The Planters' banner. [volume] (Franklin, Attakapas Co., Lou.) 1849-1872, 1853-10-06

the early and earnest attention of our
lawmakers.
1t is the desire nearest the heart of
every citizen of New Orleans, that vel
low fever should, if possible, be Danish
ed forever from our limits. II is the
prevailing wish that any and every
means likely to effect this object, may
be tried. We needed not the fearful
evidence furnished day by day by the
present terrible epidemic, to place be-
yond contradiction the facts, that the
disease is transmissible and con,a gious,
and that New Orleans is as clearly in
debted for it to the West Indies and
other intertropical regions, as that the
rivot and 0Iuer luwus ore indebted for
it TO New Orleans The last nuuruur
of the New Ocleaas Medical Review
frankly admits that the origin of the
sickness this summer was among the
shipping along the levee. Those who
have hitherto ascribed the origin of the
disease in this city to local causes, now
abandon the theory-at least they no
longer defend it; while many of their
numbers profess cheerful acquie<ence
in the general wish that the efficacy of
quarantine shall be promptly and fully
tested
Great as are the natural advantages
of this city as mart of trade-and they
are nsnrpaSsed by those of any city on
earth-its growth in population, busi-
ness and wealth has hitherto been in
conceivably retarded from those vista
tions of yellow fever. Were these ma
tural advantages less than they are, its
ntter destruction would have been in
evta BILE. But for this one great draw
back TO its progress, think | am war
ranted in the belief, that New Orleans
al this hour might aspire TO be consider
ed the first commercial city of the
Union This is not the language of ex-
angera,ion. 1t is the natural deduction
from facts During the last fifty years,
not less than 10000 of the flower aud
strength of the land have fallen vic
Tins 10 yellow fever within the limits
Of the city. And if we add to this the
numbers that have died Of this disease
in boring towns, the total of the
mortality from this dread cause, origin
aiing here, would range between so and
100000 1t was not beyond The mark
the recent declaration of a New York
editor, that the people who have died
here Of yellow fever might have built
up state. Now in view of fact, so
intimately connected with everything
adverse to a realization of our immense
advantages, and 10 our individual hap
piness and interests, who shall compute
the value nf all those elements of civic
greatness which have thus been repel-
led from Us, and directed elsewhere
who shall determine what would have
been the general proportions Of city
which, in spite of the crushing weight
that constantly bears upon its exeriions,
has, nevertheless, up 10 this time, kept
pace with her sister cities in the march
of improvement?
Our fellow-citizens of the country pa
Tishes, from community of interests as
we'll as of dangers, naturally sympa-
thize with our desire to free the city,
and through it themselves, from vista
tions of yellow fever. | am happy to
be enabled to add, that their convic-
tons as to the efficacy Of a quarantine
in accomplishing SO desirable an end,
are even more decided than are ours
Their experience in relation 10 the ma
lady has been acquired in small towns
and settlements, and under circum-
stances that enabled them to observe
lis movements with a precision and
certainty which the muIlfarious aud
complicated relations of life in this city,
and the policy of suPpressing rather
than Of furnishing information of It's in
PRODUCTION, render it so difficult TO at
tain. In every instance of its appear
ance among them, they have always
been enabled to trace it TO our doors;
and they feel that the first step i'll ter
minating the evil, is to stop its future
introduction here.
Should we unwisely defer prompt ae-
ton on this subject, and with the pass
age of the danger neglect the means of
preventing It's recurrence, the glooml-
ness Of our past history will be reflected
in the future, and in still darker and
more forbidding hues. The present
season of death and suffering has left
the impression-burned, as il were, on
our hearts-that any expectations of an
alienation, much more a suppression,
of the evil, by the means hitherto re-
commended, are worse than idle-that
in spite Of all our exertions TO abate the
curse, each succeeding year will but
render it more terrible and unsparing.
1t is now perfectly clear 10 the mind of
every sensible and unpreJrdlced man,
that, with the ideas which have hither-
to controlled our sanitary policy, an in-
crease of our commerce must bring
with il a corresponding increase 10 the
frequency and fatality of yellow fever
visitations.
Unless we relieve ourselves from this
deadly drag on our exertions, it is vain
to expect that we shall keep pace with
the rapid development of the immense
regions watered by the Mississippi,
Missouri aud Ohio, or that they shall
continue to recognise our city as the
market for their productions. the depot
of their purchases. Those magnificent