the period of time from the
commencement of the service of these contractors, on the 27th of April,
1850, to the end of the last fiscal year, June 30, 1854, the sum paid
to them by the United States amounted to $2,620,906, without reckoning
public money advanced on loan to aid them in the construction of the
ships; while the whole amount of postages derived to the Department has
been only $734,056, showing an excess of expenditure above receipts of
$1,886,440 to the charge of the Government. In the meantime, in addition
to the payments from the Treasury, the parties have been in the
enjoyment of large receipts from the transportation of passengers and
merchandise, the profits of which are in addition to the amount allowed
by the United States.

It does not appear that the liberal conditions heretofore enjoyed by
the parties were less than a proper compensation for the service to be
performed, including whatever there may have been of hazard in a new
undertaking, nor that any hardship can be justly alleged calling for
relief on the part of the Government.

On the other hand, the construction of five ships of great speed,
and sufficiently strong for war purposes, and the services of passed
midshipmen on board of them, so as thus to augment the contingent force
and the actual efficiency of the Navy, were among the inducements of the
Government to enter into the contract.

The act of July 21, 1852, provides "that it shall be in the power of
Congress at any time after the 31st day of December, 1854, to terminate
the arrangement for the additional allowance herein provided for upon
giving six months' notice;" and it will be seen that, with the exception
of the six additional trips required by the act of July 21, 1852, there
has been no departure from the original engagement but to relieve
the contractors from obligation, and yet by the act last named the
compensation was increased from $385,000 to $858,000, with no other
protection to the public interests provided than the right which
Congress reserved to itself to terminate the contract, so far as this
increased compensation was concerned, after six months' notice. This
last provision, certainly a primary consideration for the more generous
action of the Government, the present bill proposes to repeal, so as to
leave Congress no power to terminate the new arrangement.

To this repeal the objections are, in my mind, insuperable, because in
terms it deprives the United St