The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1857-02-10

Pierce Is used up, Out wall not MI. Whlte tcohF
monty called 10. White) step in for the vindica-
ton Of Marcy!
IRENE ndous Exeshet over the Cs~ntry-Up
wards or Three Millions OF Property De-
atroyed.
On reference to our news columns it will
he seen that there have been great freshets
| in the Hudson near Albany, in the Delaware, the
| Schuylkih, the Susquehanna and ether rivers.
| On the 5th inst. the rising of the water in the
| Ohio at Cincinnati, and the moving Of the ice
| created the greatest alarm in that city, and
| siy steamboats, were destroyed, and other damage
done to property. We learn by telegraph that
| the bridge over the Potomac has been almost
entirely destroyed, and we expect to have in the
course of the present week still further accounts
Of damage caused by the long continued thaw
with which we have been visited.
While we have been cOngratulating ourselves
on the rapid melting Of the banks Of ice and
snow with which our streets were barrcaded, the
people of Albany, and that portion Of our agrcul-
tural population who live along the banks of
those rivers, have had in the destruction of their
property good cause to remember the great thaw Of
1857 They have in seine instances been driven
from their dwellings by the overlooking waters,
and forced to take refuge elsewhere, with what
ever valuables they could carry with them in
their flight. We are informed by Geographic
dispatches from Albany that the damage caused
by the freshet there amounts 10 about two mil
lions OF dollars and that the food rose three feet
higher than has been known in thirty years before.
The destruction of property in other parts of the
country will probably exceed million Of dollars,
making the total damage by this freshet over
three millions
The breaking up of the ice in the Hudson river,
at and above Albany and Troy, has always been
regarded with considerable anxiety by the people
of those Cities and not without good reason, as
the present and previous freshets abundantly
testify. ON the 18th of February, 1851, the
docks in Troy were submerged, and two hundred
feet Of the embankment from the main land to
the island above the city, and which bad been
built by the government to throw the water into
the channel, was torn away. A still more de-
siructive treshet occurred from the thawing of
the SLOW in the country along the Hudson, and
the breaking up of the ice in that river, on the Sd
OF March, 1918. We are told that the water rose
so rapidly, and to such height, that several
families living in Church street would have
persisted if they had not been rescued from their
dwellings,. Shops were thrown up on the dock,
and the horse ferryboat was driven about half
way up to Pearl street So great a freshet had
not been known in forty years before.
The great destruction of property throughout
the country. from cause which is liable to occur
any winter, shows how imperatively necessary it
is to make some provision for the future. Our
river commerce has grown into an Importance
only second TO our commerce on the ocean, and
yet the means which have been adopted for its
protection are far from being commensurate
with it's extent. Through the application Of
steam to navigation, Albany, Chicago, and other
commercial cities of the interior, have been
brought into direct communication with
Liverpool, London and the great ports of Europe;
but while every provision has been made for the
protection of their shipping, nothing has been
done for the better security Of the
steamboats, and other craft plying between
our large inland ports. Perhaps it
IL ldu W tAptCt diat, ~ thp SoAiy PSiiou'
and with the remarkably rapid growth Of our
commerce we should be as far advanced in this
particular as the Oldest maritime Powers OF
Europe, but it is time that We commenced the
work, and the present destructive freshet proves
that it cannot be accomplished too soon. BY
proper system Of grading, the city of Albany,
which has suffered most by this freshet- might be
almost placed beyond the reach of damage from
the breaking up Of the ice and rising Of the river.
The construction of stone piers, however, in this
and the other cities which have suffered by the
food would act as sort of breakwater against the
ice and afford safe dockage TO the shipping. 1t
is TO the want Of these that the damage may, TO
great extent, be attributed, aud until adequate
provision is made for its security and protection
We must expect to hear Of still more damage from
the same cause.
THE NEW YORK CoLIEcToRsHP-A TIMELY
| wARNING We understand that a correspon-
dencs has recently taken place between Mr. Red.