disasters, such as have of late years shocked the public mind, rendered impossibilities; suppose, moreover, that these means, like the charts, should involve only simple directions which, being once uttered, would from their nature be available alike to all, and therefore become the common property of the world; now, instead of making known this discovery and proceeding to let the world have the benefit of it, as he did of the charts, suppose he were to come to compound with the Government, maintaining that the moment his secret was divulged it would, from its nature, become common property, and he would get nothing for his discovery from those individuals who were benefited by it, and therefore he must have from the public treasury so much money in hand, or his discovery should perish with him?
"Which of the two courses, the actual or the hypothetical, best becomes the American officer, and which would Congress most approve?
"The policy of the country in some cases, as in that of prize money, dictates extraordinary rewards to its public servants. Men of war are provided, and officers are paid to cruise against the enemy; yet the law provides not only pensions, but prize money for their efforts in the strict line of their duty.
"Your Committee, upon a full examination of the subject of the resolution referred to them, think that both justice and policy dictate that Congress should bestow upon the author of the Wind and Current Charts some substantial evidence of its appreciation of the benefits he has, by his labours, conferred upon his country. In view of the character of the work, and of the vast amounts which it has, and is, saving to the navigating, commercial, and agricultural interests of the country, independent of its benefits to these interests of other countries, it is impossible to find, or to adopt any rule or measure of reward to which exceptions may not be taken.
