Mr. YERS. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues Messrs. KELLEY and O’NEILL] have so ably Zscussed the subject now under consideration; have so strongly presented the numerous advan tages of League Island for the purposes of a national constructive ship yard and naval depot for wooden and iron vessels; the vast resources of the State of Pennsylvania, emptying as it were into its own lap, at Philadelphia, as rivers run to the sea; that Ishall not long occu by the time of the House in adding some of the exhaustless arguments in favor of this proposition. I shall be more than fortunate if after this full discussion I may obtain the attention of the House for a short time; and still more fortunate if I can produce, as I hope to do, some im ression by the reasonings which are floating t rough my mind at present, and which convince me. I now call the attention of the members of this House to the character of the bill, and what it calls for. It is a bill “to authorize the SecyNavy to accept League Island in the Delaware river for naval purposes.” An attempt is made upon this floor to show that it creates a roving commission, a loop upon which to hang various other propositions, and thus drawing away your attention from the very question at issue to effect by indirection what cannot be done directly. It is true that the acceptance of League Island is not to be perfected until the board of officers provided For in the bill shall recommend it. 'lhat was added by the committee, I suppose, for the purpose of satisfying the delicate and sensitive minds of certain gentlemen who year after year have been throwmg out slanders against this place, at one moment alleging there was not sufficient depth of water, at another that there was too much ice there in certain seasons of the year, and who have started objections as to the character of the ground and the health fuluess of the locality. Now, I ask the attention of any member who is willing to vote directly for the prop. position in favor of League Island while I state to him that the proviso says nothing more than that if this commission, on visiting this place, shall find these objections to it well founded, then, and then only, may the Secretary refuse to accept it. I should refer to have no proviso in the bill, but my iiiith in the advantages of League Island is so strong I have no fear for the result, and no apprehension, even, that the examination will cause any delay. I propose to ask how this measure originated, but before doing so will pay ni respects to and exress my admiration or te ingenious, I ha almost said the ingenuons, member from NewLondon, who for several years has (persistently opposed any additional navy yar accoinmoations at Philadelphia, and who, beaten at ever point in the encover to foist his white elephant NewLondon, on the government, now with serious countenance and great apparent earnestness olfers an amendment with the sole object of destroying the vitality of the bill. He presents a proposition here to add a number of localities for the commission to examine a proposition which no doubt may strike the minds of many members, especially those who were not in the last Congress, as being an open, fair, and honorable one. Does any member from Maryland rise upon this floor and ask us to designate for examination any place in his State with a view to its selection for the proposed navylyard? No, sir. Does any member from Maine demand that we shall include a site in his State? No, sir. We passed the other day a bill providing for the examination of some place upon the coast of Maine a place where, presume the water is salt, as it is brackish at most of the other sites proposed. And I beg the members to note that the former advocate of NewLondon findin League Island gradually gaining ground with Congress, as he says it does in its accretions of land, as a last resort, as a tub to the whale, in order to obtain the votes of gentlemen from these various States, pro‘ oses this amendment. Well, Mr. Speaker, it is not in order in this House tomention moms bers by their names, and I shall not do so; but I will say to those gentlemen who were not in the last Congress that a certain Augustus Bran degee probably a near relative of the member who now has proved derelict to NewLondon, [laughter] instead of saying as thrGentfrom Connecticut now says, “ Let us be fair; let us take in all the world; let us bring into this bill State after State that we may et vote after vote against this great nation enterprise, ” this relative in the last Congress stoutly, vehemently, and ably advocated his native NewLondon as the best site for a naval station fitted by nature and art for the great navy yard of the world winning the admiration of his constituents, and doubtless thereby gaining for himself an election for many years to come as a Representative and a tit. Representative of that region. There was no commission talked of then; oh, no! No disinterested desire to visit other ports or harbors, no fondness for the Pntuxeut or the Hudson or Portland then. But of course my friend is not responsible for his namesake. I had always believed, air, the saying that “ii ures never lie, ” until yesterday when I sat at t to foot of this ontlouiun and learned a new arithmetic. I hat supposed, too, that history, at least when record with contemporaneous pen, spoke the truth; but I learned yesterday that history must be written years after the occurrences it pretends to describe, or those, who live at the time may detect the falsity of its statements. l I learned yesterday, for the 1st time, that the water at League Island is brackish. Sir, in my district a district whose ship builders p‘lgnned and placed upon the waters the New asides, a fit type of the workmanship and enterprise and success of Philadelphia mechan ics, worthy representatives of those who 30 years ago launched the ship of the line Pennsylvania, with, even then, 100,000 citizens of Philadelphia and 100,000 from the surrounding country as spectators; I say that in my district we have the Kensington works, whence a large portion of its citizens obtain their daily suppl of drinking water; and they never before heard that the waters of this stream shortly above League Island are brackish. In my boyish days, when I used to swim near Red Bank, opposite to League'lsland, drinking in many a mouthful of water, I never tasted or dreamed that it was brackish. Still further, 50,000 ships come to our wharves and go out again every carwooden ships, too, the most of the m. they  lie where the ice is more likely to be, where the water freezes and the ice gathers more rapidly than at any place below it; yet they sail up and out yearl; and we never heard before that vessels were ocked up 3 months at League Island, so that in case of a war the vessels of Our Navy, if stationed there, would be prevented for that length of time from getting at the enemy that might be ravsgingour coast. So much for fact 0. 2. Let me now call the attention of gentlemen to another statement which has been made, and which might, if uncorrected, mislead members who are stran rs to this s t and strangers to the facts of the case. they  have heard the gentleman’s reference to the mud and ooze, as e calls it, at that island. The Gentfrom Connecticut knows how much of truth and how much of fancy there is in his statement, for he has visited the locality. In 1690 this island was marked out on the maps, fast land; and for years and years there have been 235 acres of solid land about which there need be no dispute. Grantin to the gentleman that, with reference to the alance of it, or in buildin the wharves, it might be necessary here and there to drive piles, as it has been necessary to drive piles at every navy yard in the U.S., and on a gravel bed they make a better foundation than rock; granting this, however, beyond all dispute we have 235 acres of solid ground, which the gentleman pretends to tell this House is all mud and ooze, with all the sarcasm imparted b a pungent with and a fertile imagination. I have disposed of fact 0. 3. Mr. Speaker, I have often gone by steamer to Cape myin 6 or 7 hours, yet I learned for the 1st time yesterday that it would take 4 days to go from League Island to the ocean. I pass from the Connecticut fuels. But even these pale their inetfectual fires before the generosity of the gentleman’s nmeiidment and his holy horror of the necessity of discussing the merits of any site in connection with the present bill. Neither the report of the committee, who, with others of this house, speak from observation, nor the opinions of the most distinguished officers of our Navy, nor the statement of the Asst SecyNavy. nor the constant ur ency of the Secretary himself that we should adopt League Isl an as the site for a great national navy yard, have any weight with him; and the Secretary is roundly rated because he has failed to become sectional or to recommends. station simply because of his nativity near it. But enough, sir, on this point. How does the question come before Congress? we' are called upon to decide whether the large in ‘, crease of our Navy, its new character, the 1 very thing the Government asks for. change from sails to steam, from wood to iron in war vessels, the great advance in naval science, but more particularly in rifled and long range guns, and the experience of a 4 years’ war, do not necessitate our possession of a CZIPRCIOHSconstructive ship yaid. 1st, do we not need more navy yard room? And next, shall we not adopt it for the purposes of an iron as well as a wooden navy '1 cry naturally the officers of the Government 1st discovered our great want in this particular. Where did they seek to remedy it? At Phila del his. the 2nd city in the Union; not see 0nd)in its manufacturing or mechanical or even voting poulation; not 2nd to any in unswerving oyiiliy to the Government; not sec end in its noble charities or good deeds during the war or before it, but 2nd only to the great commercial metropolis of the Union, in which we all take a pride. The went to Phil adelphia, and what did they fin ‘I I wish on this point gentlemen would give me their especial attention for a few moments. They found a navy yard of 16 acres with no workshops which a Philadelphian is not ashamed to show to strangers; With no more than turning room for a large wagon; with no proper machine shops or steam machinery for uilding and repairing iron or iron clad vessels or rollingiron lates; no capacity for easting ordnance or uilding powerful engines; and instead of a national foundery and work sho and navy yard, a place not half the size of toWashington yard, not a 4th of that at Churlcstowu, not an 8th of the Kittery, or a 10th of the Brooklyn navy yard; while abroad the iivate dock yard of the builder of the pirate Ala Mill“) is more than ten times as large, and in England and France the chief Government navy yards cover, each of them, 100s of of acres of land in extent. They found the 2nd city of our country with not a stone dock and a very limited water front or wharf age room or accommodations for building and repairing wooden vessels, even. The question with them was, and it is the question here, shall this ship building city have more navy yard room, and while we are giving it shall we not build a national establishment worth of the nation; not an additional yard, but y a transfer from one place to another with supe rior natural advantages and greater area erect one which will aid us to defend ourselves, if necessary, against the navies of the world ‘2 We are at peace and I trust may remain so. Yet on our northern border, even now, a departure from our more than generous neu trality in the Canadian ulfair might bring on a conflict with England. On the southwest the advocacy of the Monroe doctrine, so dearly cherished b every American, or the carrying out of our aired of despotism, might involve us in a war with the greatest of despots. lfa single shot had been fired from Commodore Rogers's vessel, olf Valparaisonis many wished it had been, we might have been embroiled with Spain. The sale of a single iron clad to Brazil or Paraguay or Uruguay might lead to entan glements with South America. Meanwhile, in ‘urope they feel the throes of a coming political earth nuke, and the fires ofvolcanoes which may short y burst forth may et hrin a spark to the American borders. We are bound in honor to the country, to the soldiers and sail. ors who fought for its preservation, to the present and posterity, to guard its perpetuity and be prepared at all times against a foreign war. And for that purpose we should have proper navy yard accommodations for our vessels in time of cacc. Now, Mr. Speaker, suppose this amendment prevails; you do exactly this: you are led away by the idea that we are to have an additional navy yard by the plausible theory that we had better go about the country and see where we should locate it. Whereas the defeat of this bill and the success of the amendment really defeats the object of the bill prevents the present acceptance of any site and deprives the country, perhaps for years, oflhe 100 feet, di The introduction of the substitute was only intended as a basis upon which to say to the citizens of NewLondon, “ I have fon lit for your interests. I have got this matter elnyed another year, and there is yethope for you.” I do not blame the gentleman or his colleagues for their efforts, and I commend them to the votes of their constituents as fighting manfully for Connecticut and NewLondon. In sin say to the members of this House that this bill comes before them with the sanction of the committee after repeated examinations in Congress session after session, and with the indorsement of eminent naval officers. And now I believe the re nest for further dols will be voted down and the measure adopte. If you will turn to Lippincott’s Gazetteer you will find the following description of NewLondon: " It is built on adrclivity facing the south and cast. Trohcekssi, the being considerably incumbered With granite it wnsnot laid out with any great regularity, though within a few yearsmuch hasboendonein the way of irradipz and other I‘PKIOVOHIQDM to overcome the original inequalities ot 0 surface.” “The original inequalities of the surface. I" And so NewLondon, with its rocky sides rising from 20 sometimes as high as one not impress anybody very favorably after they came to look at it for the purpose of a navy yard such as we now desire, and the gentleman acted sensibly in abandoning his pet for a time, and endeavorin, amid the many, to let its defects pass out oft 9 view of an apparent] nnfavorable Congress. I have state how it was that the site of Philadelphia came to be sought for this purpose. l have stated our national necessities in this matter, our local wants, which mean our national want; that scarcely an officer of the Navy over recommended NewLondon, and none that I ever heard of recommended anyone of these other places so gratuitously added to the hill. The very commission to which the gentlemen referred said unanimously that for the purpose of an iron clad naiy ard, League Island was referable to NewLondon, and one of the o cers of that commission has since said that he was mistaken even in recommending NewLondon as far as he went. Why was that mistake made? Sir, it was a very natural one. At that time the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimae had scarcely been fought, certainly not finally appreciated. These old officers of the Navy scarcely knew what it was to test iron clad vessels, nor had they yet fully learned the loo reach of our improved cun non. At that time Farragut ha not eased the forts near NewOrleans and in Mobi e bay; Fort Fisher had not been taken by Porter; we had not the light on the subject that we have now. And so each year the advantages of League Island and the disadvantages of the other proposed sites have become more appu rent. What, then, are the characteristics which should determine above all others where this additional navy yard room shall be obtained by the Governineqt? At the risk of repeating what has been better said by others, I cannot help referring to the 2 great advantages which League Island possesses, and which none of these other places adord. These are, fresh water and distance from the sea. There has been a little book sent to each of us, a very modest little pamphlet, advocating NewLondon. I an pose it was written by the member of the last congress I have alluded to. It says that N cw London is as well situated as Cherbourg, in France, for a national navy yard. Well, this is a most unfortunate illust‘ation. Because Cherbourg is by the sea it has taken 56 years to build its works and fortifications, at a cost of 40 millions for the works and 20 millions for the defenses, even with the aid of convict labor one basin, the “‘ar m'erede flot, ” taking 22 years to build. And even now it is admitted that With the modern long range guns vessels might steam to within 3 miles. lay outside the breakwater and perhaps ruin if not reduce it, although 014 June 7, tier on tier of casemates rise from the water bristling with cannon. Portsmouth is on the Channel almost oppo site, and the English have spent $50,000.000 to extend and fortify it; serious arguments being made in Parliament that it must be abandoned on account of its proximity to the ocean 5 or 6 miles and not as near.then as at NewLondon. When it was found that missiles could be thrown for miles, the British went 12 miles up the Medway to build Chatham at an enormous expense; the 3 main advantages alleged in its favor being that it was not on the coast, but the defenses of Sheerness had 1st to be passed. (as it is with us at Forts Delaware and Mifllin,) that the river could be protected from the lands on either side, and chiefly that it was an island (St. Mary’s) affording facilities for wharfage not on the main land. I need scarcely go further. Brest taken by the British as Nelson took Malta; L’Orient, on the Bay of Biscay, with its 500 ans trailed ready for an enemy; Toulon, whose approaches are stronger than Cherbourg, yet with twice 500 guns and immense fortifications to defend it, tell us we must build a navy yard where it can be defended at. little cost or be safe without other defenses than the ships which may run out from its docks. So much for defensibility. I admit here that whenever it can be shown that we should build a navy yard, such as is proposed. within a few miles of the 0 mensea and the reach of modern ordnance; whenever it can be shown that salt water is better than fresh water for iron vessels; or that the gran ite rocks of NewLondon can be cut down with little expense and be fitter for a foundation than hard ground, I will vote for NewLon don. We do not want this site at Philadelphia selected unless it is for the national benefit. Philadel hia, I believe, has among her population a arger number of returned soldier who are skilled mechanics than all the inhabif? ants, male and female, men, women and children, of NewLondon. We have offered this island, a free gift, costing over $300,000, to the Government when it required and asked for additional accommodations, and it ought not to be refused.