Year: 1879

the western slopes of the Alleghanies


and the eastern slopes of the Rocky


Mountains was long and manful, but


the odds were too great and the States
! reduced and restricted as were their re-


sources, and limited as were their


powers, had to succumb.


From the time to which refer up


to 1878, embracing about eighteen


years, exclusive of the war, no system.


attic work whatever was done in the


direction to which our attention is now


called.


The old levee system, insufficient and


ated through neglect, and the work ac-


complished under it had been destroy


ed, by the operations of the floods upon
| it, and afforded no reliable protection.
The people of the lower valley planted
their crops as they had always done,


and when it pleased Providence 10 Or
der a medium stage of floods, they
gathered in their harvests at the ap-
propriate season, but when the floods
ran to the maximum mark, where
there was need of artificial protection,


the bottoms were submerged and i'm
mense injury to the industry of the
| three lower States was the result.
Whether this state of things alone


would have availed in time to attract
the attention of the general govern


ment, is question that it would not
be worth while to investigate what
we have to consider are existing facts
and their real causes.


Thus it seems pertinent to say, that
what did ultimately fix the attention
of Congress upon this subject was, at
once, the suffering of the people in the
region subject to overflow, and the de-
mand of the whole population of the
great Northwest for improved facilities
of commerce.


In the fall of 1873, a movement be-
gan in the west, covering the entire
headwater country of the Mississippi
valley, for cheaper freights to the sea-
board.


This was known as the grange move
ment, and though the connection be-
tween it, and the results embodied in
your honorable commission may not
be apparent at a superficial glance, re-
Election will demonstrate, and analysis
will develop, an unbroken chain of
logic, from the force of that popular
movement, up to the decision of Con-
gress to take charge of, and assume the
responsibility for, the Mississippi river
as national highway of commerce.


Let us trace cursorily this thread of
logic:


At its earliest opportunity Congress
responded to the popular expression of
the grange movement by forming Sc
lect committees to investigate the sub
ject matter involved or suggested, and
these were designated as Committees on
Transportation Routes to the Seaboard.
The Senate committee of this name
diligently set about the work in hand,
and after some months of patient,
thorough and very able investigation,
presented report, which will un-
doubtedly find a place among the
sources of information and reference
employed by your honored body in the
course of your labors.


1t is not necessary, at this time, to
refer in detail to that report. 1t is
sufficient to say, that it formed the
first great practical step in the nation
alization of the question, and the con-
troll of the Mississippi river.


The effect of this report, and CT the
press discussions, to which it gave rise,
was to form new ideas, or at least, to
vitalize and quicken ideas already
formed in the public mind, with res
pect to the relations of the general gov
ernment to the great river, touching
the duties which those relations in
volved and regarding the responsibili-
ties which they entail.


Then for, perhaps, the first time, the
people of the country came to look
upon the Mississippi river as a posses
sion of the nation; a thing of value and
usefulness belonging to the United
States, to be used for the common ben
eft, improved for the common COM
merce, and, moreover, controlled and
restrained from doing damage in ac
cordance with the common principles
of aw'and the equities of proprietor
ship.


Just at this time, Captain Eads ito
see whom a member of your honora- |
BILE body, cannot fail to give profound
satisfaction to every one, who has the
interests of the country and the well
fare Of the Mississippi valley at hearth
came forward with a proposition to
execute the first part in the grand pro-
gramme by permanently deepening the
mouth of the river. The nature of
Captain Eads' proposition, the favora-
BILE action of Congress touching it, and
the masterIy and successful execution
of the work itself by the great engineer