God has decided that the people of this country should be commercial
people. You read that decree in the seacoast of seventeen hundred
miles which he has given you; in the numerous navigable waters which
penetrate the interior of the country; in the various ports and
harbors scattered alone your shores; in your fisheries; in the
redundant productions of your soil; and, more than all, in the
enterprising and adventurous spirit of your people. It is no more a
question whether the people of this country shall be allowed to
plough the ocean, than it is whether they shall be permitted to
plough the land. It is not in the power of this government, nor
would it be if it were as strong as the most despotic upon the
earth, to subdue the commercial spirit, or to destroy the commercial
habits of the country. Young as we are, our tonnage and commerce
surpass those of every nation upon the globe but one, and if
not wasted by the deprivations to which they were exposed by their
defenseless situation, and the more ruinous restrictions to which
this government subjected them, it would require not many more years
to have made them the greatest in the world. Is this immense wealth
always to be exposed as a prey to the rapacity of freebooters? Why
will you protect your citizens and their property upon land, and
leave them defenseless upon the ocean? As your mercantile property
increases, the prize becomes more tempting to the cupidity of
foreign nations. In the course of things, the ruins and aggressions
which you have experienced will multiply, nor will they be
restrained while we have no appearance of a naval force.
I have always been in favor of a naval establishment--not from the
unworthy motives attributed by the gentleman from Georgia to a
former administration, in order to increase patronage, but from a
profound conviction that the safety of the Union and the prosperity
of the nation depended greatly upon its commerce, which never could
be securely enjoyed without the protection of naval power. I offer,
sir, abundant proof for the satisfaction of the liberal mind of that
gentleman, that patronage was not formerly a motive in voting an
increase in the navy, when I give now the same vote, when surely I
and my friends have nothing to hope, and for myself, I thank God,
nothing to wish from the patronage it may confer.
You must and will have a navy; but it is not to be created in a day,
nor is it to be expected that, in its infancy, it will be able to
cope, foot to foot with the full-grown vigor of the navy of
England. But we are even now capable of maintaining a naval force
formidable enough to threaten the British commerce, and to render
this nation an object of more respect and consideration.
In another point of view, the protection of commerce has become more
indispensable. The discovery is completely made, that it is from
commerce that the revenue is to be drawn which is to support this
government, A direct tax, a stamp act, a carriage tax, and an
excise, have been tried; and I believe, sir, after the lesson which
experience has given on the subject, no set of men in power will
ever repeat them again, for all they are likely to produce. The
burden must be pretty light upon the people of this country, or the
rider is in great danger. You may be allowed to sell your back lands
for some time longer, but the permanent fund for the support of this
government is the imports.
If the people were willing to part with commerce, can the government
dispense with it? But when it belongs equally to the interest of the
people and of the government to encourage and protect it, will you
not spare a few of those dollars which it brings into your treasury,
to defend and protect it?
In relation to the increase of a permanent military force, a free
people cannot cherish too great a jealousy. An army may wrest the
power from the hands of the people, and deprive them of their
liberty. It becomes us, therefore, to be extremely cautious how we
augment it. But a navy of any magnitude can never threaten us with
the same danger. Upon land, at this time, we have nothing--and
probably, at any future time, we shall have but little--to fear
from any foreign power. It is upon the ocean we meet them; it is
there our collisions arise; it is there we are most feeble, most
vulnerable, and most exposed; it is there by consequence, that our
safety and prosperity must require an augmented force.