Sir, we are not satisfied, and we desire to enter our protest against any such formation of committees as is here presented. But we would say to the gentlemen on the other side of the chamber; You have the power to-day; you can elect your committees as you see fit; you can give us one representative on a committee of five, or one on a committee of seven, or none on any of the committees, if you think proper. Exercise that power in your own discretion; but, gentlemen, beware! for the time is not far distant when the measure you mete out to us to-day shall be meted to you again.
Senators Pugh, Bayard, Gwin and Brown, from the Democratic side, defended the list as presented by Mr. Allen, and his resolution for its appointment was adopted by a strict party vote of thirty to nineteen. The Republican protests were again unheeded by the Senate, but in less than four years Mr. Chandler's prediction, that the situation would be reversed, was fulfilled.
Before Mr. Chandler entered the Senate there had been some work done by the United States upon the most serious natural obstacle to the navigation of the Great Lakes, the tortuous channels and extensive shoals at the mouth of the St. Clair river, known as the "St. Clair Flats." Largely through Senator Cass's efforts an appropriation of $45,000 had been made in the Thirty-fourth Congress (it was passed over Franklin Pierce's veto) for this work, and this sum had been expended under the supervision of Major Whipple in the clearing out of a channel through the shoals of about 6,000 feet in length, 150 feet in width, and nine feet in depth at low water. This improvement, valuable as it was, did not prove at all adequate, and was made much less useful in the few following years by a lessening in the depth of the water of Lake St. Clair. The rapidly-growing commerce of the lakes manifestly demanded the early construction and permanent maintenance through these shoals of a first-class ship canal, which could be safely used in all conditions of water and weather by vessels of the largest class. Mr. Chandler clearly perceived the necessity for this important national work, determined to rest not until its completion, and commenced at once his attack on the great obstacles in its way--namely, the disposition of the older States to undervalue the commercial importance of the Northwest, and the traditional hostility of the Democracy to all internal improvements. The first measure, which (on January 14, 1858) Mr. Chandler gave notice of his intention to introduce, was a bill "making an additional appropriation for deepening the channel of the St. Clair Flats;" when introduced it was referred to the Committee on Commerce. There an effort was made to strangle it by persistent inaction. Accordingly, on April 24, Mr. Chandler introduced in the Senate a resolution instructing the Committee on Commerce to report back this bill for action by the Senate. This resolution not receiving immediate consideration, on May 3 he called it up and demanded a vote. Mr. Clay, the chairman of the committee, opposed it with much temper, and moved to lay it on the table, but this motion was lost by one vote. Mr. Clay then attacked Mr. Chandler's resolution as insulting to the Committee on Commerce, and said he spurned the idea that the committee could be instructed to report in favor of a certain appropriation for a certain work, and that he should despise himself if he was capable of obeying such instructions. Mr. Hamlin, the sole Republican member, expressed his gratification at the fact that the Senator from Michigan (Mr. Chandler) had offered this resolution; he thought that it was appropriate, and that the action of the committee called for such instructions. Mr. Clay having inquired, "What is the use of having a Cabinet or an engineer corps, if the Senate is to take these matters into its own hands?" Mr. Hamlin replied, "What is the use of a Senate, if the Committee on Commerce, or the Cabinet officers, or the engineer corps, are to control these matters?" and insisted that the Committee on Commerce was a creature of the Senate, within its control, and that if it differed from the Senate in regard to any proposition before it, that body had the right to instruct the committee what action to take. He added that because the committee had agreed to make no appropriation excepting for certain specific matters, it did not follow that the Senate must adopt its views, and be controlled thereby; that the servant had no right nor authority to bind the master, and that the committee was the servant of the Senate. Mr.