Mr. RICE, of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, so much has been said and so elaborately said upon this subject, that perhaps little more elu cidation is needed; but not being quite satisfied with either of the propositions as they stand before the House, I rise mainly for the purpose of offering an amendment to the the Gentfrom Connecticut, swuhbicshtitutvf I ill have read before I take my seat. While I am up I will say a few words on the subject. Those who know something of the history of this question in this House will remark one striking distinction in the debate which has been had yesterday and today as, compared with the debates heretofore on this subject. Heretofore no small part of the result of the discussion has turned upon the point of the necessity of establishing an additional navy yard anywhere. During the progress of the war many gentlemen had doubts so serious and important in relation to the necessity of having another yard that they were disposed to vote a inst this question altogether, and it nllowe to he passe over. It is quite natural that should have been the case, because previous to the breaking out of the rebellion there were no circumstances connected with the history of this country which should suggest to men not particularly conversant with naval affairs that a navy yard like that contemplated in the proposition before the House was or would be needed. It has so ha pened, sir, that owing to the fact that a broad ocean lay between us and the European continent, which has been the seat of almost all the wars of modern times, our position has been isolated from the theater of those wars. We have thus happily been deliv ered from the complications which have in volved the nations upon the other side of the water; and upon this side there have been no nations at all adequate to cope with the government of the U.S. It has, therefore, not only been our privilege in times past, but it has been our boast, on numerous occasions, that we were able to point to the fact that we were a great and strong and growing nation, and the on] one of corresponding mag nitude in the worl which was able to continue year after year without the ex(macand without the necessity of a great staning army or of a very large nav. But, sir, the occurrence of the rebellion changed this state of things in almost every particular. The occurrence of the rebellion ound us without any adequate navy for the exigencies which arose at that time; and sir, it IS perfectly plain on lookin at the history of this war that had the U.S. possessed at the beginning of the rebellion an adequate naval force, or even a naval force 1/2 as large as that which it possesses today, the rebellion would never have grown to any considerable importance or mag nitude. We should have had possession of the whole coast; we should have recaptured all the forts that were seized by the rebels; we should have been enabled to assert our power on the sea everywhere. Everybod knows the spon taneity with which the 10 a millions flew to the ranks of the Army, w rich made it a sufficient power to take care of the interior pootions of our country. Now, sir, ‘the 1st lesson that we on ht to learn from the recent war is that we oug it not to continue in a state of unpreparedness for war. Why, sir, the great national debt which has been entailed upon the country in its 1000s of millions of dollars, is a perpetual admonition to us that we should at least be continually prepared for war, and every soldier’s grave, of which there are 100s and 1000s in our land, sends up to us an appeal that we shall not in the'future disregard a proper provision for the vindication of the honor of that flag which they died to maintain. Ay, sir more than that, every mourning household throughout our land sends up to us here its pathetic appeal that we shall heed the lessons of war, while they point to the vacant places at their own firesides and weep over those who have laid dawn their lives for the liberties and for the honor of our common country. Now, sir, I have said that the rebellion might have been checked if we could have had n 9 quote preparations for war; but we are obliged today to look at the facts as they stand out, before us. The rebellion was not prevented; it has passed into history; and the events of history are elements that must shape the future policy of this country. We are not now the same nation that we were before the war. The events of the war are a part of the heritage of this and of all future generations of American citizens: and what we do to day , and what we shall do in all the future, must be done in the light, not only of what existed before the war, but also in the light of that which the war has added to our experience. Now, sir, the exigencies of the war were such that they demanded not only the ordinary material and equipment of naval forces, but something more; and that demand was answered by the ingenuity of our artisans and mechanics in the production of iron ships. It is scarcely a stretch of absolute truth to say that the iron ship was the legitimate reduction of the late American war; and in a future time that iron ship is to be the great instrument in all naval warfare. The building of iron ships today is but in its infancy; it has afnture before it. This class of vessels is to travel through all the various forms and modifications and excriences that wooden vessels have passed througl; and we must, therefore, equip our] navy yards in such manner that they shal have " facilities for the production and taking care of iron ship's, corresponding to what we have here tofore had in our existing nav yards for the construction and taking care 0 wooden ships. Now, sir, the question before the House has been discussed yesterday and today in a most exhaustive manner by the able gentlemen who have spoken on the subject, and especially by those who have informed themselves so elabo rately upon the question. But nevertheless I think Ispeak only the truth when I say that in some sense it has been discussed as if it were a local question as if it were in some degree a question between League Island and NewLondon; or, to enlarge it a little more, as some of the gentlemen who have receded me have done, a question between cagne Island and NewEngland. Sir, I should deeply regret if this House should entertain a great national question like this upon any basis whatever that was mercly local or that was in any manner or dece partisan. There is nothing partisan in it what ever; there is nothing local in it whatever; and there ought not to be. This question should i be viewed and discussed as one that interests every American citizen; as a question not to be decided for this State or thatState, or another State, but for the Government and the people of the U.S., whose Representatives we are on this door. Sir, the objection that I have to the proposition brought in here by the Gentfrom Pennsylvania [Mr. KELLEY] is that it limits the selection of a site to one particular spot.