Mr. KASSON. In answer to what has been read from the NewOrleans Tribune, I wish to have read what the NewYork Tribune says on the subject. It is as follows: "Sou minis LEVEES. the extraordinary flopds of this seasonhaveprovod fearfully destructiveip the Southwest. liouisiiinmhwest of the Mississippi and southof th cIted river, asbeenmainlyunder water. perhaps still is; while eastward of the Mississippi, the rich valley of the Yasoo, Withits tributaries, embracing 3,500,000 mm of the most productive cotton land in the world is in goodpart sojloodedasto bescarcelyhabitable. This is partly owing to wasting and cavingthien floofotdhse; partly to the natural iinks during the last 3 pr 4 cars of war, which rendered proper attention to t i einimpossible: and partly to their being cut from time totime in the prosecution ofhos tiliticii. It isl probable that not lessthan ten million acres of the richest portions of the Southwest, capable of producing a halo( 400 pounds) of cot ton to the acre, have thus been so flooded that til mg forthis year canat best barely suhsist their scatte, wasted inhabitants insteadof addingnis they might, some 50 million dollars to the exportable pr use of the country. fo“reT, heinhabitants of theYazoo valle hare. There appealed to Congressfor aid. hey are not representedin either House; they are utterly without capital, or the means of obtaining it; but they want to go to work and enrich their country: and they will, if the can be protected against the devas tuttingfloods which they are wholly unable to shut on".Congress having decidedtoput adutyof 5ceuts perpound on raw cotton, must, if only for the Treasury's sake, endeavor to stimulate and expand the cottonculture. Had,000,0ll0 be esnqmunbly excnded on the levees of the Mississippi, Yasoo, and ed rivers, not less than double the o mount would have been added to the revenue from this year’s product ofcotton alone; and the good thus e ected would have endured and borne fruit for years much of it forever. Assuming that the cottontax will have to be'bornofor 5 years 85,000,000 expended on levees this year, and $1,000,00 perannum tor the next four8, 300,000in all would return to the Treasury not less than 850,000,00boe, side adding immensely to the development and expansion of our national wealth. i.n“gWanedbaecgt Congress not to adjourn withont consider this subject. Grant that it is too late to effect anything this year; it’ not acted on now it will be too late to provide roteetion for the indus But if congress should new art we may be certain of a very large extension of plantot surface next year, and at.least double crops on all the richest cotton and sugar lands of the prolific Southwest.” This is the sentiment not only of the NewYork Tribune. Almost all the NewYork papers, as well as the Chicago papers, the Cincinnati papers, the Chronicle of this city in. fact, all the radical leading organs in the country have urged this measure upon us as a duty which we owe to the financial and agricultural interests of the country. They point to the fact, which must be obvious to every reflecting mind, that this is not a measure for the benefit of the rebels in the stise in which it is spoken of. Where will these people get the implements witluvhich this work be done? In Massachusetts or Pennsylvania. Where will they get the skilled labor for the construction of these levees? Where they have always pro1866. 4%? cured such labor from the Ohio and upper Mississippi rivers. Where will they get the pork and the flour to sustain the laborers? On the banks of the u perMississippi and its tributaries. And I the l gentlemen that when any question in regard to that great river is up, whether it concerns a locality at the mouth of that river or at the head of the river, it becomes men interested in the great Mediterranean val ley to stand by the interests of that river. Let these levees be broken down or swept away, and the mouths of the Mississippi river will soon hecome‘blocked up more fearfully than they have been by the alluvial deposits which have bee‘ accumulating 'ear by year. competent engineers have advocated projects for straightening the current of the Mississippi, to increase its velocity, and thus keep its entrances clear. Yet we are now told that we must allow this river to spread over miles each side of its proper bed, inundating a vast country capable of adding 100s of millions annually to the wealth of the country. If those levees were rebuilt, the proprietors who now cannot sell their lands at a dollar peracre, would be able to cultivate those lands and make them highly productive, contributing largely to the wealth of the nation. lf gentlemen still indulging the war spirit want to hang rebels let them hang them by the rules oflaw and justice; if they want to starve rebels let them enact it upon the statute book that they shall be starve. But when we are Iegislatin here for the great interests of the country, dot us legislate like statesmen, not placing dependence upon newspaper articles which are dishonorable to the country from which they come, for they are in disregard of what every man knows to be the best interests of that country. I ask gentlemen not to disregard the fact that by the rebuilding of these levees we shall increase the production of cot ton, thereby diminishing its cost to us who consume it, reducing largely the present high rices of cotton goods, as well as increasing argely our internalrevenue.