New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-01-26
23 es-s ss For the Crescent y VIZ SsEf =
Commercial Relations Between New Orleans
1rf md the Arkansas valley. Z

fss#s Ea4 No. NAPOLEON, Arkansas Jan 10 1856
| ~. Editor-My effort to write you this time il
attended with better spirit than heretofore The
cloud that has begirded our commercial horizon
has been disspated and justice enshrined upoI
her throne Our cotton no longer goes to elias,
of people who would rayish an Impoverished
country and snatch the last cru1nb from the mouth
of the widow and the orphan whom they had i'm
poyerished, if it would but add more distress to
their prostraton and destitnton but goes direct
our Southern city, and tor those who are equal
sharers in our misfortunes. The great obstacle
that has heretofore existed between New Orleans
and the Arkansas valley in the way of need of
transportation, associated with other accommoda-
tons and conyenieDces, have been happily re.
moved, and commerce resumes its proper channel.
As slight evidence Of this fact, + was this eve
ming on our wharfboat, which is kept by our
ohlgng fellow-townsman, Maj. Will Warren
johnson, where found quite lot of coston await.
ing transportation to the Crescent City, all of
which will doubtless reach there by the time this
article does es,essy sS ~
In my former communications have told you of
the great cost and Inconvenience attending the
transportation of cotton from the Arkansas river
to New Orleans, which l meant or intended to
speak Of in the past tense but enormously failed
to do SO, or your compositor made me use the
n
clined to believe the error is mine. Let that mat
ter be as II may, the evidence that has since that
time been laid before me by gentlemen Of nm
questioned veracity will enable me to speak more
adyisedly in the premises this time; and in ad-
dition to this, am in possession of few facts of
Importance, which render me able to send your
merchants some gratifying intelligence. VI
We now have line Of steamers plying between
this place and Little Rock, touching at ali inter-
mediate points on the Arkansas river, hence the
planters along the river can ship their cotton
direct to Napoleon, where it is safely housed on
Maj. Johnson's wharfboat until a down steamer.
can carry 1t on to its destination. Hundreds of
bal are now coming out Of the Arkansas river
valley destined for your city and why is this sud
den change at this late hour of the cotton season
Why has it not been the case all the time One
reason, and very prominent one too has already
been stated in formea letter; but there are other
reasons, and some of them of equal prominence,
which have not been satisfactorily explained !;
therefore, as am now better informed, and con.
sequently better prepared than at any previous
period, will write general statement of facts
which will speak for themselves.
When the cotton market opened last autumn, all
the Arkansas river packets ran to Memphis and to
other points north, while one scarcely ever went
to New Orleans, or even touched at this place.
The White river steamers did likewise. There
was no protection for either cotton or freight at
this place. hence anything left here was subject to
all the inclemenees of the elements and the torch
Of the inoendary; thus with this great draw back
Napoleon was entirely ignored Id oil commercial
transactions. and not having the capital to revive
her ancient facilities, herstuation as an auxiliary
to both New Orleans and the Arkansas valley,
seemed helpless indeed. Energetic parties Ia,
bored assiduously for the town to retrieve its form
or prestige, that it might extend its convenient
Inducements, coupled with its great facilities to the
commerce of the Arkansas valley, and New Or
leans to resume its proper channel. The town
peing almost destroyed, the country poor, and
no capitalists contributing to tho earnest efforts
) 81 nose VINO were IN q peeppiery point Of view