Mr. SUMNER. But Itake it they were not all finished at that time. Surely they were not. This order illustrates very plainly the disturbing influence from the war; and this brings me again to press this point upon your attention. Imention certain particulars in which this apeared; butI wish to bring home to your minds the controlling consideration that we were in a time of war, vast in its prortions, and most disturbing in its influence. 1 his alone is enough to account for the failure of these contractors to complete their contracts. We were not in a period of peace, and you err if you undertake to hold these contractors to all the austere responsibilities to which you might properly hold them in a period of peace. The Senfrom Kentucky said that they took the war into their calculations. Perhaps they did; but who among these contractors could take that war adequately into his calculations? Who among those sitting here or at the other end of the avenue properly apprencipatd the character of the great contest that was then coming on? Sir, we had passed half a century in peace; we knew nothing of war or of war preparations, when all at once we were called to efforts on this gigantic scale. Are you astonished that these contractors did not know more about the war than your statesmen? Be to these contractors as gentle in judgment and as considerate as you have been to others in public life who have erred in their calculations with regard to it. I have said that the interest now in question was the great mechanical interest of the country. It is an interest, let me add, that is not local, as this bill is for the benefit of mechanics in all parts of the loyal States, from Maryland in the South to Massachusetts and Mainein the North and East, and then stretchin from N NewYork on the sea board to Missourieyond the Mississip i. I have here a list of the States intereste, through different contractors, in this very bill. Iwill readit: Maine, Massachusetts, Rhodo Island, Connecticut, NewYork, NewJersey, Pennsylvania. Delaware, maryland, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, and even california. The interest for which I am now speaking crosses the mountains and goes to the Pacific ocean. I said that this was the skilled labor of the country. What labor more valuable; what service, while the war was going on, more important! If these mechanics did not expose their persons in the peril of battle, they gave their skill to prepare others to achieve the victory. It was in ancient times that the oracle said to the city in danger, “ Look to your wooden walls.” The oracle in our country said, “ Look to youriron clads and your double enders;” and these mechanics came forward and by their onerous labor enabled you to put those iron c ads and donble enders on the ocean, and thus to secure the final triumph. The building of that invulnerable navy was one of the great victories of the war, not to be commemorated on any special field, but to be seen in those mighty results which we all now enjoy and now again I ask, are on ready to see these contractors who have one this service sacrificed? You do not allow the soldier to be sacrificed, nor the national creditor who has taken your stock. Will ou allow the mechanic to be sacrificed? here are many of them who, without your help, must suffer. One of the most enterprising and faithful in the whole country is a constituent of my own, who during the last year has been obliged to go into bankruptcy from his inability to meet iabilities growing out of the war, and at this moment he finds no chance of relief except in what a just Government may return to im. My friend on my right [Mr. NYE] asked you to be magnanimous to these contractors. I do not putit in that way. I ask you simplyto be just. Do by them as on would be done by. The Senfrom Nevada also very fitly reminded you of the experience of other countries. He told you that England, at the close of the Crimean war, when her mechanics had suffered precisely as your mechanics have suffered, did not allow them to be sacrificed, but every pound and shilling of all their liabilities under their contracts was romptly met by that Government. Will you be less just to your mechanics than England? It is an old saying that republics are ungrateful. I hope that this Republic may certainly vie with any monarchy in gratitude to those who have served it. You have shown great energy in meeting your ene mies. I as you to show a commensurate energy in doing justice to those who have contributed to your success. Now, sir, the practical question remains, what shall be paid? I, of course, shall vote for the amendment of the Senfrom Ne vada raising the%age in the proposition of the Senfrom Iowa to 15 %; but I am free to say that does not satisfy me. I refer the report of the committee, and I will to I you precisely why. I prefer it because it is founded on the judgment of a court] do not use the language hastily. Isay it is founded on what for practical purposes may be called the judgment of a court. It was by a resolution of this body that a commission was constituted of honorable gentlemen having the confidence of the countr, one of them an emi nent commodore in the Yavy; another a paymaster, and another an engineer; 3 Gentlemen who from their education and position were supposed to be peculiarly competent to deal with such matters, and to them these cases were submitted. They sat as a tribunal for months; they listened to all the evidence that was brought before them; and you have now before you their final judgment. They were a court of claims created by yourselves to deal with these cases.