SERVICES TO NORTHWESTERN COMMERCIAL INTERESTS AND THE CAUSE OF INTERNAL
IMPROVEMENTS.
Upon the day following that on which Mr. Chandler first took his seat
in the Senate Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana offered a resolution, from
a special committee in regard to the formation of committees, amending
the thirty-fourth rule of the Senate by providing that thereafter the
standing committees of that body (their members are selected by the
Senate itself and not by its presiding officer) should be appointed
at the commencement of each session of Congress. The Committee on
Commerce then, and from that time until the special session in the
spring of 1875, consisted of seven members. Mr. Benjamin's resolution
was adopted, and on March 9th the standing committees for the special
session were, on motion of Mr. Seward of New York, announced. The
Committee on Commerce was composed of Messrs. Clay of Alabama,
chairman, Benjamin of Louisiana, Bigler of Pennsylvania, Toombs of
Georgia, Reid of North Carolina, Bright of Indiana, and Hamlin of
Maine. Mr. Chandler was assigned to the Committee on the District of
Columbia, of which Mr. Brown of Mississippi was chairman. Mr. Hamlin
of Maine was also appointed on this inferior committee, giving it two
Republican members, while the Committee on Commerce had but one. The
general assignment of places to the minority was so inadequate and
unfair that a Republican caucus (the first Mr. Chandler attended)
had been called to consider the matter. Mr. Chandler, although a new
member, was one of its speakers and gave strong expression to his
sense of the injustice with which both his party and the Northwest
had been treated. It was decided to make a formal protest against the
constitution of the committees, and, as a result of this consultation,
when Mr. Seward's motion was made, Mr. Fessenden of Maine, as the
spokesman of the Republicans, denounced the unfairness of the majority
with force and vigor. In his remarks he said "that there was not an
individual member of the Republican party in the Senate who deemed
that a just and fair division had been made in the appointment of the
committees, especially two or three of them." He also declared that
there was not a just and fair division with reference to questions
coming before the committees, and then gave this illustration: "Take,
for instance, the Committee on Commerce. On that committee the
Republican party, numbering twenty out of the sixty-one members of the
Senate, is assigned, of the whole number of seven, one member.... The
interests of the whole lake region, the interests of New England and of
New York, involving, as those large portions of the country do, such
an infinite superiority of all its commerce, are found with only two
members out of the seven." Mr. Hamlin here corrected Mr. Fessenden's
statement, by saying, "My colleague is mistaken.... The interests of
which he speaks have only _one_ member on that committee, not two." Mr.
Hamlin was right; there was but one member of the Committee on Commerce
to represent the immense interests of the country of the Great Lakes of
the Northwest and of the whole of New England and New York, and that
single member was himself. But the Republican protest, well-grounded as
it was, proved then unavailing.
At the first regular session of the Thirty-fifth Congress, beginning
in December, 1857, Mr. Allen, of Rhode Island, presented under the
rule a new list of the standing committees of the Senate for adoption.
That on Commerce was only changed by the substitution of Mr. Allen
for Mr. Bright of Indiana, increasing its New England but diminishing
its Western membership. Messrs. Hamlin, Chandler and Wilson again made
vigorous remonstrances against the unjust formation of the standing
committees as a whole. This was Mr. Chandler's first speech in the
Senate, and it was as follows:
I find in the "Globe" of yesterday the following announcement: "The
caucus of all parties in the Senate has agreed to constitute the
committees as follows." And then follows a list in detail. This
announcement, as I understand it, is incorrect. I believe that no
such caucus has been held. I am informed that a Democratic caucus
was held, and the committees made up, leaving certain blanks to be
submitted to the Republicans for them to fill. They saw fit to fill
these blanks, under protest. No such caucus as is announced in the
statement which I have read was ever held. No assent has ever been
given by the Republicans of this Senate to any such formation of
committees as is there announced.
I rise, sir, to protest against this list of committees as
presented here. Never before, in the whole course of my
observation, have I seen a large minority virtually ignored in a
legislative body upon important committees. This is the first time
that I have ever witnessed such a total, or almost total, ignoring
of a large and influential minority. But, sir, whom and what does
this minority represent? It represents--I believe I am correct in
saying--more than half--certainly nearly one-half--of all the free
white inhabitants of these United States; it represents two-thirds
of all the commerce of the United States; and more than two-thirds
of the revenues of the United States; and yet this minority,
representing the commerce and revenues of the nation, is expected
to be satisfied with one place upon the tail end of a committee of
seven on Commerce. I may almost say that that committee is of more
importance to the Northwest than all the other committees of this
body, but the great Northwest is totally ignored upon a committee
in which it takes so deep an interest. Not a solitary member of
this body from that portion of the country is honored with a
position on that committee, and yet you have been told of the
hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of commerce which is there
looking for protection to this body.
Sir, we are not satisfied, and we desire to enter our protest
against any such formation of committees as is here presented. But
we would say to the gentlemen on the other side of the chamber; You
have the power to-day; you can elect your committees as you see
fit; you can give us one representative on a committee of five, or
one on a committee of seven, or none on any of the committees, if
you think proper. Exercise that power in your own discretion; but,
gentlemen, beware! for the time is not far distant when the measure
you mete out to us to-day shall be meted to you again.
Senators Pugh, Bayard, Gwin and Brown, from the Democratic side,
defended the list as presented by Mr. Allen, and his resolution for its
appointment was adopted by a strict party vote of thirty to nineteen.
The Republican protests were again unheeded by the Senate, but in less
than four years Mr. Chandler's prediction, that the situation would be
reversed, was fulfilled.
Before Mr. Chandler entered the Senate there had been some work done
by the United States upon the most serious natural obstacle to the
navigation of the Great Lakes, the tortuous channels and extensive
shoals at the mouth of the St. Clair river, known as the "St. Clair
Flats." Largely through Senator Cass's efforts an appropriation of
$45,000 had been made in the Thirty-fourth Congress (it was passed over
Franklin Pierce's veto) for this work, and this sum had been expended
under the supervision of Major Whipple in the clearing out of a channel
through the shoals of about 6,000 feet in length, 150 feet in width,
and nine feet in depth at low water. This improvement, valuable as it
was, did not prove at all adequate, and was made much less useful in
the few following years by a lessening in the depth of the water of
Lake St. Clair. The rapidly-growing commerce of the lakes manifestly
demanded the early construction and permanent maintenance through these
shoals of a first-class ship canal, which could be safely used in all
conditions of water and weather by vessels of the largest class. Mr.
Chandler clearly perceived the necessity for this important national
work, determined to rest not until its completion, and commenced
at once his attack on the great obstacles in its way--namely, the
disposition of the older States to undervalue the commercial importance
of the Northwest, and the traditional hostility of the Democracy to
all internal improvements. The first measure, which (on January 14,
1858) Mr. Chandler gave notice of his intention to introduce, was a
bill "making an additional appropriation for deepening the channel of
the St. Clair Flats;" when introduced it was referred to the Committee
on Commerce. There an effort was made to strangle it by persistent
inaction. Accordingly, on April 24, Mr. Chandler introduced in the
Senate a resolution instructing the Committee on Commerce to report
back this bill for action by the Senate. This resolution not receiving
immediate consideration, on May 3 he called it up and demanded a vote.
Mr. Clay, the chairman of the committee, opposed it with much temper,
and moved to lay it on the table, but this motion was lost by one vote.
Mr. Clay then attacked Mr. Chandler's resolution as insulting to the
Committee on Commerce, and said he spurned the idea that the committee
could be instructed to report in favor of a certain appropriation for
a certain work, and that he should despise himself if he was capable
of obeying such instructions. Mr. Hamlin, the sole Republican member,
expressed his gratification at the fact that the Senator from Michigan
(Mr. Chandler) had offered this resolution; he thought that it was
appropriate, and that the action of the committee called for such
instructions. Mr. Clay having inquired, "What is the use of having a
Cabinet or an engineer corps, if the Senate is to take these matters
into its own hands?" Mr. Hamlin replied, "What is the use of a Senate,
if the Committee on Commerce, or the Cabinet officers, or the engineer
corps, are to control these matters?" and insisted that the Committee
on Commerce was a creature of the Senate, within its control, and that
if it differed from the Senate in regard to any proposition before
it, that body had the right to instruct the committee what action
to take. He added that because the committee had agreed to make no
appropriation excepting for certain specific matters, it did not follow
that the Senate must adopt its views, and be controlled thereby;
that the servant had no right nor authority to bind the master, and
that the committee was the servant of the Senate. Mr. Clay finally
yielded the point that the Senate had the right to order a committee
to report back the bill, but still objected to the proposition to
have it instructed to specify a certain amount to be appropriated, and
Mr. Chandler consented to modify his resolution so as to instruct the
committee to report back the bill for the action of the Senate without
recommendation as to the amount of the appropriation. Mr. Benjamin,
at this point, moved, as a substitute for the pending resolution, a
general order to the committee to report on all public works upon
which there had been any expenditure, and this motion prevailed. Mr.
Chandler, who was after a specific point and not a mere generality,
accepted this as a defeat, and began anew by giving notice on the spot
that he should ask leave at a subsequent day to introduce a bill for
the improvement of the St. Clair Flats, making an appropriation of
$55,000, this being the amount estimated by the United States engineers
as necessary at that time. On May 10 he presented this bill, but the
Senate refused to refer it, and adopted a motion to lay it upon the
table. Mr. Chandler met this second defeat without discouragement,
and later in the session did succeed after two efforts in procuring
the addition of this item of $55,000 to the civil appropriation bill.
But the threat of an executive veto of the whole measure, if this
appropriation was not omitted, proved potent with the Senate, and it
was ultimately stricken out. Mr. Chandler closed his last speech on
this measure at that session, with a demand for a vote by yeas and
nays, and these words:
I want to see who is friendly to the great Northwest, and who is
not--for we are about making our last prayer here. The time is
not far distant when, instead of coming here and begging for our
rights, we shall extend our hands and _take_ the blessing. After
1860 we shall not be here as beggars.
Of this resolute struggle of his first Congressional session, Mr.
Chandler said in an address at St. Johns, in Michigan, on Oct. 17, 1858:
When I took my seat in the Senate I supposed every section of
the country would be fairly heard in the details of business.
There were twenty Republican Senators representing two-thirds
the revenue, business and wealth of the country. How were they
placed on committees? Out of seven in the Committee on Commerce
they had one. I call attention to this fact. It bears the mark
of design. How does this work?... I introduced at an early day a
bill appropriating money for the St. Clair Flats, and it went to
this Southern Committee on Commerce. I procured all the necessary
maps and plans and estimates, and gave them into their charge.
One hundred days rolled away and they had not deigned to examine
them. I then introduced a resolution instructing them to report.
Subsequently I introduced a bill myself which was laid on the
table. By the most untiring efforts I succeeded in getting the
desired appropriation tacked upon an appropriation bill and passed.
But the President's friends threatened a veto of the whole bill
unless this was stricken out--and that was done. Thus committees
were packed against us and we were thwarted at every turn.
Thousands of dollars can be obtained for almost any creek in the
South, while the inland seas of the North are denied a dollar, and
we are left to take care of ourselves the best we can.
The second session of the Thirty-fifth Congress began in December,
1858, and on the 21st of that month Mr. Chandler moved to take his St.
Clair Flats bill from the table. This time it was passed by a vote
of 29 to 22, and sent to the House where it encountered a vigorous
opposition but was finally passed, its introducer working for it
with the utmost energy in the committee-rooms, on the floor, and by
private solicitation. It reached Mr. Buchanan in the last days of that
Congress, and he killed it by withholding his signature but without
a formal veto. The Thirty-sixth Congress met in December, 1859, and
on the 4th of January Mr. Chandler's bill to deepen the St. Clair
Flats channel made its appearance. On February 2 Mr. Buchanan informed
Congress, in a special message, of his reasons for "pocketing" the
measure at the last session. This veto took the position that the
improvement of harbors and the deepening of the channels of rivers
should be done by the respective States, and suggested that Michigan
in conjunction with Upper Canada should provide the necessary means to
carry out the contemplated improvements in the channels of commerce
between those two countries, whereas the plain fact was that the
interest of that State in such works was a mere tithe of that of
the whole Northwest. Mr. Chandler reviewed this message at length
in the Senate on February 6, exposing Mr. Buchanan's misstatements
in detail, and denouncing the Democratic construction of the
constitution. Jefferson Davis at once came to the defense of the veto
on constitutional grounds, and a running debate followed on the subject
between Messrs. Chandler and Bingham of Michigan, Hamlin, Crittenden,
Davis, Toombs, Wigfall and others. Mr. Crittenden condemned the veto,
while Toombs and Wigfall joined Davis in its defense. Thus the plotters
of rebellion assumed a hypocritical attitude as defenders of the
constitution. Their treasonable daggers were yet concealed beneath
their Senatorial togas, as they stood in their high places and assumed
a virtue that they never had, that of being patriots with a deep regard
for the fundamental law of the land. No action followed this debate,
but on February 20 Mr. Chandler moved that his bill be made the special
order for the 23d. This motion prevailed, but when that day arrived
the Senate refused to proceed with its consideration, Mr. Chandler
protesting against this delay in a speech pointing out the necessity
for prompt action. On March 13 he moved to take the bill from the table
but the Senate refused. Six days later he renewed the motion with the
same result. Eleven days after that he did succeed in getting the
measure made the special order for April 10, but again other business
displaced it, and so no action was taken before adjournment. The second
session of this Congress commenced in December, 1861, with civil war
imminent and no chance for the consideration of any project of internal
improvement. At the meeting of the next Congress the Democracy found
itself in a petty minority, and remained powerless at Washington for
many years. As soon as it became plain that rebellion could not destroy
the life of the nation, Mr. Chandler brought forward again his bill for
the improvement of the channels at the head of Lake St. Clair, and with
the powerful support of his colleagues and the commercial interests of
the Northwest obtained without difficulty from Republican Congresses
such appropriations as were required for the prompt construction of a
great ship-canal, ranking to-day among the most important and useful
of the public works of this continent. Its history and statistics are
given in this extract from an official report for the year ending June
30, 1879:
This canal (according to its present plan) was projected by Col.
T. J. Cram, of the Corps of Engineers, in August, 1866, as the
best method of improving navigation at the mouth of the St. Clair
river. He proposed opening the lower tortuous reach of the south
channel, and making a direct cut from its mouth proper to deep
water in Lake St. Clair. His project was approved, and construction
began on the 20th of August, 1867, under contract with Mr. John
Brown of Thorold, Canada. The original plan was a straight canal
300 feet wide in the clear, and 13 feet deep at low stage of water,
protected by dykes 5 feet in height and 58 feet wide on top, built
of the material dredged from the channel and thrown behind a pile
and timber revetment. The canal was completed in the autumn of
1871, and turned over to the charge of Maj. O. M. Poe, Corps of
Engineers, on the 11th of December. As completed, the banks are
7,221 feet in length, and constructed mostly of dredged sand thrown
behind a revetment consisting of piling in two rows driven 13 feet
apart and parallel, and capped with a timber superstructure 5
feet high, the front row being supplemented with a single row of
sheath-piling to prevent the sand bank from washing back into the
canal. As originally planned, the reverse faces of the embankment
were to be permitted to take their natural slope, but as it was
found that the banks if left so would be gradually washed away,
they were secured eventually by a pile and plank revetment. The
timbers in the superstructure were carbolized to prevent rotting,
but the process proved a disastrous failure, owing to its imperfect
application, and the timbers thus treated are as a general rule
at this date a mere shell with a core of dry rot. The banks were
planted with willows and sodded in some places. The history of
the work since Major Poe took charge, excepting as regards the
deepening of the channel for 200 feet of its width to a depth of 16
feet, as projected by that officer, has been a monotonous routine
of stopping leaks on the canal face, due to the imperfection of the
single row of sheath-piling, which permits the sand to be sucked
through by passing vessels, and propeller-wheels working near the
revetment. These leaks have been stopped from time to time at
various points by various devices, such as marsh sod, etc.... The
deepening of the canal was begun under Major Poe's direction by
contract with Mr. John Brown of Thorold, Canada, in June, 1873, and
finished September 23, 1878, under the direction of Major Weitzel,
who had in the meanwhile relieved Major Poe.
[Illustration: THE SHIP-CANAL AT THE ST. CLAIR FLATS.]
Up to the time when the canal was turned over as completed to Major
Poe, it cost in construction and repair $472,837.84. There was
subsequently expended by Majors Poe and Weitzel $101,533.63, partly
in repairs, but mainly in deepening the canal; and afterward,
up to the close of the present fiscal year, $19,162.78 were
expended in repairs and protection. It will thus be seen that the
canal has thus far cost $586,111.56 in construction, improvement
and repair.... Colonel Cram's original estimate of the cost of
this work was $428,754. The whole amount appropriated has been
$590,000. The annual cost of maintenance is $5,000. There are two
light-houses on the banks.
The value of the commerce which annually passes between the willow-clad
piers of the canal is estimated by hundreds of millions, and in every
season its cost has been more than made good by the disasters and
delays it has averted. Mr. Chandler regarded his efforts to secure its
construction as the hardest fight of his Congressional service, and
there is nothing in his public life more thoroughly characteristic
of the man than the skill, energy, and persistence with which he
championed this measure in the face of the strongest obstacles, and
in spite of repeated defeats, session after session and Congress
after Congress, until entire success crowned his labors. Many others
co-operated with him and aided in securing the ultimate victory; but
circumstances and his indomitable will placed him at the front in the
decisive struggle, and this great public work is an enduring monument
of the value of his services to the vast commercial interests of the
Northwest.
At the second session of the Thirty-fifth Congress the earnest protests
of the year before bore fruit, and the Committee on Commerce then
appointed was composed of Senators Clay of Alabama, chairman, Bigler
of Pennsylvania, Toombs of Georgia, Reid of North Carolina, Allen
of Rhode Island, Hamlin of Maine, and Chandler of Michigan. This
commenced Mr. Chandler's connection with that committee; he remained a
member of it throughout all his Senatorial terms, and was its chairman
and inspiring spirit during the years of its greatest activity and
usefulness. It is one of the most important standing committees of the
Senate of the United States, and during Mr. Chandler's chairmanship
its labors were gradually increased, partly through the growing
business and commerce of the country, and partly by having new topics
assigned for its consideration and action, because of the prompt
attention and rigid scrutiny given to all matters coming under the
supervision of Mr. Chandler as its head. To this committee are referred
under the rules nominations of collectors of customs, appraisers
of merchandise, surveyors of customs, of officers appointed to or
promoted in the revenue marine service, of the chief officers in the
life-saving service, and of all incumbents of consular positions. It
also considers bills fixing the compensation of such officers; bills
relating to marine hospitals and the customs, consular and life-saving
services; bills concerning the interests of the commercial marine of
the country, including the registry, enrollment and license of vessels,
their inspection and measurement, tonnage-tax, entrance and clearance
fees, names and official numbers, the lights to be carried, the
steam pressure allowed, the providing of small boats and life-saving
apparatus on passenger steamers, and restrictions upon the number of
passengers or kind of freight; and bills granting medals for heroic
service in saving life in case of shipwreck or similar disaster. To it
are referred all measures for the improvement of rivers and harbors
in the interests of commerce; for the construction of breakwaters,
harbors of refuge, ship-canals, and locks for slack-water navigation;
for the building of bridges across navigable rivers, or other waters of
the United States; for the establishment of ports of entry and ports
of delivery; for the establishment of customs collection districts
or changing the boundaries thereof; granting American registers to
foreign vessels (usually passed where a wreck of a foreign vessel has
been purchased and rebuilt by an American citizen); and relating to
the duties and districts of supervising and subordinate inspectors
of steam craft. There is hardly any conceivable question relating to
vessels of the United States that Congress has not power to act upon,
and such matters, unless pertaining to the naval service, are always
referred to the respective committees on commerce of the Senate and
House, Congress as a rule following their recommendations where no
political question is involved. In addition to an immense mass of
measures coming under the classes enumerated, the Senate Committee on
Commerce, during Mr. Chandler's connection with it, considered and
reported bills to admit ship-building material free of duty, to prevent
the extermination of the fur-bearing seals of Alaska, authorizing the
appointment of shipping commissioners, and defining a gross of matches.
All these facts are recited to show the great variety of questions that
are referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce--greater than are sent
to any other Congressional committee.
No particular changes took place in the _personnel_ of this committee
as already given until in the last year of Buchanan's administration.
At the closing session of the Thirty-sixth Congress it consisted of
C. C. Clay, chairman, Bigler, Toombs, Clingman, Saulsbury, Hamlin,
and Chandler. Senator Hamlin having been elected Vice-President,
resigned (in January, 1861) his Senatorship, and Mr. Baker of Oregon
was appointed to fill the vacancy thus caused on this committee. In the
middle of January Mr. Clay resigned to join the rebellion, and A. 0. P.
Nicholson of Tennessee was made a member of the committee in his place.
On the 24th of January, 1861, by the unanimous consent of the Senate,
the Vice-President filled all the vacancies on the standing committees
caused by the retiring of the Southern Senators, and the Committee
on Commerce then, as re-constituted, consisted of Senators Bigler,
chairman, Clingman, Saulsbury, Chandler, Baker, and Nicholson.
At the special session of the Thirty-seventh Congress (in March,
1861) the Senate committees were radically reorganized, and the
new Committee on Commerce, the first appointed by the Republican
party, consisted of Zachariah Chandler, chairman, Preston King, Lot
M. Morrill, Henry Wilson, Thomas L. Clingman, Willard Saulsbury, and
Andrew Johnson. Mr. Chandler continued in the chairmanship until he
ceased to be a member of the Senate in 1875. Mr. Clingman soon joined
the rebels, and his place on the committee was filled by Mr. Ten
Eyck of New Jersey. From session to session changes were made in its
membership, and among the names on its rolls during the fourteen years
that Mr. Chandler sat at the head of its table were Edwin D. Morgan,
James H. Lane, Solomon Foot, Timothy O. Howe, James W. Nesmith, Justin
S. Morrill, John A. J. Creswell, George F. Edmunds, James R. Doolittle,
William P. Kellogg, George E. Spencer, Roscoe Conkling, William A.
Buckingham, J. R. West, John H. Mitchell, John B. Gordon, George R.
Dennis, and George S. Boutwell. Mr. Chandler was succeeded in the
chairmanship when he left the Senate by Roscoe Conkling of New York;
soon after he was re-elected in 1879 the Democrats regained control,
and the Committee on Commerce of the Forty-sixth Senate was organized
by them. Mr. Chandler was made a member of it, and at the time of his
death it consisted of Senator Gordon of Georgia, chairman, Ransom of
North Carolina, Randolph of New Jersey, Hereford of West Virginia, Coke
of Texas, Conkling of New York, McMillan of Minnesota, Jones of Nevada,
and Chandler of Michigan.
Mr. Chandler's business principles were carried out in his committee
work as thoroughly as they had been in his mercantile career. He
believed that what was worth doing at all was worth doing well. It was
the custom of the Senate Committee on Commerce to assemble formally
once a week, for the consideration of such petitions and bills as had
been referred to it for action. Whenever the appointed hour for meeting
arrived Mr. Chandler was always in his seat, while its other members
but rarely displayed anything like his promptitude. It annoyed the
chairman to have any one late, and it was his custom to proceed with
business as soon as a quorum was present, or if no quorum appeared
within fifteen or twenty minutes, to assume that there was one and
commence work; no protests against this course were ever made by
the tardy or absent members. The location of the room of the Senate
Committee on Commerce during Mr. Chandler's whole term of Senatorial
service was in the northwest corner of the capitol, on the floor
leading to the galleries. Its windows look down upon the city of
Washington, with the broad, historic Potomac and the forest-crowned
Virginia hills the distance, and the sunset view from them--including
the blue glimmering river, the golden gossamer clouds, the green
foliage upon the brow of the hills in the extreme horizon--could never
be excelled in an artist's most vivid conception.
The first bill reported by Mr. Chandler as chairman of the Committee on
Commerce was one to provide for the collection of duties on imports and
for other purposes. He brought it in five days after the appointment
of the committee at the first session of the Thirty-seventh Congress,
and asked that it should be put upon its passage at once. A single
objection carried it over under the rules until the next day, when it
was passed by a vote of 36 to 6. The scope of the bill was extensive.
It provided for confiscating to the United States all vessels belonging
to rebels, for closing ports of entry in rebellious States, and for
the employment of additional revenue cutters. It also authorized the
President under certain circumstances to declare by proclamation
States, sections, or parts of States, in insurrection against the
United States, and prohibited all commercial intercourse between such
insurrectionary States, or parts of States, and the rest of the Union
so long as the insurrection should continue. It was thus among the
earliest and most important of the war measures.
It is not necessary to occupy space with the details[13] of the
enormous mass of business transacted by the Senate Committee on
Commerce during Mr. Chandler's chairmanship. It was in those years
that the sentiment of every section, in favor of extending the
fostering care of the government to the aid of internal commerce,
was consolidated and organized until it bore down all opposition and
completely reversed the general policy and practice of the United
States. How important and complete this revolution was will appear
from the table of the appropriations for river, harbor and kindred
improvements made at successive Congressional sessions since the
foundation of the republic.
Mr. Chandler was the firm friend of an intelligently-planned and
general system of internal improvements. His labors, and those of men
like him, have borne fruit in manifold aids to commerce scattered over
river, lake and ocean--light-houses, breakwaters, harbors of refuge,
straightened and deepened channels, ship-canals and improved natural
highways. He was prompt to recognize the claims of all sections, but
was especially vigilant in regard to the necessities of the Northwest,
and his memory will long be cherished throughout the region of the
Great Lakes as that of the most ardent and efficient champion of its
commercial development.
TABLE GIVING THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF MONEY APPROPRIATIONS BY CONGRESS
FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF RIVERS AND HARBORS AND THE CONSTRUCTION
OF SHIP-CANALS SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE GOVERNMENT:
==============================================================
YEARS. AMOUNT.
Monroe. { 1822[14] $34,200
{ 1823 6,150
{ 1824 145,000
J. Q. Adams. { 1825 40,600
{ 1826 88,900
{ 1827 160,200
{ 1828 565,300
Jackson. { 1829 254,200
{ 1830 377,600
{ 1831 637,000
{ 1832 693,500
{ 1833 546,300
{ 1834 791,200
{ 1835 505,200
{ 1836 1,198,200
Van Buren. { 1837 1,681,700
{ 1838 1,467,200
{ 1839 18,000
{ 1840 .......
Tyler. { 1841 17,500
{ 1842 .......
{ 1843 233,000
{ 1844 701,500
Polk. { 1845 7,000
{ 1846 .......
{ 1847 14,220
{ 1848 .......
Taylor-Fillmore. { 1849 20,000
{ 1850 .......
{ 1851 .......
{ 1852 2,099,300
Pierce. { 1853 900
{ 1854 140,000
{ 1855 .......
{ 1856[15] 775,000
Buchanan. { 1857 .......
{ 1858 .......
{ 1859 .......
{ 1860 .......
Lincoln. { 1861 ....... } Term of Z. Chandler
{ 1862 ....... } as Chairman of the
{ 1863 ....... } Senate Committee on
{ 1864 537,500 } Commerce.
Johnson. { 1865 23,000 }
{ 1866 3,579,700 }
{ 1867 4,816,800 }
{ 1868 1,601,500 }
Grant. { 1869 2,200,000 }
{ 1870 4,173,900 }
{ 1871 5,047,000 }
{ 1872 5,603,000 }
{ 1873 6,102,900 }
{ 1874 5,282,500 }
{ 1875 6,643,500 }
{ 1876 5,213,000
Hayes. { 1877 .......
{ 1878 8,337,000
{ 1879 7,912,600
----------
TOTAL, $80,292,270
--------------------------------------------------------------
NOTES.
This table only includes $750,000 of the $5,250,000 appropriated to
pay Capt. James B. Eads for the jetty improvements at the mouth of
the Mississippi.
The total of these appropriations during the years of Mr.
Chandler's term as chairman was $45,610,800, or more than one-half
of the entire amount.
FOOTNOTES:
[13] Mr. Chandler entered the Senate when Congress was under the
control of Democratic majorities. He was in the minority, but he never
feared to assert his views, and denounce measures of doubtful advantage
to the best interests of the country. The policy of the dominant party
had been uniformly adverse to internal improvements--especially to
making appropriations for harbor and river improvements. Soon after
taking his seat, Mr. Chandler brought this important subject before
the Senate, and insisted upon the necessity of fostering and aiding
internal commerce. He introduced several measures, with this object in
view.... These improvements were not then considered; but his vigorous
speeches and persistent efforts subsequently compelled their partial
recognition, and Mr. Chandler was placed on the Committee of Commerce,
of which he was made chairman when the Republican party came into
power, and so continued to the end of his Senatorial labors. It is
not too much to say, for it is only the truth, that to Mr. Chandler's
untiring zeal in this capacity, the country is indebted for many of
those magnificent harbor and river improvements, which have been made
since the Republican party came into power. Says a recent writer--an
excellent authority, "The evidences of their utility are seen on every
hand, scattered along our seaboard, along our extended lake coast,
and upon all our rivers. The beneficent effects of these improvements
are demonstrated by our vastly-increased and increasing commerce, its
greater safety, the economy with which the work is performed, the
extraordinary development of our agricultural and mineral resources
and the increased compensation of productive labor." Reference is
thus made to Mr. Chandler's efforts in behalf of those great internal
improvements in aid of the commerce and internal development of the
country, in order to demonstrate his peculiar fitness for the position
which he has just been commissioned to fill.--_Editorial of the
Washington Chronicle of Oct. 20, 1875, announcing the appointment of
Zachariah Chandler as Secretary of the Interior._
[14] There were no appropriations for these purposes prior to 1822.
[15] This sum was contained in bills which were passed over the
President's veto and included the first appropriation for the St. Clair
Flats.