positive rights, on privileges long enjoyed, and which there is no cause for alienating.

I have discussed this question almost exclusively on legal grounds; and I trust the Senate will see, in what I have said, sufficient cause for the repeal of the act of Congress, of which the legislatures of New York and Maryland have, by their resolutions, complained. I have purposely abstained from all reference to difficulties of a local character between different classes of the citizens of New York, which have grown out of this unnecessary, and, as I believe, this unauthorized, act of legislation. I shall not enter into an examination of those difficulties, unless compelled to do so; but I rest the application for the repeal of the act on the legal and constitutional grounds I have stated, and leave the question in the hands of the Senate.

THE PILOT LAWS.

JUNE, 1848.

On motion of Mr. Dix, the Senate took up the bill to repeal the act of March 2, 1837, entitled "An act concerning pilots."

MR. PRESIDENT: On a former occasion I said to the Senate all I desire to say in relation to the legal questions involved in this bill. I shall not therefore repeat what I said then, or enter into any new assignment or discussion of objections arising out of the powers of Congress over the subject of regulating pilotage in the States. But I am constrained by the remarks which were made by the Senator from Massachusetts, and the Senator from New Jersey,2 to enter into a somewhat detailed history of the pilot question in New York. I regret that I am compelled to do so, because it has become, in some degree, a dissension between classes, involving private interests; and these are always subjects which I wish to avoid, when I can do so consistently with my duty to the public.

I have stated heretofore that the pilots of New York, in 1886, had entered into an agreement to share equally their joint receipts, and that this combination had led to a relaxation of their accustomed vigilance in looking out for vessels and taking them into port. In consequence of some disasters which occurred, the public attention was called to the defects of the system of pilotage existing in New York. In the annual message of the Governor of the State, on the 3d January, 1837, he brought the subject before the legislature. On the following day select committees were appointed

in both branches. On the 11th of February, a bill was reported by the chairman of the select committee in the House of Assembly; and after a very thorough discussion in committee of the whole, the bill was reported to the House by a vote of 91 to 7, on the 8th of March. It was subsequently read a third time, and passed by a vote of 85 to 5. In the Senate the bill was received on the 14th of March, referred to the select committee of that body, and reported with amendments which were concurred in; but in consequence of the pressure of important business, it was not passed until the 6th of April. I state these facts to show the deliberation with which the legislature of the State of New York acted on this important question. The number of pilots was increased, a careful system of examination was established, combinations were guarded against, and all the known and alleged evils of the system were provided for by appropriate remedies, or remedies at least which were considered appropriate and effectual.

The Senator from Massachusetts,1 in his remarks, seemed to assume that the New York pilots of 1848 are answerable for the acts of those of 1835 and 1836; and the Senator from New Jersey, who followed him, made some allusion to them which appears to warrant the same inference. But if those gentlemen will consider how rapidly the lapse of years is thinning the ranks of their own friends and associates, they will not be surprised to learn that the great enemy has been busy with the pilots also. Of the sixty pilots following the business in 1837, there are but twenty-nine now engaged in piloting. More than half have perished at sea, died on shore, or become disqualified by age for the arduous service in which they were engaged. The number of New York pilots holding branches under the laws of the State, is eighty; and of these, fifty-one have been appointed since the State law of 1837 was passed. Whatever responsibility, therefore, belongs to the pilots of 1836, has, for the most part,

gone with them to be met at a higher tribunal than this. I state these facts that the Senate may understand why it will be proper to deal with systems and not with men.

The haste manifested in passing the act of Congress of 1837, of which we ask for the repeal, stands in strong contrast with the legislation of New York. Let me recite the facts as briefly as possible.

By the Senate Journal of 1836-7, it will be seen that a resolution was introduced on the 12th of January, by Mr. Tallmadge, of New York, instructing the Committee on Commerce to inquire into the expediency of legislating on the subject of pilots on the sea-coast, with power to report by bill or otherwise. This resolution was adopted. The Committee on Commerce consisted of the following distinguished gentlemen: Mr. King of Alabama, chairman, Mr. Davis of Massachusetts, Mr. Linn of Missouri, Mr. Brown of North Carolina, and Mr. Ruggles of Maine. The committee, though they had ample time for deliberation, never made a report on the resolution.

On the 28th day of February, the last day of the month, Mr. Wall, of New Jersey, introduced a bill on notice. It was instantly read the first and second time, reported to the Senate, and immediately read a third time,—the work probably of as much time as I take to give the details.

But, sir, it is necessary that we should accompany the bill through all the stages of its course. It was received in the House on the 28th of February, the day it passed the Senate, and on the next day received its proper number of readings, and passed. On the 2d of March it received the President's signature, and became the law of the land.

Nor is this all. The subject had been referred to a committee in the House early in that session. The committee made an elaborate report on the 22d of February, and asked to be discharged from the further consideration of the sub

1 House Journal, p. 552.

ject. In the face of this proceeding, the bill was passed, and in the summary way I have stated.

It is as remarkable a specimen of the dispatch of business business involving a question of constitutional power, and bringing in its train collisions between individuals, and classes, and States as can be met with. It was hurried, or rather rushed, through Congress, almost at the last hour of its session, indeed, almost at the last hour of its existence. I have heretofore told the Senate that the legislature of New York, after becoming satisfied that the act of Congress operated injuriously on the pilots of that State, and after waiting eight years for its repeal, came to the conclusion to repeal her own laws regulating pilotage by way of Sandy Hook, the great outlet and inlet for the foreign commerce of the country, providing only that the pilots then licensed should continue to be pilots. It has been alleged that the New York pilots were applicants to the legislature for repeal. This is a mistake. They appealed to the legislature of the State, to

"Try and determine whether the aforesaid act of Congress does or does not transcend the legislative power of the Federal government, and whether the acts exercised under its sanction and under the authority of the laws of the State of New Jersey by the citizens of that State are or are not in violation of the sovereignty of the State of New York, and in contempt of her laws."

It is true, they acquiesced in the repeal of the State laws, and desired it as an alternative, if they could not procure the repeal of the act of Congress. The latter object was always what they sought. Failing in it, they consented to the repeal of the State laws-a measure proposed by the mercantile interest. The pilots believed it would place them on an equal footing with the pilots of New Jersey. It was under this view of the subject, that the New York pilots, on consultation with the mercantile interest, the Chamber of Commerce and Board of Underwriters, consented to it. Such appears to be the fact from the petition to the legis