h might be easily made
available for the protection of American rights, in the event of a
collision with foreign powers. The attainment of this double
object was the motive which, in the opinion of Congress, justified
the advance of public funds in aid of private enterprise,
inasmuch as it was calculated to insure to the country the
acquisition of a powerful means of maritime defense, with little
or no expense, eventually, as the money so advanced was to be
reimbursed in money or in mail service at the option of the
parties concerned, while commerce and the arts would be promoted
during the time of peace.

"At the time when this system was commenced, the ocean mails along
our whole Southern coast were in the hands of foreign carriers,
sustained and encouraged by the British Government, under the
forms of contracts to carry the British mails; while the Cunard
line between Liverpool and Boston, _via_ Halifax, constituted the
only medium of regular steam mail communication between the United
States and Europe. In this way the commercial interests of the
United States were, on the one hand, entirely at the mercy of
British steamers which plied along our Southern coast, entering
our ports at pleasure, and thereby acquiring an intimate knowledge
of the soundings and other peculiarities of our harbors--a
knowledge which might prove infinitely injurious to us in the
event of a war with Great Britain; and on the other, of a foreign
line of ocean mail steamers, which, under the liberal patronage of
the British Government, monopolized the steam mail postage and
freights between the two countries. Under such a state of things,
it became necessary to choose whether American commerce should
continue to be thus tributary to British maritime supremacy, or an
American medium of communication should be established through the
intervention of the Federal Government, in the form of advances of
pecuniary means in aid of individual enterprise. It had been found
to be impossible for our merchants to contend successfully, single
handed, against the joint efforts of the British Government and
British commercial influence. Our noble lines of packet ships
which had far outstripped the sailing vessels of all other
nations, in point of beauty and swiftness, had been superseded by
the introduction of st