SPEECH IN THE SENATE, ON A BILL FOR THE RELIEF OF CERTAIN CONTRACTORS,
APRIL 17, 1866.
The Senate having under consideration a bill for the relief of
certain contractors for the construction of vessels of war and
steam machinery, Mr. Sumner said:--
MR. PRESIDENT,--I am happy to agree with the Senator from Kentucky [Mr.
GUTHRIE] in the fundamental principle he has laid down and developed
so clearly. I agree with him, that by no legislation of ours can we
recognize the principle that contractors with the Government may never
lose. The Senator cannot state the proposition too strongly. But I part
company with him, when he undertakes to apply it to the present case.
We agree on the proposition; we disagree on the application.
Had these contracts covered a period of peace, there would have been
occasion for the rule of the Senator. But they were not in a period
of peace; they were in a period of war. And the Senator himself has
characterized the war as perhaps the greatest in history. If not
made in a time of war, they were all the harder performed in those
early days which were heralds of war. The practical question for us
as legislators is, whether we can shut our eyes to that condition of
things. The times were exceptional; and so must the remedy be also.
I have said, had it been a season of peace, then the Senator would
be right, and we should not be justified in seeking exceptionally to
open the Treasury for the relief of these contractors. But, Sir, war
is a mighty disturber. What force in human society, what force in
business, more disturbing? Wherever it goes, it not only carries death
and destruction, but derangement of business, change of pursuits,
interference with the currency, and generally dislocation of the common
relations of life. You cannot be blind to such a condition of things.
You must not shut your eyes to its consequences, if you would do
justice now.
I repeat, therefore, did these contracts grow out of a period of
peace, I should not now advocate them; but it is because they grow out
of a period of war, that I ask for those who have suffered by them the
same justice we accord to all who have contributed to our success in
that terrible war. Why, Sir, how often do we appeal in this Chamber
for justice to all who have helped the great result! It is my duty
constantly to plead here for justice to those freedmen who have done
so much and placed you under ceaseless obligations. I hope I am not
indifferent also to those national creditors who supplied the means
which advanced our triumph,--nor yet again to those soldiers, whether
on land or sea, who have so powerfully served the national cause. But
there is still another class, for whom no one has yet spoken on this
floor, who have contributed to our success not less than soldier or
creditor,--I was almost ready to say, not less than the freedman: I
mean the mechanics of the country. They, Sir, have helped you carry
this war to its victorious close. Without the mechanics, where would
you have been? what would have been your equipments on the land? where
would have been that marvellous navy on the sea? It was the skilled
labor of the country, rushing so promptly to the rescue, that gave you
the power which carried you on from victory to victory.
Now, Sir, the practical question is, whether these mechanics, who
have done so much to turn the tide of battle, shall be losers by the
skill, the labor, and the time they devoted to your triumph. Tell me
not, Sir, that they acted according to contract. To that I reply, The
war disturbed the contract, and it is your duty here, sitting as a
high court of equity, to review all the circumstances of the case,
and see in what way the remedy may be fitly applied. You cannot turn
away from the equities, treating it literally and severely according
to the precise terms of the contract. You must go into those vital
considerations arising out of the peculiar circumstances.
Several facts are obvious to all: a Senator on the other side of the
Chamber has alluded to them. In the first place, there was the general
increase in the price of labor and material that ensued after these
contracts were made. Nobody doubts this. There was then a change in
the currency. There were, also,--what have been alluded to several
times,--changes in the models of these vessels at the Navy Department,
necessarily imposing upon these contractors additional expense and
labor. There was another circumstance, to which my attention has been
directed latterly,--I believe, however, the Senator from Iowa [Mr.
GRIMES] alluded to it yesterday,--that at the moment of the war, when
labor was highest, when it was most difficult to obtain it, there came
an order from the proper authorities exempting those who labored in
the arsenals and public yards of the United States from enrolment. Of
course, all then in private yards or with contractors, so far as they
could, hurried under the national flag, that they might become workmen
there, and thus obtain the coveted exemption from enrolment.
…
This order illustrates very plainly the disturbing influence from the
war; and this brings me again to press this point upon your attention.
I mention certain particulars in which this appeared; but I would bring
home the controlling consideration that we were in a time of war,
vast in proportions and most disturbing in its influence. This alone
is enough to account for the failure of these contractors. We were
not in a period of peace, and you err, if you undertake to hold these
contractors to all the austere responsibilities proper in a period of
peace.
The Senator from Kentucky said that they took the war into their
calculations. Perhaps they did; but who among these contractors could
take that war adequately into his calculations? Who among those
sitting here or at the other end of the avenue properly appreciated
the character of the great contest coming on? Sir, we had passed half
a century in peace; we knew nothing of war, or of war preparations,
when all at once we were called to efforts on a gigantic scale. Are
you astonished that these contractors did not know more about the war
than your statesmen? Be to these contractors as gentle in judgment and
as considerate as you are to others in public life who have erred in
calculations with regard to it.
I have said that the interest now in question was the great mechanical
interest of the country. It is an interest that is not local, as the
bill is for the benefit of mechanics in all parts of the loyal States,
from Maryland, in the South, to Massachusetts and Maine, in the
North and East, and then stretching from New York, on the seaboard,
to Missouri, beyond the Mississippi. I have a list of the States
concerned, through different contractors, in this very bill,--Maine,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, and even
California. The interest for which I am speaking crosses the mountains
and reaches to the Pacific Ocean.
I said that this was the skilled labor of the country. What labor more
valuable? what service, while the war was proceeding, more important?
If these mechanics did not expose their persons in the peril of battle,
they gave their skill to prepare others for victory. In ancient times,
the oracle said to the city in danger, “Look to your wooden walls.”
The oracle in our country said, “Look to your ironclads and your
double-enders”; and these mechanics came forward and by ingenious labor
enabled you to put ironclads and double-enders on the ocean, and thus
secure the final triumph. The building of that invulnerable navy was
one of the great triumphs of the war, to be commemorated on many a
special field, and to be seen in the mighty results we now enjoy.
And yet again I ask, Are you ready to see contractors, who have
done this service, sacrificed? You do not allow the soldier to be
sacrificed, nor the national creditor who has taken your stock. Will
you allow the mechanic? There are many who, without your help, must
suffer. One of the most enterprising and faithful in the whole country
is a constituent of my own, who, during the last year, has been hurried
into bankruptcy from inability to meet liabilities growing out of the
war, and at this moment he finds no chance of relief except in what a
just Government may return to him. My friend on my right [Mr. NYE, of
Nevada] asked you to be magnanimous to these contractors. I do not put
it in that way. I ask you simply to be upright. Do by them as you would
be done by.
The Senator from Nevada also very fitly reminded you of the experience
of other countries. He told you that England, at the close of the
Crimean War, when her mechanics had suffered precisely as yours, did
not allow them to be sacrificed, but every pound, every shilling, of
liability under their contracts was promptly met by that Government.
Will you be less just to mechanics than England? It is an old saying,
that republics are ungrateful. I hope that this republic will vie with
any monarchy in gratitude to those who have served it. You have shown
energy in meeting your enemies. I ask you to show a commensurate energy
in doing justice to those who have contributed to your success.
…
This bill, after much debate, passed the Senate. It did not
pass the House.