Mr. BANKS. Mr. Speaker, Isaid the other day, in some remarks on this subject, thatI believed ultimately it would be the duty of the U.S. to assist in the management of the Mississippi river, and I am still of that opinion. I refer to it because it is necessary to qualify what I have to say today in reference to this particular measure. I believe the people of Louisiana deserve that assistance, and)there is no man in this country who will more readily and heartily assist them in that way when the time shall arrive. But, sir, I am against this measure for reasons which I will proceed briefly to state. We had, a couple of months since, several intelligent gentlemen from NewOrleans, who asked assistance of the Government to open the mouth of the Mississippi river. They said it was so shoaled that large vessels could not get from the river into the Gulf of Mexico. Gentlemen now come from Louisiana and ask us to dike the Mississippi river. Thus we have a proposition, in the 1st instance, to excavate its mouth so ships can get out; and then, in the 2nd instance, that the banks shall be leveed so the water shall be retained in the bed of the stream. The reason of this is that the management of the Mississippi river is upon a false principle; and it never can be safely managed no; controlled for the benefit of the people of that country until the system is changed. It is against nature. Nature has clearly indicated a lan for the management of the Mississip i. It as made outlets to the right and to the leffifor the surplus water of that great stream, navigable for so many 1,000 miles, to flow out into the Gulf. In our part of the country the rivers flow in, the small rivers create the large, but in the lower Mississippi the rivers flow out. In the 1st instance it is an arrangement of nature for the purpose of cre ating rivers; and in the 2nd it is one of the methods adopted by nature for the purpose of preserving rivers. Now, sir, the management of the Mississippi river absolutely requires that the presents stem of levees shall be in a degree abandone, and that the system of nature shall be in a degree restored. Between the Gulf of Mexico and the northern boundary of Tennessee there are from 50 to 100 of these bayous and rivers, the natural outlets of the Mississippi river necessary to the preservation of this country. From the system which has been adopted there, all these bayous and rivers have been closed bytbe drift wood that comes down from above. The consequence is that the stream of the Mississippi rises and levees are built to contain the volume of water in the bed of the river and thereby protect the country from an overflow. Now, sir, these rivers an bayous must be again opened, and that will in a great degree let off the surplus water and relieve the country and the government of the U.S., if you please, from the expense and danger attending the present system. I endeavored to open these ayOus myself 2 or 3 years ago. And the very men who are here now asking for an appropriation of money by the Government of the U.S. to maintain the levees, represent others who shot the soldiers and burned the steamers engaged in that work whenever they could find an opportunity to do so. I touch upon another part of the subject. The effect of these levees is constantly to lift up the bed of the stream. And as a consequence the levees have to be made higher and higher from year to year. And the effect of raising the bed of the stream being closed the natural outlets for the surplus water, is to throw a considerable part of the sediment that comes from 20,000 miles of navigable waters into the mouth of the river. There it meets the returning flood of the Gulf of Mexico, which sweeps back the sediment brought down by the stream, and it is deposited in the mouth of the river, which is constantly shoaling, until the navigation is rendered so difficult that the vessels of the U.S. sometimes are compelled to lay there 2 or 3 weeks. That is altogether in consequence of the levee sys tem. And whenever that system shall be aban doned or changed, and the natural outlets of the river opened, then this sediment at the mouth. of the river will be deposited elsewhere, and that dilIiculty at least will be removed. There is one other trouble in regard to the management of this river to which I will allude. There is now in Louisiana:1 servile population that is not yet in possession of the rights that it demands, and which in time it must have. It is a po iulation upon which the country is dependent ior its labor. I fully and honestly believe that the present condition of things cannot long continue without the resistance of that population to the people in authority there at the present time. And I cannot entertain any doubt whatever, from my own conviction, that whenever resistance shall come that population will have the sympathy if not the support of the great mass of ta people of the U.S. Now suppose this work completed, in what condition do you find that country? The river is maintained in its bed by levees, and lifted above the face of the country. Every year the river is more elevated and the country comparatively lower. It runs as it were on the ridge of a hill. A single man a single hour of a night can open them, del uge the whole country and destroy property and life there. That is the fact in this case, and it is one that must be considered. And that brings me to another question, more important than all else. I feel an affection and an interest for the people of Louisiana as strong as that for my own native Commonwealth. There is no man in this country who would be more willin than I am to give them every assistance, eifiier by means of the power or the treasure of the Government of the U.S.; but I ask that the revision of the Constitution which requires the establishment of a RFG shall be 1st complied with before they demand or re nest assistance from us. I will not 0 into a disquisition upon the question of what constitutes a republican government. But I will say briefly that one of the requisites of a republican government, in my belief, is that it shall be in harmony with the sentiment of the people of the U.S. And while Isay, as I have said before and will say hereafter, that the people of Louisiana have no interest hostile to the government of the U.S., and will be, I believe, in their hearts, when they are left to their own opinions and their own conduct, loyal to its interests and to its institutions, yet I comprehend perfectly well that the power of that country is now in the hands of men who have interests hostile to the Government, and who in their hearts are not loyal to its principles or its institutions. Had it been left to the people of the State of Louisiana we should have had none of these troubles that now aflhct us politically or economically. But the power is in the hands of men who have ver recently been engaged in a most determine effort to destroy this Government. And while I disagree with the Gentfrom Iowa, [.Mr. KassoN] who suggests hanging these men; or with the gentlemen from Pennsylvania, [Mr. S'rsvnss, who suggests imprisoning, or with another gentleman who suggests drowning them, I will say this, that I am against giving them the power to control and destroy this Government. And we are asked to appropriate for the benefit of these men, not merely $1,500,000, but at least $25,000,000, for if we begin this work we must go on with it. And if we appropriate $1,500,000 for the management and control of the waters of the Mississippi, we will be giving that amount to the enemies of this country, to be expended not so much for controlling the river as for controlling the opinions of that section of the country. I am against it. But when the time shall have come that they have formed a government in harmony with the spirit and principles of the Government and people of the U.S., I will be the 1st and the most urgent to advocate aiding them from the Treasury and by the power of the Government. They have an opportunity to do so now. There are organizations yet remaining in that State by which it can be imme diately put into harmonious connection with the Government of the country, and instead of seeking here for an expenditure of the money of the Treasury for their lands, they would be workin to make their government what it should e, and then I know that every member of this House would be willing to give to them all that will be necessary for their prosperity.