The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-05-01
THE LEV EES.
Letter from Hon. r. G. Robertson to Prof
FOrshey.
HOUSE or REPRESENTATIVES,.
Waehington. D. @ April ". 1873.

. HOUSE or REPRESENTATIVES, !
Washington. ID. G April %, 1873 J
Prof. G, J. Forshey. Carrollton. La:
Mn Deur Sri have received your commu-
nicaton, as well as your plea and remarks
made in favor Of the leveeS before the st. Paul
Convention.
Gentlemen here representing that conven-
tpn have acted In my opinion, in direct vio-
laton Of the spirit and letter Of the resolutions
adopted by that convention. They have taken
| care OF their own interest, and left w to take
care Of the levees. They even went 50 far as
to attempt TO organize special committee in
their own interest Although the committee
Of which am chairman, had exclusive iurie-
diction over all improvements OF the MissiS-
sppi river, they induced n member u our
committee, Mr.. Knapp, to introduce their bill
and have it referred to the Committee on
Commerce. told them that was willing to
do all in my power before our committee TO
have their bill favorably reported on, but
thinking, perhaps, that the Committee on
Commerce had much more weight before that
House than tho Committee on Levees and
improvements Of the Mississippi River, they
have gone to the Committee on Com
merce, for their relief, and have sue
ceeded In getting that committee to
appropriate some 100000 for the improve
mcnt Of the river above St. Louis and
nothing, Or very little below Had we united
there could have been no question but that
we would have passed a bil combining their
measure with our levee bill / have had
great trouble in the committee in educating
them lp to the great importance Of the i'm
provement Of the Mississippi river in com
bining the question Of the improvement Of
the navigation with that Of the reclamation
Of the alluvia lands and it is surpr ising to
me that this matter has not been acted upon
by Congress before. ] found that it would
be impossible to pass any bill looking exclu-
sivey to the question OF reclamation and
knowing ~ did that that question was 50
init nntpIV interviewer with that ar the i'm
provement OF the navigation Of the river
went to work and have succeeded in getting a
bill unanimously reported, appointing com
mission to be composed Of three army engi-
neers and two civilians. TO take into consider
alton all questions relating to the improve
ment Of the Mississippi river, from st. Louis
to the Balze. Our committee would have in
Cluded the Improvements to navigation above
St Louis. but we did not wish to antagOnizGt he
Committee on Commerce, who had provided
such large appropriations above that point.
In addition to the bill reported land
Is now recommitted to the ,mmitee,,
we have agreed also to report n bill making
appropriations to close the crevasse5 such as
the Bonnet Care CrevaSSe, and other inn
pOrtant works, as soon as we can get the
estimates from the Engineer Department,
which we hope to obtain within the next few
days.
You could have been of great service if you
had been able to be here and had arrived in
time to have checkmated the selfish policy
pursued by that committee who represent the
st. Paul Convention here. Louisiana ought
to have sent some one here with view To
attending to this particular interest; the
whole responsibility and the whole labor has
devolved itself upon me, and that, too, in
opposition TO members on the committee and
others who ought to have been as deeply in
terested in this question as ] am. | have read
with great care your eloquent and able argu-
ment made to the st. Paul Convention. !
trust that there may be d time yet when
your valuable services contributed to this
great question may be appreciated. / have
been endeavoring to obtain a secretary or
clerk for my committee, but with all my ex-
ertions the Committee on Accounts, not ap-
preclating the Importance Of the matter, have
failed to recommend a secretary or clerk for
my committee.
Hoping that you will soon recover and
that we may yet have your valuable advice
and counsel in the future, | am truly your
friend +. G. ROBERTSON.