our Committee would remark, in concluding this Report, that,
regarding as they do the existence and rapid extension of the
system of ocean mail steam navigation, as absolutely essential to
the dignity and permanent prosperity of the country, and as the
only means, consistent with the genius and policy of our free
institutions, of acquiring a maritime strength, which, by keeping
pace with the improvements of the age, shall place us upon an
equal footing with other civilized countries of the world, without
the necessity of an overgrown and expensive naval establishment
proper, in time of peace, they would feel themselves derelict in
the performance of their duties, did they not recommend the
measure, with the earnestness which its importance demands.

"Circumstances indicate, with a clearness not to be misunderstood,
that in any future struggle for superiority on the ocean, the
contest will be decided by the power of steam. With a view to this
result, England has applied herself with even more than her wonted
energy to the construction of a regular steam navy which shall be
superior to all others. The number of ships which Great Britain
has of this kind, is at present two hundred and seventy-one, and
there are no less than nine royal war steamers in progress of
construction, to say nothing of the mail and other steamers which
are being built. The course thus pursued by the great commercial
rival of the United States, renders a corresponding energy and
activity on our part absolutely necessary, in a national point of
view; a steam navy must be provided for future emergencies in the
way proposed by the Committee, or war steamers must be built at an
enormous outlay of public money and kept ready in the navy yards,
or in commission, at an expense which is appalling to every lover
of judicious economy, or the stripes and stars of our country,
which have heretofore floated so triumphantly on every sea, must
grow dim, not only before the 'meteor flag of England,' but the
standards of the secondary powers of Europe. If members of
Congress are prepared to adopt either of these latter two
alternatives, let them say so, and let a system which promises,
under an honest and faithful discharge of duty on the part of the
executive branch of the Government, to realize the most sanguine
expectatio