Assumed_ (Section VI.) _that sailing vessels can not successfully
transport the mails; that the propeller can not transport them as
rapidly or more cheaply than side-wheel vessels; that with any
considerable economy of fuel and other running expenses, it is but
little faster than the sailing vessel; that to patronize these slow
vessels with the mails, the Government would unjustly discriminate
against sailing vessels in the transport of freights; that we can not
in any sense depend on the vessels of the Navy for the transport of
the mails; that individual enterprise can not support fast steamers;
and that not even American private enterprise can under any conditions
furnish a sufficiently rapid steam mail and passenger marine: then,_

7. _Conceded_ (Section VII.) _that it is the duty of the Government to
its people to establish and maintain an extensive, well-organized, and
rapid steam mail marine, for the benefit of production, commerce,
diplomacy, defenses, the public character, and the general interests
of all classes; that our people appreciate the importance of commerce,
and are willing to pay for liberal postal facilities; that our trade
has greatly suffered for the want of ocean mails; that we have been
forced to neglect many profitable branches of industry, and many large
fields of effort; and that there is positively no means of gaining and
maintaining commercial ascendency except through an ocean steam mail
system:_

8. _Conceded_ (Section VIII.) _that the Government can discharge the
clear and unquestionable duty of establishing foreign mail facilities,
only by paying liberal prices for the transport of the mails for a
long term of years, by creating and sustaining an ocean postal system,
by legislating upon it systematically, and by abandoning our slavish
dependence upon Great Britain:_

9. _Conceded_ (Section IX.) _that the British ocean mail system
attains greater perfection and extent every year; that instead of
becoming self-supporting, it costs the treasury more and more every
year; that English statesmen regard its benefits as far outweighing
the losses to the treasury; that so far from abandoning, they are
regularly and systematically increasing it; that it was never regarded
by the whole British public with more favor, than at the present time;
that it is evidently one of the most enduring institutions of the
country; that it necessitates a similar American system; that without
it our people are d