The weekly clarion., 1870-02-03
Gle aaeskIp GIafiau.
From the HandsbOrO Democrat.

Pass CHRISTIAN, Dec. 90, '69

Harrison County, Mass:
STR.-You inform me some general
system of leveeing the Mississippi river
win probably engage the attention of the
Legislature, and that you would be
pleased to have my views upon the sub
ject'
For my views, more fully expressed
than my present engagements VIII now
permit, allow me to refer you to an arti-
Gle addressed by the writer, to a conven-
ton of planters which met in Vicksburg,
in 1850. The article referred to was pub
Eshed in the Vicksburg Wing, ofthe 10th
of July, same year.
In this letter shall only attempt to
give you the results, without arguments,
of my experience and reflection.
fit is the will of the Legislature to
enact uniform system Of laws regulating
our levees and other improvements neces-
sary for the protection and reclamation of
swamp lands, the first principle to be es-
tablished in our Legislature, it seems to
me, should be, that all lands, whether on
the front, or in the rear counties Of the
Mississippi river, if subject to overflow,
should be taxed, no other; in other words,
no lands should be taxed for leyee pur-
poses except those benefited by the levees.
To tax the whole State for the counties OF
Issaquena, Washington, Bolivar, Coaho-
ma, Tunica, part of DeSoto, and the adj
Joining tier Of counties in their rear, when
the balance of the State needs no protec-
ton against the floods of the Mississippi,
would be manifestly wrong-arbitrarily
unjust.
The counties below Vicksburg have
never been included in any bill or system
Of leyees adopted for our State, and il
now included in your contemplated legis-
lation, should receive portion of its ben,
efts.
But, sir, allow me to state emphatical
Iy, that no State acton with view OF
protecting and reclaiming swamp lands
by levee alone, can be made efficient; and
if relied on alone, will prove disastrous to
the general interests of the country. In
proof of this, appeal to the experience OF
all intelligent planters residing on the
banks of the Mississippi river, for the past
thirty-fve years.
The Convention of planters at Nicks-
burg in July, 1850, referred to above,
declared with signal unanimity, that the
system of leveeing unless continued with
the plan of opening national outlets and
making cut offs, could not protect the
low lands from overflow; in other words,
the union of the two systems, cut-offs and
levees, was indispensable to the reclama-
ton of the swamp lands of the Mississippi
Valley.
I am aware that General Humphreys
and Colonel Herbert have taken a differ
ent yiew-contending for levee alone
but practical information, experience, is
worth more than theory, especially when
that experience has been tested by prac
teal intelligent observers. Every man
who has lived on the banks of the Mis-
sissippi River, and has watched its wan
derings; its frantic freaks its ftful leaps
over promonotaries, and frequent changes
of bed and sand bars, can testify to the
fact that every cutoff lessons the dangers
of overflow, by reducing the high-water
mark at points above the cutoff.
Another fact of Importance is, that ev
cry crevasse in q levee lessons the water
for miles above The writer has known
the Mississippi River to fall, in one night,
in the neighborhood of break in the
leyee, one foot, and at points above the
crevasse, for thirty miles, fall four inches
during the same night.
You ask me, what do these facts prove?
answer, they prove, beyond all cavil,
that the more the river is leveed in, if
following its meanderings and shutting
up its natural outlets, the higher the
water must rise, increasing the dangers
Of overflow. Every bend in the river is
n dam, piling up on its banks the water,
and checking the velocity of the stream.
Every cutoff increases the velocity of the
stream, and lessons the high-water mark.
But, says Colonel Herbert, the lands
at the foot of cutoff, as in the Raccousie,
are damaged. This is doubtless, the i'm
mediate effect of, cutoff before the new
bed of the river is capable of receiving
the whole volume of water pouring
through it but when widened as the
Raccousie now is, the lands below cease
TO suffer any more than those above the
cutoff. But this objection to cut offs arises
from the fears of those living at the
foot of the contemplated cutoff, and can
be readily removed with all the dangers
attending or apprehended from eut-offs,
by commencing the work at the mouth of
the Mississippi River.
1t has long been my opinion that sep
arate State legislation, nor any legislation
looking alone to levees, can ever protect,
much less redeem the lands of the Missis-
sippi Valley. Congress alone, by blend
ing the interests of all the States in one
general system, uniting the plan of levee-
ing with others equally practical and ne
cessary, can protect the States bordering
on the Mississippi River.
The committee on levees, appointed by
the late Commercial Convention, at Lou
isville, Ky, has recently reported plan
for the protection of lands subject to over
flow by the Mississippi River. So far as
the report looks to Congress for bill har-
monizing the interests of all the States, in
a uniform law, embracing the lands sub
ject to overflow, the plan will meet the
appreciation of all intelligent, and prac-
teal men; but to place the levees in the
hands of an incorporated body" with
power to tax the landed interest of the
Mississippi Valley, as the Committee pro-
pose, no respectable planter or citizen of
the Southern States viii sanction 1t Is
not probable Mississippi viii transfer her
power to tax the lands, within her borders
''to any such corporation" We have
seen rings and .scorporations" fleeing
the Government at Washington, and now
trust in the wise retention of section 5,
article II, in the Constitution lately
adopted, that Mississippi viii be protect
ed against all such outrages.
Were | in your place, as Representa-
tive of Harrison county, looking to the
interest of my State and the general pros
perity of the Mississippi Valley, would |
urge upon our Legislature to appeal to |
Congress to take this whole subject in /
hand, and to enact laws to make.cut-offs
from the Balize to Cairo recommending at
the lower end of the river; to open all /
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