NAVAL AFFAIRS. 267 



part thereof, and for the better illustration of the subject, the sev- 

 eral reports and other documents to which they refer. 



The duty of Congress to extend, secure, and protect every por- 

 tion of our commerce, has long since ceased to be matter for de- 

 bate. There is but one opinion upon that point. This duty be- 

 comes more imperative, in proportion to the value of any particu- 

 lar portion, and the difficulties and dangers to which it is subjected. 



No part of the commerce of this country is more important than 

 that which is carried on in the Pacific ocean. It is large in 

 amount Not less than $12,000,000 of capital are invested in and 

 actively employed by one branch of the whale-fishery alone ; and 

 in the whole trade there is, directly and indirectly, involved not 

 less than fifty to seventy millions of property. In like manner 

 from 170 to 200,000 tons of our shipping, and from 9 to 12,000 

 of our seamen are employed, amounting to about one tenth of the 

 whole navigation of the Union. Its results are profitable. It ia, 

 to a great extent, not a mere exchange of commodities, but the 

 creation of wealth, by labour, from the ocean. The fisheries alone 

 produce, at this time, an annual income of from five to six millions 

 of dollars ; and it is not possible to look at Nantucket, New Bed- 

 ford, New London, Sag Harbour, and a large number of other dis- 

 tricts upon our Northern coasts, without the deep conviction that 

 it is an employment alike beneficial to the moral, political, and 

 commercial interests of our fellow-citizens. 



It is a nursery for seamen for which no substitute can be found ; 

 eminently fitted to form precisely such men as the nation requires 

 for times of trial and struggle. The voyages are long ; every cli- 

 mate is encountered ; every sea, calm or tempestuous, is traversed, 

 and a discipline and subordination enforced, which create a class 

 of men unsurpassed, if they are equalled, by any who have ever 

 made the ocean their dwelling-place. They are adventurous and 

 persevering hardened by toil and danger bold, watchful, and 

 skilful. If the encouragement and protection of government 



