me from the first Congress which met
after I was in office, to report in favor of a force sufficient for
the protection of our Mediterranean commerce; and I laid before them
an accurate statement of the whole Barbary force, public and private.
I think General Washington approved of building vessels of war to that
extent. General Knox, I know, did. But what was Colonel Hamilton's
opinion, I do not in the least remember. Your recollections on that
subject are certainly corroborated by his known anxieties for a close
connection with Great Britain, to which he might apprehend danger from
collisions between their vessels and ours. Randolph was then Attorney
General; but his opinion on the question I also entirely forget. Some
vessels of war were accordingly built and sent into the Mediterranean.
The additions to these in your time, I need not note to you, who
are well known to have ever been an advocate for the wooden walls
of Themistocles. Some of those you added, were sold under an act of
Congress passed while you were in office. I thought, afterwards, that
the public safety might require some additional vessels of strength,
to be prepared and in readiness for the first moment of a war, provided
they could be preserved against the decay which is unavoidable if kept
in the water, and clear of the expense of officers and men. With this
view I proposed that they should be built in dry docks, above the level
of the tide waters, and covered with roofs. I further advised, that
places for these docks should be selected where there was a command of
water on a high level, as that of the Tiber at Washington, by which
the vessels might be floated out, on the principle of a lock. But the
majority of the legislature was against any addition to the navy,
and the minority, although for it in judgment, voted against it on a
principle of opposition. We are now, I understand, building vessels to
remain on the stocks, under shelter, until wanted, when they will be
launched and finished. On my plan they could be in service at an hour's
notice. On this, the finishing, after launching, will be a work of time.

This is all I recollect about the origin and progress of our navy. That
of the late war, certainly raised our rank and character among nations.
Yet a navy is a very expensive engine. It is admitted, that in ten or
twelve years a vessel goes to entire decay; or, if kept in repair, costs
as much as would build a new one: and that a nation wh