The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1859-02-08
Memorial OF the Citizens OF Indiana
along the line of the Wabash and
Erie Canal, to the LIE legislature of In

Representatives Of the State Of Indiana:
The citizens of the counties of the State
of Indiana along the Wabash and Erie Ca
nal, from the Ohio State line to Evansville,
by their delegates convened in assembly at
indianapolis, on the lst day of February,
1859, present this, their memorial, to your
honorable body. Your memorialists have
been suddenly aroused into anxiety by the
announcement contained in the report of
the Board of Trustees of the Wabash and
Erie Canal, made at this session to your
honorable body, that the revenues of said
canal have been for two years or more in
adequate for its maintenance, and that for
want of the necessary funds they will be
unable to continue its navigation during the
coming season, or even to open 1t in the
spring. This announcement has created
/ great alarm among our memorialists, and
they are forced thereby TO apprehend the
most serious disasters to their vital interests.
Your honorable body must be aware of
the arguments which, more than thirty
years ago, led the people of this State with
vast preparation to undertake the constrrc-
ton of the Wabash and Erie Canal. The
development of long line of country, and
the supplying a means of transportation to
distant markets for the accumulating pro-
ductions of that country, justified the State
in its infancy to embark in the enterprise
for its construction, and to incur, therefor, a
permanent debt of large amount to tax
the yearly toll of the people.
| This work has been completed, and though
it has failed to produce the revenue antici-
| pated, yet it has not failed to shed over the
territory traversed by il, all the benefits
which it was undertaken to secure. 1t has
| given value to the soil bordering its line,
/ and rendered the country attractive to emf
| grafton. 1t has filled that country with
! population and covered it with wealth, and
| it has given that population medium of
transportation for the productions of their
industry to markets of sale, and for the pro-
curement of the foreign commodities re-
quired for their consumption.
Many of your me .norialistS have made
vast personal aud pecuniary preparations
for the use and employment of this canal.
They have predicated the entire calculations
of several years upon the enjoyment of the
business facilities furnished by it, and have
q vested capital resting entirely upon it
which will be utterly subverted and lost if
it shall no longer be maintained. Others of
them, whose farms are within reasonable
range of its waters, or whose industrial vo-
cation in other spheres have a direct rela-
ton to the facilities which it has furnished,
will be, in such case, paralyzed, and all
their cherished calculations utterly discom-
fitted.
Others of them are participants in the in
cidental and public benefits which are shed
| abroad over the country, and through the
towns and cities along the line of this canal
for four hundred miles, where the habits
and conveniences of the people have become
adapted TO the established use and enjoy
ment thereof. And your memorialist of
this class contemplate the iminent abandon
ment of the canal as an impending calamity.
Besides their wrecked fortunes, and the
loss of the accustomed benefits and blessings
conferred by the canal in its ordinary en-
oyment, your memorialists foresee as the
result of its desertion and disuse, the induc-
| ton of positive evils in the nature of stag
nant pools of water, and consequent disease.
These are among the considerations which
have aroused the excitement of the people
| along the line of the canal. and have con-
strained them to make this special appeal
| to the interposition and power of the Gene
raj Assembly of the State.
| Your memorialists know not what speci-
fc provision to ask, but they appeal TO the
| wisdom of the Legislature for such action as
! shall avert this impending calamity.
! They respectfully submit that it is con-
trary to the interest," honor, and dignity, as
we'll as the duty and solemn obligations of
the State expressed and implied, to suffer
| an abandonment of this canal.
If it is assumed that the same can not be
preserved and maintained except by direct
appropriation of $4,000 or $4,000 per
year, for the treasury Of the State, still your
memorialists urge that on the score Of in
! terest, for many reasons, 1t is expedient to
make such annual appropriation.
! First. The canal can not be abandoned
without vast destruction of property along
the line of the same, which, with its use, is
of positive and large value, but with its dis
use is utterly worthless. Of this nature are
our warehouses for storage and shipment of
grain, and mills and factories erected and
operated by power leased from the canal
The amount of property of this nature is
estimated low at FIVE hundred thousand dol
lars.
/ Again: The decrease in the value offarm-
ing land and other real estate along its line,
and within the range of its influence in Civ
ing value to agricultural productions, in the
extent of four hundred miles between the
Ohio line and Evansville, will amount to
many millions of dollars. Your memorial
lists can not furnish with the limited oppor-
tunity they have, accurate estimates of this
decrease, but from sufficient considerations
! feel warranted in stating that it will exceed
the sum of twenty-five million dollars.
Again, your memorialists urge, that the
State can not suffer the the canal to go
down, and with it the fortunes of such
of your memorialists as are embarked upon
it, without making compensation for their
loss The State established this canal as
one of her permanent institutions, under
forms of legislation the most solemn, and
most strongly intending to invite the conf
dence and faith of her citizens. Inspired
by these sanctions they have made vast in
vestments upon this great public work
They have erected warehouses and mills,
and other costly buildings along its margin,
and for its use. They have built boats to
navigate it and to do its business, without
which, the work itself, as furnished by the
State at the cost of her millions, would have
beeen a useless stream. And they have
made the most extended preparations for