258 COMMITTEE ON 



"The states whose legislative powers have sanctioned it are 

 represented on the floor of Congress by one hundred and twenty- 

 nine members, to say nothing of the memorials from large cities 

 and other places ; and the aggregate of citizens of these states, 

 near six millions. 



" We have been an industrious, a commercial, and enterprising 

 people, and have taken advantage of the knowledge of others, as 

 well as of their trade ; for, although oar entrance and clearance, 

 without looking at our immense coasting-trade, amounted to eight 

 thousand seven hundred and sixty-six vessels, yet not one of those 

 were sailed a mile by a chart made by us,* except we may suppose 

 that the chart of George's banks may have been used by a few 

 of the navigators of these vessels. We are dependant on other 

 nations for all our nautical instruments, as well as charts ; and, if 

 we except Bowditclis Navigator,, an improvement on Hamilton 

 Moore's book of the same kind, we have not a nautical table or 

 book in our navy, or among our merchantmen, the product of our 

 own science and skill ; and we are now among the three first 

 commercial nations of the world, and have more shipping and 

 commerce than all the nations of Europe had together when 

 Columbus discovered this continent, but a little more than three 

 centuries since ; and our navy, young as it is> has more effective 

 force in it than the combined navies of the world could have 

 amounted to at that period. Out of the discovery of this conti- 

 nent, and a passage to the Indies, grew up the naval powers of 

 Europe. On the acquisition of the new world, Spain enlarged her 

 marine ; France and England theirs, to hold sway with Spain ; and 

 that of the Netherlands sprang from the extent of their trade, con- 

 nected with the wise policy of enlarging and protecting it. 



" Our commercial and national importance cannot be supported 

 without a navy; or our navy without commerce, and a nursery for 



* That is, no chart has been made under the direction and at the expense of 

 government. 



