The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1878-02-05
MEMORIAL,

MEMORIAL.
To the Honorable Senate andiHouse of Repre-
sentatives of the United States, in Con-
gress assembled:
Your MemOrialists, the Legislature of the
State of Mississippi respectfully represent to
your honorable body that that portion of the
State of Mississippi lying between the Missis
slppl and 1aZoo rivers, com tanning about 5, 900
square miles, and known the "Yazoo Del
TIA, lies in the heart of the cotton belt of the
South. 1t is composed entirely of alluvium,
deposited through past centuries by the annu-
al overflow of the Mississippi river and prob
ably surpa5ses in fertility any other portion
of the globe Its capacity for the production
of cotton and corn and the consequent sup
port of a dense population, is almost without
limit. Each and every acre of this vast sec
ton is naturally as fertile and productive as
the other but at present only the skirts of it
those portions lying Immediately upon the
banks of the river and other streams, are hab-
liable. This is owing to the fact that the in
terror of the Delta is subject to annual mum
dation fir m the Mississippi river. The people
inhabiting this district have struggled tor
years to prevent this evil, and to rec aim this
magnificent territory. Since the late war, the
counties of this State Immediately bordering
upon the Mississippi river, have expended
more than s. 0O0,0 900 in the attempt to main
tain their levee system. This money was col
lected by taxation, and In addition thereto,
heavy tax upon the cotton thus produced, was
at time paid to the United States Govern
ment. Burdens so onerOus would have bank
rupted a country less fertile. As it is its ca
pacity for endurance has been strained to the
utmost tension. Indeed, in the northern tier
of river counties, the effort to maintain the
levees by taxation has been abandoned, and
the district is heavily burdened with debt.
The future settlement and development of the
Delta is prevented by the certainty of annual
overfows.
Your Memorialists believe and respectfully
repr. sent, that the protection of this district
is work of great national Importance; that
it would throw open to the citizens of the
United States vast new country, where land
would be cheap, and of fertility far surpass-
ing any upon this continent, except that of a
similar nature in other States bordering upon
the Mississippi river, and would add to the
national wealth amount almost incalcu-
liable.
Your Memorialists, therefore, ask that your
honorable body will give to the question of
granting national aid to the leveeing of the
Mississippi river now before you, that con-
sideration which its importance in national
point eff view demands and that you will
grant to that section OF this State comprised
In the Yazoo Delta, such material aid will
insure the construction and maintenance of a
permanent line of levees from the northern
boundary of this State to the mouth of the
IaZOO river.
Adopted by the House of Representatives,
January 49, 1878
w. A. PEhC1,
Speaker of the House
Concurred in by the Senate January %, 1878.
r. o. REYNOLDS,
President of the Senate.
APPROVED, February =, 1873.
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION to
favor the completion of a Southern Line OF
Railway from the east bank of the Missis-
sippi River near the thirty-secOnd parallel
of north latitude, to the Pacific ocean,
WHEREAS, The Government of the United
States has granted millions of acres OF pubic
lands and hundreds of millions of dollars to the
construction and completion of a line of rail
the country from the Valley of the Mississippi
10 the Pacific Ocean, along or near the 43d
parallel of north latitude, known as the
hUnion" and Central Pacific Railroads
,-hich said railway line is owned by TWO cor
,ora tons which are gigantic monopolles, hav-
CON srol of 1.-the railway freight and pass
ln .or Transformation at their own prices from
the Mississippi Valley to the Pacific Coast
and, u.;o, of the
I1r;te5 States has no direct railway commu-
,;nation between the Pacific and the Atlantic
aosts which is so essential to the purposes
o 20 30 vol and commerce, and the development
Of the vast resources of this region OF coun-
try; therefore, -, uo,so .,
SncTIoNl. Be it resolved by the House o.
Representatives of the State OF Mlssisslpp
Che Senate concurring,) That the congress u
the United States, under proper legai :eS.. LII
tions, should adopt some measures wnioh a. W.,
secure the speedy construction anu 90 =,
of southern line of railway from the Gus