[Footnote 23:  Returns incomplete.]

[Footnote 24:  Broken up in 1840.]

It appears from the above table, that the cost of constructing ships of the line is about $6,600 per gun; of frigates, $6,500 per gun; of smaller vessels of war, a little less than $5,000 per gun:  making an average cost of vessels of war to be more than six thousand dollars per gun. And the expense of repairs for these vessels is more than seven per cent. per annum on their first cost.

We have as yet had but little experience in the use of war-steamers.  The Fulton, four guns, built in 1838-’39, cost three hundred and thirty-three thousand seven hundred and seventy dollars and seventy-seven cents; the Mississippi and Missouri, ten guns each, built in 1841, cost about six hundred thousand dollars a piece; making an average cost for war-steamers of over sixty thousand dollars per gun. The cost of repairs of steam ships will be much greater than those for vessels of war; but we have not yet had sufficient experience to determine the exact amount.  It has been estimated, however, by competent judges, that when kept, the expense of repairs will at least equal twelve per cent. of the first cost.  The expense of keeping them in commission is enormously great.  “Their engines,” says the Secretary of the Navy, in his annual report in 1842, “consume so much fuel as to add enormously to their expenses; and the necessity that they should return to port, after short intervals of time, for fresh supplies, renders it impossible to send them on any distant service.  They cannot be relied on as cruisers, and are altogether too expensive for service in time of peace.  I have therefore determined to take them out of commission, and substitute for them other and less expensive vessels.”

The average cost of permanent fortifications is but little more than three thousand dollars per gun.  And it must be obvious, from the nature of the materials of which they are constructed, that the expense of their support must be inconsiderable.  It is true that for some years past a large item of annual expenditure for fortifications has been under the head of “repairs;” but much of this sum is for alterations and enlargements of temporary and inefficient works, erected anterior to the war of 1812.  Some of it, however, has been for actual repairs of decayed or injured portions of the forts; these injuries resulting from the nature of the climate, the foundations, the use of poor materials and poor workmanship, and from neglect and abandonment.  But if we include the risk of abandonment at times, it is estimated, upon data drawn from past experience, that one-third of one per cent. per annum, of the first cost, will keep in perfect repair any of our forts that have been constructed since the last war.

But it is unnecessary to further discuss this question We repeat what has already been said, no matter what may be the relative cost of ships and forts, the one, as a general thing, cannot be substituted for the other.  Each has its own sphere of action, and each will contribute, in its own way, to the national defence; and any undue increase of one, at the expense of the other, will be attended by a corresponding diminution of national power.[25]