eads of the Old World keep in
constant pay vast armies and navies sustained by the heart's blood
of the oppressed people, for the protection and preservation of
their unhallowed power, it is the proud boast of our country that
our soldiers are our citizens, and the sailors, who, in time of
peace, spread the canvas of our commercial marine throughout the
world, are the men who, in time of war, have heretofore directed,
and will continue to direct, our cannon against our foes."

"The simple fact that the ships employed in it [the mail service]
_may hereafter, if the Government thinks proper_, be purchased and
commissioned as regular war steamers, to be officered and manned
as ships of war, should not and can not prevent the construction
of steam or sailing vessels for ordinary naval purposes. Your
Committee are of opinion that, so far from being an impediment to
the proper increase of the Navy, the prosperity of the ocean steam
packet service must operate in favor of an enlargement of the
naval force, the necessity for which is increased in proportion to
the extension of our commercial relations with foreign countries.
The routes upon which lines of steam packets can be sustained and
made profitable to the owners are comparatively few, when we take
into view the infinitely diversified ramifications of trade. Great
Britain, with her vast colonial and general commerce, had, in
1848, but fifteen lines in which national or contract vessels were
employed, including the home stations, as they are called, or
points of connection between the British islands. Nor has the
ocean steam packet system hindered, in the slightest degree, her
progress in the construction of steam or sailing vessels for the
naval service. In speaking of steam vessels available for naval
service, Captain W. H. Hall, of the British Navy, in the course of
his examination before the special Committee of the House of
Commons, hereinbefore referred to, says: 'I some time ago sent to
the Admiralty a plan for making the whole of the merchant steamers
available in case of need; and if there were an Act of Parliament
that these ships should be strengthened forward and aft to carry
guns, it might be then done with a very trifling expense; that
would give this country more power than any other country in the
world. We have nea