LIGHTHOUSE ESTABLISHMENT, THE UNITED STATES. 



431 



The lighthouses were kept in repair by con- 

 tract ; and it appears from the reports of the 

 General Superintendent, that the repairs were, 

 in his opinion, promptly and effectually made. 

 The methods of supplying the lights varied, ap- 

 parently with their increase in number. When 

 Mr. Gallatin was Secretary of the Treasury, 

 oil and money to purchase other supplies were 

 furnished to a contractor, who made a yearly 

 visit to each light, to keep the illuminating ap- 

 paratus in repair, and, at the same time, sup- 

 plied the illuminant, wicks, chimneys, and 

 cleaning-stores. This was not difficult when 

 there 'were but some fifty lights; but Mr. 

 Pleasanton found, as their number increased, a 

 new method of supply was necessary. He ac- 

 corJingly advertised for proposals to furnish 

 all the supplies needed for the whole light- 

 house establishment, and to keep all the illumi- 

 nating apparatus in complete repair for a given 

 sum per lamp per year, and made a contract 

 with the lowest bidder, to continue fur five 

 years, paying him $35.87 per lamp per year to 

 supply everything necessary for keeping up the 

 lights. The contractors were, also, to visit 

 each lighthouse annually, and report on its 

 condition, specifying the repairs needed to each 

 structure, as well as to its illuminating appara- 

 tus; and they were also to report on the con- 

 duct and ability of the keepers. And the keep- 

 ers were to report on the quality of the sup- 

 plies furnished, and on the condition of the 

 illuminating apparatus and buildings. This 

 plan Mr. Pleasanton reported as working satis- 

 factorily to the Government. 



Meantime, complaints were made in various 

 quarters as to the efficiency of the lighthouse 

 establishment. The Messrs. E. & G. W. Blunt, 

 of New York City, the publishers of Blunt's 

 " Coast Pilot," were among the more prominent 

 complainants, or, rather, they forwarded to 

 Washington the complaints made to them by 

 shipmasters, and thus they were brought inta 

 antagonism with the General Superintendent 

 of Lights, who felt called upon to defend his 

 administration. An account of this was laid 

 before the Senate, by the Secretary of the 

 Treasury, on January 26, 1838, in response to 

 its resolution of inquiry made the day previous. 



Mr. Pleasanton had referred to the charge of 

 the Messrs. Blunt, ' that the lighthouse estab- 

 lishment was badly managed." The Blunts, 

 on November 30, 1837, in a letter to the Sec- 

 retary of the Treasury, undertook to show 

 that the annual sums appropriated by Con- 

 gress were not judiciously or energetically 

 ussd. Among other things, they said that 

 "the establishment has increased beyond the 

 ability of any single individual at Washington 

 to superintend it in its more important details, 

 and the efficiency of the whole has become 

 greatly lessened. The intelligent gentleman 

 who, for so many years, has had the general 

 superintendence of the lights, has had but little 

 assistance of the proper kind; he has been 

 compelled to rely too much on contractors; 



and the representations of contractors will al- 

 ways be favorable. The duties of the office of 

 Superintendent of Lights at Washington com- 

 ing immediately under the direction of the 

 present incumbent have been conducted, to the 

 best of our knowledge, with skill and prompti- 

 tude ; but those duties have been, for many 

 years, almost necessarily confined to the pay- 

 ment of salaries and contractors and other 

 financial matters ; and there can be no doubt 

 this least important part of the whole system 

 has been exceedingly well managed." 



Meantime, Congress had been so profuse in 

 its appropriations for lighthouses that the pro- 

 priety of erecting those for which funds had 

 been more recently appropriated was ques- 

 tioned. So, on March 3, 1837, it was provided, 

 in the act making appropriation for building 

 a large number of lighthouses, light-boats, 

 buoys, etc., that, before any of these improve- 

 ments should be commenced, the Board of 

 Naval Commissioners should cause an exami- 

 nation to ascertain whether the safety of navi- 

 gation required any additional facilities, and, if 

 so, what was most suitable for each place, and 

 to report their opinion in regard to all such 

 places to the Secretary of the Treasury, who 

 should proceed with the work so recommend- 

 ed; and that, if the board should advise that 

 the improvements were not needed, they 

 should not be made, and the commissioners' 

 opinions, with the facts, should be reported to 

 Congress. 



The Navy Department detailed twenty-two 

 officers 03 this duty, and, as the Treasury De- 

 partment placed at their disposal its revenue- 

 cutters, they were enabled to carry out their 

 orders, which were quite precise, and to make 

 their report to the Commissioners, in time for 

 them to report to Congress, by the end of the 

 year, their recommendations, which in effect 

 arrested the erection of thirty-one of the pro- 

 posed lighthouses, for which $168,700 had 

 been appropriated. In concluding their report, 

 the Navy Commissioners said: 



When the great importance of the lighthouse sys- 

 tem is considered, in relation to the safety of human 

 life and of the vast amounts of property, to the facili- 

 ties and rapidity of communication whicn it gives be- 

 tween different parts of our extensive Atlantic and 

 Lake coasts, and to the cost of establishing and sup- 

 porting it, the board would respectfully suggest 

 whether some additional measures may not be desir- 

 able for obtaining the necessary information to secure 

 the greatest public advantage* for the expenditures 

 which may hereafter be authorized for these purposes. 



On March 22, 1838, the Senate 



Resolved, That the Committee on Commerce be in- 

 structed to inquire into the expediency of importing 

 one or more sets of the most approved apparatus, now 

 employed on the coast of Europe in the lighthouses ; 

 and 



That the same committee be instructed to inquire 

 whether a more efficient, safe, and useful system of 

 locating, constructing, lighting, and managing the 

 lighthouses necessary for our coasts may not be 

 adopted. 



On May 10, 4838, the Committee on Com- 



