New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-11-16
% a'' '""'. NEW ORLEANS THURSDAY NOVEMBER le 1871

MS, THURSDAY, NOVEL
J some such speeches are made ON the sul
ject in the next Congress.
fyou will excuse me, viii speak plainly
I do not believe tho Northern Congressuel
care . cent whether our levees axe built O
not. They have manifested NO disposition
to aid % in the, South to restore tho prop
erty and wealth Of the country. They hav'
done nothing for Ms that has not been th,
result Of . bargain. in which they have beer
largely the gamers. Look at the Southern
Pacific railroad. It hung in the Senate, and
was not passed until the whole scheme Va.
sold ont to john C. Fremont and Marshall
o. Roberts; and for thirty million acres Of
land we got for it, we had to give another
company sixty million acres.
The appropriations for the bar of the
Mississippi river had to be obtained by the
representatives Of our people voting to give
five times ~ much fer the harboEs of Michi.
gan and other States. I tell you, my
friends, have seen NO disposition evinced
by Northern Congressmen, Democrats or
Republicans, to do anything for us; and 1
have very little hope from the report Of this
committee. s-f,
What do you scot This committee 10
sent here to examine and report ON sub
ject Of the greatest possible importance to
tho people of this State, the Mississippi val
Icy and the whole country; and when my
friend, Mr.. Morey. introduced his resolu-
tion, it was ammended BY motion of .
Northern Congressman, providing that the
committee should pay its own expenses. 1
tell you when Congress forgets Ill
Of our local interests, and refuses to
pay tho expenses of committee
which they seem out of courtesy to allow
to come and examine our levees and to re-
port ON them at their own expense, and
flood the Southern States with ku-Klux
committees, who are paid mileage and per
diem. l tell you we have but little to hope
for from them. We want the Improvement
Of our country and Of the property Of our
people, and We will only get aid hfsm Con.
gress to do it when it viii give evidence of
its eaznestness and desire to help us BY at
least paying the expenses of committee
require several months to accomplish. Less
Ku-Klux committees and more evidence of
. desire to help US in our great works of
protection and improvement, will give rs
better evidence of the desire Of Congress
to lend the otherwise generous hand of tho
government to promote our interests.
l will contribute . little advice to our
friends of the delegation. If We ever ex-
pect to do anything tor the levees and the
other interests of the South, it will be when
Democrats and Republicans will unite to-
gether and say, we will not vote dollar |
for Northern harbors, Northern railroads, |
Northern canals, or any other Northern
work Of improvements until they give us |
what We went for our levees, the bar at the |
mouth of the river, and on Southern ports |
and harbors
II you will do this, you caa do your
people some good, but in no other way.
Since have been Governor of the State |
we have been called upon to build sixty or
seventy miles of levees every year, and
q very large part of the State debt has
been incurred in the prosecution of this
work. And yet every year we hear of
three or four crevasses in each parish Dor
dering upon the river.
The remarks of the Governor were
to with lively interest aud elected
loud responses of assent to his PROPOSE
tiOns.
The Hon. Mr.. Duke, Of Virginia, next
spoke. He informed his hearers that he
was now for the first time in his life in the
Valley. But that, coming from
old Virginia, born within stones throw of
the homestead of George Rogers Clark, one
Of the foremost men of his times in the
work of making this nation independent of
the mother country, and within sight of the
Of Virginia's greatest philosopher,
the Sage of Monticello, whose far seeing
policy secured for the United States the
heritage of Louisiana, extend
ng from the Balize to the forty-ninth paral-
81, and from the Mississippi to the Rocky
Mountains; he came here feeling . sort of
'roprietory interest, and we'll disposed to
10 all in his power to help us to the extent
# his influence and vote in congress. He
ully pledged himself to favor, both in his
eport and in his seat in the House, the
lational aid for our levees.
General Mckee, of Mississippi, also pro-
'rofessed his earnest attachment to the
'rinciple. He was bound to it by the strong
les OF interest as we'll as by the force of
onviction. He had tried planting in Yazoo
alley, and had seen his crops destroyed by
he overpOwering flood Of the Father of
Waters. His immediate constituents in the
'azoo valley were too poor to protect their
arms from overflow. But with safety from
revasses, they would be able to plant and
ather their crops, and add to their own
'rtunes and at the same time contribute to
be national wealth.
Many other points were touched upon BY
'e various speakers, which we have not .
oted. The unanimous opinion of the sew
raj representatives of the varied and i'm ,
ortant interests on the cutter was that, :
ithout levees, thousands Of acres of land :
ust remain uncultivated, and that the
nrden OF building these levees is too great
r the riparian States to bear. That the '
ork of keeping the levees in order ought
be embodied into a system controlled b
I'D supported by the national government. o
leveo bureau WAS suppested IN he nlaced | r