The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1846-08-06
MIR CALHOUN made the following
REPORT:

IL accompany Ulll ~ W. GlO'
The Special Committee, to whom was referr-
ed the memorial of the Memphis Conven-
ton, have had the same under considera-
ton. and submit for the consideration Of the
Senate the following report:
ut appears from the memorial that the con-
vention met in Memphis, Tennessee, in No
vember last; that it consisted Of five hundred
and eighty-three members from the States OF
PENNSYLVANIA, Virginia, the two Carolinas,
Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Missis-
sippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Ken
lucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and the Terri
tory of Iowa, making sixteen States and one
Territory and that its object was to confer
on the measures which should be adopted for
the development of the resources Of the val
ley of the Mississippi, and the adjacent States
on the gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coast.
1t also appears that its deliberations termina-
ted in the adoption of twenty resolutions, a.
monG which the most prominent relates to the
improvement of the navigation of the Alssls-
sippi and its great navigable tributaries, in
Guiding the deepening of the bar at its mouth,
and its connection with the lakes by ship
canal the security and defence of the COM
memc between the gulf of Mexico and the
Atlantic coast the reclamation, by embank-
ments, Of the public lands bject to inunda-
tons on the Mississippi and its tributaries and
the connexion of its valley and the southern
Atlantic States by system of railroads.
What your committee propose is to present
its views on each of these subjects, taking
them in the order in which they stand.
Of these several objects, the improvement
of the navigation of the Mississippi, including
its great navigable tributaries, is by far the
most important, and has accordingly received
their particular attention That great stream
is the channel through which, by the aid of
steam, cheap and speedy transit and inter
course are effected not only between all parts
of its immense valley, but also between 1t and
the rest of the Union and the commercial
world And to this cheap and speedy transit
and intercourse are to be attributed, even
more than to it's fertile soil and great resources,
4 its almost miraculous increase in population,
wealth and improvement. So great have they
3 been, that what sixty years ago was one vast
region, with little exception, Of forest and
81 prairies, over which few hundred thousand
savages wandered, has now population but
T little less than nine millions, with great and
fourishing cities, Astounding in opulcnce, re-
fined in manners and possessed OF all the
comforts and even elegance Of old and polish
ed communities.
But, as great as this increase and improve
ment have been, they are nothing compared
to what may be expected in the next sixty
years. They advance with an accelerated "a
pidity. The whole population in the entire
region drained by the Mississippi did not, ac-
cording to the first census, Q7900 exceed
100000 According to that Of 1900 it had
increased in round numbers, to 100000, In
II 1910 it had increased, in like number, to )
$4,000; in 1920, to 2,58O,000; in 1880, to
4,190,0 900; in 1910, to 6,37O, 900; and IN 1916,
to 1920, 900, estimated according to the ratio
of increase between the census Of 1880 and
that of 1870 Estimating it at the same rate,
it would in 1856 exceed twenty millions; and
in 1866, forty millions. 1t is however,
scarcely possible for the increase to keep
pace with the present ratio; but, at
ter making ample allowance forts retardation
with the increase ofpopulatlon, it may be re-
carded as a safe calculation that the popula-
ton of the valley will reach twenty-five mil
lions in the next twenty years, forty in the
next forty years, and sixty IN the next sixty
wears, unless some shock should occur which
would convulsc or overthrow our political IN
stitutions.
But, as rapid as has been the increase OF its
nonulation. its commerce has been still more
so. 1t is stated, on what may be regarded as
Z good authority, that, so late as 1917, "thc
" whole commerce from New Orleans to the up
per country was transported in about twenty
n barres of one hundred tons each, and making
but one trip per year. The number of keel
boats employed on the upper Ohio could not
have exceeded one hundred and fifty, Of thirty
tons each, and making the trip from Pitts
burg to Louisville and back again in two
months, and about thrice in the season. The
tonnage of all boats ascending the Ohio and
the lower Mississippi was then about $500
The same authority states the number Of
steamboats, Employed in navigating the Missis
Sippi an! IT. TRIBUTARIES in lS42 70 be l9Ql