1870 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



ings and wharves gathered around them ; two or three thousand people with $500,000 prop- 

 erty, was all that Gloucester then was, as near as we can ascertain. Now the central wards, 

 without suburban districts, contain 14,000 people, with 9,000,000 valuation. 



The article continues in this fashion : 



Five banks, with nearly $2,000,000 in them (including savings) ; and this increase has 

 arisen, not from foreign commerce, but from the once despised and insignificant fisheries. 



It will be seen by a review of the history of Gloucester that a foreign commerce did not 

 build the town up in population or wealth ; that from 1825 to 1850 its increase had been 

 very small ; but from 1850 to 1875 it has grown from 8,000 to 17,000 inhabitants, and its 

 valuation from 82, 000, 000 to 9,000,000 ! It is the fisheries that have mainly caused this 

 great change ; it is the success of that branch of industry that has lined Gloucester harbor 

 with wharves, warehouses, and packing establishments, from the Fort to "Oakes* Cove." 

 It is the fisheries that have built up Rocky Neck and Eastern Point, and caused ward 3 

 (Gravel Hill and Prospect street) to show nearly all the gain in population from 1870 to 

 1875. 



This is the testimony of the organ of the Gloucester fishermen. I 

 might consume a great deal of your time in similar quotations. I turn 

 your attention now to this book which was quoted by my learned friends 

 on the other side, this book of Mr. Adams upon " The Fisheries and the 

 Mississippi." At page 204 this language is used under the head of fish- 

 ing liberties and their values : 



Of these ten thousand men, and of their wives and children, the cod fisheries, if I may 

 be allowed the expression, were the daily bread their property their subsistence. To 

 how many thousands more were the labors and the dangers of their lives subservient? 

 Their game was not only food and raiment to themselves, but to millions of other human 

 beings. 



There is something in the very occupation of fishermen, not only beneficent in itself but 

 noble and exalted in the qualities of which it requires the habitual exercise. In common 

 with the cultivators of the soil, their labors contribute to the subsistence of mankind, and 

 they have the merit of continual exposure to danger, superadded to that of unceasing toil. 

 Industry, frugality, patience, perseverance, fortitude, intrepidity, souls inured to perpetual 

 conflict with the elements, and bodies steeled with unremitting action, ever grappling with 

 danger, and familiar with death these are the properties to which the fisherman of the ocean 

 is formed by the daily labors of his life. These are the properties for which He who knew 

 what was in man, the Saviour of mankind, sought His first and found His most faithful, 

 ardent, and undaunted disciples among the fishermen of His country. In the deadliest ran- 

 cors of national wars, the examples of latter ages have been frequent of exempting, hy the 

 common consent of the most exasperated enemies, fishermen from the operation of hostili- 

 ties. In our treaties with Prussia, they are expressly included among the classes of men 

 " ichote occupations arc for the common subsistence and benefit of mankind ;" with a stipulation 

 that, in the event of war between the parties, they shall be allowed to continue their employ- 

 ment without molestation. 



_Nor is their devotion to their country less conspicuous than their usefulness to their kind. 

 While the huntsman of the ocean, far from his native land, from his family, and his fireside, 

 pursues, at the constant hazard of life, his game upon the bosom of the deep, the desire of 

 hia heart is, by the nature of his situation, over intently turned toward his home, his chil- 

 dren, and his country. To be lost to them gives their keenest edge to his fears ; to return 



what branch of the whole body of our commerce was this interest unconnected ? Into what 

 artery or vein of our politica body did it not circulate wholesome blood? To what sinew 

 jf our national arm did it not impart firmness and energy? We are told that they were 

 " annually dfcrrasins in number" : Yes! they had lost their occupation by the war; and 

 where were they during the war? They were upon the ocean and upon the lakes, fighting 

 the battlt-8 of their country. Turn back to the records of your revolution ask Samuel 

 Tucker, himself one of the number ; a living example of the character common to them all, 

 what were the fishermen of New England, in the tug of war for Independence ? Appeal to 

 the heroes ol all our naval wars, ask the vanquishers of Algiers and Tripoli, ask the re- 

 deemers of your citizens from the chains of servitude, and of your nation from the humilia- 

 tion of annual tribute to the barbarians of Africa, call on the champions of our last struggles 

 with Britain, ask Hull and Bainbridge, ask Stewart, Porter, and Macdonough, what pro- 

 irtion of New England fishermen were the companions of their victories, and sealed the 

 proudest of our victories with their blood ; and then listen if you can, to be told that the 



