MR. H A M E R. 295 



resolutions passed this house authorizing this expedition ? Such 

 is the fact, and want of funds alone prevented it from being sent 

 out the following summer. At the succeeding session of 1 828, '29, 

 a bill passed this house directing the expedition, and was sent to 

 the senate, where it was not acted upon, for want of time. At the 

 present session, the senate had passed the appropriation, almost 

 unanimously ; and it now remained for us to do our duty in that 

 manner which became the representatives of a great people. We 

 have had this subject before congress for eight years. It has 

 twice been adopted by the house, and once by the senate of the 

 United States ; and yet, with all these evidences of its utility and 

 importance, gentlemen rise in their places, and gravely pronounce 

 it to be a hair-brained and visionary scheme, not deserving our 

 serious examination ! Such imputations were unmerited ; and he 

 hoped, upon further reflection, their injustice would be seen and 

 acknowledged. 



" He thought he had shown that this expedition was not new, 

 and that various similar ones had been organized both in Europe 

 and in this country. Neither was it unconstitutional, for its chief 

 object was to aid in the regulation, promotion, and security of our 

 foreign commerce. The expense would be trifling, compared with 

 the wealth and power of this nation, and the magnitude and import- 

 ance of the objects to be accomplished. It was due to the com- 

 mercial community and the navigating interest as a measure of 

 justice, and would be beneficial to all classes of our citizens.. 

 Upon what principle, then, could we refuse it ? Should it be said 

 that we, who were the second, if not the first, commercial nation in 

 the world, must continue to navigate the ocean with the defective 

 charts furnished us by foreigners ? It was notorious that we were 

 now doing so. It was humiliating to think of it. If we deducted 

 from the commercial marine of Great Britain, our only rival upon 

 the seas, the amount of tonnage they employed in the coasting 

 trade, which did not engage in her foreign commerce, we had 



