The folly of stripping the States of power in the matter was forcibly stated in a speech delivered upon this floor in the Fiftyfourth Congress by the late Amos J. Cummings. then and always a gallant and eloquent defender not only of the pilots. but of the right of the States to regulate and maintain their own pilotage systems. He called attention to the fact that after over fifty years of compulsory pilotage the State of New York. in 1845. repealed all of its piloige laws. and for eight years any person desiring to do so could lawfully act as a pilot. that at the expiration of these eight years the ship ew Era appeared off the New Jersey coast with a load of immigrants from Antwerp. and that the captain. although hailed by a pilot. refused to take one. A tempest arose that night. and before daylight the ship was a total Vyreck. Hundreds of lives were lost.
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immigrants