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 AuBBUAK, Printer, No. 41 
 
 Cedar-street, N. Y. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

^ 43 ( 6 c^ 
 
 STEAM GOMMUNICATIOX BETWEEN SAN FRANCISCO 
 AND CHINA. 
 
 At the monthly meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, New-York, September G, 
 1860, the following resolution wa3 adopted : 
 
 " Resolved, That, in the judgment of this Chamber, an urgent necessity exists for the 
 establishment, at an early day, of mail facilities between the Cities of Sa7i Francisco, in 
 California, and Shanghai, in China, with connections at tuck inteiinediate ports as the 
 interests of commerce may indicate" 
 
 The following gentlemen were, at the same meeting, appointed a special committee, 
 with instructions to report, at the October meeting of the Chamber, the draft of a 
 memorial to Congress, asking for the establishment of mail facilities between Cali- 
 fornia and China, viz. : 
 
 A. A. Low, {Chairman,) Royal Phelps, Fletcher Westray, Prosper M. Wetmore, 
 George Opdyke, Wm. T. Coleman, Joseph S. Allen. 
 
 At the monthly meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, on the 4th of October 
 the chairman of the above committee reported the following as the form of a me- 
 morial to Congress on the subject. The report was accepted, and the memorial 
 ordered to be printed for the use of the members. 
 
 J. Smith Homans, Secretary. 
 
 Memorial of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New- York. 
 
 To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
 United States of America, in Congress assembled : 
 
 The Chamber of Commerce of the State of New- York, representing 
 the foreign and domestic trade of this city, -whose members are largely 
 interested in its shipping, would respectfully submit to the Senate and 
 House of Representatives of the United States that, in the judgment of 
 this Chamber, an extension of the postal facilities of this country is alike 
 necessary to the full success of its commerce, and to the maintenance of 
 its high position among the maritime nations of the world. 
 
 Your memorialists can recall the time, within a short term of years, 
 when the several lines of packet ships sailing out of the port of New- 
 York had almost exclusive control of the valuable traflRc between this 
 and the principal seaports of Great Britain and France ; and they have 
 
Y.V,/. 
 4 Steam Co7nmunication 
 
 lived to see tlie noble vessels, wliicli once stood so high in the estimation 
 of the traveller, and whicli bore to our stores the most costly merchan- 
 dise, degraded to the service of the emigrant, to the carrying of coal, 
 crockery and iron, and the bulky products of our own soil. 
 
 The loss to our sailing packets of the valuable trade of which they 
 were once the unrivalled possessors, is traceable primarily to the intro- 
 duction, under the fostering care of the government of Great Britain, of 
 a line of steamers from the port- of Liverpool to Boston, via Halifax, 
 some twenty years ago. Indeed, with the first application of steam to 
 ocean navigation, the British government inaugurated that system of 
 mail communication with this country, which has never failed of the sup- 
 port necessary to its full establishment and permanent existence. 
 
 The vessels first employed shortly gave place to others, larger and 
 more powerful; and, aided by subsidy after subsidy, they were soon 
 enabled to defy competition, not only in the carrying of the mails and 
 of first class passengers, but in the transportation of the rich fabrics of 
 England, France and continental Europe — all the costly merchandise which 
 is excluded from sailing vessels by the length and uncertainty of the voyage, 
 and by the higher rates of insurance. Once firmly established upon the North 
 Atlantic, the same system has been enlarged and extended to other coun- 
 tries ; to the West Indies ; to the east and west coasts of South America ; 
 to Africa ; to the North and Baltic Seas ; through the whole course of 
 the Mediterranean and the Ked Sea ; to the principal ports in India ; 
 across the Indian Ocean to Singapore ; and along the coast of China to 
 the islands of the East and to Australia. It has been carried and con- 
 tinued through all seasons and through all climes, rearing a class of sea- 
 men inured as well to the heats and tempests of the Torrid Zone as to the 
 cold, rough gales of the Northern winter ; and, wherever the mail steamer 
 has gone, and whence it has come, by a law which was manifest on the 
 scene of its first triumph, the most valuable trade has followed in its 
 course. Not only do the raw silks and the costly drugs of India and 
 China reach their destination by Oriental and Peninsular mail steamers, 
 but travellers, the men of wealth and the men of leisure — the merchant 
 and the tradesman — all who value time and punctuality, seek the shores 
 of England, in going to or returning from the various regions to which 
 the government of that country has so wisely opened the way. And, at 
 this very day, the American merchant, dependent upon the postal facili- 
 ties afibrded by his enterprising rival, opens his correspondence, and 
 studies out the wants of most of the populous countries named, from two 
 to three weeks after they have become known to his vigorous competi- 
 tors on the other side of the water. 
 
Between San Francisco and China. 5 
 
 Under the patronage of lier Britannic Majesty's government, your me- 
 morialists have seen the steamers of her mercantile marine so increased 
 in number, as to preserve, unimpaired, a mail service, which, for safety and 
 regularity, has excited the admiration of the world ; while it has spared, 
 for the emcBgencies of war, most of the transports that were needed to 
 carry an invading army to the Crimea ; and shortly afterwards, with a 
 rapidity unknown before, another army to India, when India was all in 
 revolt. With the return of peace, these same vessels, so prompt to an- 
 swer the demand of Great Britain, and her ally in time of war, are found 
 ready to resume their places in the carrying trade of the country, or in 
 filling up new lines of communication then ready to be opened. 
 
 A change has thus been going on quietly, yet effectively, in the domin- 
 ion of the seas ; and, as a consequence of the great demand for ocean 
 steamers, the utmost activity has prevailed along the banks of the Clyde 
 and the Tyne, while, for years, our shipyards from Maryland to Maine 
 have been deserted or comparatively lifeless. 
 
 Your memorialists are aware that the wisdom of the policy that has 
 led to such results has been questioned ; but, however doubted, it has 
 been always pursued with a determination that has never faltered ; till 
 at length, the commerce of England, vitalized in all its parts, has attained 
 a degree of prosperity without a parallel in history. The system pur- 
 sued by England is now being imitated by France and other powers. 
 
 At one time it seemed to be the purpose of the United States govern- 
 ment to adopt and continue a similar policy ; to give to its merchants 
 mail facilities co-extensive with their wants ; to permit their mariners to 
 go, side by side, along all the highways of the sea, upon equal terms with 
 those of the most favored' nation. To restore to our mercantile marine 
 its lost prestige ; to re-instate it in a supremacy which was once unques- 
 tioned, it needed only that measure of support which Great Britain and 
 France have rendered to theirs. Whatever doctrines about free trade 
 prevail on the other side of the Atlantic, or this, your memorialists re- 
 spectfully urge, that, so long as the mail service of England and France is 
 maintained by Imperial subsidies, the government of the United States 
 will be compelled to imitate their liberality or submit to a mortifying 
 alternative. 
 
 Your memorialists are not unmindful that some years, ago the Con- 
 gress of the United States did, for a time, yield to the pressure of public 
 opinion in this regard, and, that under the influence of temporary appro- 
 priations, a line of steamers was established to run from this city to 
 Liverpool — such steamers as have never yet been surpassed for speed, for 
 strength, for power or for eflBciency ; that, for a time, they were the boast 
 
6 Steam Communication 
 
 of our seamen and the delight of the American traveller; unfortunate, 
 indeed, and through much misfortune unsuccessful ; sustained while the 
 support that brought them into existence was continued, and finally with- 
 drawn from the ocean, if not to perish, to become valueless at the wharves 
 of this city — a spectacle to sadden and sicken the hearts of all to whom 
 they had once been a source of exultation and pride. Your memorialists 
 are aware that other lines were formed to Bremen and Jlavre, and that 
 under able management, the latter still continues to run unaided, or re- 
 ceiving only ocean and inland postage, while a few private steamers are 
 enabled to teep the sea during the summer season. 
 
 From this survey so brief, yet so unsatisfactory ; from this contrast so 
 unwillingly drawn between the far-seeing wisdom of the British govern- 
 ment and the short-sightedness of our own, your memoralists gladly turn 
 to the consideration of the subject which is the more immediate purpose 
 of this appeal. 
 
 The time seems to have fully come when the attention of the Con- 
 gress of the United States should be directed to the establishment of a 
 line of mail steamers through the waters of the Pacific Ocean to the popu- 
 lous countries of the Eastern world. 
 
 On one side are California and Oregon, with their long line of sea-coast ; 
 States abounding in mineral wealth, with a most productive soil, and 
 forests boundless in extent ; on the other the populous empires of Japan 
 and China, the Philippine Islands, Java and Australia, all as accessible to 
 the merchants of this country, by a western route, as they now are to 
 those of the old countries by existing lines of communication. 
 
 Should a line of steamers be formed from San Francisco to China, a 
 connection with the other important places indicated will become natural 
 and easy. To such a consummation the signs of the times unmistakably 
 point — lines of rail-road, running from the Atlantic, projected, if not 
 decreed ; an overland mail, which, passing through the wilderness, and 
 over the Rocky Mountains, seeks anew issue beyond the sea ; but, stronger 
 than all else, the will of a progressive and energetic race. These are 
 tokens of the future. 
 
 Such a line is needed to turn the tide of correspondence which now 
 sets hither and thither, through the China Sea, the Indian Ocean, the 
 Mediterranean Sea, and, via France and England, across the Atlantic, by 
 a more direct route to and from San Francisco. It is needed, if the 
 people of the United States would strengthen, by ties of mutual 
 intercourse and mutual interest, the bonds ®f peace and amity so 
 lately formed with the empire of Japan; if they would open up 
 to the fullest extent the vast resources of China, an empire so ca- 
 
Between San Francisco and China. *I 
 
 pacious to take of our produce and manufactures, and so rich to return in 
 kind ; if, by exchanging the gold and silver of California for the silks 
 and teas of both empires, the American merchants would be, to some ex- 
 tent, independent of foreign bankers and foreign credits ; and, above all, 
 if holding the truths of Christianity as precious, the people of the United 
 States would give the missionary speedy access to his chosen field of 
 labor, to the scene of much toil and sacrifice in the past, and of large 
 promise in the future. If all these things are desirable, such a line is 
 needed. 
 
 To such a line, the silver of Mexico, Chili and Peru, which reaches 
 China through along and expensive route, would soon become tributary ; 
 and so, too, would the gold of Australia, drawn to England via the 
 Isthmus of Panama, by that law of commerce which makes the shortest 
 route the best. 
 
 Your memoralists invite the attention of Congress to this noble enter- 
 prise, because it cannot be accomplished without the aid of government ; 
 and the benefits to be derived from it are national ; because, if it is wise 
 to spend millions annually, in time of peace, for the defence of our com- 
 merce in the event of war, it seems to be wise to appropriate the public 
 money towards building up a mercantile marine, which has been proved 
 to be as valuable in war as in peace. And your memoralists pray, that 
 this great step in our country's progress may not be deferred to another 
 day, and the honor of it to another Congress ; but that a sufiicient sub- 
 sidy be granted to any company that will undertake to perform the ser- 
 vice in question under proper guarantees and conditions. 
 
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