may also be
expected to furnish the Queen's ships with men trained to
steam-navigation, and possessing an amount of local knowledge
which can not fail to be valuable in several ways."

We have arrived at about the same conclusions in this country as those
presented by the British Post Master General to Parliament in 1853, on
this subject. And yet, with our small navy we may at any time need all
of our steam packets for actual service, and the Government should
always have the right to demand them for transport service. We have
abundant evidence that our mail packets are well fitted for carrying
an armament, and being highly efficient in war duty. The testimony of
Commodore M. C. Perry, Mr. Cunningham, and others, as published in the
Special Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1852, is conclusive on
this point. They found that they were built with extraordinary
strength and of good materials.

Many expedients have been proposed for the transmission of our foreign
mails. It is said that the late Post Master General entertained the
purpose of paying some of the foreign screw lines to carry the mails,
if Congress would permit it; but however all parties disapprove of the
contracted policy proposed by that gentleman, I can not believe that
he entertained any purpose so unpatriotic, and so subversive of
American shipping interests. It is true, however, that, as he
frequently said, he would prefer returning to the old packet system,
and carrying the mails by sail, if private enterprise could not carry
them across the ocean without a subsidy. But it is a consoling
reflection that these singular views of that worthy gentleman never
anywhere took root in Congress. Certainly there is no reason why this
great, and rich, and proud nation should resort, like some little
seventh rate power, to expedients in the carriage of our ocean mails.
We are not so poor as to have to live by practices; not so degraded as
to be willing to catch at any little thing that may pass along for
resources. We have a teeming prosperity, an abundant wealth, unending
resources, and a people everywhere clamorous for liberal expenditures
for adequate mails. Why shall we degrade ourselves by depending upon
others for our mail facilities? It alway humbles and mortifies me to
see one human being lick the hand of another; one who acknowledges
himself a stupid drone that must needs have a master to direct and
protect him. And so with our nation when