1st Session.

No. 63.

RESOLUTIONS

OF

THE LEGISLATURE OF LOUISIANA,

IN RELATION TO

The recent policy of the Spanish government in reference to the Island of Cuba, and the necessity of the adoption by the United States of some decisive and energetic measures to thwart and defeat the same.

MAY 24, 1854.-Referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations and ordered to be printed.

RESOLUTIONS.

Be it resolved by the senate and house of representatives of the State of Louisiana, in general assembly convened, That we view with regret and alarm the policy recently inaugurated by the government of Spain in the Island of Cuba, the manifest object and effect of which must be the abolition of slavery in that colony, and the sacrifice of the white race, with its arts, commerce, and civilization, to a barbarous and inferior race.

Resolved, That the consummation of this policy will exercise a most pernicious influence upon the institutions and interests, social, commercial, and political of the United States.

Resolved, That, in our judgment, the time has arrived when the federal government should adopt the most decisive and energetic measures to thwart and defeat à policy conceived in hatred to this republic, and calculated to retard her progress and prosperity.

JNO. M. SANDIDGE,

Speaker of the house of representatives. ROBERT C. WICKLIFFE,

Approved, March 16, 1854:

President, pro tem., of the senate.

C. A. HEBERT,

Governor of the State of Louisiana.

1st Session.

No. 64.

REPORT

Of a committee, accompanied by resolutions adopted at a meeting of citizens of New Hanover county, North Carolina, in favor of an appropriation for the removal of the bar in Cape Fear river.

MAY 31, 1854.-Ordered to lie on the table and be printed.

The committee to whom it was referred by a meeting of the citizens of New Hanover county "to make a report to this convention, embodying such facts and statements as are best calculated to show the propriety and importance of the improvement of the Cape Fear bar by the general government," have had the same under careful consideration, and ask leave to submit the following report:

In order to present the subject more clearly, we have thought it necessary and proper to enter into a brief history of the Cape Fear river and bar, to show, as far as we can, their past and present conditions, the changes which have taken place, and the causes which have operated to produce, hasten, or modify those changes.

The earliest information which we have in our possession is furnished by the chart of a hydrographic survey made and published in the year 1733 by Edward Mosely, at which time the main bar of the river afforded a depth of nineteen (19) feet of water.

In the year 1738, as appears from a chart published by James Wimble, the depth of water upon the main bar had increased to twenty-one (21) feet.

In the year 1797, as appears from a chart published by Joshua Potts, the depth of water upon the main bar had decreased to twenty (20) feet. Upon this chart, for the first time, so far as we can ascertain, is shown a second opening in the river at a point about nine miles above the main outlet, and forming what is now known as the New Inlet. The date of the opening of this inlet has been fixed at about the year 1780; and its depth of water, at the date of this survey, at about seven (7) feet at high water.

In 1820, as is shown by a survey made under the direction of Colonel Kearney, topographical engineers, the depth of water upon the main bar had decreased to fifteen and a half (15) feet, and that upon the New Inlet bar had increased to eleven and a half (114) feet.

In 1839, according to a survey made by Captain Glynn, U. S. N., the main bar had decreased to fourteen feet, and the New Inlet bar had increased to fifteen (15) feet.

In the year 1852, according to a survey of Lieutenant Maffit, attached to U. S. coast survey, the main and New Inlet bars had both decreased to thirteen (13) feet.

In the year 1853, according to reports of pilots to the commissioners

of navigation, for the town of Wilmington, they had both decreased to eleven and a half (114) feet.

In 1854, in a letter from the superintendent of the coast survey to Hon. G. E. Badger, printed by order of U. S. Senate, Feb. 13, it is stated that the depth of water upon the main bar had decreased to nine (9) feet.

It is also proper to remark that, from the earliest period of which we have any information, there have existed two channels to the origi nal outlet of the river-one crossing the main bar, of which we have given the changes above, and another running close along the Oak Island shore, and designated upon all the maps as the western channel. As early as 1733, this channel is shown upon Mosely's map with a depth of fourteen feet of water upon the bar. One hundred and six years afterwards, in 1839, it is shown by Capt. Glynn's survey with precisely the same depth upon the bar, and in 1851 it is shown by Lieut. Maffit's survey with a depth of only twelve feet. Since that time. according to the reports of pilots, it has gradually increased, and affords now a depth of fourteen feet. It will be seen from this statement, that this channel has, for the last three or four years, been the only channel at the original entrance which could be used by the larger class of vessels trading at our port, the main bar being comparatively useless to us; and (2d) that although the depth of water which is afforded to our commerce has been variable, still those variations have been frequent and slight, and have not tended all in one way as is the case with the main and New Inlet bars. The conclusion which we arrive at, therefore, is that these variations have been caused by the shifting of sands, and have had no material effect to the injury of the main bar.

In pursuing this investigation, it must be constantly borne in mind that the main bar is the natural original outlet to the river; and that the injury done to our commerce by the shoaling of this bar cannot be repaired to us, until this bar is restored to its former state, or until some other bar is opened which will afford the same depth of water (21 feet) which the main bar originally afforded. For the convenience of reference we have reduced the facts above stated, which comprise all the information in possession of your committee, to the following tableremarking that the figures all refer to high water.

A careful examination of these facts have led us to the following conclusions: 1st. That the main bar, if left to itself, would have exhibited no material decrease of depth from the date of Wimble's sur

vey. It would have been subject to variations, as was the western bar, but these variations would have been temporary and slight, caused by shifting sands, and would not have injuriously affected the commerce of the port. It might even have continued to increase, as has been shown that it did, between the time of Mosely's survey and that of Wimble. 2d. That the opening of New Inlet, and the consequent diminution of the volume of water which passed out at the main entrance had a tendency necessarily to diminish the depth of water upon the main bar; and that the main bar continued to decrease, with some slight variations, according to the increase of the New Inlet. 3d. That this continued to be the state of things up to the period of Capt. Glynn's survey in 1839, at which time the New Inlet had attained its greatest depth, having reached a formation of rock which prevented any further increase.

Since the year 1839, the New Inlet has not increased in depth, but has been subject only to temporary variations caused by the prevailing winds. A gale from the northeast, for instance, washes the sand from the capes, and deposits it about and upon the rock of which its bottom is formed, while a gale from the southwest is equally certain to wash it from the rock, and carry it out again to the ocean. These facts have been established by accurate soundings made by the pilots, and by the operations of the U. S. coast survey; and render it certain that, subsequent to that period, the New Inlet has exerted no influence towards the shoaling of the main bar. It has also been shown that the variations in the depth of the western channel have been so slight, never increasing in depth over one-half foot greater than is shown by Glynn's survey, as to be unable to cause any material injury since that date, whatever its effects may have been previously. But still the shoaling of the main bar has continued, and latterly has increased the rapidity of its action to such an extent as to render this entrance useless for the larger class of vessels; thus indicating the operation of some new and powerful cause to produce the result.

the

Very shortly after the publication of Capt. Glynn's survey, about year 1840, the United States government, for the protection of Fort Caswell from abrasion, constructed stone jetties upon the Oak Island shore, running out into the river, some of them to the distance of four hundred feet. The effect of these jetties was to change the course of the current, and to throw it upon Bald Head-the opposite shore-with such force and in such manner as to cause a material wash, while the sand from this wash was carried out by the action of the current, and deposited upon the main bar. This has been ascertained by the most accurate soundings made by scientific men; and affords the only possible reason for the continued shoaling of the main bar after the causes proceeding from the opening of New Inlet had ceased to operate. We have already shown that these causes have not, and could not have produced any material effect after the date of Capt. Glynn's survey in 1839; and, if we are correct in these conclusions, as we feel very positive that we are, then the government of the United States is directly chargeable with the construction of one cause which has operated very powerfully towards the injury of our bar and of our commerce.

Having thus endeavored to give a historical account of the Cape