About one-half of
these, however, covers the current expenditures of the Navy in actual
service, and one-half constitutes a fund of national property, the
pledge of our future glory and defense. It was scarcely one short year
after the close of the late war, and when the burden of its expenses and
charges was weighing heaviest upon the country, that Congress, by the
act of 29th April, 1816, appropriated $1,000,000 annually for eight
years to the _gradual increase of the Navy_. At a subsequent period this
annual appropriation was reduced to half a million for six years, of
which the present year is the last. A yet more recent appropriation the
last two years, for building ten sloops of war, has nearly restored the
original appropriation of 1816 of a million for every year. The result
is before us all. We have twelve line-of-battle ships, twenty frigates,
and sloops of war in proportion, which, with a few months of
preparation, may present a line of floating fortifications along the
whole range of our coast ready to meet any invader who might attempt to
set foot upon our shores.
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