MISSISSIPPI. 



635 



in his condition bo subjected In a greater degree at 

 iier place on the American Continent. At the 

 Lion >f the current year, when our crops will 

 eon secured and expenditure and advances re- 

 nd '.ir I'usini-^ iitluirs adjusted to so momon- 

 i i-h:iu,'e, the ^a-ru-rul migration of the negro 

 wnultl be 1 iniurioiis mill w>uld be based upon 

 '.'finite information and better prcparationa upon 

 hh p:u-'. Anv ohstaelcs that may have heretofore 

 his t'roo migration have been only 

 i'tioiul eases, mid have oocn because of hit* rai- 

 l>c'ui,' a violation of his contract, and no such 

 obstacles have been accompanied by anything like 

 violence. It must be borne in mind, in palliation of 

 any such oilorts that may have been made, that largo 

 :s have been advanced on the faitli of these 

 contracts, which wore entered into fairly and honestly 

 at a time when the present exodus was not hi any way 

 : .lowed. The emigration of the negro since the 

 war has l>een toward this vast, fertile valley, instead 

 of from it ; and this exodus has been a surprise to the 

 whole country, neither agitated nor thought of before 

 these contracts for this year were made, and largo ex- 

 penses and advances made upon them. 



We believe that the danger of the contemplated 

 movement is not appreciated^ by the Northern people, 

 and we know that the benevolent are there imposed 

 upon by deception ; and we make this, our memorial 

 and remonstrance, not as politicians (for we represent 

 all parties), but as business men and law-abiding peo- 

 ple, honing that it may arouse the friends of peace 

 ana order, justice and true philanthropy, to interpose 

 and arrest the threatened invasion or our rights and 

 destruction of our property. 



The new industry of growing fruit and vege- 

 tables for the Northwestern market advanced 

 rapidly. The central point of this interest is 

 known as Crystal Springs, which is located in 

 the middle of that first pleiocene stratum that 

 crops out at Canton and extends to Woodville, 

 and on which fruits flourish and attain a per- 

 fection not found elsewhere in the State. At 

 that point alone there was an acreage of 2,000 

 in peach-trees, 500 in apples, 250 in plums, 35 

 in strawberries, and 25 in raspberries. The net 

 receipts from Chicago for the strawberry-crop 

 amounted to $10,000, averaging nearly $300 to 

 the acre. A still larger traffic has been grow- 

 ing up in vegetables, and it has been shown 

 that peas and beans with high cultivation will 

 net $300 to $4:00 per acre. 



The work of most importance to the pros- 

 perity of the State is the protection of its allu- 

 vial lands from inundation by the Mississippi 

 River, by the construction of levees, and inci- 

 dentally therewith the improvement of the 

 stream itself. During the administration of 

 President Taylor in 1849-'50 (himself a Louisi- 

 ana planter and deeply interested in the ques- 

 tion), the first resolutions were passed in the 

 Senate of the United States directing a survey 

 of the Mississippi River, expressly to ascertain 

 the best method of reclaiming the alluvial lands 

 of the Mississippi Valley. This, after many 

 years, resulted in the able and exhaustive re- 

 port of Humphreys and Abbott, Chief Engi- 

 neers of the United States Army, who em- 

 phatically declare that the levee system is the 

 best method of accomplishing this purpose. In 

 furtherance of this object the United States 

 donated the swamp-lands lying in Arkansas, 



Mississippi, and Louisiana, which were of no 

 value without protection from overflow, to 

 these respective States to assist in building up 

 their levees. The funds arising from these lands 

 were small and soon exhausted, and millions 

 of their own money were expended by thu^c 

 States in the creation of levees under State 

 legislation. The levees thus constructed were 

 just being tested, and were more or less suc- 

 cessful in different places, when the war came 

 on and large portions of them were destroyed ; 

 some by the attrition of wagons and horses, 

 when they were used as a road-bed ; some by 

 the erosion of the water, aided by the paddle- 

 wheels of steamers in high tide; and some 

 directly by the army and navy of the United 

 States. Mississippi and Louisiana have ex- 

 pended large sums of money since the war to 

 repair their levees, but experience has shown 

 that they have not the pecuniary strength to 

 accomplish this great work as individual States, 

 and that they are prohibited by the Constitu- 

 tion of the United States from forming com- 

 binations with each other or other States to 

 create a uniform system of levees, which is 

 essential to their protection. 



The improvement of the stream of the river 

 i.s incident to this repair of its banks. It is the 

 greatest artery of internal commerce in the 

 world, and yet it is filled with snags and sand- 

 bars that are the deposit of its annual over- 

 flows, which not only destroy vessels, but tax 

 the whole commerce of the West with an in- 

 crease of insurance that is destructive to prop- 

 erty. It is claimed by scientific men that when 

 the water of the Mississippi is permitted to 

 spread over a large surface the velocity of its 

 current is checked, it makes deposits of sedi- 

 ment and snags, creates sand-bars, and obstructs 

 navigation ; and that, on the other hand, the 

 concentration of the water into a narrow stream 

 will increase the velocity so that it will remove 

 the sand-bars, clean out the snags, deepen the 

 channel, and improve navigation. If this be 

 true, as the reports of scientific engineers de- 

 clare and as the action of the jetties seems 

 to demonstrate, then the construction of the 

 levees, which would confine into a stream one 

 mile wide water that would spread over forty 

 miles without them, must conduce to the bene- 

 fit of navigation. The system of rivers of which 

 the Mississippi is the grand trunk comprises 35 

 rivers and 15,000 miles of waterwav, floating 

 the largest inland commerce on the face of the 

 globe. Upon these waters float more than 

 3,000 vessels, with a carrying capacity of about 

 500,000 tons. This vast fleet is largely increas- 

 ing year by year, and pushing its pioneers into 

 rivers of the far West and Northwest that were 

 unknown half acenturyago. Over thirty steam- 

 ers more than a year ago were plying upon 

 the Upper Missouri and the Yellowstone. The 

 Mississippi is the outlet for the enormous agri- 

 cultural productions of the fruitful West. The 

 exportation of grain and of meat and other 

 products of the farm has gained each year an 



