The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session Page: 51
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Ian. 1844.
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GtOBE.
28th Cong 1st Sess.
Improvement of the Western waters—Mr. Ficklin.
H. of Reps. •
sum of one hundred and twenty-three millions of
dollars, in round numbers; and fifty-five millions of
that amount have been paid within the last eight fis-
cal years. The following is the quantity of land
sold in each State and Territory, in round numbers,
omitting fractions: In Ohio fourteen, in Indiana
fourteen, in Illinois twelve, in Alabama ten, in Mis-
sissippi nine, in Michigan nine, in Missouri eight,
in Louisiana three, in Arkansas two, in Florida
Territory three, in Iowa one, and in Wisconsin
two, millions of Kcres. There remains unsold in the
above States and Territories the following number
of acres of land, viz:
Ohio
Indiana
Illinois
Missouri
Alabama -
Mississippi
Louisiana -
Michigan
Arkansas -
Florida
"Wisconsin -
ACRES.
11,125,988
9,200,653
22,785,053
35,001,876
21,894,916
20,542,839
25,276,071
29,204,914
29,261,207
33,563,736
45,062,057
The aggregate amount asked for this year by the
several heads of departments is $32,000,000; and
$9,371,769 32 are asked for the War Depart-
ment, and &8,894,070 22 for the Navy Department.
Amongst the items which go to make up the above
amounts, are the following:
For supplying the light-houses (containing 2,676
lamps) with oil, tubes, glasses, wicks, buffskins,
whiting, and cotton cloths, transportation, and
keeping apparatus in order - §97,859 64
For repairs and incidental expenses,
and for refitting and improvements of
light-houses, and buildings connected
therewith - 83,448 07
For salaries of 236 keepers (eighteen of
them charged with double lights, and
one with triple lights) and sixteen as-
sistant keepers of light-houses, in-
cluding an inspector of lights on the
three upper lakes, and superintend-
ents for Lake Michigan - - 100,588 33
For salaries of keepers of floating
lights .... 16,000 00
For seamen's wages, repairs, and sup-
plies of floating lights - - 59,785 33
For weighing, mooring, cleansing, re-
pairing, and supplying the loss of
beacons, buoys, chains, and sinkers, 28,084 38
For expenses of superintendents in vis-,
iting these light-houses annually, and
examining and reportyng their condi-
tion ----- 2,000 00
For superintendents' commissions, at 2 j
percent ... - 9,694 14
In all, 397,459 89
For Military Academy at West Point, 149,914 70
Fortifications and other works -of de-
fence ... 1,404,190 02
Arsenals, armories, and munitions of
war --- - 794,300 00
Naval establishment is as follows: For
pay of commission, warrant, and pet-
ty officers and seamen, including tha
engineer corps of the navy
$2,999,684
For navy-yards and shore sta-
tions - 497,742
For officers on leave, or wait-
ing orders - 225,000
3,722,426 00
For pay of superintendents, naval con-
structors, and all the civil establish-
ments of" the several yards - - 88,320 00
For provisions for the navy, including
transportation, cooperage, and other
expenses - 1,027,037 00
For 'surgeons' necessaries, and appli-
ances for the sick and hurt of the na-
ny, including the marine corps - 39,450 00
For the increase, repair, armament, and
equipment of the navy, and wear and
tear of vessels in commission - 1,900,000 00
For ordnance and ordnance stores, in-
cluding all incidental expenses and
liabilities on outstanding contracts - 620,885 00
For books, maps, charts, and instru-
ments, binding and repairing the
1,350 00
same, and all expenses of the hydrog-
raphy office - 43,200 00
For improvements and necessary re-
pairs of navy-yards, viz:
At Portsmouth, N. H. - $44,220 60
Charlestown, Mass. - 121,201 53
Brooklyn, N.Y. - 81,118 00
Philadelphia - - 34,615 16
Washington - - 46,230 00
Gosport - - 124,680 00
Pensacola - - 50,137 26
— 502,202 55
For necessary repairs of hospital build-
ings and their dependencies, viz:
At Charlestown, Mass. - $1,700 00
Brooklyn, N. Y. - 1,500 00
Washington, D. C. - 250 00
Norfolk, Va. - - 4,000 00
Pensacola, Florida - 5,000 00
Naval Asylum, Philadel-
phia - 7,090 00
. 19,540 00
For necessary repairs of magazines, viz:
At Charleston, Mass. - $200 00
Brooklyn, N. Y. - 200 00
Washington, D. C. - 200 00
Norfolk, Va. - - 750 00
For contingent expenses, as
per estimate of Bureau of
Yards and Docks, §175,000 00
For contingent expenses, as
per estimate of Bureau
of Construction - 213,800 00
For storage and rent, trav-
elling expenses of offi-
cers, and transportation
of seamen; house rent to
pursers when duly au-
thorized; funeral _ ex-
penses; commissions,
clerk hire, office rent, sta-
tionery, and fuel to navy
agents; premiums and in-
cidental expenses of re-
cruiting; apprehending
deserters; per diem al-
lowance to persons at-
tending courts-martial
and courts of inquiry , or
other services authorized
by law; compensation to
judge advocates; printing
and stationery of every
description; pilotage and
towing vessels of war;
assistance rendered to
vessels in distress; and
postage ofletters on pub-
lic service - - 111,200 00
500,000 00
For contingent expenses for objects not
enumerated, - 5,000 00
For coal and other fuel for steam ves-
sels 84,080 00
Another interesting item is found on page 76, Doc.
No. 6, which is worthy of notice, and is as follows:
"For compensation of 106 supernumerary second
lieutenants, graduates of the Military Academy,
pay $39,432, subsistence $38,690.
I may be permitted now to call the attention of
the committee for a short time to the lavish expend-
itures of the public money in this District: and the
evil has become so alarming that there is danger of
this city becoming a great lazaretto, or national
alms-house, to which crowds from all parts of the
nation will flock, for the purpose of becoming pen-
sioners on the public bounty. The various office-
holders, with their assistants, clerks, messengers
runners, and pages, form no inconsiderable item of
expense; while the auxiliaries, lamp-lighters, and
the motley group of supernumeraries, form a troop
somewhat resembling the soldiers of Sir John Fal-
staff, that he refused to march through Coventry,
and whom he described as ancients, corporals, lieu-
tenants, and gentlemen of companies—the cankers_
of a calm world and a long peace. Thousands up-"
on thousands of money might and should be saved
in this District alone. Is it unreasonable for us
(having nearly one-half of the population of this
Union) to ask that nearly one-half of the expendi-
tures should be made west of the mountains? And
more especially so, as the one hundred and twenty-
three millions of money which has been paid for
government lands operates afc a drain of the money
of the West, for which there is no return? :ahd fhif,
too, continues from year to year,.-eve? present b£-
fore our eyes, and must, for a long time to com?, -
make money scarce in that portion of the country.
Besides, the older States have been receiving from
year to year a bounty from the government; in the
shape of appropriations for dock-yards, hospitals,
fortifications, armories, foundries, light-houses,
custom-houses, roads, and canals, to say nothing of
the thousand minor objects, for the last half century.
The Chesapeake ana Ohio canal alone has cost us
two and a half millions of money, without the re-
motest prospect of our receiving anything in return.
Even now, there is a proposition before Congress to
cede to the State of Maryland and the cities within
the District all that we have paid; and the probabil-
ities are that it will be done.
We are told by the honorable gentleman from
New York [Mr. Hunt] that near one-half of the
revenue of this nation is collected at the custom-
house in New York city. Suppose it is: who pays
it' Why, sir, it is an axiom m political economy
that the consumer pays whatever tariff or duty may
be levied on imports; and as the West consumes
near one-half of the imports, it follows as a conse-
quence that she pays one-half of the duty.
As well, sir, might the keeper .of a toll-gate con-
tend that the money which he pays to the company
in the shape of tolls is a tax upon him, and not up-
on the traveller, as for the people of New York city
to contend that one-half of the vast revenues of this
government is collected from them, and not from the
consumer of the imports. The custom-houses and
custom-house officers are the mere conduit-pipes
through which the money is conveyed from the
people to the national treasury. Notwithstanding
these heavy contributions of money from the West;
notwithstanding the immense amount of commerce
that floats upon our rivers; and notwithstanding the
multitude of people who are interested in our prod-
ucts,—the western lakes and rivers, unlike those of
the East, are not studded with light-houses. The
benighted mariner is not warned of his danger by
beacon-lights blazing upon our waters.
The Kaskaskia river, Rock river, and the Illinois
river, in the State of Illinois; the Gasconade, the
Merrimack, and Big river, in the State of Missouri;
and a dozen other streams in each of the western
States,—are as large as many of the rivers easrt of
the mountains, that have received the patronizing
care of the government.
In the improvement of the Wabash, theOhio, and
the Mississippi rivers, the whole nation is interest-
ed, because it increases the facilities of sending our
agricultural products to market, and of receiving
merchandise in exchange, from Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, Mobile, and
New Orleans. Every tax placed upon our corn,
beef, and pork, either in the shape of money or in
the cost of transportation, increases the price to the
eastern purchaser, and the consumer in other coun-
tries; and every tax and increase of cost in convey-
ing goods from the eastern cities to the est, en-
hances the price to the purchaser in the West—the
consumer; so that we are mutually interested in
cheapening the cost of the transportation, both of
produce and of merchandise. Hence, by improv
mg the navigation of these great western highways,
benefits will accrue, not to one section alone, but to
a large majority of the American people.
But we are told by the gentleman from New
York, [Mr. Barnari.,] that we are compelled to
rely exclusively upon a home market for the sale of
our products; that we must consume what we raise;
and that it is idle to think of a foreign market. He
refers us to the waste lands owned by Great Britain,
and predicts that she will, in a few years, produce
more bread-stuffs than she will consume. This way
be the fact; but if so, it is certainlya melancholy
fact for the West. The State of Illinois or Mis-
souri, alone, can raise enough provisions to feed the
universal Yankee nation. They would have to con-
sume a barrel of pork and a barrel of beef at each
meal, and eat six meals a day, to make any impres-
sion upon our market. [Great laughter.] Ana
what is to be done with the surplus products of all
the other States and Territories? If that position be
correct, the people of the West will be compelled, by-
stern necessity, to manufacture their own Nothing.
Our people, however, think differently upon this
subject. They are of opinion that, with a tariff for
revenue merely, not vindictive in its exactions, we
should, in a greater or less degree, find & market ior
our products in the three ^reat continents Qi
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session, book, 1844; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2368/m1/61/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.