1st Session.

No. 373

BASIL MIGNAULT-CHILDREN OF.

[To accompany Bill H. R. No. 563.]

MAY 11, 1858.

Mr. HICKMAN, from the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions, made the following

REPORT.

The Committee on Revolutionary Pensions, to whom was referred the petition of Peter M. Mignault, report:

That it appears, from the papers and testimony transmitted from the Pension department, that Basil Mignault, a resident of Chambly, in the county of Kent, Lower Canada, on the 20th of November, 1828, made and filed his application for a pension under the act entitled "An act for the relief of certain surviving officers and soldiers of the army of the revolution," approved on the 15th day of May, 1828. That, by the rules of the department, the claimant was required to make oath in support of his declaration, in addition to other evidence offered.

The applicant in this case made oath that, in the month of September, 1775, he joined the American army, under General Montgomery, at St. John's, Lower Canada; that he was commissioned by General Montgomery a lieutenant in Captain Arnold's company, in Colonel Livingston's regiment; that he served in that capacity at the taking of Chambly, St. John's and Montreal, and at the siege of Quebec; that on the day of the attack, in consequence of intoxication of his captain, and the absence of two other captains, he was appointed to command three companies by command of General Montgomery, who, at the same time, presented him with a sword and gun as a mark of respect for his services; that he, under Colonel Livingston, commenced the attack at the gates of the St. John's suburbs, and that he, with his own hand, set fire to the gates; that after the siege was raised he retreated with the army to St. John's, where he received a furlough to return home to visit his father, who lay sick, and had sent for him, and on his return home was taken prisoner by the English, and tried for assisting the Americans. He was, however, acquitted, in consequence of their not being able to get witnesses, who had retreated into the United States. That he exerted himself to escape to the States and join his company again, but was prevented by spies appointed to

watch his movements. That after he was tried, he was let out on parole not to leave the parish of St. Dennis; and at the time he received his furlough he also received a certificate from Colonel Livingston of the amount of wages due him; and that he never received anything for his services, except ten dollars; that his commission, &c., was delivered to one Benway to get pay for his services and losses, and he was drowned and his papers lost. The truth of his declaration was supported by the testimony of a witness who enlisted as a private in the same company, and served under the orders and command of said Lieutenant Mignault from the time he joined the American army, at St. John's, until he was taken prisoner-corroborating the said Lieutenant Mignault in all the particulars of his services, and imprisonment, and parole to the limit of the parish of St. Dennis during the war.

There being no record evidence of the services, the department called for further corroborating evidence; and it appears, while evidence was collecting, in compliance with the requisition, and some had been obtained, he died, to wit, on the 20th day of June, 1832. The evidence the old man was collecting, in order to renew his claim, is now offered in connexion with the papers and testimony on file in the Pension Office, a duly certified copy of which has been furnished your committee from the Commissioner of Pensions. This additional evidence is corroborative of the main statements before given, and, in the opinion of your committee, there is evidence sufficient to entitle the children of the officer to all the benefits which were intended to be conferred on the officer by the act of May, 15, 1828, and they recommend a bill accordingly.

NIAGARA SHIP CANAL.

[To accompany Bill H. R. No. 432.]

MAY 11, 1858.-Ordered to be printed.

Proposed to be reported by Mr. BURROUGHS.

The undersigned, majority of the committee to whom were referred numerous memorials and resolutions, asking for a grant of lands to aid in the construction of a ship canal around the falls of Niagara, report:

That among the papers asking for such grant are joint resolutions adopted by the legislatures of several States, namely: New York, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin; and also resolutions adopted by the boards of trade of several important cities, namely: Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukie, Racine, and twenty-five petitions, numerously signed, coming from all the important commercial towns of the northern States; most of the petitioners are connected with commerce, and well unerstand the wants of the country. Within a quarter of a century these pioneers of commerce have given birth to cities and towns in the great valley of the north, which make the "wildest tales of magic appear credible."

Their opinions have the value which genius and enterprise give to personal experience and demonstration, and are entitled to the highest consideration.

"The attention of the general government was called to the subject as early as the year 1835, and during that year a survey was made around the Niagara Falls, with the view to the construction of a canal, under the direction of Captain W. G. Williams, of the United States topographical engineers, by the order of the general government. The report of Captain Williams is a very able one, and reflects great credit upon him, not only as a scientific engineer, but as a man of wide and expansive views and far-reaching foresight and sagacity. Limited as was the commerce of the great lakes then, and imperfectly as the natural resources of the lake country had then been developed, he clearly foresaw the great importance of such a canal, not only to the States immediately adjacent to these inland seas, but to the whole Union, and urged with great earnestness and emphasis the construction of such a work in aid of the national commerce.' As was natural, the canal then proposed was much less in capacity than the present one; and, like the Welland canal, of our Canadian neighbors, would have been entirely inadequate to the already wonderfully increased and ever increasing commerce of the west."

It cannot be doubted that this great national work will, at no distant day, under the patronage of government, be completed; perhaps it is not to be regretted that it has been delayed until the present time.

If the construction had been entered upon in 1836, upon the plan proposed by Captain Williams, the wants of commerce would have demanded its reconstruction and enlargement at a very early period.

As the relations of commerce assume settled forms, everything pertaining to it is made to conform to the severest calculations of economy. This fact could hardly receive a simpler or more truthful illustration than by reference to the carrying trade of the great central valley of New York, through which the commerce of the west has mainly been conducted for a period of seventy years. Before the year 1796 it cost to transport by wagons from Schenectady to Seneca falls, a distance of 212 miles, $100 per ton. During that year the "Western Navigation Company" got their locks into operation, and boats carrying "sixteen tons" were enabled to pass from Schenectady to Seneca falls. This achievement of what was then thought a great enterprise, reduced the price to $33 per ton on up freight, and half that sum on down freight, the difference in cost being chargeable to the current in the rivers; the propelling power then in use was primitive poles and oars in the dexterous hands of hardy voyageurs.

The completion of the Erie canal, connecting the waters of Lake Erie with the Hudson river, in 1825, inaugurated a new era to western transportation and northern commerce.

The average capacity of boats first used on the Erie canal was 35 tons, and the cost of transportation on "up freight," between Albany and Buffalo, (a distance of 362 miles,) was, in 1826, $25 per ton.

The construction of boats adapted to this then new method of transportation was at that period but little understood; and improvements in structure (without any increase in the capacity of the canal) caused a reduction of 20 per cent. in the cost of transportation within fifteen years; and at the present time the price per ton is reduced to less than five dollars. During the last fifteen years improvements in lake navigation and railroad transit, with its lightning speed, have wrought great and important changes in the western carrying trade through the great northern valley; and the Chicago merchant now sits at his counter, calculating by careful decimals the difference in cost per ton by the different routes of transportation between his city and the great American metropolis. It would hardly be credible, did not figures demonstrate the fact, that a saving of ten cents per ton on freight passing to and from the west through this gateway, would amount to six hundred and eighty-one thousand dollars per annum, taking the tonnage of 1856 for computation.

The carrying trade is the right arm of all agricultural industry, of commerce, and of civilization.

It gives birth to the surplus productions of industry by opening a market; it increases the producer's wealth by cheapening the price of transit; and upon this increase of wealth, and this alone, in this country, and in every part of the globe, in our time and during all past ages, has depended the civilization of the world's inhabitants.

Our Constitution has wisely conferred upon Congress the power "to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States." In the exercise of this power careful and just discrimination should be made between subjects of a character purely national or purely

private. And great consideration and support is due to every enterprise affecting broad districts of country and millions of people. Great and widespread aggregate benefits give to any enterprise a national character; and although such enterprise should partake in great degree of a private nature, it is clearly the duty of government to lend its aid to every such enterprise to the extent of its utility and necessity, so far as an application of its means can be made with just and equitable regard to every other district and part of the republic.

Acting under well-settled constitutional authority and upon patriotic views of duty, having regard to the "general welfare," the government have, by authority of Congress, constructed harbors and light-houses, and improved navigable rivers, during the whole period of its national existence; and, in the spirit of enlightened patriotism, have contributed large tracts of the public domain to aid in the construction of railroads and the support of educational institutions in several States. A liberal grant of land was made in 1854 to aid a private corporation, created by the government of Michigan, in constructing a canal around the falls of St. Mary, in the State of Michigan. And although this great national work cost the government 750,000 acres of valuable lands, the achievement is believed to have the approval of the nation. Opening a navigable communication for vessels of 1,000 tons burden between the copper and iron mountains of Lake Superior and the coal fields of Ohio and Pennsylvania, will ever be regarded as honorable to the patriotism of the men who gave life to the enterprise by contributing a part of the public domain.

The Mediterranean ocean and the Black sea receive the waters of about two millions of square miles of land, (which deducting mountainous regions not available to cultivation,) contrasted with the great northern basin of the American continent, in which lies a chain of lakes and rivers, receiving the waters of one million two hundred thousand square miles of land, will be found to have resources scarcely greater for sustaining human life than our own "Mediterranean" valley. The following table presents these:

Northern lakes and connecting rivers.