cial
habits of the country. Young as we are, our tonnage and commerce
surpass those of every nation upon the globe but one, and if
not wasted by the deprivations to which they were exposed by their
defenseless situation, and the more ruinous restrictions to which
this government subjected them, it would require not many more years
to have made them the greatest in the world. Is this immense wealth
always to be exposed as a prey to the rapacity of freebooters? Why
will you protect your citizens and their property upon land, and
leave them defenseless upon the ocean? As your mercantile property
increases, the prize becomes more tempting to the cupidity of
foreign nations. In the course of things, the ruins and aggressions
which you have experienced will multiply, nor will they be
restrained while we have no appearance of a naval force.

I have always been in favor of a naval establishment--not from the
unworthy motives attributed by the gentleman from Georgia to a
former administration, in order to increase patronage, but from a
profound conviction that the safety of the Union and the prosperity
of the nation depended greatly upon its commerce, which never could
be securely enjoyed without the protection of naval power. I offer,
sir, abundant proof for the satisfaction of the liberal mind of that
gentleman, that patronage was not formerly a motive in voting an
increase in the navy, when I give now the same vote, when surely I
and my friends have nothing to hope, and for myself, I thank God,
nothing to wish from the patronage it may confer.

You must and will have a navy; but it is not to be created in a day,
nor is it to be expected that, in its infancy, it will be able to
cope, foot to foot with the full-grown vigor of the navy of
England. But we are even now capable of maintaining a naval force
formidable enough to threaten the British commerce, and to render
this nation an object of more respect and consideration.

In another point of view, the protection of commerce has become more
indispensable. The discovery is completely made, that it is from
commerce that the revenue is to be drawn which is to support this
government, A direct tax, a stamp act, a carriage tax, and an
excise, have been tried; and I believe, sir, after the lesson which
experience has given on the subject, no set of men in power will
ever repeat them again, for all they are likely to produce. The
burden must be pretty light upon the peop