May 21, 1860, Mr. Sumner introduced the following resolution.
“_Resolved_, That the Committee on Commerce be instructed to
consider the expediency of further action, in order to secure
proper accommodations and proper safety for passengers on
board the steamers between New York and San Francisco, and to
increase the efficacy of the existing passenger laws of the
United States in their application to California passengers;
with liberty to report by bill or otherwise.”
The Senate, by unanimous consent, proceeded to consider the
resolution.
MR. PRESIDENT,--I see the Senator from California [Mr. LATHAM] in his
place, and I very gladly take the opportunity of calling his attention
particularly to the resolution which I now have the honor to offer.
By a communication in the newspapers, from a distinguished source,--a
clergyman, who, during the last two months, sailed from Boston to
San Francisco,[24]--it appears that the steamers are overloaded with
passengers, and without adequate accommodations of other kinds for
safety. His statement on the subject is explicit, and has been made
in the newspapers, as also in private letters to his friends. I do
not know that the evil can be reached by any additional legislation;
perhaps no additional legislation is needed; but it is an evil which
should be remedied in some way, or else we shall be startled some
morning by the news of a great calamity,--the loss of one of these
steamers, with, it may be, a thousand passengers.