The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1866-06-10
The Overflow.

bow in the cloud" only IN part re-
deems its promise. The deluge over
flows the globe Our people, after hav-
ing experienced the sad horrors of war
for bloody lustrum, are now driven
from their homes by the pitiless watersl
When the statistician makes his re-
port Of the number Of arpents over
flowed, his columns may be startling
indeed, but they will convey to per-
Sons at q distance but a faint idea of
the terrible calamities which have
visited the inhabitants of lower Louisi-
ana during the present season. From
the watersheds of the Alleghanies and
the vast reservoirs of the Rocky Noun.
tains the melted SHOWS are pouring
down their accumulated floods, carry
ing destruction in their path, aud the
windows of heaven seem to be opened
above us as they never were before.
Through Louisiana the waters of half
continent must seek the sea, and as
the natural channels are insufficient for
the discharge of so immense a vol
ume, the flowing floods have to be
walled IN by artificial entertainments or
they will spread far and wide in their
devastating course.
In times of peace, with completely
organized system of servile labor, the
attempt to separate the waters from
the land was ct least partially success
full The great river used to chafe
along its borders and lash the sides of
its intent, as if determined to break
through the feeble barriers which man
had raised for his protection; but
thus far shalt thou go, and no far
ther, was the human mandate to the
giant river, and in the main it was
obeyed. Occasionally the waters would
burst through all restraints, and assert
their might in wild, whirling, lawless
riot; but such cases were the excep-
ticn, not the rule. Human skill, en-
terprise and energy had succeeded in
converting the miasmal swamp into
garden, and in correcting the errors
which nature left in her first blurred
proof of Louisiana as habitable place.
But five years of war, and the results
consequent thereon, left the State help
less as a rudderless bark at sea, when
the storm-king rules the waves Her
material and industrial resources were
wholly insufficient to contend success
fully against the wild will of the Father
of Waters; and now, on thousands of
fair plantations the alligator and pre-
datory gar fight their battles beneath
the very rOoi-rees of what were once
the homes of refinement and content.
Think of it, ye who have wept over
tales of isolated distress, and calculate
if YOU can the innumerable ills which
have to be endured by whole commu-
mites, when driven from their homes
by the OVERLOOKING waters This comes
to them as the last, or, at least, the
latest of a long series of dire calamities
They have no boarded stores of gold to
support them during their sorrowing
months of exile. What they had
sowed in hope they will never reap.
Their fields can only be touched by the
sounding line of the adventurous navi>
gator Their Aocks and herds nave
been swept away, and all that remains
of them are bloated carcasses which
faint the air till hocks of vultures find
living sepulchres for the fast decaying
flesh. Deprived of all the enjoyments
of home, the exiled planters and their
families are left perhaps TO the capri
cious charity of strangers In other
days they knew the luxury of being
independent now they have nothing
left but the dignity of self-esteem, and
heroic determination to keep their
sorrows, as far as possible, a secret
from the world. Sheltered IN some
poor hoyel-for houses cannot be ob-
tanned for the thousands who have
been driven from their homes-sick-
ness, the result of exposure, is added
to their other misfortunes, and by the
multitude of their miseries they are
completely overwhelmed.
This is no fancy sketch, no solitary
experience of single family-it is
the bitter history Of thousands upon
thousands of the inhabitants of this
fair State. With what heart can such
people 90 to work, after the waters
recede, to build up new protection
levees ? To redeem their homes from
the ruin wrought by the overflow is as
much as can be expected of them.
The extent of country covered by
the inundation this year is greater
than that of any previous season.
Beside the crevas5es along the Missis-
sir,pi, Red River has completely over
flowed its banks, thereby seriously in
creasing the area of devastation.
We trust that the General Govern
ment Will lend lis powerful aid to
our State authorities at this sad Juno
ture Substantial and sufficient lev
ee. must be built along the borders
of the Mississippi to protect the allu-
vial lands on either side, or the fair
plantations which were so productive
before the war will have to be aban-
doned as irreclaimable-Ne1g Orleans
Tines, June 5.