Mr. SCHENCK. The only reply I have to make to the gentleman is, that if in particular localities more works are erected than at others and at larger expense, it happens to be because those particular localities are just the points that we defend, and we defend them because they cover the approaches to the whole country. Now, it is not at all remarkable that forts should be renired about the Gulf, and especially at an advanced position like this at the extremity of the Tortugas, covering the Gulf approaches of the Mississippi, while not a sin g e fort is needed in the State of Ohio, and no appropriation for that purpose is proposed. let because I live in bio and we have not our share of the forts or the money expended for defensive purposes in our iuimediateneigh borhood or district, I do not feel that I am going against the wishes of my constituents when I vote appropriations for forts at these exposed points, covering the places that must be defended, and meeting the dangers that threaten our common country. As to the cutting down of these lPPIQPm Library t., hie Quit. tions from $100,000 to $50,000, and from 2550.000to $25,000, I have but this remark to make: gentlemen, as I said last night, when this biligwas before under consideration, are going it blind and without information; they are unwilling to relynpon the information given by the responsible otheers of the Government who have these works in charge and have made these estimates as engineers. If $200,000 had been asked, being tmce as much as is necessary, it would have been thought a capital thing to cut it down to $100,000; or if it had been $100,000, to cut it down to $60,000; and there can be no more reason given by gentlemen why $50,000 should be required rather than $100,000. The truth is that, practically, Gentlemen, like in self, know nothing about it and have to rely on the persons in charge of these works. But inasmuch as it looks like economy to cut down 1/2 now, it would look just as much like eeenomy to cut it down 1/2 if twice the amount had been asked. We are either to grope in the dark or to be ded by the light we have on the subject. I ave, however, submitted to the House all the information I possess on the subject from the engineers, and it must commend itself to the eueral knowledge of every member of the House who knows anythiu on the subject when he remembers that this Tortugas key is the vulnerable part of the approaches to our country.