nd extra naval transport service
than the late Mexican war. But for our steamers it would have taken us
years to concentrate an army on the shores of Mexico. It was a tedious
process at the time; for our ocean mail packets were not then in use.
We could now land a larger number of men there in one month than we
then did in a whole year. But our transport facilities are not yet by
any means adequate.

A large postal steam marine is desirable as a means of cultivating the
sympathies and respect of foreign nations, by bringing them into
closer friendly and commercial connection with us; and for creating
among them that respect and consideration which the British statesmen
so well know to be an easy means of conducting diplomacy, and an
unfailing source of commercial advantages. It is not necessary that we
shall impose upon foreign countries in these respects by false
pretenses; but it is truly desirable, and it would be profitable to an
extent little imagined, to let them know our real importance as a
nation, and understand our pacific policy and _bona fide_ intentions.
These are important considerations when we wish to carry any point,
establish any line of policy, remove any prejudice; and nothing will
more readily produce them, and arouse attention to our articles of
export, and induce a people to establish a regular business with us,
than these ever-present, convenient, and imposing mail steamers.
Nations as well as individuals estimate us by our appearances; and
while it is not desirable that we shall appear more than we are, it is
yet very important that foreign nations with which we have business
shall know our real merits, and respect us for what we are
intrinsically worth. There is evidently no means of our commercial
triumph over other nations without a liberal and widely extended steam
mail service; and as this triumph is of paramount importance to us,
who have so many resources, so is the ocean steam mail as the only
means of securing it. (_See views of Gen. Rusk, in papers appended._)

It has recently been suggested by parties who certainly have not
thought very deeply on the subject, that the completion of the
Atlantic Telegraph, which every body reasonably expects soon to be
completed, will so inaugurate a new era in the transmission of
intelligence, that one of its effects will be the supersession of fast
ocean mails, and consequently of subsidized steamers. It is a first
and palpable view of this questio