The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session Page: 57
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Jan. 1844.
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
28th Cong 1st Sess.
Improvement of the Western waters—Mr. Wentworth.
ST
H. of Reps.
acres yet remain unsold, from the parsimonious
course of the general government in doling out im-
provements for the western country. People will
not settle, from the difficulty of getting to market.
They read of too much destruction of property, too
great a sacrifice of human life on the great western
waters, which comparatively a small sum would
greatly improve. Again, they are afraid of high
taxes. But what has Congress to do with these? it
may be asked. Sir, it has much, very much, to do
with them. It is Congress itself that is embarrass-
ing the State of Illinois: and I will prove it. In
that State there are no less than 35,235,208 acres.
Our minimum valuation is $3; and, to make up for
any that may be reserved from taxes, we will aver-
age the whole at that sum, (a liberal estimate)—
which.will give real estate taxable to the amount of
$105,705,624. That moment, sir, that all this shall
be sold long enough to become taxable, the improve-
ments and personal property in general will swell
the amount to §200,000,000, at the smallest compu-
tation. A tax of 2 mills on this would yield us an
annual revenue of $400,000. Now, what is the
State debt of Illinois? When our arrangements now
in progress are completed, (as there is every pros-
pect to believe they soon will be,) the highest esti-
mate is less than $5,000,000—which would make
our annual interest §300,000; leaving, at 2 mills,
assessed for State-debt purposes merely, $100,000
per annum as a sinking fund; which annually would
increase with the great increase of our property.
This, however, is merely supposititious. Yet it
shows our creditors abroad that there is another
way for government to help us out of our difficul-
ties than by an unconstitutional assumption. But
what are the facts of the case?
The amount now taxable (that is, all that has
been sold over five years) is but $17,241,285 70,
not quite one-half. The general government is
paying interest for money which it ought to derive
from the sales of these lands. The State government
neglects to pay interest which might be derived
from a tax on them. So the calamity is a joint one.
Now, the time of selling these lands depends much
on the policy of our general government, and there
are yet unsold 15,429,901 acres in Illinois alone.
Now, sir, remove the obstructions to the navigation
of our great national thoroughfares—the common
highway to the ocean; complete the Cumberland
road as begun; grant to that State the quantity of
land asked for in the bill introduced by myself this
morning, viz: about 500,000 acres, to make her even
with Ohio—and you induce emigration there, you
give fresh activity to business, and create a demand
for lands now dormant. In this way, the money
expended not only comes back, but there is enough
more comes back with it to help to extinguish our
national debt. So, too, the taxable property of the
State is increased, and both parties are benefited.
Pursue this policy towards all the western States,
mid this is what I mean by making the best possible
use of your productive capital. This will fill both
our national and our State treasuries. And this is
our best means of getting out of debt, or raising our
nccessary annual revenue—far preferable, in the
minds of the great mass of the people, to taxing tea,
coffee, and the other necessaries of life. Let the
friends of assumption—those who talk so much
about the western States becoming honest—-join
the West in carrying out these views, and our
States would be paying interest immediately.
I have thus shown, sir, how this money is to be
got; and it would be for the national advantage thus
to get it, as it certainly would be thus to expend it:
Having said thus much, no man can accuse me of
being inimical to the improvement of the rivers, or
the completion of the Cumberland road.
I now come to the mam branch of my proposition,
which is to divide the amendment. In the fust
place, sir, I will state, that I am not friendly to a
special committee to take charge of any branch of
this subject; because a select committee is always
understood to be appointed with reference to a fa-
vorable report upon some specific object, and there-
fore never has the weight in its recommendation
that a standing committee does. I have confidence
that the Committee on Commerce will do us jus-
tice; and it is a good maxim to "let well enough
alone." But, if the more immediate friends of the
river interest, who represent territory contiguous to
any of our great western rivers, wish that interest
referred to a select committee, (as 1 believe they do,)
I certainly shall vote with thein as an act of cour-
tesy which I want all my northern friends to yield
to tjiem. Yet, whilst we fire willing that they
should be the guardians of their own peculiar sec-
tional interests, and have their select committee, we
must claim the right of overlooking our own interests,
and having our lakes referred to the Committee on
Commerce, as they always have been, and as it is
for their interest now to be. On this ground, sir, I
must urge a division of the proposition; and, much
as I am inclined to gratify my Mississippi river
friends, I can never vote for the proposition in
its present shape. As an act of courtesy to
those gentlemen, I am willing to send their
interests to any committee they wish, though I
think they would be perfectly safe—that exact jus-
tice would be done them with the Commerce Com-
mittee. But they ask too much when they ask to
have the lake interests taken with them. Sir, I
have been opposed, all my life, to any log-rolling
system of legislation, which has been calamatous
whenever adopted. I never can consent to see one
great measure yoked to another for the purpose of
gaining strength. It is a poor design that cannot
stand on its own intrinsic merits. Both these great
cardinal propositions of improvement have merits
of their own; and upon them let each stand. In the
hands of the Commerce Committee the lake inter-
ests are safe. Prom the composition of that com-
mittee, they could not be otherwise. Why, then,
take them away from their usual place of reference?
It is unkind thus to ask us to exchange a certainty
for an uncertainty. For one, sir, I never will con-
sent to jeopard in the least the great interests of the
upper lakes, which I the more immediately repre-
sent on this floor, by voting for the proposed refer-
ence, whilst my confidence in the proper standing
committee is so unlimited that I know not where to
look for a more favorable report. I watched the
announcement of the committees with the greatest
anxiety; and the moment I heard the names of this
committee, my hopes were bright, and they have
come brighter still from subsequent events.
I would be less strenuous in this matter, as my
anxiety to act with my western friends in all cases
is very great, were not the claims of the northern
frontier, embracing an extent of 2,000 miles and a
lake coast of 5,000, so pressing. All the expenditures
•for lake improvements will not reach two and a half
millions, whilst the expense of the Delaware break-
water alone has been three millions. The policy of
protecting the Atlantic coast, originating with the first
session of the American Congress, has been contin-
ued down to the present time; and I am at a loss to
get at the precise amount of the millions upon mil-
lions which have been expended for buoys, bea-
cons, light-houses, breakwaters, and harbors there.
I know that some make a distinction between the
trade in that direction and ours, by calling one ex-
ternal, and the other internal. But, sir, is that
commerce more entitled to the name of external that
goes from Boston, New York, or any other Atlan-
tic city, to the old world, than that which goes
from Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, or Buffalo,
through the Welland canal and the St. Lawrence
river? 1 am sorry I have not the statistics of this
portion of our foreign trade, to present to you; but
1 will collect them, and have them ready for another
occasion; and I am confident that they will astonish
many gentlemen on this floor, who have regarded
the lake trade as internal alone. And the enlarge-
ment of the Welland canal, and the improvement of
the St. Lawrence, now in progress, will bring boats
of 350 tons burden from Liverpool to Chicago,
without once breaking bulk, whilst the completion
of the Illinois and Michigan canal—navigable for
boats of 150 tons—will open this channel of trade
direct with St. Louis. Thus the whole western and
northern trade is fast gaining a foreign nature, and
is entitled to all the protection of that emanating
from the Atlantic cities, even though internal com-
merce were entitled to no protection, which I deny.
Look to the history of our lake trade; and let the
past be some indication of the future. Ill 1796 the
American flag was first hoisted on Lake Erie, on
board a small schooner of 70 tons. In 1802 the first
government vessel was launched there. In 1819,
on Lake Erie, which now has 65, the first
steamboat (Walk-in-tlie-water) made its appear-
ance, and made a trip to Macinac, to carry
up the goods of the American Pur Company,
and annually made her "long and arduous voyage"
to this Ultima Thule of American navigation,
until she was wrecked on the beach near Buffalo, in
the month of November, 1821. With the greatest
difficulty her place was supplied by the steamboat
Superior, which has since been altered over into a
small sail vessel—a pitiful cojitmst with the mighty
Great Western, Illinois, or Wisconsin. But, in those
days, I have no doubt the captains of the Walk-in-
the-water and Superior strutted the deck, prouder of
the extent and greatness of their-command, than now
do my weather worn and popular friends, Captains
Walker, Blake, and Randall, now making their four-
day trips from Buffalo to what were then- parts un-
known. And those very straits, which were then
visited but once a year by a steamboat, now have
one every day. In 1826, steamboats first made their
appearance on Lake Michigan on a pleasure excur-
sion to Green Bay. In 1832, the necessities of the
government, during the Black Hawk war, compel-
led the first steamboat to make a trip to what is now
the great granary of the West—the garden city,
"urbs in horto," where I have the honor to reside—a
city not set on a hill, yet it will never be hid—a city
this moment holding out greater inducements for
investments in real estate than any in this broad
country—-a city that will one day alone have a mem-
bei on this floor; and this, more than one person
now alive will live to see. In that year, (1832,) the first
frame building was erected. The next, Chicago was
first laid out into lots. And, during this year, (1833,)
there were but eleven steamboats on Lake Erie, and
only three trips were made into Lake Michigan, one
to Green Bay, and two to Chicago, when Sie erec-
tion of the first brick house was celebrated. In 1834
there were but eighteen boats in all on the lakes'
making in the year two arrivals at Chicago and three
at Green Bay. In 1836, the year of my first arrival
in the State, the prairie fires overran what now com
poses the principal part of two of our wards. Its
growth, since that time, can be best estimated from
the following statistics:
1836,
1837,
1838,
1839,
1840,
1841,
1842,
1843,
Exports.
$1,000 64
11,065 00
16,044 75
33,843 00
228,635 74
348,362 24
659,305 20
1,008,207 00
Imports.
1836, $325,203 90
1837, 373,667 12
1838, 579,174 61
1839, 630,980 26
1840, 562,106 20
1841, 564,347 88
1842, 664,347 88
1843, 1,433,886 00
The amount of tonnage employed in the Chicago
trade the past season is $1,826,950. Thus you see
that the trade of Chicago alone, to say nothing of the
value of the carrying vessels, exposes to the peril of
the lakes two ana a half millions. And there is the
trade of Green Bay, Milwaukie, Racine, Southport,
Littlefort, Michigan city, St. Joseph, mouth of the
Kalamazoo, Grand Haven, Muskegon, and other
points, which will swell the amount as much more,
to five millions. I here make no allowance for
smuggling, which is extensively carried on, for the
want of a port of entry at Chicago, and which I
have every confidence the present Congress will
establisln To this, add the value of the shipping
exposed, during the year, with the large amount of
property taken by travellers, and not taken account
of at our ports, and $10,000,000 is a low estimate
for the amount of property exposed on Lake Michi-
gan alone during the year. Then consider the vast
number of human lives (seamen and passengers)
continually in jeopardy, and the importance of good
harbors and light-houses will be manifest. From
Detroit to the head of Lake Michigan, over eight
hundred miles, (embracing a coast of over two
thousand miles,) there has not been the first harbor
completed. Harbors had been begun at Chicago,
Michigan city, and St. Joseph; but were abandoned,
with all the rest, at the session of 1838 and '39. And
in 1840, insult was added to injury, by selling out our
implements. Our partly-constructed works were
thus permitted to decay, until the last session, when
my much respected friend, the delegate from Wis-
consin, got an appropriation for three towns in the
Territory through this body; which was amended
in the Senate so as to give Milwaukie $30,000, and
Chicago and St. Joseph $25,000 each; and in that
amendment this House concurred. So, after wait-
ing patiently five years, Lake Michigan got $80,000,
in addition to the $469,447, which is the whole sum
she has ever received; whilst, in ten years, there has
been lost in her navigation all of $1,500,000 or
$150,000 per annum; one hundred and fifty lives,
or fifteen per cent, per annum; and one hundred
and twenty-five vessels, or twelve and a half per
cent, per annum. And insurance is from thirty to
forty per cent, higher than on Lake Erie or "On-
tario, where there are harbors. Save this $80,000
for Lake Michigan, there have been no appropria-
tions for any lake harbors since the session of 1838
and 1839, though they are much needed by otlwr
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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/m1/67/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.