BLAINE, JAMES GILLESPIE. 



91 



There has been a reaction against the {>oliey ; but 



from lK4ti-'71, 1 repeat, u period of twenty-five yearn, 



nijress of the I'nitcd States passed '.M different 



id endowed the ruilniiid svstem of this country 



with $;.OO,OIIIMI r money, and' tlmt |600,000,000 of 



mom v produced more than $:>,<( )<),< MIO,< 100 of monc\ 

 in iliis country. My judgment is that the < 'ongress 

 of tin- I'nited States in cvcrs tliiiiu' they did in that 

 did wisely. Tlu-y cheapened t'reights. Clin- 

 ton'-, ditch, as it lined to be culled, was sneered at 

 when it was an experiment ; but the minute, the water 

 \MIS let into it it reduced the freight* that had been 

 $KM) from Buffalo to New York down to $7 a ton ; 

 and it IB not an exaggeration to say that at that day, 

 before railroads wore among us, the water that was 

 let in from Lake Krie to that canal added $100,000,000 

 to the value of the farms west of it. 



As individuals, cities, towns, counties, States, a na- 

 tion, we have exerted ourselves to the utmost point of 

 enterprise and vigor to build up railroads. We have 

 a system that outruns all the world, and with great 

 trunk lines threading the- continent north, south, 

 east, and west in every direction. The very moment 

 \se reach the ocean limit we seem to think we have 

 done our duty, and that when we have got transporta- 

 tion to that point it no longer interests us, and we can 

 safely give that over to the foreigner. Why, from 

 Chicago to Liverpool is one direct line. I wonder 

 how it would sound if Mr. Vanderbilt who is run- 

 ning a line of steamships manned by foreign men, 

 commanded by foreign officers, built in foreign yards, 

 whose money earnings go entirely outside of this 

 country were to apply that to the New York Central 

 Railroad, and select all the brakemen, and switchmen, 

 and conductors, and tenders, and officers on the Cen- 

 tral Kail road from foreigners, to put on it locomotives 

 that are all made in England, to let all its earnings 

 be exported. Such a policy would not be one particle 

 more detrimental and destructive to the interests of 

 this country than for us, when that Central Railroad 

 had touched salt water with all the countless products 

 of the fertile West, to give up all the profits ot partici- 

 pation in the transportation of them beyond. From 

 Chicago to Liverpool is a route of 4,000 miles. We 

 operate 1,000 miles of it, and give 3,000 miles to the 

 foreigner. 



Two years later, in urging the granting of sub- 

 sidies in support of shipbuilding and American 

 commerce on the high seas, he said, in one of his 

 most elaborate speeches : 



M r. President, fas est ab Tioste doceri ; it is always 

 lawful to be taugnt by an enemy. Great Britain has 

 been our great commercial rival, and since the first 

 Cunard steamship came into Boston just about forty 

 years ago, when Great Britain, seeing that stearu was 

 to play so great and commanding a part in the navi- 

 gation of the world, first made her venture from that 

 tune down to the close of 1878 she had paid from her 

 treasury, to aid great steamship lines all over the 

 world, a sum exceeding 40,000,000, more than 200,- 

 000,000 American dollars. I know it is a favorite ar- 

 gument with those who occupy the position of the 

 honorable Senator from Kentucky, that Great Britain 

 started upon this plan and followed it for a long 

 period 01 years, and afterward abandoned it. Sir, 

 she has never abandoned it. She has only abandoned 

 its extension to those lines that were strong enough 

 to go alone, and the British post-office report for the 

 year 187'.' shows that under the despised and ridiculed 

 head of postal aid, to which the nonorable Senator 

 from Kentucky was pleased to refer with such sneers, 

 Great Britain paid last year 783,000, well-nigh $4,- 

 000,000 in coin. 



France gets her steamships from England. France 

 has adopted the commercial policy which the honor- 

 able Senator from Kentucky thinks would be the re- 

 vival of the American shipping interest; but does 

 France, by the mere fact of getting her ships built at 

 Birkenhead or on the Clyde, abandon the pian, which 



has been for thirty yearn in operation under ): 

 eminent, of Hiding her ships* Whv, sir, la-' 

 France paid '>:(,<'<,"") IVancn more than *4,;> I 

 to aid her steamship lines. And when the celebrated 

 line of France, the company known a* M-.->a^i-rie.- 

 Imperiale, competed txio sharply in the Mediterranean 

 waters alter the openiiit.' "I the Sue/ ( 'anal, when that 

 L'reat French company competed with the 1'eninnular 

 and Oriental Company of Knifland, and was likely to 

 endanger its supremacy by a sharp rivalry, 

 liritain promptly stepped forward and added 100,000' 

 to the Peninsular and Oriental subsidy. That is the 

 way Great Britain has abandoned the idea of aiding 

 her great commercial interests ! 



The United States can not succeed in this great 

 international struggle without adopting exactly the 

 same mode that lias achieved victory for France. 

 What is it ? It is not to help A B, or C D, or E F, or 

 anybody else by name neither Mr. John Roach, nor 

 Mr. John Doe, nor Mr. Richard Roe but to make u 

 great and comprehensive policy that shall give to 

 every company a pledge of aid from the Government 

 of so much per mile for such a term of years. Let the 

 American merchants feel that the Government of the 

 United States is behind them. Let the United States 

 take from her Treasury per annum the $4,000,000 that 

 Great Britain is paying as a postscript to her $200,- 

 000,000 of investment ; let the United States but take 

 $400,000 per annum and that is not a great sum for 

 this opulent country let that be used as a fund to 

 stimulate any company from any port of the United 

 States to any foreign port, and, without being a 

 prophet or the son of one, I venture to predict tnat 

 you will see that long-deferred, much-desired event 

 the revival of the American merchant marine. 



It is idle to fight against the inventions of the world ;: 

 it is idle for us to fold our arms and suppose that 

 wooden vessels are to maintain anything like the im- 

 portance they have hitherto had in the commerce of 

 the world. 1 think I understand something of that 

 subject. I have the honor to be from the State that 

 has built more wooden vessels than all the rest of this 

 Union beside, I believe. Within thirty miles of my 

 own residence is a town of only 10,000 people, which 

 is the largest wooden shipbuilding place on the globe 

 to-day. I know some little of that subject ; and while 

 the days of wooden ships are by no means over, while 

 they will be a great and needful auxiliary in the com- 

 merce of the world, yet it is manifest and is proven 

 that the great highways of international commerce 

 such as the North Atlantic, the West India seas, the 

 route from San Francisco to Asia, that from San Fran- 

 cisco to Melbourne, and in various, and sundry, and 

 divers other directions will be occupied, and occu- 

 pied almost to the exclusion of sailing vessels, by the 

 ocean steamers. The United States can take a great 

 part in that race ; they can take a great part in it just 

 whenever they make up their mind that the instru- 

 mentality by 'which England conquered is the one 

 which w'e m'ust use ; they can take it whenever they 

 make up their minds that a mercantile marine and 

 naval establishment must grow and go together hand 

 in hand, an I that the Congress of the United States 

 is derelict in its duty if it passes another naval appro- 

 priation bill without accompanying it, in some form, 

 with some wise and forecasting^ provision looking also 

 to the upbuilding of the American merchant marine. 



On Dec. 11, 1878. Mr. Elaine made a memora- 

 ble speech in defense of the purity of the ballot. 

 He had introduced a resolution providing for 

 inquiry into certain alleged frauds in elections 

 recently held in Southern States. In sustaining 

 his resolution, he said : 



The issue thus raised before the country, Mr. Presi- 

 dent, is not one of mere sentiment for the rights of the 

 negro though far distant be the day when the rights 

 of any American citizen, however black or however 

 poor/shall form the mere dust of the balance in any 

 controversy ; nor is the issue one that involves the 



