The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1869-03-06
TENNESSEE RIVER
Proceedings of the Convention at
Chattanooga.
CHArrANooGA, TENx., Feb. "a, 1869.

in the chair On cali Of States, one hun.
dred and sixty delegates reported present,
the great body of whom were from Georgia,
Alabama and Tennessee. Gov. Patton
stated the object for which the Convention
was called in an appropriate and highly ino
tsresting address He said that Congress
had appropriated near 100000 toward
opening the Tennessee, river, and that
amount was now being expended between
Chattanooga and what is known as the
=" Suck" An efficient engineer has esti-
mated that the entire cost of removing OBJ
structIons would reach about 81 100000, the
/" Muscle Shoals being the chief impedi-
ment
Messrs Farrow end Lester, of Georgia !;
McAllister and Whitney, of Alabama /;
Rathburn and Wilder of Tennessee; Elwell,
of Ohio; Winchester, of Pennsylvania, and
Moore, of Virginia, were appointed a COM
mittee to nominate permanent officers for
the Convention, and reported as follows:
For President-Gov. r. B. Bullock, of
Georgia.
For Vice-P-esidents-R Reuben Arnold and
E. Hubert, of Georgia; S. ID. Weakney
and w. B. Figures, of Alabama; H. i
Ciamberlin, r. K. Byrd and John d. Di-
vine of Tennessee; r. d. Moore, of Vir-
ginia; s. w. Winchester, of Pennsylvania
For Secretaries-D Chas Pinckney and
Eugene Davis, of Georgia; Jaseph Ii. Sioss
and T. L Chisolm. of Alabama; r. =
Kendrick and Mr. Kirby, of Tennessee.
The report was unanimously adopted and
the officers duly installed
| The Committee on Resolutions reported
through its Chairman Col V. A. Gaskill, of
Atlanta, as follows:
WHEsEAs, The report of survey of the
! Tennessee river, made under act of Congress
of March 2 1867, by Col. VIM. B. Cav.
Civil Engineer, under the direction of
Brevet Maj. Gen. q. Weitzel, Major U. S
Engineers, which report was made by Gen.
! Weitzel to Gen. A. A. Humphreys, Chief Of
En- gineers o. S. 4, demonstrates that the
tennessee river, the sixth in Importance of
all the rivers OF the continent in point OF
l,ngth and extent of country drained, drain
! ing an area Of 81, $50 miles, requires only
the construction of series of canals around
! the distractions commonly known as the
| Muscle Shoals, at cost extremely mOder-
ate in comparison with the benefits to be de-
rived therefrom, to make it nayigable, in
| cluding its tributaries, for 800 miles, dur
ing nine months Of the year and
Whereas, Gen Weitzel, in transmitting
this report to Gen. Humphreys, endorses
| particularly the recommendation for the
construction of a canal around said obstruc
tions in the following language In addi
tion to the many good reasons appended re
port for making the improvement at this
time, and to those which have been given by
Ihe many able men who have reported on
! this subject during the past forty years,
there occurs 70 me, that not only would
work be done which should have been done
years ago, but which would hav. repaid the
Government large interest
g am perfectly confident that il. the dis
tinguished soldiers who command our
armies operating along the line of this
river, during the late war, would be called
upon to testify in this matter, it would be
found that enough money would have been
saved to the Quartermasters's Department.
by an improved river in one campaign, to
have trebly paid the expense Of doing the
work; and
Whereas, General Humphreys transmit
ting the report to Congress, urges the i'm
Provement strenuously, saying: "The Elk
River Shoals, the two Muscle Shoals, and
Coibert's Shoals, all between Browns Fer
ry, thirty five miles above Florence, and
Waterloo, thirty miles below 1t, constitute
the only formidable distractions on the
river below Chattanooga, and if overcome
would open navigation for nine months in
the year throughout the whole length of the
Tennessee river. and upon its tributaries.
Ali other impedimentF are not insurmount-
able ut most stages of the water; and
Whereas. Tne Tennessee River, from Elk
River Shoals to Bainbridge, known as the
Muscle Shoals, is not navigable at any sea-
son of the year; and
/ Whereas, The people of the Tennessee
Valley, now engaged in developing their
wonderful mineral resources by the estab-
ishment of extensive blast furnaces and the
opening of rich mines of coal, demand
cheaper facilities for transportation for the
products of these enterprises as we'll as for
those of an improved system and extended
i development of agriculture. in which ths
States and portions of States commercially
united In interest with the valley of the
Tennessee and
Whereas, The strength of this popular
demand for Improvements of the Tennessee
river manifested during the past forty years,
by resolutions of the Legislatures of Ten
nessee and Alabama, urging the adoption of
Congress by repeated surveys of the river,
under acts OF Congress in resolutions, to
the demands Of the people. and by insult
cient appropriations By the General Govern
ment for the removal of the distractions at
the Muscle Shoals, has been increasing in
exact ratio to the development of the re-
sources of the country, until within the
past two years the enterprise has secured its
lendOrSement as national one by the great
river Convention held at St. Louis in 1866,
as we'll az bx the Merchants National Con-
vention Of Philadelphia, Penn, in 1868, of
the National Board of Trade at Cincinnati,
j 1858 and of the great international Direct
Trade Convention, held in Norfolk, Va, l4th
October, 1863, and through popular Con
/ vention, similar to the present. held IN. Chat
tanooga, March, 18th, 1868: through re
peated resolutions of the Legislatures of
Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia, through
the press of, all parties, the people have
urged upon Congress the necessity for this
great work Of insernal improyements, sunz
til appropriations we're granted in 1868 for