Chapter CXVII

THE COAST SURVEY: ATTEMPT TO DIMINISH ITS EXPENSE, AND TO EXPEDITE ITS COMPLETION, BY RESTORING THE WORK TO NAVAL AND MILITARY OFFICERS.

Under the British government, not remarkable for its economy, the survey of the coasts is exclusively made by naval officers, and the whole service presided by an admiral, of some degree--usually among the lowest; and these officers survey not only the British coasts throughout all their maritime possessions, but the coasts of other countries where they trade, when it has not been done by the local authority. The survey of the United States began in the same way, being confined to army and navy officers; and costing but little: now it is a civil establishment, and the office which conducts it has almost grown up into a department, under a civil head, and civil assistance costing a great annual sum. From time to time efforts have been made to restore the naval superintendence of this work, as it was when it was commenced under Mr. Jefferson: and as it now is, and always has been, in Great Britain. At the session 1842-'3, this effort was renewed; but with the usual fate of all attempts to put an end to any unnecessary establishment, or expenditure. A committee of the House had been sitting on the subject for two sessions, and not being able to agree upon any plan, proposed an amendment to the civil and diplomatic appropriation bill, by which the legislation, which they could not agree upon, was to be referred to a board of officers; and their report, when accepted by the President, was to become law, and to be carried into effect by him. Their proposition was in these words:

"That the sum of one hundred thousand dollars be appropriated,
out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated,
for continuing the survey of the coast of the United States:
_Provided_, That this, and all other appropriations hereafter
to be made for this work, shall, until otherwise provided by
law, be expended in accordance with a plan of re-organizing the
mode of executing the survey, to be submitted to the President
of the United States by a board of officers which shall be
organized by him, to consist of the present superintendent, his
two principal assistants, and the two naval officers now in
charge of the hydrographical parties, and four from among the
principal officers of the corps of topographical engineers; none
of whom shall receive any additional compensation whatever for
this service, and who shall sit as soon as organized. And the
President of the United States shall adopt and carry into effect
the plan of said board, as agreed upon by a majority of its
members; and the plan of said board shall cause to be employed
as many officers of the army and navy of the United States as
will be compatible with the successful prosecution of the work;
the officers of the navy to be employed on the hydrographical
parts, and the officers of the army on the topographical parts
of the work. And no officer of the army or navy shall hereafter
receive any extra pay, out of this or any future appropriations,
for surveys."

In support of this proposition, Mr. Mallory, the mover of it, under the direction of the committee, said:

"It would be perceived by the House, that this amendment
proposed a total re-organization of the work; and if it should
be carried out in the spirit of that amendment, it would correct
many of the abuses which some of them believed to exist and
would effect a saving of some $20,000 or $30,000, by dispensing
with the services of numerous civil officers, believed not
to be necessary, and substituting for them officers of the
topographical corps and officers of the navy. The committee
had left the plan of the survey to be decided on by a board of
officers, and submitted to the President for his approval, as
they had not been able to agree among themselves on any detailed
plan. He had, to be sure, his own views as to how the work
should be carried on; but as they did not meet the concurrence
of a majority of the committee, he could not bring them before
the House in the form of a report."

This was the explanation of the proposition. Not being able to agree to any act of legislation themselves, they refer it to the President, and a board, to do what they could not, but with an expectation that abuses in the work would be corrected, expense diminished, and naval and military officers substituted, as far as compatible with the successful prosecution of the work. This was a lame way of getting a reform accomplished. To say nothing of the right to delegate legislative authority to a board and the President, that mode of proceeding was the most objectionable that could have been devised. It is a proverb that these boards are a machine in the hands of the President, in which he and they equally escape responsibility--they sheltering themselves under his approval--he, under their recommendation and, to make sure of his approval, it is usually obtained before the recommendation is made. This proposed method of effecting a reform was not satisfactory to those who wished to see this branch of the service subjected to an economical administration, and brought to a conclusion within some reasonable time. With that view, Mr. Charles Brown, of Pennsylvania, moved a reduction of the appropriation of more than one half, and a transference of the work from the Treasury department (where it then was) to the navy department where it properly belonged; and proposed the work to be done by army and naval officers. In support of his proposal, he said:

"The amendment offered under the instructions of the committee,
did not look to the practical reform which the House expected
when this subject was last under discussion. He believed, that
there was a decided disposition manifested in the House to get
clear of the present head of the survey; yet the amendment of
the gentleman brought him forward as the most prominent member
of it. He thought the House decided, when the subject was up
before, that the survey should be carried on by the officers
of the general government; and he wished it to be carried on
in that way now. He did not wish to pay some hundred thousand
dollars as extra pay for officers taken from private life, when
there were so many in the navy and army perfectly competent to
perform this service. This work had cost nearly a million of
dollars ($720,000) by the employment of Mr. Hassler and his
civil assistants alone, without taking into consideration the
pay of the officers of the navy and army who were engaged in it."

The work had then been in hand for thirty years, and the average expense of each year would be $22,000; but it was now increased to a hundred thousand; and Mr. Brown wished it carried back more than half--a saving to be effected by transferring the work to the Navy Department, where there were so many officers without employment--receiving pay, and nothing to do. In support of his proposal, Mr. Brown went into an examination of the laws on the subject, to show that this work was begun under a law to have it done as he proposed; and he agreed that the army and navy officers (so many of whom were without commands), were competent to it; and that it was absurd to put it under the Treasury Department.

"The law of February 10, 1807, created the coast survey, put it
in the hands of the President, and authorized him to use army
and navy officers, navy vessels, astronomers, and other persons.
In August, 1816 Mr. Hassler was appointed superintendent.
His agreement was to "make the principal triangulation and
consequent calculations himself; to instruct the engineer and
naval officers employed under him; and he wanted two officers
of engineers, topographical or others, and some cadets of said
corps, in number according to circumstances. April 14, 1818,
that part of the law of 1807 was repealed which authorized the
employment of other persons than those belonging to the army and
navy. Up to this time over $55,000 were expended in beginning
the work and buying instruments, for which purpose Mr. Hassler
was in England from August 1811, to 1815.

"June 10, 1832, the law of 1807 was revived, and Mr. Hassler
was again appointed superintendent. The work has been going on
ever since. The coast has been triangulated from Point Judith
to Cape Henlopen (say about 300 miles); but only a part of the
off-shore soundings have been taken. There are about 3,000 miles
of seaboard to the United States. $720,000 have been expended
already. It is stated, in Captain Swift's pamphlet, that the
survey of the coast was under the Treasury Department, because
Mr. Hassler was already engaged under that department, making
weights and measures. These are all made now. When the coast
survey was begun, the topographical corps existed but in name.
In 1838, it was organized and enlarged, and is now an able and
useful corps. Last year Congress established a hydrographical
bureau in the Navy Department. There are numbers of naval
officers capable of doing hydrographical duties under this
bureau. The coast survey is the most important topographical and
hydrographical work in the country. We have a topographical and
a hydrographical bureau, yet neither of them has any connection
with this great national work. Mr. Hassler has just published
from the opinion of the Marquis de La Place (Chamber of Peers,
session of 1816-'17), upon the French survey, this valuable
suggestion, viz: 'Perhaps even the great number of geographical
engineers which our present state of peace allows to employ in
this work, to which it is painful to see them strangers, would
render an execution more prompt, and less expensive.'

"The Florida war is now over; many works of internal improvement
are suspended; there must be topographical officers enough for
the coast survey. The Russian government has employed an able
American engineer to perform an important scientific work; but
that wise government requires that all the assistants shall come
from its corps of engineers, which is composed of army and navy
officers. If the coast survey is to be a useful public work,
let the officers conduct it under their bureaus. The officers
would then take a pride in this duty, and do it well, and do it
cheap. The supervision of the bureaus would occasion _system_,
fidelity, and entire responsibility. More than $30,000 are now
paid annually to citizens, for salary out of the coast survey
appropriation. This could be saved by employing officers.
Make exclusive use of them, and half the present annual
appropriation would suffice. Can the treasury department manage
the survey understandingly? The Secretary of the Treasury has
already enough to do in the line of his duty; and, as far as
the survey is concerned, a clerk in the Treasury Department
is the secretary. Can a citizen superintendent, of closet and
scientific habits; or can a clerk in the Treasury Department,
manage, with efficiency and economy, so many land and water
parties, officers, men, vessels, and boats? The Navy Department
pays out of the navy appropriation the officers and men now
lent to the Treasury for the survey. The Secretary of the Navy
appears to have no control over the expenditures of this part of
the naval appropriation. He does not even select the officers
detailed for this duty, though he knows his own material best,
and those who are most suitable. This navy duty has become
treasury patronage, with commands, extra pay, &c.

"The Treasury Department has charge of the vessels; they
are bought by the coast-survey appropriation; the off-shore
soundings are only in part taken. There are not vessels enough,
and of the right sort, to take these soundings, and in the
right way. Steamers are wanted. The survey appropriation cannot
bear the expense, but if the Navy Department had charge of
the hydrography, it could put suitable vessels on the coast
squadron, and employ them on the coast survey, agreeably to the
law of 1807. Last year the vessels did no soundings until about
the 1st of June, although the spring opened early. The Treasury
had not the means to equip the vessels until the appropriation
bill passed Congress. But if the navy had charge of vessels, the
few naval stores they wanted might have been furnished from the
navy stores, or given from second-hand articles not on charge
at the yards. Had good arrangements been made, the Delaware Bay
might readily have been finished last fall, and the chart of
it got out at once. Now, the topographical corps makes surveys
for defences; the navy officers make charts along the coast;
and the coast survey goes over the same place a third time. If
the officers did this work, the army might get the military
information, and the navy the hydrographical knowledge, which
the interest of the country requires that each of these branches
of the public defence should have; and this, at the expense of
but one survey; for, at places where defences might be required,
the survey could be done with the utmost minuteness. The
officers of the army and navy need not clash. The topographical
corps (aided by junior navy officers willing to serve under that
bureau--and the recent Florida war and the present coast survey
system, show that navy officers are willing to serve, for the
public good, under other departments than their own) would do
the topography and furnish the shore line. The hydrographical
officers would receive the shore line, take the soundings, and
make the chart. The same principle is now at work, and works
well. The navy officers now get the shore line from the citizens
in the shore parties. The President could direct the War and
Navy Secretaries to make such rules, through the bureaus, as
would obviate every difficulty. Employing officers would secure
for the public, system, economy, and despatch. The information
obtained would be got by the right persons and kept in the right
hands. Government would have complete command of the persons
employed; and should the work ever be suspended, might, at
pleasure, set them to work again on the same duty. The survey
he wished to be prosecuted without delay; and all he wanted was
to have it under the most efficient management. If it was found
that the officers of the navy and army were not competent, it
could be remedied hereafter; but it was due to them to give
them a fair trial, before they were condemned. Certainly they
ought not to be disgraced and condemned in advance. It was an
insult to them to suppose that Mr. Hassler was the only man in
the country capable of superintending this work; and that they
could not carry on the survey of our coast by triangulation.
They had been for some time, and were now, surveying the lakes;
and he believed their surveys would be equally correct with
Mr. Hassler's. We had a bureau of hydrography of the navy,
and a corps of topographical engineers, which were expressly
created to perform this kind of service; while there was the
military academy at West Point, which qualified the officers to
perform it. The people would hardly believe that these officers
(educated at the expense of the government) were not capable of
performing the services for which they were educated; and if
they thought so, they would be for abolishing that institution.
They would say that these officers should be dismissed, and
others appointed in their places, who were qualified.

"He never could acknowledge that there was no other man but Mr.
Hassler in the country capable of carrying on the work. This
might have been the case when he was first appointed, thirty
years ago; but since that time they had a number of officers
educated at the military academy, while many others in the
civil walks of life had qualified themselves for scientific
employments. He was sure that the officers of the army and navy
were competent to perform this work. There was but little now
for the topographical engineers to do; and he had no doubt that
many of them, as well as officers of the navy, would be glad
to be employed on the coast survey. Indeed, several officers
of the navy had told him that they would like such employment,
rather than be idle, as they then were. From the rate the coast
survey had thus far proceeded, it would take more than a hundred
years to complete it. Certainly this was too slow. He hoped,
therefore, a change would be made. In the language of the report
of Mr. Aycrigg: 'We should then have the survey conducted on a
system of practical utility, and moving _right_ end foremost.'"

These were wise suggestions, and unanswerable; but although they could not be answered they could be prevented from becoming law. Instead of reform of abuses, reduction of expense, and speedy termination of the work, all the evils intended to be reformed went on and became greater than ever, and all are still kept up upon the same arguments that sustained the former. It is worthy of note to hear the same reason now given for continuing the civilian, Mr. Bache, at the head of this work, which was given for thirty years for retaining Mr. Hassler in the same place, namely, that there is no other man in the country that can conduct the work. But that is a tribute which servility and interest will pay to any man who is at the head of a great establishment; and is always paid more punctually where the establishment ought to be abolished than where it ought to be preserved; and for the obvious reason, that the better one can stand on its own merits, while the worse needs the support of incessant adulation. Mr. Brown's proposal was rejected--the other adopted; and the coast survey now costs above five hundred thousand dollars a year in direct appropriations, besides an immense amount indirectly in the employment of government vessels and officers: and no prospect of its termination. But the friends of this great reform did not abandon their cause with the defeat of Mr. Brown's proposition. Another was offered by Mr. Aycrigg of New Jersey, who moved to discontinue the survey until a report could be made upon it at the next session; and for this motion there were 75 yeas--a respectable proportion of the House, but not a majority. The yeas were:

"Messrs. Landaff W. Andrews, Sherlock J. Andrews, Thomas D.
Arnold, John B. Aycrigg, Alfred Babcock, Henry W. Beeson,
Benjamin A. Bidlack, David Bronson, Aaron V. Brown, Milton
Brown, Edmund Burke, William B. Campbell, Thomas J. Campbell,
Robert L. Caruthers, Zadok Casey, Reuben Chapman, Thomas C.
Chittenden, James Cooper, Mark A. Cooper, Benjamin S. Cowen,
James H. Cravens, John R. J. Daniel, Garrett Davis, Ezra Dean,
Edmund Deberry, Andrew W. Doig, John Edwards, John C. Edwards,
Joseph Egbert, William P. Fessenden, Roger L. Gamble, Thomas
W. Gilmer, Willis Green, William Halsted, Jacob Houck, jr.,
Francis James, Cave Johnson, Nathaniel S. Littlefield, Abraham
McClellan, James J. McKay, Alfred Marshall, John Mattocks, John
P. B. Maxwell, John Maynard, William Medill, Christopher Morgan,
William M. Oliver, Bryan Y. Owsley, William W. Payne, Nathaniel
G. Pendleton, Francis W. Pickens, John Pope, Joseph F. Randolph,
Kenneth Rayner, Abraham Rencher, John Reynolds, Romulus M.
Saunders, Tristram Shaw, Augustine H. Shepperd, Benjamin G.
Shields, William Slade, Samuel Stokely, Charles C. Stratton,
John T. Stuart, John B. Thompson, Philip Triplett. Hopkins L.
Turney, David Wallace, Aaron Ward, Edward D. White, Joseph L.
White, Joseph L. Williams, Thomas Jones Yorke, John Young."

The friends of economy in Congress, when once more strong enough to form a party, will have a sacred duty to perform to the country--that of diminishing, by nearly one-half, the present mad expenditures of the government: and the abolition of the present coast-survey establishment should be among the primary objects of retrenchment. It is a reproach to our naval and military officers, and besides untrue in point of fact, to assume them to be incapable of conducting and of performing this work: it is a reproach to Congress to vote annually an immense sum on the civil superintendence and conduct of this work, when there are more idle officers on the pay-roll than could be employed upon it.