The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1907-06-06

Inc Ididud VI the St. LdWFeuce Sducy,
hem in the United States upon the At
lantic coast. The vigorous action of
l Andrew Jackson alone prevented this.
He appealed to the settlers in Tennes-
see and Kentucky to prevent their gate
way passing again into the hands OF a
hostile power, and tho he met at New
! Orleans with all sorts of opposition and
every obstacle that could be placed in
his way by the disaffected people, he
gathered there an army which, Jan.
Is, 1915, inflicted upon the British force
the most decisive and humiliating. de-
feat the British army ever knew. This
settled permanently the question of the
control of the gateway of the Great
West to the sea.
"F'Iush Times ON the Mississippi.'
The golden days of commerce on the
Mississippi were in the years between
the closing of the War of 1912 and the
beginning of the civil war in 1876
years a."
Settlers thronged into Ohio. Indiana,
Illinois, Minnesota. Iowa, Kansas, Ne
braska, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee,
Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana.
In some of the States the population
and the acreage Of improved lands
| doubled every; ten years. Western Penn
syyania and West Virginia began an
immense output of iron and glass. Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri
began raising colossal crops of corn
and wheat Missouri, Kentucky and
Tennessee produced enormous quarti-
ties of tobacco and hemp. Mississippi.
took the lead in cotton production away
| from the Carolinas and Georgia. Sugar
cane and rice grew like weeds in Lou
isiana. All these varied products sought
| the Mississippi road to market. There
was no other.
The Ohio River runs for 1000 miles
along the ub0rders of West Virginia,
Ohio, Kentucky. Indiana and Hi
nois. The Gpro5ucts of West Virginia
were gathered up and sent to that
stream by the ,tsyo Kanawhas. Western
Pennsylvania was well served by those
two noble ,streamS-the Allegheny and
MonongaheJa. ohio had the Hook
hooking and Mpskmgum, beside which
she built splendid system of canals to
connect Lake Erie with the Ohio River.
Indiana had the Wabash and fine
canal system. Kentucky had the Big
Sandy, Licking,r Kentucky, Green and
Cumberland, Rivers. which reached
NEARLY every part. of the. State. The
Tennessee River, was navigable for.
nearly 500. miles thru Tennessee and
northern alabama. TO Knoxville. in the
,heart of the Allegheny Mountains. Mi
the MississppI on. her western border.
! with the Illinois River naviSable for
! $50 miles, and The Rock, Sangamon,
Kaskaskia ard Spoon Rivers navigable
at certain seasons. Iowa had the Des
Moines, and MISSOURI the Missouri
! and Usage Rivers. . Arkansas the
Arkansas. White and ST. Francis
Rivers. Mississippi the Yazoo, while
Louisiana was vast network of
navigable rivers and bayous with
the Red River second only in mag
nitude to the Mississippi. 1t has
been said that between Vicksburg and
New Orleans there are 1900 navigaile
streams Turnout all these States there
was multitude of smaller waterways
upon which, at favorable seasons, pro-
duce was sent by fiatboats to where the
steamboats, could reach it. AS the wa
| tiers from. every little creek of val
| ley 1000 miles wide and 1000 miles
long eventually reached the Mississippi,d
so did the products of every farm along
those creeks help swell the burden of
commerce. borne upon its breast.
The River Steamboat.
This trade developt most remark
able class of vesSels--the river steam
boats--the like of which was not found
in the rest of the world. In fact, steam
navigation received its earliest and
strongest development there. The need
of something to relieve the terrible
| toll of pushing pole-boats thousands of
miles against a rapid current was far
| more pressing than an improvement
upon sails for the ocean. AS early as
| 1871 Fulton. and Livingston established
shipyard at Pittsburg, and built a
stern wheel boat which became the
model for all future light-draft craft.
Every year thereafter saw a remarkable
development of the size, efficiency. ard
style of the steamboat, until in the de-
cade before the war the Mississippi
I L fyn, np,ic IN Orln nc
was filled with magnificent steamboats,,
some of them with decks 400 feet long,
three and four decks high gorgeous
F.. in appearance and fittings, and capable
of carrying 1900 bales of cotton. They
were great floating hotels. as splendidiy
| fitted up and as luxuriously conducted.
for the time, as are the finest hotels of
to-day. All the business. social and
political life of the country conferred
upon them. Merchants, planters. law
yers politicians bankers and promoters
met upon them. with their families. and
great plans and combinations We're
made in the Ieisurely, comfortable trip
of DAYS up and down the river. Smaller
boats, less ornately built. ran upon the
smaller rivers, until at last one came
to the dimihpttHe craft of which it was
said they woult run on heavy dew
and which wohld carry few tons of
| freight up the shallow streams far into
| the interior tHe States. III I0Ob
there was Estimated to be 5000, 900,
an immense slim for those days, in
vested in st6ariBoats upon the Western
rivers StearnbGating was an important
vocation. afih sih numbers and ability
the men efgagsd In it compared very
favorably with the class OF railroad men
today. 'o
GreatPesss of New Orleans.
New Orleans rapidly rose to great
ness upon this trade. By 1850 she had
become the largest cotton exporting city
in the world; was the fifth in popula-
ton in the limited Safes and second only
to New York in the volume and value
of her exports"
| The census of 1850 showed the prfn-
cipal cities to rank as follows:
1. New York. ................51 SAT
z. fHllaueipHid 34O,Uf5
.. Baltlmore ................ 169,054
/ 4. Boston ......... 1861
| 5. New Orleans -. 116. S65
l6. Cincinnati ................ 115,436
In addition to her cotton exports
New Orleans sent abroad immense
quantities of flour. wheat. cotton,
pork and whisky brought down the
river in flatboats from the most
remote parts of the Great Missis-
sippi Valley. Her levees were sight