bor who had brought in goods by New York. The treasury regulations of the United States operate entirely to the advantage of the Hudson, for the custom duties are calculated according to the goods' value at the country of manufacture. But at Montreal, owing to the necessity of transshipment, the duty would be levied on the value of goods there. No distinction of this character could be made if a western propeller could pass and return by the St Lawrence. The impatiance with which the western operator chafes under the restraint is well known. The commerce of the northwest is not any fanciful speculation, nor is its magnitude in any way questionable. It is a reality, as inquiry will establish. It has outgrown the Erie canal, and the complaint of the west is that the quantity carried is so immense that carriers can command their own terms. The condition of the producers of the west has been described, without exaggeration, as that of men shut out from the markets of the world, oppressed by the excessive production of their own toil, which remain wasting and worthless upon their hands, depriving labor of half its reward, discouraging industry, and paralyzing enterprise." Yet the prosperity of the west dates from the construction of the Erie canal. Indeed, the existence of these States may be traced to it, for no one of them can refer to more than forty years of settlement. It is the commerce of this region within that period which, more than any other influence, has raised New York to its present wealth. The form in which the contribution has been made, is what can generally be observed between the seaport and its dependencies. The imports for the west are delivered at New York. It is there that bulk is broken and the magazine of supply estabished. All cereals are delivered there for transfer to the east, or for shipment. by the ocean; a tax is levied on every bushel of grain. Accordingly, every interest has received a stimulus, and a large city has grown up to be at the same time the London and the Paris of this continent. The feeling, however, is strong that this profit has been derived at the expense of the west, and there is an unwillingness longer to submit to the exaction. There is only one mode by which these aspirations can be satisfied—by the creation of enlarged channels of communication. In many localities the produce is even without value, for it is without a market. It is estimated that 500 million bushets of Indian corn or maize are raised in the northwest; but not five per cent. of this mount finds its way to the seaboard, owing to the expense of getting it there; and hat, out of the sixty cents paid in New England for a bushel of corn, only nine cents goes to the producer, the remainder being expended in freights and commission. It is this sense of an inferiority of position which has hitherto led to great disintent in the west; for, while Canada evinces its present indifference, New York will still control the carrying trade, and the Erie canal will defy competi ion. There is no necessity to nurse a commerce which has surprised the world by the constancy and rapidity of its increase, unless there be the possibility that t will seek other channels; and, although the Hudson offers the best route to he west, it is not the less unsatisfactory and exacting. We can, therefore, eadily understand why, in the northwest, public attention has been turned to he Mississippi. There is a desire to improve the Illinois and Des Plaines rivers, and to enlarge the Illinois and Michigan canal to a navigation of locks 350 feet ong, 75 feet wide, and seven feet deep, so that a more ample outlet may be obained; and by turning to the Mississippi prevent the trade passing by the St. awrence, and accordingly retain it in the hands of the United States. Neverheless, the increase of accommodation is peremptorily insisted upon. It has een argued that it is a national duty of the central government to extend it; hat in reality the national exchequer could be no more than temporarily taxed; hat the import duties collected on the return cargoes purchased by the proceeds f exported food, now denied a market, would not only pay the interest of the st of works, but would eventually pay the capital itself. This surplusage of H. Ex. Doc. 16-4 grain accounts for the extended pork trade. The hog is, indeed, regi corn in "a concentrated form." Maize is bulky and perishable, and it that it furnishes cheap food for animals. The latter, when killed and p are in no danger of suffering from decay. They can be shipped at com Accordingly, from four to five million hogs are annually slaughtered from 200,000 to 250,000 tons. There can be no ship canal from the west, except by the St. Lawre advantages which it offers cannot otherwise be obtained. To make a to New York, even by Oswego, is an impossibility, and anything I canal is of secondary importance to the west. The ocean is the pre no State of the Union; and the west will seek the channel which c commerce with the least cost and delay. A full development of the navigation would at once change every tion by which it is now regulated. Opposition from the Mississippi n argued, and there would remain only the Erie canal, which alway limited and peculiar. This route retains its trade, not from being preferable, but in spite of the disadvantage and the expense of navigat the higher tolls it imposes. The advantages which it extends are t at its terminus. The State of Illinois has officially represented the condition of t States with great force. In 1863 the legislature passed a joint reso pointing commissioners to proceed to Canada and solicit the earnest co and early action upon a subject of great and rapidly growing importar Canada and the west, "of enlarged and cheaper outlets to tide-water the lakes and rivers, and new or enlarged canals of Canada." This important document dwells upon "the growing and already v sity for enlarged and cheaper avenues to the Atlantic, and advance portance, both to Great Britain and the United States, of so opening a ing the navigation of the St. Lawrence as to afford the commerce of tries a cheap communication between the shipping ports on the nor lakes and Great Britain." What the State of Illinois asks is a direct trade between the nor States and Liverpool, on the plea "that the increasing volume of bus not be maintained without recourse to the natural outlet of the lakes. opportunity be vouchsafed, and the requisite facilities be given, th produce will be increased with a rapidity even beyond that of the pas It is estimated that from the State of Illinois alone there has beet annually, for the last ten years, a surplus of food sufficient to feed ten n people, and at the same time there has been a positive waste from the to bring the crops profitably to market. The interior of North America is drained by the St. Lawrence, which for the country bordering upon the lakes a natural highway to the sea. its deep channel must pass the agricultural productions of the said la The commercial spirit of the age forbids that international jealousy terfere with great natural thoroughfares, and the governments of Gre and the United States will appreciate this spirit and cheerfully yi influence. The great avenue to the Atlantic through the St. Lawre once opened to its largest capacity, the laws of trade, which it has never policy of the federal government to obstruct, will carry the commer northwest through it. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, July 10, 1867. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a resolution of the House of Representatives dated yesterday, as follows: "Resolved, That the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Treasury be directed to inform this House what further legislation, if any, is necessary to facilitate the payment of additional bounty granted by act of July 28, 1866.” In reply, I would say that, as far as this department is concerned, no further legislation is required to facilitate the payment of the bounty in question. I am, sir, very respectfully, Hon. SCHUYLER COLFAX, Speaker of the House of Representatives. HUGH MCCULLOCH, |