The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-12-01
THE LEvEEs.
A Memorial to Congress.

The Inter State Levee Committee met yes
terday, Gov. Hebert presiding, at the State
House, and during protracted secret session,
adopted the following memorial to Congress
To the Honorable the President of the Senate
and the Speaker of the House OF Representa-
tives of the United States, in Congress as
sembled:
At an Interstate levee convention which
met at Vicksburg on November 2, 1875, and
in which the States of Mississippi, Louisiana,
Arkansas and Missouri were represented by
delegates, the undersigned were appointed to
memorable the Congress OF the United States
in regard to the protection and reclamation
OF THE ALLUvIAL LANDS
of the Mississippi River from annual inunda-
ton.
In the performance of the duty imposed
upon them they do most earnestly pray, and
in the name of the people of these five great
States, petition you to enact such laws and
make such appropriations as may be necessary
to enable the proper departments OF the ma
tional government to take charge Of, construct
and maintain the levees necessary for the
PROTECTION OF THE LANDS
now subject to annual overflow by the Missis-
sippi River.
They will not attempt in this memorial to
give the many reasons why the people of
these States think that the government of the
United States should assume this work, for
the subject is not new one in your honora-
BILE bodies, and both there and elsewhere has
been under discussion for years.
Suffice it to say here that the work is Ma
tional one, because many sovereign States
have common interest in it, and because no
State acting in its individual capacity can
berform the work, and because the river
auaipCt pJhoSa ftaSo rinQriQn StataS
claim protection is, as it has been aptlv
called, "an inland sea" ian ocean river, p"
upon whose bosom float the commerce of
MIGHTY EMPIRE
directed, governed and protected by the
strong arm of the National Government.
Further, they would respectfully represent
that railway transit has become the most i'm
portant factor in the promotion of inter State
com merce. and that the States lying south Of
the Ohio River can never enjoy safe and I'M
interrupted railroad facilities and connections
east and west across this overlooked basin ex-
tending north and south over 600 miles while
this vast delta is subject
TO ANNUAL INUNDATIoN.
AS to the entire feasibility Of the work and
increase in national wealth which the com pie
ton of these lines must bring we have only to
refer you to the statistics collected and pub
lished in the able and exhaustive report made
to the last Congress by the United States
Board of Engineers appointed by the Presi-
dent of the United States under an act of
Congress to investigate this subject (H. R.,
43d Con-, I'd Sec. Elk. Doc. No. 1910, and to
the Senate Report, No. ITO, AID Congress,
second session.
Your memorialists will not presume to sug-
gest any of the details of the legislation
prayed for, but simply express the
HOPE AND DESIRE
that the National Government may take en-
tire charge of the levees and perform the
work through the fundamentally of its own
officers and engineers.
In conclusion, these five sovereign States
ask that the National Government, their COM
mon head and representative, extend to their
citizens the protection and relief they can not
themselves afford to them.