The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-03-20
THE CANAL MEETING.

The meeting at Ottawa on Thursday In ia.
vor Of the enlargement of the Illinois and Mi
ch, gan canal and the improvement of the Hi
nofs river must he set down as in many re-
spects a great success and in others partial
failure. II was a success as regards the mum.
Der and standing of those in attendance and
the wide territory they represented; it was "a
success as regards earnestness and enthusiasm /;
and il was success as regards the ability and
telling quality of the speeches that were made ::
bat Us to the dctioa aithc meningitis resolves
end steps taken TO promote the great end in
yiew-it reached, to express II mildly, lame
and impotent conclusion.
OF the thousand able bodied, intelligent men
who composed that meeting we doubt whether
there was enc, aside from its presiding officer,
who did not come there with the single pur-
pose to assist in working up pressure upon
congress to grant an appropriation Of money
towards the construction OF the proposed ship
canal The meeting so expressed Itself in the
single resolution it adopted, that offered by
Mayor Harrison OF Chicago. Yet, IN point OF
fact, the meeting committed the whole work o..
the preparation of its memorials in the matter,
the calling of future meetings, and the devis-
ing programme Tor future agitation to its
chairman, who pointedy IN the outset express.
ed his opposition to applying to or relying in
the least upon congress for aid, and broached
n scheme of his own to have the state constitu.
ton of Illinois amended and then have the
state undertake the work itself, raising the
money by an issue of S15,OOOOOO of4 per cent
bonds We say that the meeting, IN placing
the appointment of the committee OF ten in the
hands of Mr. Wentworth, with no Instructions
as to what the committee is to contrivc, do or
ann at, endorsed Mr.. Wentworth's quixetc
plan, IS committed to it, and Inaugurated no
movement in any other direction,
This was, the moment the meeting adjourn
cd, perceived to have been a sad blunder and
steps were at once taken to remedy ii by call
ing the meeting again together at the court
house in the evening, the proceedings OF which
meeting are sketChed elsewhere. How far that
meeting succeeded in undolng the blunder of
the afternoon meeting, the reader must judge
1t was at least an honest effort, and could ITS
action be submitted to the same assembly that
met in the afternoon, it would, we have not the
slightest doubt, be unanimously endorsed
The moral to be deduccd from the whole is
the Importance Of providing IN advance at all
meetings of this sort for careful and judicieus
engineering. This meeting was engineered by
nobody unless it was the chairman, and what.
ever may be the merits or dement's of his plan,
nothing is more certain than that not a man
besides himself in the meeting favored or had
the slightest faith in it, and yet the meeting
goes before the world as endorsing it! 1t re-
mains now to be seen whether Mr.. Wentworth
will, in the selection Of his committee and
shaping future movements on the subject dog
gedly adhere to his impractlcablc scheme, or
whether he will try, In good faith, TO carry out
the obvious wishes and intentions of the meet
ing.