Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 2 (of 16)United States. Congress
History
Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 2 (of 16)
United States. Congress
Law -- United States; United States -- Politics and government
Mr. G. said he did not mean to bring into view any arguments relative to
the propriety of establishing a Navy in this country. He should vote
against the present motion, because he did not wish to see the frigates
at sea, and because he conceived a Navy to be prejudicial to the true
interests of this country. Something had been said about contracts, but
he did not believe any existed. They had last year been told the same
thing. Any person reading the statements which had been furnished to
them, would perceive that the business was not done by any contract, but
that men were employed by Government, and regular wages paid to them.
The frigate which had been built for Algiers had been built by contract,
they had an estimate of it at so much a ton, but this was not the case
with respect to any other of the frigates.
Mr. W. SMITH did not wish to go into a long debate on the subject, when
they had so much business before them, in order to show whether it was
proper for this country to have a Navy or not; the only question now
was, whether they ought to appropriate money for finishing the three
frigates. If they did not do it, all the money which had been already
expended would probably be lost. The only objection to the doing of this
seemed to arise from a fear that the vessels would be manned, though
when this subject was before them, the other day, the gentleman from
Pennsylvania (Mr. GALLATIN) moved to postpone the bill relative to the
repealing or suspending the law for manning the vessels till next
session, from an opinion that, by the present law, the PRESIDENT was not
authorized to man them. That gentleman seemed now, however, in
contradiction to himself, to fear the PRESIDENT would put a different
construction upon the law: if he did not believe the PRESIDENT would
violate the law, he could not account for his refusing now to vote the
money which was merely necessary to finish the vessels. Mr. S. read an
extract from the report of the Secretary of War, to show the forward
state in which the vessels were, and added, that they were bound in duty
to finish them, were it only to prevent the loss of the money already
expended upon them.
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