New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-05-10
titles to these lauds during the first con.


parishes and districts, then States. one after
the other, embarked in this enterprise; and
the government of the United States having
sold it's millions upon millions of acres thus
rescued by local effort, at last granted the
unsala BILE swamp lands yet to be reclaimed
to the States that would undertake to
| rescue them; grant much like the privilege
to have all the fish they could catch from
the navigable waters Still the grant had
| its effects, and the States utilized for levee
! purposes all the lands they could still render
| salable, after the best lands they had
| reserved had all been selected and bought
| from the United States; and but for the sad
| war that ensued we would have triumphed
| in complete rescue OF the delta sea from
| the dominion of the fOvds. Abandonment
| and destruction folio wed the clash of arms;
and to this day the food has been re-
| gaining his dominion. The river had gath
cred force from his long restraint. His
voracity had gnawed away the banks till
the dikes of resistance had been driven back
| to the lower grounds and had to be replac-
ed by more powerful and costly barriers,
| only practicable to prosperous people.
When the cloud of war had cleared away
/ the people who survived the conflict of
arms returned to find hundreds of miles of
their barriers swept away or broken and
unavailing. From Cape Girardeau to the
| dOned, except at special localities, and the
| States of Arkansas and Missouri have made
no systematic effort to replace their levees;
and for one hundred and twenty miles be-
| low the Arkansas river on the right bank
| the struggle to reclaim can scarcely be
called systematic, and the result has been
failure and abandonment. Thus one-third
of the great basin on the right is now open
| to the ravages of the food and the conse-
10 of onH Ao1nUn Tho n oil xy
papers and the telegraphic accounts tell us
of the distress, calling aloud for relief, of q
suffering people
Below latitude thirty three on the right,
and below thirty-five on the left bank, the
States of Louisiana and Mississippi re-
turned to the great conflict with the
floods. Mississippi with 400 miles to
guard, and Louisiana with $50 miles of the
great rivers 'front.' rallied to repair and re-
build their levees. The former has spent
some three or four millions and the latter
no less than thirteen millions Of dollars to
replace the ievees destroyed BY military
necessity and by abandonment during the
war; and yet. Mr.. Speaker, the daily
reports of crevasses foundations and disas-
tiers, will tell you how utterly inadequate
those lifestruggies have been. The cry for
help from suffering people is just now
utterly appalling.
We come. Mr.. Speaker, to lay down at
the feet of Congress our arms Of resistance
to those floods, to confess our inability, like
the gallant but misguided soldiers of the
Confederacy, to struggle longer against a
power 90 exhautless ard nearly OmnipOtent
Throw the mantle of the panoply of your
greater power around us, for we can build
the levees defenses no longer.
We lay before you in figures. more effec-
tive than those of rhetoric, the details of
reasons why we regard this work az work
of national character, traversing as the
delta does the fronts of seven great
States, and incalculabIy valuable as it
and the prosperity and civilization of the
great West and the continent. The ques-
ton of retaining and protecting this vast
empire from the periodical depredations of
the Mississippi river has long engaged the
consideration of the government; for now
over twenty years past in its national
aspect it has commanded the attention of
Congress and the country. And permit me
to add, that in my, judgment no matter
connected with all the problem Of American
progress and development deserves a more
thoughtful and deliberate attention from
our statesmen than this great problem of
how to redeem from the periodical do
minion of destructive treshets this fair.
est and most fertile portion of the great
American con tinent.
We find in the general appropriation act
of September 30, 1850, that Congress d.
rected the application of $4,000 to "a to-
biographical and Photographed survey of
the delta of the Mississippi, with such in
vestigati0ns as may lead to determine the
most practicable plan for securing it from
inundation," etc. Fifty thousand dollars
additional were applied under the law of
August 81, 1852 for continuance of that
survey of 'the Mississippi bottom and such
investigations as may lead to determine the
most practicable plan for securing it from
The surveys thus order ed
were carried on during several years by
distinguished officer of our military engi-
neers and are embodied in report made
in August. 1861, to the Secretary Of War.
This valuable report is now part of the |
literary treasure of the country, and is a |
to physical science on the |
philosophy of rivers similar in its great re-
search and vast information to Lieutenant |
Maury's reports on the philosophy of the |
sea.
In every form in which it could commit I
itself Congress has assumed the RESPONSE
bility Of this great work.
The Senate committees to which measures |
in connection with this subject have been
referred have invariably reported in their
|avOr. Senator Clark reports July 9, 1866,
that his select committee sis satisfied the |
people of those States"-those concerned
directly in the levees-"are unable without
hid from the government to undertake and
complete the necessary repairs" Senator
Henderson, from the Committee on Fl.
nance, reports on March q, 1867, that his
is satisfied of "the constitutional
power and the expediency and good policy"
If granting federal aid to the construction j
If the levees. A committee on the levees
If the Mississippi was created in each
branch of Congress- by the respective
branches of the Forty Congress as
veil as of the Forty third Congress-; and
hus for period of twenty years have the
and the legislative departments
# the government. assuming that the Mis-
issippi river (receivingas it does the soil
md minerals OF over twenty States and
rerlitories) is an finland sea" practically
declared it to be the fixed policy of the ma
ion to assume it's guardianship and protect
he people of the lower valley from it's de-
tructive ravages.
And here, Mr.. Speaker, I will say, that
tut for desire on our part that the gov
rnment should not embark in this great
until the last doubt of its entire
shall be dispelled, would
gain press the bill | had the honor last
ear to offer, on the immediate attention of
Congress. Hence we have agreed to sub.
cit this resolution, in the belief that by the
ext session we can have all the data and
of every description required
or prompt and intelligent action ON this
reat subject.
The object sought to be attained in re-
tanning and protecting the lower Missis-
ippi valley is closely allied with all the
reat questions affecting the material pro-
ress and physical development of America.
The national finances; the augmentation of
ur export values; our monopoly of the |
otton supply, now seriously impaired and
the resumption of specie pay.
nents; and the redemption of the national