Ocean Steam Navigation and the Ocean Post

While this is true, there is no work on this general subject to which persons can refer for the authoritative settlement of any of these points, either absolutely or proximately; and while a simple statement of facts, acknowledged by all steamship-men, may tend to dispel much misapprehension on this interesting subject, it will also be not unprofitable, I trust, to review some of the prominent arguments on which the mail steamship system is based. That system should stand or fall on its own merits or demerits alone; and to be permanent, it must be based on the necessities of the community, and find its support in the common confidence of all classes. I have long considered a wise, liberal, and extended steam mail system vitally essential to the commerce of the country, and to the continued prosperity and power of the American Union. Yet, I am thoroughly satisfied that this very desirable object can never be attained by private enterprise, or otherwise than through the direct pecuniary agency and support of the General Government. The abandonment of our ocean steam mail system is impossible so long as we are an active, enterprising, and commercial people. And so far from the service becoming self-supporting, it is probable that it will never be materially less expensive than at the present time.

It has been my constant endeavor to give the best class of authorities on all the points of engineering which I have introduced, as that regarding the cost of steam and high mail speed; and to this end I have recently visited England and France, and endeavored to ascertain the practice in those countries, especially in Great Britain.

I desire to return my sincere acknowledgments for many courtesies received from Mr. Charles Atherton, of London, England; Robert Murray, Esq., Southampton; and Hon. Horatio King, of Washington, D. C.

THOMAS RAINEY.

New-York, December 9, 1857.

THE ARGUMENT.

1. Assumed (Section I.) that steam mails upon the ocean control the commerce and diplomacy of the world; that they are essential to our commercial and producing country; that we have not established the ocean mail facilities commensurate with our national ability and the demands of our commerce; and that we to-day are largely dependent on, and tributary to our greatest commercial rival, Great Britain, for the postal facilities, which should be purely national, American, and under our own exclusive control:

2. Assumed (Section II.) that fast ocean mails are exceedingly desirable for our commerce, our defenses, our diplomacy, the management of our squadrons, our national standing, and that they are demanded by our people at large:

3. Assumed (Section III.) that fast steamers alone can furnish rapid transport to the mails; that these steamers can not rely on freights; that sailing vessels will ever carry staple freights at a much lower figure, and sufficiently quickly; that while steam is eminently successful in the coasting trade, it can not possibly be so in the transatlantic freighting business; and that the rapid transit of the mails, and the slower and more deliberate transport of freight is the law of nature:

4. Assumed (Section IV.) that high, adequate mail speed is extremely costly, in the prime construction of vessels, their repairs, and their more numerous employees; that the quantity of fuel consumed is enormous, and ruinous to unaided private enterprise; and that this is clearly proven both by theory and indisputable facts as well as by the concurrent testimony of the ablest writers on ocean steam navigation:

5. Assumed (Section V.) that ocean mail steamers can not live on their own receipts; that neither the latest nor the anticipated improvements in steam shipping promise any change in this fact; that self-support is not likely to be attained by increasing the size of steamers; that the propelling power in fast steamers occupies all of the available space not devoted to passengers and express freight; and that steamers must be fast to do successful mail and profitable passenger service:

6. Assumed (Section VI.) that sailing vessels can not successfully transport the mails; that the propeller can not transport them as rapidly or more cheaply than side-wheel vessels; that with any considerable economy of fuel and other running expenses, it is but little faster than the sailing vessel; that to patronize these slow vessels with the mails, the Government would unjustly discriminate against sailing vessels in the transport of freights; that we can not in any sense depend on the vessels of the Navy for the transport of the mails; that individual enterprise can not support fast steamers; and that not even American private enterprise can under any conditions furnish a sufficiently rapid steam mail and passenger marine: then,

7. Conceded (Section VII.) that it is the duty of the Government to its people to establish and maintain an extensive, well-organized, and rapid steam mail marine, for the benefit of production, commerce, diplomacy, defenses, the public character, and the general interests of all classes; that our people appreciate the importance of commerce, and are willing to pay for liberal postal facilities; that our trade has greatly suffered for the want of ocean mails; that we have been forced to neglect many profitable branches of industry, and many large fields of effort; and that there is positively no means of gaining and maintaining commercial ascendency except through an ocean steam mail system:

8. Conceded (Section VIII.) that the Government can discharge the clear and unquestionable duty of establishing foreign mail facilities, only by paying liberal prices for the transport of the mails for a long term of years, by creating and sustaining an ocean postal system, by legislating upon it systematically, and by abandoning our slavish dependence upon Great Britain:

9. Conceded (Section IX.) that the British ocean mail system attains greater perfection and extent every year; that instead of becoming self-supporting, it costs the treasury more and more every year; that English statesmen regard its benefits as far outweighing the losses to the treasury; that so far from abandoning, they are regularly and systematically increasing it; that it was never regarded by the whole British public with more favor, than at the present time; that it is evidently one of the most enduring institutions of the country; that it necessitates a similar American system; that without it our people are denied the right and privilege of competition; and that we are thus far by no means adequately prepared for that competition, or for our own development.

Section X. notices each of the American lines, and presents many facts corroborating the views advanced in the preceding sections.

PAPER A.

Paper A (page 192) enumerates all the Steamers of the United States.

PAPER B.

Paper B (page 193) gives a list of all the British Ocean Mail Lines.

PAPER C.

Paper C (page 198) presents Projet of Franco-American Navigation.

PAPER D.

Paper D (page 199) gives the Steam Lines between Europe and America.

PAPER E.

Paper E (page 200) gives many extracts from eminent statesmen, corroborating views herein advanced.

PAPER F.

Paper F (page 219) gives the Steam Lines of the whole world.

PAPER G.

Paper G (page 220) American Mail Lines: Letter of Hon. Horatio King.

PAPER H.

Paper H (page 221) List of British, French, and American Navies.

HEADS OF ARGUMENT.