United States are fuller than any before presented to the government in this form, and such as could only be obtained by great labor and expense, they may be relied upon as being generally correct. They have been collected from various sources, official and unofficial; and it is due to the public to state, that it is principally owing to the different modes of conducting the inland trade of the country, that statistical returns of an official character are not made as to much of that trade. The returns from several of the custom-house districts on the lakes are very creditable to the collectors by whom they were prepared; while the returns from others were in many respects incorrect and incomplete, causing loss of time and great trouble in rectifying and perfecting them.

The necessity for a well organized system, in order to obtain "a correct account" of the lake trade, must be obvious. The want of a law to enforce even the present imperfect system, the great increase of business, and its diversified character in nearly all the districts, and the limited clerical force allowed in some of them, are all causes of difficulty in obtaining and arranging in a creditable and satisfactory manner, full, accurate, and entirely intelligible statistics of the lake trade, and of the general internal commerce of the country.

It is proper also to state that the embarrassments now existing, will increase in a corresponding degree with the certain and almost incalculable annual increase of this trade and commerce.

This ill-arranged and imperfect system of managing the lake trade and internal commerce of the country is presented to the notice of the government, and offered as an apology why the report on this trade and commerce is not more worthy the high importance of the interests involved. If national considerations should induce a desire on the part of the government to possess other reports on the internal trade of the country, it will be necessary to provide for a more perfect system of statistical returns and to carry it out by legal requirements.

It is not intended to suggest that any novel coercive laws should be adopted, interfering with the free and unrestricted exchange of goods and productions of all kinds between different sections of the country. Free commerce, especially internal commerce, unfettered by restraints originating in sectional or local partialities, or prompted by like selfish interests, is no boon from any government to the people; it is unquestionably their natural right. There can be no doubt that a system might be easily devised, under the authority of the Treasury Department, which would meet every requirement and promote the interests of this trade.

In the style, character and completeness of our statistical reports, we are far behind other countries, and no authority but that of Congress can supply this deficiency.

The public eye has ever been steadily fixed on the foreign commerce of the country as the right arm of national strength. This commerce has increased so rapidly, and the trade as well as the tariffs have been so greatly changed, that new arrangements of the old returns are demanded to enable the departmental condensations to be perfect and readily intelligible. The reports on commerce and navigation now give the total tonnage of the United States, but do not state the char

acter or class of vessels composing the mercantile marine of a country scarcely second to any in the world. It is also necessary that more complete statements of the trade and commerce of the great cities of the Atlantic seaboard and on the Gulf should be laid before Congress annually, and these improvements in their arrangement could be made, and they might be fuller in detail than those hitherto submitted, with comprehensive statistical accounts of the coasting trade and navigation, and distinguishing between steamers and other vessels.

It is proper to remark that the present arrangement of returns of the internal and coasting trade is mostly governed by the law of 1799, when the trade was in its infancy, and commerce received rather than created law.

In the discussions which have taken place in Congress, of late years, in relation to great public questions, such as the public lands, or the improvement of rivers and harbors, the most meagre statistical statements have been adduced in many cases, and loose hypotheses assumed in others. This is attributable to the absence of authentic official returns, and is conceived to be a justification for presuming to bring this subject to the attention of Congress in this report.

In the absence of statistical statements, published by national authority, the value of works containing statistical returns upon which reliance can be placed is greatly enhanced; and this opportunity is embraced of commending, as one source of valuable information in making this report, the publications called "Hunt's Merchants' Magazine," "De Bow's Review," the "Bankers' Magazine," and the "American Railroad Journal," as the most valuable in this country.

The undersigned is fully aware of its having been asserted by those who have limited means of forming a correct opinion, that the value of the lake trade has been everywhere overstated. It is true that in some cases approximations, from the want of official data, are, of necessity, resorted to; but that is not the fault of those who have the matter in charge.

The basin of the great lakes, and of the river St. Lawrence, is fully delineated on the map attached to the report on Canada. Its physical features, and the influence it must exercise on future moral developments, are without parallel and historical precedent. It is an American treasure; its value to be estimated less by what it has already accomplished, than by what it must achieve in its progress.

The attention of the civilized world has been directed with great interest to the constant and progressive emigration from the Old World to the New. In former times, hordes of men changed their country by means of long and toilsome journeys by land; but never until the present age have multitudes, and, in some instances, communities, been transferred from continent to continent, and from one hemisphere to the other, by such means as are now afforded in the New York packets clipper ships, and ocean steamers. These vehicles but represent the genius of an era destined in future times to be designated as the "age of enterprise and progress."

That portion of the "Great West" at the western extreme of the basin of the St. Lawrence has received a larger share than any other portion of our country of the valuable addition to our national riches

arising from the industry, intelligence, and wealth, of the hundreds of thousands of foreigners who, within a comparatively brief period, have landed upon our shores. It is, therefore, impossible to estimate the enormous and continuous accumulation of wealth, having its basis on the ample resources and natural riches of that great western region, over which the star of American empire seems now to rest.

In connexion with an unequalled increase of population in the Great West, the growth of the lake trade has been so extraordinary and so rapid, that but few persons are cognizant of its present extent and value.

In 1841 the gross amount of the lake trade was sixty-five millions of dollars. In 1846 it had increased to one hundred and twenty-five millions. In 1848, according to the estimate of Colonel Abert, of the topographical engineers, the value of the commerce of the lakes was one hundred and eighty-six millions. Owing to various causes, but particularly to the great influx of foreigners, and the opening of new and extensive lines of intercommunication, it has recently increased still more largely, until, in 1851, it amounted to more than three hundred millions. And these estimates do not include the value of the property constantly changing hands, nor has any notice been taken of the cost of vessels, or the profits of the passenger trade.

It is not within the scope of this report, nor is it practicable therein, to attempt a full exposition of the trade and commerce of the Mississippi, the Missouri, or the Ohio, flowing through that great valley, unsurpassed in all the elements of wealth by any region in this or the Old World. This trade and commerce is worthy of the particular and earnest attention of American statesmen. And it is here proper to state, that one great cause of the growth of the lake trade is the fact that a cheap. and expeditious route from the Atlantic to the Great West is afforded by the internal communications, by railroads and canals, opening the way through the great lakes and through the Alleghanies, instead of being restricted to the rivers flowing southward.

The following facts in relation to the trade of the Erie canal are presented as confirming the above, and justifying farther and full official investigation as to the entire internal trade of the West:*

In 1835 there left the lakes by the Erie canal for tide-water, 30,823 tons of wheat and flour. In 1851 there left the same points, on the same canal, 401,157 tons of similar articles.

In 1851 the total amount of wheat and flour which reached tidewater by the New York canals, was 457,624 tons; showing that while between the lakes and tide-water the State of New York furnished 97,729 tons, or over 75 per cent. of the whole quantity delivered, in 1851 it only furnished 56,437 tons, or about 11 per cent. of the whole

* The facts hereinafter stated with respect to the trade and commerce of the Mississippi and its tributaries, and of the States and cities on their shores, and on the Gulf of Mexico, and connected with them, are important not only in regard to that specific trade and commerce, but for their relation to that of the lakes and, inland, by canal and railroad to the Atlantic seaboard. It has been found in some degree necessary to refer to the former in full elucidation of the latter. The great interests of the southwestern and southern States demand, however, a fuller and more perfect notice than the resolution calling for this report, and limiting it to other sections, will allow to be now made.

quantity, the remaining 89 per cent. having been received from the West, and from the territory of Canada on the lakes.

The total tonnage ascending and descending on all the New York canals in 1836 was 1,310,807 tons, valued at $67,634,343, and paying tolls amounting to $1,614,342; while in 1851 it amounted to 3,582,733 tons, valued, ascending and descending, at $159,981,801, paying tolls amounting to $3,329,727.

The traffic on the Erie canal, and the principal routes from the interior to the Atlantic, has such an important relation with the whole trade of the nation, that it was conceived that this part of the report would be incomplete without a proper reference to the trade of such routes; which will be found attached to Part IV, with a reference to the commerce of some of the principal Atlantic and interior ports and comparative statements.

The great lakes are not a straight line of water, but present a zigzag course. Their surplus waters all find their way to the ocean by one great outlet, the noble St. Lawrence. Notwithstanding the opinions that may be entertained adverse to that mighty river as a channel of communication between the West and the Atlantic, it is nevertheless certain to be more used, and to increase in importance, in proportion to every material stride in the prosperity and advancement of the country bordering on the lakes.

Stretching down into New York, as if for the especial accommodation of a comparatively southern region, is Lake Erie; while extending far into the regions of the northwest, to meet the requirements of that region, Lake Superior spreads his ample waters. An examination of the map prepared by Mr. Keefer, and attached to this report, under the head of Canada, will prove that nature has provided the great lakes for all the different and distant portions of this continent, and that the St. Lawrence is their natural outlet to the sea.

There are those who maintain that the improvement of the navigation of the St. Lawrence, and the widening and deepening of the Welland and St. Lawrence canals, so as to allow vessels of a larger class than at present ingress and egress, with their cargoes to the ocean, and the extension by the British government, to the United States, of the free use of both, would cause a commercial city to grow up on the banks of that river which would successfully rival New York in European trade; but important as the results doubtless would be to the interests of the Canadas, and especially of Lower Canada, and greatly as those interests would be promoted by such measures, there is little cause for believing that such anticipations of injury to New York or to any of our Atlantic cities would be realized. Their trade would not be decreased, whilst that flowing down the new outlet would be increased. New resources would be created by the new stimulants thus given.

Although the subject of harbors has been referred to in the report which follows the lake trade, yet its great importance demands some farther notice. While the commercial connexion between the East and the West by canals, steamboats, and railroads, is increasing with such rapidity under the combined influence of enterprise and necessity, it is quite evident that provision must soon be made for adequate harbor accommodation on the lakes, to meet the necessities of their commerce, already rivalling that on the Atlantic.

It is a remarkable fact that there are but few natural harbors on the lakes, the shores differing in that respect from the seacoasts of the United States, and of the northern colonies, which are amply provided with the finest harbors.

While the commerce of Chicago, Buffalo, Oswego, and other lake ports, is of more value than the commerce of any of the ports on the Atlantic, except New Orleans, Boston, and New York, the harbors of the lake ports, even whilst their commerce is yet in its infancy, are wholly inadequate to the number of vessels already on the lakes. The numerous disasters in consequence of the insecurity of these harbors, call loudly for the improvement of such havens as can be made secure and convenient by artificial means.

The commercial and navigating interests in that section have from the outset been sensible of the drawbacks arising from the absence of security to life and property, and have unceasingly presented their claims for the artificial improvement of their harbors to the consideration of the State and Federal governments.

At a public meeting held at Milwaukie, in 1837, with reference to the improvement of harbors, it was "Resolved, That we will not desist from memorializing and petitioning Congress, and presenting our just rights and claims, until we have finally accomplished our object." The spirit of this resolution, it cannot be doubted, is the prevailing sentiment throughout the entire West, connected by its trade with the lakes.

It is not presumed, in any part of this report, to argue the question of the constitutionality of such improvements by the federal government; but it is unquestionably due to that great interest, and to the preservation of life and property, to state that a great and pressing necessity exists for the construction of harbors on the lakes by some authority, State or Federal, and by some means; and whether these should be public or private, enlightened statesmen must decide. The work should be done. If the government of the United States, sustained by the patriotic affection of the people, is restrained by the constitutional compact from doing things undeniably needed for the promotion of important national interests and the security of its citizens and their property, some other means of relief should be devised. If it does possess adequate constitutional power, it should be exercised.

The past action on this subject has paralyzed, rather than aided, many improvements. Harbors and havens, the construction of which was commenced by government, have not been completed, and are in a state of dilapidation; and while the public have waited for farther aid, many valuable lives and great amounts of property have been lost. It is extremely doubtful (even if there were sufficient local wealth, and if we could allow the expectation of that unity of action in the vicinity of the lake coast necessary to secure the construction of any one of the many harbors and havens their lake commerce now so absolutely requires) whether they could be completed without Federal aid.

The undersigned begs leave to call the attention of the honorable Secretary of the Treasury to the necessity of having marine hospitals in the large commercial ports upon the lakes. The casualties of that navigation are little different from those of the sea; and while the "freshwater sailor" contributes, from his monthly wages, to the same "hospital