The Greenville times., 1881-11-12

luielt necessary ia y iufof, and that
is profound Ignorance Of The sub
icct llaugtter.l Aud 80 ~ au
Ignorant aud impartial juror.
have been able 10 consider care
fully and dispassionately, all sides
of this great controversy. I have
heard many very contradictory
views. have heard o thousand
plans proposed for the correction
Of the Mississippi river. | have
been told on one side that the first
thing to do is to straighten the
crooks and run the water from 81.
Louis to the gulf as straight as
possible. | have been told on the
other side, that every cut Off is a
calamity Which increases the I
velocity above and below, and the .
river will never he what il ought I
to be until il is restored TO its |
original length. | have been told 1
on one side that the only relief of |
the lower river consists in letting /
water of the great floods into the 1
swamps and bayous. have been ]
told on the other side that the re- /
suit would be like taking blood /
from the arm of a strong man, that |
the enfeebling current would be no
longer able to carry the load, and
would drop it on bars aud shoals. |
! have been told on one side that
the want Of the river is levees;
that by building up of levees the
channel will be confined to one
fixed current, and so made deeper
and more rapid, and SO able to
scour out its own bed. / have
been told on the other side that the
consequence of leyees is to cause
increased deposit of matter on the
bottom of the river, until the bot
tom of the river is bodily raised,
and at last the water will run along
on the top of the great embank-
ment and slip over into the cotton
fields and sugar plantations.
Now in the midst of these con.
Trajectory theories l take every
safe guide. | do as do in religion
| go back again to this same analo-
gy; | look and see who have studied
these questions most. find upon
this river engineers sent here by
the United States government for
the express purpose of studying
| its phenomena. / find that there
are men who have given them.
selves, for the better part of their
lives, to the study of these great
questions. I find upon this com.
mission several engineers of great
name, Mr.. Harrison of New Or.
leans and your own illustrious fel.
low citizen, James b. Eads cheersl
a man to whom the city of Saint
Louis owes debt Of gratitude she
can never repay; who has brought
to your doors the commerce of
the land by the bridge that stands
upon your wharf, and the com.
merce of other lands through the
ietties. ! find that all these men
embracing not only engineers con
nected with the commission who
have been in charge of improve.
ments of the river, placed upon
the chief engineer himself, and the
great body of the corps of en-
gineers in the army-while they
may disagree, as good and wise
divines do upon infant baptism and
perseverance of grace, yet upon
the great plan of salvation they
are in entire harmony applause
and so say to myself these are the
orthodox leaders and | will pin my
faith to their coat tails.
If you will allow me, gentlemen,
| will go little further on the sub.
ject of the plans of the commits
sion. There is one very humble
way in which ! can perhaps make
myself useful. am not an engin.
eer, and therefore | can speak of
the plans of the commission and of
their merits with degree of pro.
priety which would lily become
any other member of the commits.
sion. Myplace uponi it is peculiar.
1t is like that of one of the mem.
bers ofa committee appointed by
a governor of state not ten thou.
sand miles from here, to revise the
laws. The constitution required
that the laws should be made so
that they could be understood by
a man of ordinary intelligence.
Laughter. The governor appoint
ed a committee of three to revise
them; two of them were lawyers
and the other was man who did
not know anything about law, and
not much about anything; and in
explanation of the appointment
the governor said if the two law
yers could make the other man un-
derstand them, the object would
| ha attoiua1 That uaa my ulaoa