at all times voted down to-C\ay in tllli:! Honse; and, sir, it satlllencd my heart. I amlnn(1er all circumstance · to accord to every ,people, of whateHJ ' •

1874. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 4535 nationality or color, the equal protection of the laws. And, sir, I trust provement, and given us a standing among nations which is shared I have been, and am now, in full accord with the liberal sentiments by no other people in the world. of the party to which I belong, and with which I have acted for the The principle has worked well for our country, and doubtless it last fourteen years. While I do not cla.im to represent any political was upon the supposition that it would continue to do so that we· party in the views I now express here, yet I do claim to represent have made the same offers of protection and given the same cordial men of both parties and the interest of the laboring class of my State invitation to the nations of Asia as to those of·Europe. We have and the Pacific coast. I do believe th:J,t this Government has the never paused to consider the difference in the people of the two sec­ right and ought to exercise it to prevent the immigration of any class tions; their habits, their civilization, their culture, their reli~on. of people to this country whose moral and social relations, whose Upon the broad ground that our Government was made for all, Chris­ habits and mode of life, are so at variance with the genius of our tian and heathen alike, and that the one would as readily conform to institutions, that they would cause the blush of shame to mantle the it as the other, we have laid no restraints upon immigration, come cheek of the most depraved of our own race; who bring their women whence and how it may. here as slaves to be sold into prostitution, and who openly flaunt The benefits that we have derived from the growth of our European their immoral calling on the public streets in the very face of our population have blinded us to the possible dangers of an equal pop­ wives and daughters; whose c?rrupting in~uence on the Y?uth. of ulation from Asia. Our complaint h~ been that they did not come the country is to be regarded With horror; m fact, whose blighting sooner; that we were not at. an early period of our history admitted influence is felt and seen on every hand. This people breed a to an unrestricted intercourse, commercially and socially, with the moral pestilence wherever they go, the increase of which is daily great nations of Japan and China. We ha.ve been ea~er and persist­ multiplying upon us with all of its evils, and yet in the very face ent in our efforts to break down the great social barrier w:pich those of all these facts we are told we are powerless to remedy this evil; nations opposed to all other nations, and to include them in the num­ that its blighting curse is to be continued because we have a tre:1ty. ber of our friends. Then, I say, repeal the treaty. But, say some, "We must have com­ I propose, sir, in the remarks which I have to offer in support of mercial relations with them, and to have this we must submit to the tbismeasure, to show that we have made a most unfortunate mistake. conditions imposed in this treaty." What would you think if the If we had paused long enough to reflect upon the great difference municipal authorities of a great city like New York should per­ which existed in all the elements that enter into the formation of mit a ship to land at its wharves when the passengers on board were national character between the Chinese and the Americans we should infected with a loathsome and contagious disease, thereby causing not have committed this ~reat error. the contagion to spread over the city, and subject its inmates to a There is not a single pornt of resemblance between the two nations. fearful disease and death! Your laws prevent it. Humanity pre­ China. is socially a heathen despotism. Its period of great improve­ vents it. Your good sense revolts at such a policy. The ship is im­ ments and great works expired centuries before the Christian erar­ mediately sent into quarantine with all its passengers on board. Yet when the great wall and great canal were built. Since then the em­ you would let your steamships land with a people whose very pres­ pire bears evidence of a slow decay, and civilization has manifested ence is disease and death, moral and physical. itself in handicraft works of. little utility, indicative merely of me­ Experience of more than twenty years has taught us that those chanical skill, pleasing to the eye but without the smallest intellec­ of the Chinese who come here, voluntarily or otherwise, do not tual significance. assimilate with us in one single particular; that a resident of so many By reason of that national jealousy, which until within the last years among a ·people who are inferior to none on earth in morality, forty years denied all access to forei~ners, an overgrown population virtue, and intelligence, whose halls of learnin~, and houses of wor­ of five hundred millions has been tramed to a course of life that has ship are the pride of the country, has failed entirely to redeem them. absolutely nothing in it to develop the mind or arouse any higher Like Ephraim, they are wedded to their idols. But say some of my ambition than for a meagre and miserable existence. philanthropic friends, they are a poor, degraded people it is trne, yet This immense multitude, living in the shadow of heathen temples, we should trv and benefit tkem by our example and Christian teach­ worshiping images, knows nothing of God, and bows submissively ings. To that I reply, do all for them you can in their own country, to a government which practices every possible enormity. ·woman, but do not bring them here to try the experiment. What would when not used as a slave, is something wo~. The relations between the gentlemen who favor a high protective.tariff think if these Chi­ parent and child are like those of master and slave. The father sells nese should take the place of the thousands of women and girls who his son into servitude and his daughter for prostitution. If children are now employed in the Middle and New England States, and thereby become too numerous, infants are exposed in every possible manner throw out of employment thousands of this class who depend upon to death. When a me:tnber of a family becomes incurably sick, he is their daily toil for a subsistence! There would go up such a demand abandoned to his fate, and no one dares to offer him aid, lest by the to Congress for legislation upon this. subject as has never been heard death on his hands he should thereby incur the guilt and punishment before. It is claimed, sir, that free tmde would have a tendency to of murder. Criminals are executed with a refinement of cruelty and close down the various manufactories of the country, and that a tariff torture that would shame the savages of om western plains. Polyg­ for their protection is absolutely necessa;ry. Then if this be true, that amy and concubinage are national institutions. Thieving, trickery, you desire to protect the laborers, and are not simply trying to protect cheating, and fraud are taught and encouraged aa the essential ele­ the wealthy manufacturer, by imposing a tax upon imported articles ments of success in all commercial operations. at the expense of the consumer, then in the name of justice aud con­ Under a system of instruction which embraces all these and a, thou­ sistency do something to· protect our languishin~ and starving poor sand other enormities of kindred character, the Chinese have had all laborers, who have to contend with these Asiatics from whom our that is good, noble, and refined in their nature crushed out. It is im­ people must flee as from a pestilence. possible for the best of them to rise above and overcome these multi­ I appeal to the representatives of the people here assembled, form obstacles to advancement. whether from the East or West, North or South, who have ever been There is no more true progress in nations thus debauched than in in sympathy with the toiling masses of the country to do something the pursuits of a nation of savages. now to protect those who are entitled to our eympathy and considera­ How is it possible for such a people ever to comprehend the Ameri­ tion. By doing so you give additional encouragement to a class whom can Government! What is there in their national antecedents of we cordially invite to our shores; who are capable of assuming the fifty centuries to which they can compare itT In all their wars, in duties and responsibilities of American citizenship, who will add some­ all their rebellions, where can they find an instance in which either thing to the wealth and prosperity of the country, and who are at­ party fought for libertyf tached to its institutions, and who can comprehend something of the In the terrible laws by which they are governed, in their domestic blessings of a republican government. relations, in their trading and commercial intercourse, what can they No power of our Government requires the exercise of greater wis­ refer to which will afford the most remote idea of republicanism T dom or discretion than that of treaty making with foreign nations. What do they know about equality! Not that, upon general principles1 there is any di_:fficulty in determin­ And the opportunities for contrast are equally barre.I} when they ing the basis upon which it shoUld be exercised. We must conform attempt to comprehend the vastness of our institutions of learning, to the spirit of our free institutions if we would.avoid the just reproach our forms of religious worship, and our great works of improvement. of the whole civilized world. But it is sometimes difficult to deter­ These are altogether beyond any ideas they are capable of forming mine in what such conformity consists. for the improvement of their own country. Their mode of life, their The general idea that ours is a land where the people of other na­ food, their dress, their destitution, their homes, all of them belong to tions may find a home; where they may seek refuge from the oppres­ a scale of being so much below those of our country that they can sion of their own governments, embodies a sentiment as old as the form in idea, no conception, of the difference. nation, and I am happy to believe that in acting upon it we have With all the difficulties-difficulties as inherent as nature itself-to improved the condition of all those people who, from year to year, overcome, the Chinese have, as an insurmountable obstacle to their ha.ve come to OUJ' shores from the civilized nations of Europe. They progress, an ingrained belief taught from their infancy, that theirs is have not been disappointed in any promise held out to them by our a Celestial Land; that though they may leave it, it mnst be for a sea­ Government, and we have been satisfied to admit them to all the privi- son only; that, though, they die while away from it, their bodies can le~es of American citizenship. · never rest and their souls never be happy until theh' bones are re­ rhe single element of freedom has thus been exemplified, and the turned there for burial. No higher sin can be committed against civilized world has been beuefi.tecl by it. Of nothing, na an Ameri­ their deity, or their country than to forswear their allegiance and can, am I prouder than the grand exhibition of thiB great cosmopoli­ become the citizens of another nationality. tan principle. It baa added millions to our populn.tiQn, increased by Sir, if we had reflected upon these familiar facts of Chinese his­ a proportion equal to a tlurd of our settled territory the area of im- tory, we should have known before the Burlingame treaty was •

4536 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. JUNE 3, formed, that for such a people to come to A.meric·a in any great ~um­ The poor mechanic who in England worked hard for his sixpence bers, would be to inflict a curse upon our country greater than that per day comes to this country, and on his dollar or two per day lives of slavery from which we have been so recently delivered. comfortably, supplies his home with every necessary, educates his Unlike the immigrants from other nations, they are entirely destitute children, and enjoys all the advantages of social life. of qualifications whlch can be improved under our institutions. The The oppressed Irishman, driven from his hovel in his owu colmtry, oppressed peo;vle of Ireland, Germany, or any other European nation with his mattock ana pick earns a speedy competency here, with no come here to find homes. They appreciate our liberty in its largest fear of the heavy hand which crushed him to the dust at home. sense, and from the moment they set foot on our soil their condition American labor has elevated the people of every civilized nation is improTed mentally and morally. They follow our pursuits, wor­ who have sought a home under our free Constitution. Both nation ship our God, affiliate with our people1 and are not only with us but and people have been alike benefited by it. It has thrived better of us; not so the Chinaman. Remain here as long as he may, he is a than any other 8ingle element of our ~reatness. In our darkest hour , str.1nger, he adheres to the teachings of his boyhood, introduces the when the Union was ~hreatened with disruption, when calamity viiSitetl habits, dress, and customs of his own people, and does not pos ess a every other source of prosperity, labor remained intact. It was always social element in common with us. in demand, it always met its reward, it always added its quota to the But I do not propose to treat this s-ubject theoretically alone. The growth and greatness of the Republic. experience of Chinese immigration through which we are now pass­ Mr. Speaker, the rights of the laborer are threatened with invasion. ing is of the rtost startling character, and must be my apology for I would not say that the immigration of seventy-five thousand craving the cousiderate attention of this Housetothesubject in some Chinamen to our country, in and of itself, was an evil of which we of its most important details. could not in time free ourselves. It is the beginning only of. a great The Chinese began to immigrate to California soon after the dis­ calamity i .~ow great, let us try to realize in the light of facts unle covery of gold placers in that State, their object being doubtless that it is speea.ily arrested. Of the number of Chinese immigrants there of gold mining. More than two thousand were at work in the placers are now twenty-five thousand in the city of San Francisco. That and the mountains before the close of 1852, and since that time they city boasts in all a population of two hundred thousand, one-eighth have steadily increased in numbers until their present population is of which are Chinese. Let us see how greatly the cause of labor something more than seventy thousand. The single pursuit of gold there is affected by them. The busine s of ma,nufacturing cigars is rn.jning in placers would have suited the early Chinese immigrants exclusively theirs. They are employed in forty large cigar manu­ better than any other occupation, but such was the rush of people to facturies and an indefinite number of smaller ones. Seventy-eight California for the three or four years after gold was discovered that clothing factories, inc] udin~ three shirt factories, em ploy Chinese only. it was impossible for them profitably to follow it. They were molested Ten boot and shoe factones, and twenty-five slipper factories, give by other and stronger adventurers. If they found a placer of any employment to Chinese workmen, one of which keeps one hundre(l value they were driven from it. If they obtained gold in any con­ constantly at work. In six tin shops Chinese are employed; then there siderable quantity It was taken from them by violence. They were are watchmakers, jewelers, and Chine e doctors who follow their obliged to seek other and more menial _occupations. They became pursuits independently. almost immediately the servants of servants, and were obliged to ·In the various factories of the city there are ten thou and Chine e work hard for pay that would hardly have supported any other class employed, who for less than half the ordinary wa~es of white mechan­ of people. They were entirely destitute of all adaptabilities for any ics perform an equal amount of labor. Their labor embraces nearly labor above that of menial .service. They were employed as cooks, all the local industries of the city. White mecha,nics in search of house servants, day laborers, and subjected to coarse treatment and employment are met by Mongolians who are willing to work for abuse. prices which will not support the white man. This was the first introduction into our country of Chinese cheap Many of them engage in small manufactures of their own on a scale labor. which would shame a white laborer, and by means of which articles The time was n.uspicious for its growth and success, for in those are afforded at prices so greatly reduced as to defy competition by days the price of labor in Cn.lliornia was very high. Chinamen were white labor. Hundreds of them are employed as house servant , employed in preference to whites, because they could do the work a.s because their services can be obtained at one-half that of a white well and at greatly reduce

1874. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 4537

the money expenditure of San Francisco do for the city f Would Slavery of the worst kind must become the unavoidable condition not commerce and trade be correspondingly enlarged and the city be of those Chinese who come here, and they will be more essentially increased in its local wealth and improvement! the cause of it than our people. They cannot rise to the condition of Look at the subject in its more enlarged sense. The 125,000 China­ freemen in the sense of the American citizen. Of course, a,s the pre­ men in the country annually send to China the enormous sum of dominating race must rule, when men clash in all those radical ele­ $45,625,000. But for their presence in the .country $91,250,000 would ments which enter into life the Cbine.se are slaves from the moment be thrown into circulation by white laborers who are excluded from they touch our soil. Our freedom is worth nothing to them. work. If they were crushed before they came here they are more entirely This is the manner in which the employment of Chinese labor uqder the heel of a public opinion which hates them here, and which operates against the Pa.cific States and Territories. An amount is will ever prevent their advancement from a condition in comparison annually sent away from them sufficient to supply them with all the to which African slavery was a paradise. They come hm·e as slaves gren.t works of internal improvement necessary for their full devel­ to the companies which pay their passage. This amount they are opment. obliged to pay the companies in such labor as they may find for them Besides the cheap living of the Chinese in our countryiwhich enables to do before they can engage in business for themselves. This very them to work for low wages, the clothing and househo d accommoda­ serfdom places them entirely within the control of the company whose tions which they reqnire are such as the people of no civilized nation­ bidding they must do until their passage-money is paid. Think of nlity could endure. A snit that will serve a Chinaman for six months forty thousand of these slaves-double slaves-slaves in the first place he can purchase from his countrymen for six dollars. Nine dollars a to their own people, and then to the prejudice of the American people, month will board, clothe, and_lodge. In some of the buildings occu­ landing upon our shores every year to compete with our free citizens pied by them in San Francisco, by means of berths fastened to the for American labor! wall less than three feet asunder, a thousand or more are lodged. Sir, can there be any greater disgrace brought upon the American They live in the cellars, among the reeking fumes of opium and ran­ name T Does the great national· idea that ours is a. land where the cid grease, which is used na a delicacy in Chinese cookery. oppressed of all nations may find a home derive any di!!nity from Tlie total value of the personal and real property owned by a pop­ such a contemplation f Shall we jeopardize the freedom, happiness, ulation of twenty-five thousand in the heart of the great city of San and prosperity of our country, out of false respect for a sentiment Francisco, is less than 600,000, on which they pay an annual tax of which is it-self destroyed in the experiment f There is no liberty, $8,229.50, a sum insufficient to pay the salaries of one-half the police­ there is no republicanism in such a. course. men stationed in. the Chinese quarter alon~. The rents in that por­ Our institutions are in danger. There is but one remedy that I tion of the city occupied by Chinese are from 50 to 75 per cent. lower can perceive, and that is to arrest this immigration by treaty. than the rent of buildings in other quarters not as favorably located If we cannot do it altogether, let us at least restrict it, and confine for business purposes. it to a difierent cL1ss. There is no reciprocity in it. Our people do That such a population should be permitted under the sanction of not wish to emigrate to China. . The immigration of Chinese here is law to crowd thousands of our own mechanics out of employ, monop­ not neces ary to our commercial relations. They are entirely inde­ olize the tmde in the five great Asiatic staples of tea, rice, silk1 opium, pendent of them. They come here from no desire to escape the op­ and tobacco, and fill places that would afford occupation tor four pression of their own country. Their whole enterprise is conductecl thousand idle boys and three thousand poor men, women, and girls as a mere matter of dollars and cents on the part of those who send who need them, is one of the most extraordinary spectacles of our them. They make no sacrifices. They are governed by no progres­ times. sive impulses. Mere. machines, they place themselves directly in the Sir this is not all. The Chinese are equally incapable of instruc­ way of our own progress, and are so many clogs upon the advance­ tion m1 our politics and religion. They have erected the idols of their ment of our civilization. worship among us, and practice here the most senseless and undemon­ There is nothing in their condition to commend them to the sym­ strative idolatry known t.o heathen nations. Their religion is a license pathy, nothing in their intellectuality to commend them to the re­ for the grossest immorality. Vice, in its most hideous f01w., is the spect of the American people. Why, then, when the evil is growing only social element in which both sexes participate. More than two upon us with such fearful rapidity, should we not check it while it is thousand Chinese women, who have never known any other occupa­ controllable Y Every year increases the difficulty. New complica­ tion than· that of prostitution, reside in the city of San Francisco. tions are constantly forming to cumber it with multiplied embarrass­ They perform no labor. Their knowledge is less than that of the ments. brute creation. They are bought and sold like cattle, and hired out The Chinese are constitutionally and byraceaninferiorpeopleto any to the ba-sest purposes like horses for livery. This guilty commerce of the nations of Europe. Their moral obliq nity is such that they can is carried on in the heart of a. gre~t city within the observation of give no reason why they should not bring their women here for prosti­ thousa.nds of its inhabitants. . tution, and erect their joss houses, and practice their heathenism in our Mr. Speaker, I have .already, 88 I think, demonstrated that the very midst. With them these abominations are simple nature, and Chinese are incapable of conforming in their habits, their customs, our free principles and progressive institutions are in their eyes mon­ their religion to our institutions. They belong to a ra-ce entirely dis­ strous infringements upon the idea.s with which they have been edu­ tinct from any on this continent. They are regarded by all classes cated. of our society with great abhorrence. The intelli~ent portion of our In no view that we can take of the subject does it appear tO us population can see nothing but disa-ster and calarmty to all the great other than the greatest evil of the day. Other monopolies may be interests of the country which they bytheirpeculiar mode of life are arrested by law; but here is an evil which if not now arrested must enaDled through competition to monopolize. in a few years become entirely uncontrollable, which will annihilate All landed and railroad monopolies sink into insignificance in com­ the ri

to get rid of them, and is improved in its condition by their leavin~ Society; Henry G. Weston, president American Baptist Union7 and tbere7 what c.an we expect will be the effect of such a debased an<1 many others7 attending the Baptist anniversaries recently held in the groveling race in this country city of Washington, for a grant to the American Printing-House for No other country in the world than China would be willing for its the Blind and American University for the Blind, to the Committee people to go from a condition where they enjoyed all the liberty that on the District of Columbia. · their government permitted to a condition which must become abso­ By Mr. CROUNSE: Petitions from grange organizations and citi­ lute serritude. zens of Seward, Butler, and Saunders Counties, Nebra.ska, for the pas­ Sir, the condition ,of the slaves in the South waa never so devoid of sage of the bill to aid in the construction of the Continental Railway, the elements of civilization as that of the Chinese in this country to the Committee on Rail ways and Canals. · to-day. By .Mr. DUNNELL : The petition of citizens of Minnesota, for the 4538 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. JuNE 4,

construction of a double-track freight railway from tide-water to the On motion of 1\Ir. PRATT, it was Missouri River, to the Committee on Ra.ilways and Canals. . JU.:;olved, That the Senate insist upon its amendment to the said bill disagreed to Also, the petition of 171 citizens of Watonwan Oounty, Minnesota, by the Honse of Representatives, and agree to the conference a ked by the House of similar import, to the same committee. on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses thereon. By Mr. KASSON: The petition of grange organ!zations of Adair By unanimous con ent, it was County, Iowa, of similar import, 1M the same coiD.IDlttee. OrdR:red, That the conferees on the part of the Senate be appointed by the Presi­ By .Mr. KELLEY: T~epetition of Harriet Haines, for.c01;npensation dent pro tempo1·e. for stores furnished Umted States Army and rent of buildings, to the The PRESIDENT pt·o tempore appointed 1\Ir. Plu.TT, Mr. INGALLs, Committee on War Claims. and Mr. IlAMILTON of Texas. By Mr. McCRARY: The petition of grange organiz~tions ~f ~enry and J e:fferson Counties, Iowa, for the passage of the bill to md m t~e PETITIONS .ll\"D l\1El\IOIUAU!. construction of the Continental Rail way, to the Committee on· R.ail­ 1\fr. INGALLS. I present the petition of Abraham Ellis, late a first ways and Canals. lieutenant, acting as quarterma ter and commissary, prayin(T to be By .Mr . .McDILL, of Wisconsin: The petition of William G. Bar­ allowed a pension. Among other muniments of title to the r~iief he nard for payment of salary as clerk in the New York custom-house, asks, he transmits a bullet with which he was shot by Quantrell, and to t.be Committee on Claims. several pieces of skull taken from the wound. I move that the peti­ By Mr. MYERS: Thepetition'?f J~hn B. Wicke~h~m, of Philadel­ tion, the bullet, amd the bones be referred to the Committee on Pen­ phia for the passage of an act directmg the Commissioner of Patents sions. to r~ceive evidence to ascertain what portion of the devices set forth The motion ·was agreed to. in letters-patent No. 251G6 for improvements in iron fences, granted :hfr. HAMILTON, of Maryland, pre ented the petition of Joseph H. to himself and Henry Jenkins, was invented by petitioner, and to 1\faddox, praying compensation for tobacco taken or destroyed by the issue leLters-patent for the portion so ascertained to petitioner, to the United States ::~.uthorities; which was referred to the Committee on Committee on Patents. Claims. By Mr. O'BRIEN: .A. paper relating to the claim of Captain Robert Mr. EDMUNDS. I present the memorial of James J. Robbins, pres­ Hardie, to the Committee on War Claims. ident of the Dardanelles and the Leviathan Mining Companies, I,.sup­ By Mr. PRATT: The petition of grange organizations of Chicka­ pose of the State of Nebraska, asking some legislation and protection saw County, Iowa, for aid -in the construction of the Continenta} Rail­ against other minincr companies, and I believe in favor of the Sutro way, to the Committee on Railways and Canals. Tunnel Company. ~he memorial is long, but I believe that is the By M.'r. SAYLER, of Indiana: Ninety-nine petitions fr<:m citizens substance of it. I move that it be referred to the Committee on the of twenty States and two Territories of the Unite~ ~tates, containing Judiciary, as it relates to a bill which is before tha~ committee. 2,037 signatures, for the passage of a law authonzmg the manufac­ The motion was agreed to. tUl'e of patent-right articles by others than •.owners of patent rights Mr. SHERMAN. I am requested to present the petition of Demitry upon payment of a reasonable royalty thereon, to the Committee on Mindeleff, of Washington, District of Columbia, praying for compen­ Patents,. · sation for a very important discovery which he alleges to have made By Mr. SMALL: Additional papers relating to the claim ·for relief in the preparation of gold and silver. But for the extraordinary of Miss Sally Tripe, to the Committee on Ulaims. statements contained in this paper I should have no question· in Also, the petition of the heirs of Samuel Remick, for arrears of pen­ presenting it. I consider it my duty to do so, as it is respectful in sion to the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions and War of 1812. terms, although, it seems to me the facts alleged are stated very By Mr. TOWNSEND: The petition of Kennett Monthly Meeting of broadly. I move that the petition be referred to the Committee on Friends for international arbitration in the settlement of interna­ Finance. tional cllsputes, to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. The motion was agreed to. By Mr; WILLIAMS, of Michigan: The petition of citizens of Ot­ :hfr. SHERMAN presented a memorial of manufacturers of plug, fine­ tawa County, Michigan, for the passage of the· bill to aid in the con­ cut chewing, and smokin~ toba-cco and cigars, and dealers in leaf and struction of the Continental Rail way, to the Committee on Railways manufactured tobacco, ot Cincinnati, Ohio, remonstrating against and Canals. the proposed change in the tax on tobacco; which was referred to By Mr. WILLIAMS, of Wisconsin: The petition of grange organi­ the Committee on Finance. zations of Rock County, Wisconsin, of similar import, to the same Mr. HARVEY presented the petition of James Streeter, of Jrwction committee. City, Kansas, praying compensation for a foundery and other property taken for the use of the Army at Memphis, Tennessee, during the late war; which was referred to the Committee on Claims. Mr.·CHANDLER. Imovethat thevote bywhich the bill(H. R.No. IN SENATE. 1706) to authorize the opening of Wight street through the grounds of the United States Marine Hospital at Detroit, Michigan, was in­ THURSDAY, June 4, 1874. definitelypostponed be reconsidered, and that it be recommitted to the The Senate met at twelve o'clock m. Committee on Public BuUdings and Grounds. · Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. BYRON SUNDERLA.J."''D, D. D. There being no objection, the vote was reconsidered, and the bill The Journal of yesterday's proceedings was read and approved. was recommitted to the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. HOUSE BILLS REFERRED. REPORTS OF CD:\fiiTTTEES. Mr. WRIGHT, from the Committee on Pensions, to whom was The bill (H. R. No. 2653) to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury referred the bill (H. R. No. 3582) to provide for stamping unstamped to suspend work upon the public buildings was read twice by its instruments, documents, or papers, reported it adversely, and moved title, and referred to the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. its indefinite postponement, a bill cove1ing the same subject having The bill (H. R. No. 3097) in relation to courts and judicial offi.cers been already reported; which was agreed to. in the Territory of Utah was read twice by its title, and referred to Mr. CONOVER, from the Committee on Revolutionary Claims, to the Committee on the Judiciary. whom was referred the bill (H. R. No. 1753) to authorize medals com­ The joint resolution (H. R. No. 107) providing for the termination memorating the one hundredth anniver ary of the first meeting of of the treaty between the United. Stat.es and His Majesty the King. of the Continental Congress and of the Declaration of Independence, the Belgians, concluded at Washmgton, July 17,1858, was read tw1ce asked to be discharged from its further consideration, a:r;td that it be by its title, and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. referred to the Committee on Finance; which wa-s agreed to. TOTALLY DISABLED PENSIONERS. Mr. HAMILTON, of Texas from the Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred the bill (S. No. 853) granting an increase of pen­ The Senate proceeded to consider the action of the House of Repre­ sion to Esther M. Shubrick, widow of Edward M. Shubrick, deceased, sentatives on its amendments to the bill (H. R. No. 735) to increase late captain United States Navy, reported adversely thereon. the pensions of soldiers anrl sailors who have been totally disabled. The PRESIDENT pro ternpore. The bill will be postponed inden­ On motion by Mr. PRATT, it was · nitely if there be no objection. RJSolved, That the Senate insist npon its amendments to the Raid bill, disagreed Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. I wish the bill to be placed on the Cal- to by the House of Representat. ves, and a.l!ree to t.he conference asked by the House on the disagree4J,g votes of the two Houses tllereon. endar. . The PRESIDENT pro tempore. It will be placed on the Calendar By unanimous consent, it wa.s with the aclverse report of the comruitt.ee. Ordered, That the conferees on the part of the Senate be appointed by t.he Presi­ Mr. HAMILTON, of Texas, from the same committee, to whom dent pro tempore. was referred the bill (H. R. No. 3015) granting a pension to Margaret The PRESIDENT p1'0 tempore appointed Mr. PRA.'l'T, Mr. INGALLS, A. Chantry, reported adversely thereon; and the bill was postponed and Mr. IIAMILTON of Texas. indefinitely. Mr. SCOTT. The Committee on Finance have instructed me tore­ THE PENSION LAWB. port ba-ck a resolution calling for a statement of balances due by dis­ The Senate proceeded to consider the action of the Hou e of Repre­ bursing officers, the names of delinquents, the States from which sentatives on its amendment to the bill (H. R. No. 2453) to amend an appointed, what steps have been taken to enforce their payment, to­ act entitlecl "Act to revise, consolida.te, aml amend the laws relating gether with the amendm nt to the same offered by the Senator from to pensions," approved March 3, 1873. · Louisiana, [l\fr. WEST,] with a recommendation that it onght not to