It is rarely we can foresee the full results of great national enterprises; the special object that calls forth the exertion may be readily comprehended, but the new conditions evolved from success, and sometimes from only the partial accomplishment of the original design, may be factors in governing the future beyond our power to surmise.
The work of improving the navigation of the Mississippi River, is an instance of this character so marked, and apparently destined to extend its influence through so many generations, that a brief record of the change it has effected in geographic environment will not be without interest, and, perchance, not without value.
The area drained by the Mississippi river and tributaries, is forty-one per cent. of the area of the United States, exclusive of Alaska; and by the census of 1880 the population of this great district was forty-three per cent. of the whole Union. It seems probable that a large proportion of this population is directly interested in the river system, and if we add to it the number of those who are indirectly benefited, we should doubtless find a majority of our people more or less dependent upon its maintenance. It is only to the alluvial valley, however, the great strip from Cairo to the Gulf, that I wish particularly to call your attention this evening. This is really the great highway for traffic; the cause of the great work that has been prosecuted; and the scene of the geographic development that will mark an epoch in the history of the river.
Ten years ago the importance of the improvement of this water-way was so forcibly impressed upon Congress, that an act was passed organizing a "Mississippi River Commission," to make an exhaustive study of the whole subject and submit plans for the improvement of the river and to prevent the destructive floods that are of almost annual occurrence. Or in the language of the act: "It shall be the duty of said Commission to take into consideration and mature such plan or plans, and estimates, as will correct, permanently locate, and deepen the channel and protect the banks of the Mississippi river; improve and give safety and ease to the navigation thereof; prevent destructive floods; promote and facilitate commerce, trade, and the postal service."
Large sums of money had already been expended by the general government in local improvements, but no consistent plan had been developed that would be an acceptable guide in conducting operations along the whole river, when this act went into effect. It is not necessary to refer here to the various systems that were presented to the Commission for consideration; nor to enter upon the details of the plan finally adopted; our record being more the effects and primary causes, than the intermediary processes through which the results have been produced. The general plan followed by the Commission has been the construction of works in the bed of the river, to form new banks where a contraction of the river bed has been deemed necessary; and the erection of levees, with grading, revetment, and other protection of the banks, in localities where the natural banks seem particularly liable to give way under the pressure of a great flood. The object of such works being to control the river by confining the low water channels in fixed lines, causing the recurrence of the scour in low water stages in the same channel in successive low waters; and preventing the diversion of the stream into new channels during high water stages by overflow of the banks. A diversion of the stream would leave the works in the bed of the river below of no greater value than as monuments to the energy and skill displayed in the details of their construction, and preclude the ultimate benefit that may be derived from these works in permanently lowering the bed of the river. The probability of such diversion of the water, however, seems to have been reduced to a minimum, through the conservative action of the Commission in coöperating with the States having jurisdiction over the alluvial bottoms, in reorganizing their levee systems and thus securing the greatest control over the volume of water brought down in the flood seasons, that is possible by the construction of well planned and substantially built levees. It having been demonstrated that the levees subserve a double purpose, that they are essential in the general plan to improve the navigation of the river adopted by the Commission, and are likewise needed to render the bottom lands habitable, it is not surprising that we find the State authorities and the Commission jointly engaged in their construction.
It has thus been brought about that the effort to improve the navigation of the river for the general welfare, has resulted in such great changes in the geography of the locality, that a large district has been reclaimed for agricultural purposes. The alluvial valley of the Mississippi river has an area of thirty thousand square miles, and is naturally divided into four great basins that have been designated the St. Francis, Yazoo, Tensas and Atchafalaya. Two of these basins are now fairly protected from the overflows of the Mississippi, by the levees that have been constructed, or repaired, incidental to the work of the Commission, viz: the Yazoo basin extending from below Memphis to the mouth of the Yazoo river; and the Tensas basin from the high land south of the Arkansas river to the mouth of the Red river; and the Atchafalaya basin, from the Red river to the gulf, has been protected on the Mississippi fronts. These three basins have an aggregate area of nearly twenty thousand square miles that is now reasonably secure from inundation. Measures have also been instituted by the State authorities looking to the reclamation of the St. Francis basin; and the work is half accomplished on the White river section.
Nearly the whole of this valley was under protection thirty years ago, but the disasters of the late civil war, and subsequent inability of the people to repair the damaged levees, resulted in the practical abandonment of many sections, and it was not until about ten or twelve years ago that the protective works again presented an appearance of continuity. The supposed security, however, was of short duration, as the great floods of 1882 overtopped the works in more than one hundred and forty places, causing such widespread destruction that cultivation of the soil was rendered impossible over large districts. The floods of succeeding years but added to the misfortunes of the valley, and land values became so depreciated that sales were impracticable, taxes could not be collected, and there was a general feeling that square miles of fertile land must be given over to the destructive agencies of the great river that had made it.
It was while suffering under this distressing situation that the work of the Mississippi River Commission was brought forward as a possible means of salvation. With a recuperative power that seems almost marvelous, the people have contributed of their labor and their means, until now this great area of nearly twenty thousand square miles has been once more reclaimed, and seems to have entered upon an era of prosperity that will eclipse the prophecies of even the most sanguine. It is believed that the levees that have now been constructed will prove reasonably secure. They have been built for a double purpose; and the proportion of the expense incurred by the general government, about one-third, under the direction of the Commission, has insured a supervision and inspection by competent engineers such as was not exercised in the earlier history of such works on the river.
We cannot foretell the developments that will follow the improvement of this water way and the reclamation of the alluvial bottoms on an enduring basis. That the works erected by the Commission will maintain an increased depth of water at the low stages of the river, seems to be demonstrated, as during the low water of November last a depth of nine feet was found on the Lake Providence and Plum Point bars, an increase of thirty-three and forty-four per cent. respectively. When the depths on the other bars have been increased in like proportion the free navigation of the river will be assured, and we may point to the result as one of the greatest engineering achievements of modern times.
The increased value of the land adjacent to the river redeemed from waste, more than doubled on the average, and in many instances quadrupled; the replenishing of the state and county treasuries by the collection of taxes on land that was before unremunerative; and the building of railroads through sections where it had been impracticable to maintain them before in consequence of their liability to destruction by the periodic floods; are marked evidences of the material prosperity that has already followed the great work. During the last four years, forty thousand settlers have taken up lands in the Yazoo basin alone, and it was estimated that in the fall of 1889 twenty thousand more would seek homes in the same district. These settlers have been mostly negroes from the worn out high lands to the eastward. If the change in their environment proves beneficial to the individual we may expect an increased migration, that may in turn be an aid in solving the political problem involved in the citizenship of the negro.