New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-03-12
STATE OF LOUISIANA.
xrRA Sc ION.
JOURNAL OF THE SENATE.

The Senate met pursuant to adjourn
ment.
Present: Hon. O. J. Dunn, Lieutenant
Governor and President of the Senate; and
Messrs. Anderson, Antoine, Bacon, Beares
Blackman, Braughn, Campbell, Coupland
Darrall, Day. Egan, Foute, Futch. jerks
Ogden, Packard, Pinchback, Poindexter
Ray, Smith, Todd, Whitney, Wilcox, Will
Iams, Wittgenstein 80.
Prayer by the Rev. Mr.. Lemaistre.
The reading of the minutes Of the pre-
vious days session was dispensed with.
REPORTS OF COMMITTEES.
Dir. Lynch, from the Committee on Rail
roads, reported favorably, with an amend
ment, on Senate bill No. 226, Amending
the eleventh and twelfth sections of an aci
entitled AN act to incorporate the North
Louisiana and Texas Railroad etc.
Mr.. Lynch, from the Committee on Rail-
roads. reported favorably on House bill
No. 2sS (fle of 1869, ITO incorporate.the
Grand Bayou and Mansfield Railroad Com
pany."
Mr.. Ray, from the Committee on Inter.
nal Improvements, reported favorably on
House bill No. q, "To incorporate the
Louisiana Commercial, Agricultural and
Emigrant Association" etc.
And reported an original bill, to be en-
titled "An act to improve the navigation
of the Ouachita river" etc.
Mr.. Ray, from the Judiciary Committee,
reported by an original joint resolution,
Authorizing the appointment of Board
of Commissioners to examine the inver-
ton of the cotton worm destroyer
Mr.. Braughn, from the city delegation,
submitted the following minority report /:
A minority of the Senators from the par
ishes of Orleans and Jefferson, to whom
were referred Senate bills Nos. SO and 240,
and House bills Nos. 154 and 225, have the
honor to report that House bill No. 225, not
having passed the House. and not being in
possession of the committee, could Got be
considered.
The minority of the committee, after
mature consideration and due examination
of all the other bills, report favorably on
Senate bill No. SO, which contemplates an
underground system OF drainage, and
recommends its passage, with the following
amendment:
In place of the provision making two
members of the Senate and three members
of the House part of the commission, insert
the following at commencement OF the
second section:
The Governor of the State shall appoint,
by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate, two persons, who shall be citizens
Ia - hp
shall be residents of the city of New Orleans,
and who shall hold their offices for the term
Of four years.
The language of the original section to be
Changed SO as to substitute these five per-
sons for the committee from the General
Assembly, and to pay them the same salary,
and to give them the same. powers as are
low given to the legislative committee.
Respectfully submitted,
G. H. BRAUGHN, Chairman,
r. N. OGDEN.
II. j. CAMPBELL,
A. B. BACON.
Mr. Pinchback, from the same COM
mittee, submitted the following majority
report:
NEW ORLEANS, March 9, 1870.
70 the Honorable President and Members of the
Senate:
GENrLEMEN-The undersigned. members
of the committee appointed from the parishes
of Orleans and Jefferson, to whom House
bill No. l54 was referred, have the honor to
report, that by virtue of an act, approved
March Is, 1858. three drainage districts were
established, including portions of the par.
ishes of jefferson and Orleans, and an as
eessment was authorized to be made for the
purpose of levying, draining and retaining
the swamp lands embraced in those dis.
tricts. After lapse OF eleven years, the
Legislature, having found the operations
under this law to be failure, passed the
act Of March 2, 1869. consolidating those
districts and authorized the expenditure of
eaid assessment in the construction of
large canal that might be used for drain
age and commerce, also for building
a levee, etc. This act provided that
when the canal should be completed
to the Chef Menteur, the assessment
Canal Company proposed by this bill to
change the route in accordance with the
recommendation of the eleven QD civil
engineers, who signed the protest against
the Governors approval of the act Of March
2, 1869, which will be found, by reference
TO the Governors veto and ACCOMPANY wing
documents, wherein they say the present
New Canal and the CarondelC' Canal, if
deepened and extended into the lake in con-
nection with the deepening and protection
of channel through the lake middle
ground, west of the Rigolets pass, would
afford better and far cheaper means of
providing for the passage OF vessels OF
greater draft of water than now from
the Gulf to the city, while the question
of 'excavating and navigating a channel
through the middle ground of Lake
Borgne. Thus the practicablity of deep
ening channel on the route named, for
commerce, is admitted by the engineers re-
ferred to, and is asserted not only to be
feasible, but OF great public necessity by the
sixteen civil engineers who recommended
the approval of the act, which was also made
part of the documents accompanying the
Veto It will be thus seen that all of the
engineering talent OF the country agree as
to the necessity and practicability of the
proposed canal. Nature has thrown an arm
Of the sea, which borders on the rear of the
city, with CHANEL already cut by the force
Of tides nine-tenths of the distance to the
sea, and on the completion of the balance
the depth of water thus attained will be
greater than at the bar of the river. Within
the last month, We see by the reports of the
Chamber of Commerce, that q large number
OF vessels were detained at the mouth of the
Mississippi river, with seventy thousand
bales OF cotton, wheat, tobacco, and other
valuable merchandise outward bound, and
q large number of vessels with valuable car
goes of merchandise and emigrants, seeking
an entrance to this port, were likewise de-
tanned.
The loss to commerce by these detentions
would, in the course of one year, come to a
sufficient amount to psy for the deepening
Of the lake route to the sea to a depth of at
least eighteen feet.
In consideration of the amount of expend.
iture saved by change OF route, this bill
provides that the company shall build pro-
lection wall enclosing the three cifies of