freight, Interest, and insurance on our precious metals, and on our money exchanges, an amount every ten years equal to the entire cost of the road. As this source of drainage upon our national wealth does not appear to have been much examined into, I beg the indulgence of the House for a few moments to present some facts in relation to it.

Our imports from China, in the year 1857, amounted to $8,356,932, and our domestic exports to China amounted to $3,019,900, leaving a balance of trade against us of $5,337,032. In 1858, our imports from that country amounted to $10,570,536, and our domestic exports to only $2,467,645, leaving a balance against us of $8,102,891. In 1860, the amount of our imports from the same source was $13,566,641, and that of our domestic exports $7,170,784, leaving a balance against us of $6,395,802. These figures exclude the exports of gold and silver. For the years 1859 and 1861 I have been unable to obtain the statistics.

It will be observed that our trade with this nation is rapidly increasing, our imports having increased from 1857 to 1860 about sixty per cent., while our exports of domestic produce show the gratifying increase of more than one hundred and thirty-three per cent. This commerce, so rapidly increasing in importance, needs facilities which it does not now possess; and by giving the facilities necessary to its prospective growth, such as England and all other nations so willingly extend to interests of like magnitude, it may be extended and increased, until at an early day it will profitably absorb annually millions of dollars' worth of our manufactured goods, and all of the gold and silver taken from the mines of California, Oregon, Washington, and Nevada, and give remunerative employment to a merchant fleet as large as that which we now possess.

It is not reasonable to suppose, under any circumstances, that the balance against us in our trade with China, will, at any time, be less than in the year 1860-say $6,400,000 in round numbers. This amount of indebtedness is now mostly paid through English houses, at a cost to us of about twenty per cent. At the present rates of exchange, then, the balance against us, to be paid by remitT tances of money or bills of credit, will cost us annually the sum of $1,280,000; that is to say, the $6,400,000 purchased by us in excess of our exports, will really cost us $7,680,000. This exchange, of course, is paid in part by every person who consumes a dollar's worth of Chinese goods, as it becomes a part of their cost; and one section of the country is as much interested in reducing the amount as another, it being placed upon the people of the entire country as equally as the duty on imports or any other tax. If we can by the construction of this road open a new channel of commerce which will turn this treasure current to direct shipments, which can be made from San Francisco in twenty-three days, saving from the present specie route at least sixty days in time, reducing the cost of shipment, including exchange, freight, interest, and insurance, to not exceeding four per cent., it would make, annually, a net saving to our people of $984,000. To the sum thus saved should be added the cost of shipment of the same amount of treasure from San Francisco to New York, which cannot be done at less rates than three and one half per cent., and would amount to $259,000. I may very properly add, that the entire balance of trade against us, in what is known in mercantile parlance as the "East India trade,' will not fall short of $18,000,000 per annum. On this sum the saving in exchange would amount to

$3,600,000.

But, sir, these are but a small portion of the benefits the country would derive from changing the specie route of the world into American channels of trade. It is estimated that the annual balance of trade against Europe and America, and in favor of the Mongolian race, reaches an aggregate of less than $50,000,000 This vast sum should be met by the shipment of gold and silver from San Francisco; and our merchants on the Atlantic sea-board, instead of buying exchange in England to pay for purchases in China, should themselves sell to England and all Europe the exchange to pay their balances. When we reflect that almost the whole of the silver shipped to China and the East Indies is collected on the Pacific coasts of North and South America, and shipped thence across the Isthmus of Panama, via London and Suez, to the point of its destination, thus traversing three fourths of the circumference of the globe, we may well marvel that our Government has failed for the last ten years to appreciate fully the importance of changing these currents of trade by building a continental road, to direct shipments from our own ports by our own people, and by so doing have made New York, instead of London, the point at which the world's balance should be settled. We have probably paid to Europe for exchange or credits in the East, during the last ten years, not less than $14,000,000; and to pay our European balance, our merchants have paid for exchange and freight from the Atlantic sea-board to Europe probably not less than $10,000,000. The gold to pay these balances during that time has been drawn from San Francisco, and has been shipped to New York, at a cost to our miners and merchants of not less than the sum of $20,000,000-making, in the aggregate, $44,000,000, which has been paid for freight on gold and silver and exchange, which might have been saved, almost wholly, by building this road and the establishment of steam communication between San Francisco and the East, which its construction would have immediately caused to be done ten years ago.

Nor is this all, sir. A profit on this freight and the world's exchange, which now goes to England, amounting to nearly as much more, would have been realized by our commerce and people. Thus the country is sixty or, perhaps, seventyfive millions of dollars poorer to-day because of our failure to discern and improve our opportunities in this direction.

I am aware, sir, these are startling figures, but they are, nevertheless, correct, being made up from actual computation of our trade and balances, and the rates of exchange as they have existed. For the last half century China has been the silver market of the world; thither have flowed and converged the silver currents of the globe. Within the last two years, and while our attention has been particularly directed to the subject of Asiatic commerce, we have discovered almost upon our western borders the silver mines of Washoe and Esmeralda, abounding in wealth in this metal beyond the ability of man to compute. It is estimated by those competent to judge, that the yield of Washoe alone, for the coming year, will amount to $20,000,000, and this, too, in the very infancy of those mines. When a sufficiency of proper machinery is introduced, probably within two or hree years, the yield will not be less than thirty or forty millions of dollars per annum. The questión, sir, is, shall we take such steps as will lead to the sending of this silver to its natural market directly, and reap all the advantages to be gained by so doing, or shall we pursue the old narrow

minded policy which has governed us so long, and allow it to take the route via Panama, New York, London, and Suez, a distance of twentyfive thousand miles, to reach its final destination, only five thousand miles from our shores, ourselves losing the freight, interest, and exchange, and giving to another and a rival nation the profits which should be our own? In other words, shall we avail ourselves of our own resources and apply them to our own benefit, or shall we continue to be in this respect, at least, a mere tributary, serving to swell the current of a rival's wealth, commerce, and power?

This subject is not one which concerns the Pacific coast alone, but is eminently national; New York, Boston, and the whole country being quite as much interested as the Pacific States. If any one section, in fact, is more interested than another, it is the great cities of the East, for it is there the balances of trade would be settled, and the profits of exchange would be paid. California has, however, an interest peculiar to herself in changing the present specie route. The balance of trade against her, and in favor of her Atlantic sisters with whom she deals, is about forty millions of dollars per annum. This amount she pays by shipments of gold, at a cost in freight, interest, and insurance, of little less than two millions of dollars per annum If trade was changed, as it would be by a continental road, this balance against her would be adjusted by shipments to China, at the expense and to the credit of the merchants of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, thus saving California this large item of expense, and largely benefiting them, as the money thus placed to their credit would settle their balances due China and the Indies, and form the basis of exchange to be sold to English and European merchants. I should not fail to notice in this connection, as a matter of great commercial importance, the fact that the Chinese are beginning to receive with much favor gold and silver bullion, and it is probable that hereafter gold will be as acceptable to them as silver, and we may use as much of it in our trade with them as may be desirable.

I now propose to notice more particularly the advantages which would be derived from it in an extended commerce and increased markets for our manufactures and agricultural productions.

Recent occurrences in China have opened the door to trade with millions of that people heretefore shut out by their exclusive policy. Mercantile men everywhere regard the opening of the Chinese rivers to commerce as one of the greatest events of the age in its commercial aspects; and one that we may avail ourselves of, if we will, to the great benefit of the whole country, by extending our commerce and increasing the markets for the productions of the country, particularly our coarse cotton goods, to almost any extent we may desire, for the building of this road with the steam lines it would call into existence, would enable us to transport freight between New York and China in thirty days, and as time nearly governs commercial operations, would give us such an advantage that no nation would be able to compete with us in the Asiatic trade.

One of the greatest wants of the country on the close of this war will be a market for our cotton. England, by her constant exertions, will have the ability in a few years, at most, to supply herself with this important staple independently of the United States. Unless, therefore, proper care is now taken, this once great element of national wealth will be lost to us forever. This we cannot

serve no encouragement from Government. The planter may be a traitor, but cotton is an important staple of commerce, and its loss would be a national calamity, affecting every interest wherever situated throughout the country. Great interests of this kind, though apparently local, are not so in fact. Whatever benefits any one great branch of industry, indirectly advances all others, and he who cannot see the intimate relations existing between them, and their mutual dependence upon each other's prosperity, can lay no claim to the title of statesman. But let England cease to purchase our cotton, when by her persistent efforts, continued through many years, she has gained an independence of us in this respect. I honor her for the careful guardianship she exercises overall her interests, and if we are equally careful, and display equal foresight, in advancing the interests of our people by creating a market in China for our manufactures, then, when she ceases to buy our cotton, it will only be transferred from the looms of Old England to the looms of New England, much to the benefit of the industrial and financial interests of the country.

Another consideration of great importance that should not be overlooked by any who have the welfare of the country at heart, is the agricultural interests on the Pacific coast. We have in the States of California and Oregon and Territory of Washington, an area, in square miles, as great as that embraced in the seven States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, with enough left to make seventeen States the size of Rhode Island. This extensive region is as rich in soil as any which we possess, and, as it extends through sixteen degrees of latitude, has a greater variety of climate than is to be found on our Atlantic border, and thus favored in soil and climate, is capable of sustaining a population of many millions, and is undoubtedly one of the greatest fields for agricultural enterprise ever opened to the industry of any people. Properly settled and cultivated, it is capable of turning off a larger surplus of cereals than is now produced in the whole country. And even now, notwithstanding the great majority of our people have been engaged in mining, and neglected agriculture almost wholly until 1854, our exports of wheat from San Francisco amounted in 1860 to nine hundred and forty-eight thousand two hundred and twenty bushels; and of flour, to fifty-seven thousand eight hundred and twenty barrels, or more than one fourteenth part of the entire exports of the country in these articles; while our export of barley was probably somewhat larger than of wheat. This surplus will be increased, under ordinary circumstances, annually from ten to twenty per cent., until it reaches a maximum greater than I should like now to name, for fear of being considered speculative. Our herds of neat cattle have already become so numerous that we scarcely know what to do with them, and are even now being slaughtered for their hides and tallow, upon the Mexican system.

What is to be done with these surplus products, is a question that addresses itself to every statesman, as the future prosperity of the country in no small degree depends upon the people of that coast finding a remunerative market for the products of their industry. In my opinion, if we provide for a continental road, it will be the means of giving us such frequent communication with Asia, and make our relations with the countries of the East such, that they may be made to occupy, as regards this excess of productions, the same position which

ginning. In 1857, we exported to China in farm products, in value, $202,532, and in 1860, $513,113. These exports, though small, are gratifying, as they more than doubled in three years. In our exports of 1857, the item of flour amounted to only eleven thousand five hundred and ninety barrels. In 1860 it had increased to thirty-seven thousand three hundred and twenty-eight barrels. The process of introducing our products is necessarily slow, as the Chinese are unaccustomed to our habits and articles of diet; but the progress already made is a sufficient indication that, with closer commercial relations and more frequent intercourse, they would, in a short time, adopt sufficient of our habits to require from us all the surplus cereals we shall have to spare them.

In securing a market in China and Japan for the production of the people of this distant portion of our country, the grain-growing and stockraising States lying east of the Rocky mountains are particularly interested, for if they do not find a market in that direction, they must continue to be competitors of those States in the markets of New York and Europe. This they may not damagingly feel now, but they will seriously feel such a rivalry in the future.

Sir, the benefits to be derived by obtaining control of the oriental trade cannot well be over estimated; and I apprehend the more thought we devote to the subject, the more we shall be convinced we have hitherto failed in its just and proper appreciation. Towards the possession and control of this trade will the commercial strategy of nations be directed for the next ten years, and within that time it must be won by us or by some more enterprising people. Whether it shall be ours depends almost wholly upon our action in regard to this continental road, which alone can give us the facilities to command and to control it.

We may obtain some idea in reference to the magnitude and importance this vast eastern trade is soon likely to attain, when we consider the progress made in but a single branch of it for a few years past. An eminent commercial writer, speaking of England's India trade, says:

"The whole trade of India, in 1833, amounted to some three millions sterling, and now that of Bengal alone is thirty; while if that of Bombay, Madras, Pegu, and the straits be added, the total will not be far from seventy-five millions. Estimating the profit on that commerce at only twenty-five per cent., carrying trade included, India still

adds nineteen millions a year to British wealth. And if the trade of India has increased in value within the last twenty-five years to the extent of seventy millions sterling, when it has, with one exception, Bengal, been almost entirely confined to the coast and the deltas of the great rivers, the boldest conjecture will hardly exceed probability in guessing at its expansion within the next twenty-five years, or by the end of the century."

Of course, so far as Hindostan is concerned, or the bay of Bengal, we cannot hope to affect the supremacy of English commerce, but we may make it in some measure tributary to us; and we would certainly command a fair proportion of the light freight and passenger travel between Europe and Asia, and our trade with Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the Philippines and surrounding islands, so rich in their commercial products, would be greatly

increased.

We have, then, in urging us to favorable action on this measure, all the considerations of national safety from foreign aggression, internal development, the fostering of great interests, and a market to supply to the Pacific coast, which is in itself, in area, an empire, and in soil and climate the most favored portion of the country. Are not these sufficient reasons for the passage of this bill without delay? Let it not be said that this war

will leave the country too much involved to give the required aid to this important enterprise. If we are poor, there is so much the greater reason why all the avenues to wealth should be opened to our people.

If the aid to be given towards the building of this road was a donation, instead of a loan of the credit of the Government, on unquestionable security, it would be but a mere bagatelle, considering the great results to be achieved by its construction.

Shall we delay, then, until England has built a road from the Canadas to Vancouver, and obtained absolute control over the oriental and even the Mexican trade on the Pacific, and established a protectorate over the Sandwich Islands, lying almost at the entrance of our Golden State, as France has already done over the Society Islands? Shall we longer permit the energy of our citizens, in carrying out great national objects of this kind, to maintain doubtful struggles against rival enterprises carried on by the combined efforts of the Governments and people of other countries, unaided by the friendly care and strong arm of our own Government? Are we to follow in the footsteps of the old-school politicians, who could find no power in the Constitution to do anything but plunder the national Treasury, by distributing the spoils of office among wrangling adherents, and whose masterly administration of the Government-masterly in its shameless frauds and wrongs-terminated in the present rebellion? Or shall we rather seek the public good, and by wise and judicious legislation fertilize all the fields of enterprise in which our citizens are engaged; and by aiding the construction of this road, not only itable employment to millions of our citizens in secure the national safety, but indirectly give proftheir factories, workshops, and mines, and on their farms throughout the country, and abroad on the high seas? Never did a single work promise such grand results. And, sir, that we shall thus gird the continent by belts of iron is not only demanded by the majority of our people, but is due position, standing, strength, and safety of this to American enterprise and interests, and to the great Republic.

Mr.KELLEY. Mr. Chairman, the people who I have the honor to represent, have no special interest in a Pacific railroad; nor after the well considered remarks of the chairman of the committee, [Mr. CAMPBELL,] and those of the able Representative from California, can I hope to add much, if any, to the argument which has been presented to the committee. But, sir, a Philadelphia newspaper, bearing date October 21, 1850, that lies before me, reminds me of the interest I felt at that early day in this great project, and I feel that I should be faithless to myself, and, if I may hope to influence the vote of any gentleman on this floor, to the country, if I did not utter my conviction, and, so far as I can, redeem the discussion of this great national measure from the appeartion. ance, at least, of reference to a merely local ques

I think the time peculiarly fitting for the comcies require its immediate commencement and mencement of this work. Our domestic exigenearly, completion; and not until we shall have completed a Pacific railroad will this nation assume its proper position among the nations of the world. Let us look at our geographical position. We are the inhabitants as it were of a great island, lying between two continents. We have upon

the one hand the Atlantic; on the other the Pacific ocean. On the one hand dwell two hundred and fifty millions of busy enterprising producing peo

ple; on the other hand are seven hundred and fifty millions of the less active people of the older world. We of the Atlantic coast are strangers to the people beyond the Pacific, and those of the Pacific coast are strangers to those beyond the Atlantic. But when we shall have but this road we will all be in immediate commercial neighborhood with the thousand millions of people whose trade invites us to the work. Make this road, and the time for travel from Liverpool to Canton or Shanghae will be reduced to a period of about or probably less than thirty days.

Sir, it was to sail due west to the marts and wealth of India that Columbus started on his adventurous voyage. That he run upon a continent was an accident, a fact not within his calculation; but it did not change the route from point to point; it did but show the necessity for new modes of travel. He was no mere dreamer. His theory was correct; his undertaking was practicable, and its execution waits but the completion of the work now under consideration. The Pacific railroad will secure to the American people the advantages on the grander scale of our age which Columbus and his countrymen hoped from his adventures.

Build this road, and California and Oregon, with her gold region now so rapidly developing, and Washington, yet scarcely explored, having together a coast as extended as the Atlantic coast of the thirteen original States, will be speedily populated. The world at large will share and contribute to their wealth. Why is it, with gold abounding in that region, that population has increased so tardily? Not tardily in comparison with the growth of other nations, but tardily in view of the temptation held out to the emigrant. It is the expense of the overland passage. Your laboring man from the East, burdened with a family, cannot emigrate. We all know the danger of an overland passage, but few of us realize the expense attending it. The completion of this road would make the transit easy and cheap, and would give us upon the Pacific slope a population as capable of protecting itself against the assaults of a foreign enemy as the people of the Atlantic States are today. And that population, with the enterprise which characterizes the American people, would bring us into intimate commercial relations with Japan, China, and the whole East, would give a stimulus to the productive power of the country such as it can derive from no other source. Then the influence of America would be felt indeed. Then the western country, that would excite and reward our enterprise, would be found among the hiving millions west of the Pacific ocean.

But, sir, while this is requisite to give us the commanding influence and position which belong to us, from our geographical position, our superior resources, and the energy and enterprise of our people, it is no less necessary to maintain the integrity of our country. When that wonderful man who now presides over the destinies of France became, not the Emperor, but the Prince President, he set about knitting together the distant departments of France. The republic for four years had halted before the proposed expenditure of money necessary to complete her railroads lying fractional and unfinished. I remember well when he issued a little rescript, decreeing the completion of these roads, designating the person to superintend them, and indicating the sources from which the requisite money should be drawn.

In 1852 it was my good fortune to witness the enthusiasm with which the people of Paris hailed him on his return from the celebration of the completion of the Strasburg road. He went on quietly, sir, until he knit the frontiers of France to

the capital by iron rails, so that he could, on a signal, transport its armies from any one frontier to another, or concentrate them at the capital. This accomplished, he began to develop his policy. While these works were incomplete, he was the Napoleon of peace; but when he had made of this -I was about to say disintegrated France-a compact empire, he treated with the nations on questions of trade, boundaries, &c., and showed that, although he had been called the Napoleon of peace, he was ready, if France needed, to show that she was no less powerful in war than she had been under his great uncle. So it should be with us. Nobody can disguise the fact that California and Oregon lie at the mercy of England, should we engage in war with her It is not for me to announce that we could not transport men, arms, and munitions, and stores for their defense. The records of the country already proclaim the fact. The distinguished gentleman from California [Mr. SARGENT] brought to our attention the other day a portion of the able report of Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, on that subject, in which he asserted that overland transportation of such supplies was an utter impracticability.

On this point I will invite attention to a brief extract from his report, as I find it quoted by the gentleman from California, [Mr. SARGENT:]

"This territory is not more remote from the principal European States than from those parts of our own country whence it would derive its military supplies; and some of those States have colonies and possessions on the Pacific which would greatly facilitate their operations against it. With these advantages, and those which the attacking force always has of choice of time and place, an enemy possessing a considerable military marine could, with comparatively little cost to himself, subject us to enormous expenses in giving to our Pacific frontier that protection which it is the duty of the General Government to afford.

"In the first years of a war with any great maritime Power the communication by sea could not be relied upon for the transportation of supplies from the Atlantic to the Pacific States. Our naval peace establishment would not furnish adequate convoys for the number of storeships which it would be necessary to employ; and storeships alone, laden with supplies, could not undertake a voyage of twenty thousand miles, passing numerous neutral ports, where an enemy's armed vessels, even of the smallest size, might lie in wait to intercept them.

"The only line of communication, then, would be overland; and by this it would be impracticable, with any means heretofore used, to furnish the amount of supplies required for the defense of the Pacific frontier. At the present prices over the best part of this route, the expense of land transportation alone, for the annual supplies of provisions, clothing, camp equipage, and ammunition for such an army as it would be necessary to maintain there, would exceed $20,000,000; and to maintain troops and carry on defensive operations under those circumstances, the expense per man would be six times greater than it is now; the land transportation of each field twelve pounder, with a due supply of ammunition for one year, would cost $2,500; of each twenty-four pounder and ammunition, $9,000; and of a seacoast gun and ammunition, $12,000. The transportation o. ammunition for a year for a thousand sea-coast guns would cost $10,000,000. But the cost of transportation would be vastly increased by a war; and at the rates that were paid on the northern frontier during the last war with Great Britain, the above estimates would be trebled. The time required for the overland journey would be from four to six months. In point of fact, however, supplies for such an army could not be transported across the continent. On the arid and barren belts to be crossed the limited quantities of water and grass would soon be exhausted by the numerous draught animals required for heavy trains, and over such distances forage could not be carried for their subsistence. "On the other hand, the enemy would send out his supplies at from one seventh to one twentieth the above rates, and in less time-perhaps in one fourth the time-if he could obtain command of the Isthmus route. Any reliance, therefore, upon furnishing that part of our frontier with means of defense from the Atlantic and interior States, after the commencement of hostilities, would be vain."

Are the Pacific States and Territories of value to us? Is it necessary that we should maintain the integrity of the country, that our shores should continue to be laved by two oceans, and that we should remain one people? If it is, then must

we, and the sooner it is done the better, provide means by which the one shore shall be knitted to the other, and by which the intervening spaces shall be populated. It is not the time, say some, to begin this work. When will it be the time? It was not the time in 1850. Then attention could hardly be concentrated on it. Yet, had the work been begun in that year, the road would have been completed ere this, and the city of San Francisco would have been as safe as New York or Boston.

The railroad operates as the river did in the olden time. We know that population could settle only upon the river banks. Land so remote from a navigable stream that it would cost to get its product to market nearly its market value was worth nothing. It is no longer so. That law of nature would have kept our coasts apart for centuries. But the railroad is the river produced by modern science. We can carry these streams over mountains and across valleys, and they will be followed by towns and cities along the plains. From this great stream rivulets will flow, so that in Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Nebraska, and Kansas, American civilization will spring up, and the land teem with life. We can by this means, and this alone, cement the two coasts of our country, and make the East and the West parts of a well-united nation, easily governed, easily defended by its own people, and from any part of which to the other the Government may at all times throw the requisite force for defense, or, should God in His providence permit a recurrence of it, the suppression of rebellion.

I cannot feel that the time was ever more propitious for beginning this work than now. What immediate expenditure does it require? None in the next year, but in two or three years hence probably an expenditure of $180,000, increasing semi-annually to about five millions of dollars per annum. Can there be any question that our country can bear such an augmentation of its annual expenditure? Or will it harm us, if posterity, being blessed by this work, should perchance have to pay the principal of the credit invested? The time is propitious. The people of the world are beginning to realize what a country ours is, and what an energetic people inhabit it. The world is beginning to see that a republican Government, which in time of peace sits upon the people as light as the surrounding atmosphere, is the most powerful Government yet known to man. Let them also see, and let posterity embody it in history, that in the very agony of our country, her Representatives and the Government had a care for the future, and for the welfare and dignity of the country; and that while they provided ample means for suppressing the rebellion, and the punishment of those who originated and sustained it, they also provided for the immediate future and the ultimate grandeur of their country.

Mr. SARGENT. Mr. Chairman, after the lengthy remarks which I submitted upon the policy and the military necessity of a Pacific railroad early in the session, and the explanation I gave of the financial features of the measure as urged by its immediate friends, it may seem unnecessary for me to recur to those topics But, sir, I represent a constituency vitally interested in this question, who will not hold me guiltless if I do not seek on al: proper occasions to present their wants in this regard, and exert all the influence of which I am pussessed in aid of this great measure. It is my purpose, before I conclude, to discuss the features of the bill reported by the select committee to whom the subject was referred, and who have

spent much labor and thougnt upon the subject. But, sir, I deem that this measure cannot be justified to the House and the country, in this day of vast expenditure and necessary retrenchment, unless it is clearly demonstrated that the Pacific railroad is not merely a matter of convenience, or even commercial advantage, but is an overwhelming military necessity, necessary for the integrity of the country, the preservation of its honor, and called for by considerations of patriotism and safety. To a work of this character, if such it is, we need to bring the most earnest and solemn consideration. That it is a work of this character the concurring testimony of many of our most eminent statesmen attests; that it is such has been shown by the events of this war, where railroads have been used to an extent never before seen in the history of the world in precipitating armies into the field; that it is a great military necessity is shown by the geographical features of the continent, the impossibility of defending our Pacific possessions without it in the event of a war with a foreign maritime Power, the ease with which such a war may be excited, as witnessed by the events of the past three months, and the great and obvious disaster and disgrace to the nation that would occur by the loss of our noble Pacific empire.

Sir, twelve years have passed away since the first Pacific State was admitted into the Union. Since that time over half a million of souls have settled in our possessions upon that ocean, great commercial interests have grown up, vast gold fields have yielded millions to preserve our balance of trade in the markets of the world, and yet today, save a few insignificant forts, nothing has been done for the protection of these valuable possessions, and we are indebted to accident only that the western boundary of these States is not the Rocky mountains instead of the Pacific. We are indebted solely to the lucky accident that we have had no war with any European commercial nation -that our clashing commercial interests with England and France, our causes of rivalry, our points of contact, have not involved us in war with those Powers, or one of them; to our good fortune and not to our statesmanship, that we have not ere this paid the penalty of our inactivity in neglecting this great engine of defense, in the loss of the richest portion of our territory-the very jewel in our coronet of States. We cannot hope for such impunity forever. The wheel of fortune will turn if we are unworthy the favors of the blind goddess. We cannot hope to disregard all the lessons of experience, all the warnings of the present, all the precautions suggested by mere self-defense, and escape the penalty of carelessness. The awful prospect of foreign war has but just faded from our vision, and for the moment all seems serene. But who can tell when the next occasion of war shall come? Even if we had internal peace we should be no more justified in neglecting a great work of national defense like this than we have been in neglecting to construct a navy that could compete with the ironclad ships of the Old World. And let me tell gentlemen here, and the country, that while the recent experience of the country in the sinking of the noble frigates at James river by the iron-clad monster of the rebels has shown that the English Warrior and the French Gloire, had foreign war fallen upon us, might have penetrated our best fortified harbors on the Atlantic, and laid their cities in ruins, that such a war would also have wrested your whole Pacific possessions from your grasp, and reduced them to colonial vassalage to England or France.

Sir, I do not deal in exaggeration in these state