Mr. BRANDEGEE. Precisely; I did not ask the gentleman’s opinion, nor did I think it especially valuable. I have submitted this substitute, and I believe it is Within parliamentary rules of order, and with the permission of the gentleman I will now address myself to it. Mr. Speaker, this project of taking 374 acres of the mud bottom of the Delaware river, 3 feet below the surface of that river at ordinary high tide and 100 miles from the ocean, and there and in such a locality establishing the great national navyard oft e U.S., is not now for the 'rst time before Congress and the country. For 4 years, with a pertinacity as inexplicable as it is unwarranted and unexampled, that plan has been pressed upon the attention of Conwress and the country by certain disinterested gentlemen in the Navy Dept, backed up by certain no less disinterested gentlemen mm the city of Philadelphia. That subject has been discussed again and again in both branches ofCongress. It has been very carefully examined by a competent board composed of engineers and naval officers, ordered by Congress to be raised and selected, not to say acked, by the SecyNavy. It has been examined very care fully by the Naval Committee of the last congress. It has been discussed in the public ress and by naval oliicers throughout the U.S.; and b all of them congress, the board of officers, the members of the oval Committee, the press, and a large majority of the naval officers of the U.S. outside of the Navy Dept it has been met with but one conclusion up to this hour. I cannot more succinctly state that result than by quoting the conclusion to which that board of compe tent officers, selected by the SecyNavy because of their special fitness for this i duty, arrived after a very careful examination. It is as follows: "Resolved. That, in the opinion public of this board the interestsWill not be promoted by acquiring title to League Island for naval purposes." That was the conclusion to which that board arrived; that was the result to which the ComNavAffrs of the last Cengress‘ arrived with rest unanimity; the only exceptions to which were, I believe, the 2 members from Pennsylvania, who, by the courtesy of the Speaker, were placed upon that committee. And now, sir, here today, after this current of authorities all in one direction, the Gentfrom Pennsylvania [Mr. KELLEY] has, I will not say the hardihood, but at least the confidence, and confidence in his bosom is, not “a plant of slow growth" he has the confidence to stand n here and ask this congress to ado t a bill which confines the examination of the site for a navy yard to the procise locality which was rejected by the previous commission, and excludes from examination the one site that had been reported upon fa vorably by a commission, and all other sites throughout the country which may be proosed. And while the gentleman has proposed abill l here for the purpose of limiting the inquiry to the Delaware river, and to one site only on that river, and that a site under water, he has himscf i abandoned his bill, and the theory upon which it proceeds, in the very argument by which he has sought to sustain it before this House. Because if there be any plan or principle at all to his bill, itgoes upon the ground that the merits or demerits of a site for a naval station are not to be decided by arguments upon this floor, but, must be decided by the examination ofacom 1 mission of experts, and by that alone. And 1 in that I agree with the gentleman. I do not. think it a proor subject to be decided upon this floor, in this noisy Hall, and I think, Mr. Speaker, with all due deference to the House, never more noisy than today. I do not think that these gentlemen heresome of them lawyers, some farmers, some merchants, and many of them engaged in business not connected with the subject under debate constitute precisely the forum in which a question which involves considerations of topography, of soil, of currents, of tides, of l adaptability for naval purposes, can be either i argued or appropriately determined. The gentleman therefore was right. The ComNavAffrs were correct when they on authorized him to report a bill providing that! such questions should be determined in their I Illl appropriate forum, to wit, by a board of exerts to be raised by order of Congress. That is the theory of the bill; but the gentleman, 1 instead of advocating the bill upon that principle, has wandered from it in goin into an 1 argument here as to the merits o the site which he proposes shall be examined. an. Speaker, 1 shall not follow the bad example of the gentleman in engaging the time i of this House in discussing the merits or de, merits of the site in which my constituents are, more particularly interested. By the substitute 1 which I have proosed here, that and all cogniate questions with reference to the site which advocate and all other sites are to be deter mined by a commission, if the House shall consent to order a commission. But, sir, I must so far allow myself to be led astray by the example of the gentleman as to follow him a little in that art of his argument in which he addressed himself to the merits of the precise site which he now wishes the House to udgdrp.t.Speaker, this question for the 1st time came before Ct ngress and the country, as the gentleman has correctly stated, just 4 years ago, in June, 1862. About that day in June which corresponds with the day on which this discussion is going on, a bill was presented in the Senate of the U.S. authorizin the SecyNavy to accept of the title to League Island, provided a commission should recommend its acce mince; and 4 years ago i the advocates of 0t ier sites in that Congress, the 37th Congress, presented the precise counter plan which I present here to day. It was seen that it was an object for the Government of the U.S. to get the 1 best site then proposed; and against the 0 position of the Delaware interest, and the Piiiladelphia interest, a rider was attached to that bill and passed the Senate, ordering that the commission.whcn raised should examine all I the sites then proposed. History is said to repeat itself. ‘our years from that day We find the Gentfrom Pennsylvania rising, here and offering a bill to raise a commission to examine his site, and his site alone. Today I stand here not advocating an examination of merely the site in which my constituency are interested, but offering us a substitute a prop position that the commission shall examine all the sites which have been proposed a site on i 1 the Hudson, at site on the Patuxent, the site 1 at Portland, the site at NewLondon, and the site on the Delaware river, which the Gentfrom Pennsylvania recommends, and a l much better site in the Delaware river at Mnr cus Hook, 15 or 20 miles below League Island, a site whichhas been recommended as having superioradvantages over League Island by the competent head of the dept charged with this very question, the Bureau l of Yards and Docks. Now, sir, inasmuch as I suppose this nestion is to be finally settled here in some isinpe j to dny, and inasmuch as a record is to be made 1 upon this question, and inasmuch as the Navy 1 Dept is quoted as being in favor of the l plan which the Gentfrom Pennsylvania: as proposed to the House, I wish to have u 1 final settlement of accounts before the Ameri', can people, and to leave upon the record here i the views of the NavyDept and the acts l of the Navy Dept with reference to this Il question, thatthis House may seehow valuable, how disinterested the opinion of the SecyNavy and the Asst SecyNavy is upon this subject. Now, sir, when Congress at that time ordered a board of competent officers to make an examination, the question was between 3 sites then proposed League Island, NewLondon, and a site in Narraganset bay. By the law of Congressthe SecyNavy was directed, to appoint a commission to examine all 3, sites, and report by the selection of which the public interest would be best promoted. The SecyNavy selected, to constitute that board, 3 gentlemen who were either then residents or originally natives of the city of Philadelphia. That was a disinterested board. It was an impartial board in its construction. It turned out at least that they were by the result. I speak now of the motives by which the SecyNavy maybe presumed to have been actuated. This was a board of 6 officers, 3 of whom were from Philadelphia, either by residence or nativit. The 4th man of that board of 6 was the engi neer of the Dept, himself supposed to be cognizant of the views of the Secretary. 1 make no complaint now of the construction of that board, because it turned out to be an honest and competent board. By a.majority of 4 to two, the 2 being residents and natives of Philadelphia, that board decided it was not for the public interest that League Island should be selected, or even accepte as 9. ft. Tiurther, one of the persons put on that board by this disinterested Secretary was Professor Bacbe, who has been named already, and it is not therefore indelieato for me to refer to it, a man who before his appointment had written a letter, then on file in teNavy Dept, in which he favored the selection of League Island to the exclusion of all other places. I go one step further on my responsibility here, and I take the responsibility of saying that while that board was proceeding to make that examination a letter was sent from the Navy Dept to that board, a board of honorable officers of the Navy, a letter from the Navy Dept stating that that Dept expected the board to find in favor of League sland. Sir, Admiral Stringliam, an honorable naval officer who presided over that board, then fresh from his victory at Hatteras, the 1st naval victory of the war Admiral String ham. like an honorable man, took up his hat and left the session of the board, saying that he would no longer sit on a board under duress as that; and it was only after that letter was withdrawn that he finally consented to continue on this board. That board found that League Island was not a fit place, and they have spread upon this record, to be found in the document room 15 solid reasons why it was unfit for a naval station. For the 1st time the Gentfrom Pennsylvania let him settle with the gentleman whom 110has slandered charges that the engineer of the Dept was corrupt enough to be operated on and influenced, and that through his influence the remainder of the board were corru then ough to find objection against League Is and contrary to the facts in the case.