Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

clamoring for their right to vote, were dispersed by a charge of bayonets. By corruption, violence, and intimidation, and frauds of every kind, a majority was obtained in most of the towns. One or two of the Liberal strongholds were declared disfranchised on account of disorders. Such means did not fail to furnish a subservient popular convention, more illiterate, however, than the Assembly complained of. The Great National Assembly, thus composed, assembled at Sistova, and accomplished the usurpation of Alexander by their vote annulling the Constitution, on the 13th of July.

BURCH, JOHN C., born in Jefferson County, Georgia, October 21, 1826; died in Washington, D. C., July 28, 1881, of organic disease of the heart. His parents were Georgians, and with them he resided in Fayetteville until 1862. Having received a preparatory education in his own State, Mr. Burch entered the freshman class of Yale College in 1843, and graduated in 1847. He then returned to Georgia and studied law in the office of Governor Charles J. McDonald, of Marietta, one of the most eminent jurists of the State. In 1849 Mr. Burch was admitted to the bar, and opened an office at Spring Place, Murray County, where he remained three years, and then removed to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Here he established a successful practice, and in 1855 was elected to the General Assembly as the member for Hamilton County. The House of Representatives, in which he served, was equally divided in politics, and, though one of the youngest members, Mr. Burch took a foremost place as debater and parliamentarian, and was one of the recognized leaders of his party. The session was a long and important one, in which Knownothingism figured as a new phase in politics. In the debates and discussions growing out of that issue Mr. Burch achieved State-wide reputation, and in 1857 was elected Senator from the district composed of Hamilton, Bradley, Rhea, Bledsoe, Sequatchie, and Marion Counties. Though barely of senatorial age, he was chosen Speaker of the body. In 1859 the Nashville "Union and American," the organ of the Democratic party of Tennessee, lost its leading editors-Messrs. Poindexter and Eastman-and, acting under the counsel of the party leaders, Mr. Burch assumed the editorship of the paper, which duty he performed during the presidential campaign of 1860, and the critical agitation which culminated in civil war. After the fall of Fort Sumter he enlisted as a private in Company C, Rock City Guards, but was soon after chosen lieutenant of another company. Before going into the field, he was appointed aide-de-camp to Major-General Gideon J. Pillow, then in command of the Provisional Army of Tennessee, which was organized to support the army of the Southern Confederacy. He was soon promoted to the office of lieutenant-colonel, and when Tennessee became a member of the Confederacy he was made assistant adjutant-general, and continued in that

capacity during the war, serving on the staffs of Generals Pillow, Forrest, and Withers. At the expiration of the war he returned to Nashville, and resumed the practice of law until September, 1869, when he purchased a controlling interest in the "Union and American," and again became its editor-in-chief. In 1873 he was appointed by Governor J. C. Brown Comptroller of the State of Tennessee. This service was rendered with great ability and rigid integrity, and upon retiring from it he returned to journalism, in which he continued until 1879. On the accession of the Democratic party to the power of the majority of the United States Senate, Colonel Burch was elected secretary of that body over a number of formidable competitors, each of whom was an ex-member of the United States Senate or House of Representatives, and this position he held at the time of his death.

BURNSIDE, AMBROSE EVERETT, born at Liberty, Indiana, May 23, 1824; died at Bristol, Rhode Island, September 13, 1881. In 1843 he was appointed from Rhode Island to the United States Military Academy, where he graduated in 1847, and was made brevet second-lieutenant of the Second Artillery. During the war with Mexico, 1847-'48, he served at the city of Mexico, and received his full commission as secondlieutenant. In 1848-49 he was stationed at Fort Adams, Newport, Rhode Island. Engaged on frontier duty at Las Vegas, New Mexico, in 1849-'50, he took part in a skirmish there with Iacarillo Apache Indians, August 23, 1849, receiving a wound. From April, 1851, to March, 1852, he was with the Mexican Boundary Commission, acting quartermaster. On December 12, 1851, he was commissioned as first-lieutenant, and on returning from New Mexico he was again stationed at Fort Adams, Newport. Having invented a breech-loading rifle, he resigned from the army October 2, 1853, to engage in manufactures, and pursued that business in Bristol, Rhode Island, from 1853 to 1858. In the year 1856 he was appointed one of the Board of Visitors to the United States Military Academy. During his residence in Rhode Island he was active in the militia, and from 1855 to 1857 he held the rank of major-general. Finding the business of manufacturing arms unsuccessful, General Burnside became cashier of the land department of the Illinois Central Railway Company in 1858, and removed to Illinois. In 1860-'61 he was treasurer of the same corporation. When the civil war broke out, he at once tendered his services to the Union, and was appointed colonel of the First Regiment of Rhode Island Volunteers, which marched to Washington four days after the President's call for troops was issued. At the first battle of Bull Run he commanded a brigade, and was soon after made brigadier-general. In command of an expedition to North Carolina in January, 1862, he captured Roanoke Island, Newbern, and Beaufort. At the close of the campaign on the Peninsula he was re

called and ordered to Fredericksburg. There he remained until General Pope was defeated at the second battle of Bull Run. In March, 1862, General Burnside was commissioned major-general of volunteers, and during the Confederate invasion of Maryland he was under General McClellan's command. At the battle of Antietam he commanded the left wing. On November 10, 1862, he took command of the Army of the Potomac, superseding General McClellan, which position he retained until January 26, 1863. In 1862 the State of Rhode Island presented to him a sword of honor in testimony of his services at Roanoke Island. While in command of the Army of the Potomac he moved from the Rapidan to Fredericksburg on the Rappahannock, with a view to crossing the river at that point and moving thence upon Richmond. General Lee, however, took possession of the heights on the opposite bank before Burnside was ready to cross, and when, on the 12th of September, the Union forces crossed and endeavored to break the Confederate lines, they were repulsed after repeated attacks. For this movement he was severely criticised by several officers of high rank, whose removal he requested, tendering his resignation of the command if his request was not complied with. His resignation was accepted, and General Hooker succeeded him. In the following March he was in command of the Department of Ohio, and soon after assuming this position he arrested C. L. Vallandigham on account of his defiant utterances. pursuit and capture of Morgan's raiders also occurred while he had charge of this department, soon after which General Burnside undertook to drive the Confederates from East Tennessee; in this he was successful, and for it received the thanks of Congress. Late in September, 1863, the Ninth Corps, which had been detached from Burnside's command, was restored to it. In the mean time General Lee had sent General Longstreet to Tennessee with a strong force from Virginia. Burnside fell back to Knoxville, where he was besieged until the beginning of December, when the siege was abandoned on the approach of General Sherman with a detachment of General Grant's army. Burnside was then relieved from his command in the West, and in January, 1864, was restored to that of the Ninth Corps, with which he followed Grant over the RapidanGrant crossing May 4th and Burnside May 5th. The battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and North Anna succeeded-the corps being now attached to the Army of the Potomac, under the immediate command of General Meade, Burnside waiving his seniority in rank. His corps was prominent in subsequent operations down to the siege of Petersburg. During the early part of this siege, Burnside's lines were close to those of the enemy, and opposite them was a strong redoubt forming an important part of the Confederate defense. Beneath this work General Burnside caused a

The

mine to be run, and blew it up on the 30th of June; but the general assault, which had been planned to follow, was not made, and the affair was a failure. Burnside then proffered his resignation, which was not accepted, but he was granted leave of absence, and not being recalled to active service he resigned April 15, 1865. As an officer he was much loved by his subordinates. After his retirement General Burnside was engaged in business in Rhode Island, having been a director in the Illinois Central Railroad Company, the Narragansett Steamship Company, and President of the Cincinnati and Martinsville Railroad Company, of the Rhode Island Locomotive Works, and of the Indianapolis and Vincennes Railroad Company. In 1866 he was elected Governor of Rhode Island, and was afterward honored with two re-elections. In 1869, before the expiration of the third term, when he was asked for the use of his name again, he publicly announced that he would not be a candidate for re-election. The following year he visited Europe, and was admitted within the German and French lines in and around Paris, acting as a medium of communication between the hostile nations, in the interests of conciliation. On his return home he was again summoned to public duties, being elected to the United States Senate as successor to ex-Governor William Sprague. When a similar election was required he was again chosen, and had entered upon his second term at the time of his death.

He

General Burnside resided periodically in Providence and Bristol, the latter being his summer home, and it was here that he entertained General Grant in the summer of 1875. died without family, his wife having closed her life in March, 1876. In the hearts of his friends and associates General Burnside's memory is preserved with the kindliest respect; the people of his State admired and trusted him, and the veteran soldiers delighted to honor the veteran leader on many a hard-fought field.

BURNSIDE, JOHN, born in Ireland; died June 29, 1881, at Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, Virginia. Mr. Burnside was at the time of his death one of the few millionaires in the South, and the largest sugar-planter in the United States. His reticence concerning his age leaves that point to conjecture, but it is supposed by his most intimate friends that he must have been at least seventy-eight when he died. Like many other men of large fortune in America, Mr. Burnside commenced life in extreme poverty, and from filling the humble position of clerk to Mr. Andrew Beirne, a merchant in Fincastle, Botetourt County, Virginia, he gradually acquired such importance with his employer as to be made by him the partner of his son in a wholesale dry-goods house at New Orleans. During a great financial panic, Mr. Burnside and his partner had the nerve to extend credit when other merchants refused all risks. In this way the firm of Beirne & Burn

side spread their business to the farthest points of the South, and laid the foundation for their remarkable future prosperity. Subsequently Mr. Burnside associated himself with another firm under the title of Burnside & Co. About 1852 he began to make investments in sugarplantations, first among which were those known as Houmas and Orange Grove, for which he paid $1,000,000. At the time of his death he owned ten of the most highly culti vated and best improved plantations in Louisiana, the value of his possessions being estimated at between $4,000,000 and $5,000,000. At the time of the war he owned 2,200 slaves, but, notwithstanding his heavy loss by their emancipation, he continued to accumulate wealth in the dry-goods business, from which he virtually retired in 1857. He was never married, and it is thought he had no relatives in this country. Among the distinguished guests whom he entertained were the Grand Duke Alexis, Dom Pedro, and General Hancock. Although not

CALIFORNIA. The twenty-fourth session of the Legislature of California commenced on January 3d. In the Senate, Lieutenant-Governor Mansfield took the chair, and William M. Johnston, of Sacramento, was chosen President pro tem. In the House, William Henry Parks, of Yuba, was chosen Speaker. The session was continued sixty days, as provided in the Constitution of the State, and adjourned on March 4th. More than eight hundred bills were introduced, but only fifty-one received the signature of the Governor. It was anticipated that the new Constitution would shorten and simplify legislation. It contains a provision against special legislation, and on this ground the length of the session was limited to sixty days. These anticipations were disappointed.

Among the measures considered was the repeal of the debris act of the previous session. This was defeated. The nature of the injury for which a remedy was sought in the passage of the débris bill was briefly stated in the "Annual Cyclopædia" of 1880. It arises from the effects of hydraulic mining, and has, thus far, most seriously occurred on the American, Bear, and Yuba Rivers. It consists in a practical burial of large areas under the mining detritus or "slickens" and sand. The property so buried is, in fact, so completely deprived of agricultural value that in the opinion of competent judges it can under the most favorable circumstances be fit for nothing but raising swamp timber for from fifteen to thirty years. As to the extent of the damage done in this way, the State Engineer, in his latest report, declared that he believed the destruction which might be classed as direct in the loss of agri

C

noted for his public spirit, he was given to personal charities that he carefully concealed from the world, and in his own way he contributed largely to the prosperity of his immediate community. He was one of the first to try planting with free labor on an extensive scale, and his eminent success in the venture induced others to follow his example with similar results. Mr. Burnside kept constantly in his employment between two and three thousand persons, who were promptly and liberally paid. His money was spent chiefly in Louisiana, and his annual expenditure in New Orleans amounted to $300,000 in the purchase of plantation supplies. At the time of his last sickness he was arranging to have built on his plantation in Ascension a sugar-house to cost $100,000. According to the sugar report for the season of 1879-'80, the plantations now included in his estates produced 5,373 hogsheads of sugar and 9,074 barrels of molasses, valued at about $600,000.

[blocks in formation]

The indirect damage to property is most apparent along the main streams-the Feather River, and the upper and lower Sacramento River. For the most part, the difference between direct and indirect damage to property is more in the degree of harm inflicted than in its character. This, however, is not invariably the case. The settlers along the lower Sacramento have, for example, expended millions of dollars during the past fifteen years in attempting to reclaim swamp and overflowed lands. The failure which has followed these courageous and spirited efforts must be ascribed to the constant operation of those natural forces which the processes of hydraulic mining put in motion, and which from year to year have been counteracting and nullifying the most determined attempts at reclamation. The State sold the swamp-lands on the condition that they should be reclaimed, and should remove obstacles which render the fulfillment of the conditions thus imposed by it impracticable.

The indirect injuries which may be traced without any doubt or difficulty to hydraulic mining are, however, very extensive. In all these cases the future can be predicted from the past. On the one hand are lands already covered with the flood of sand and débris. On the other hand are lands threatened with this flood. And the flood is continually advancing. The low lands of the whole Sacramento Valley

are, in fact, threatened with unavoidable destruction. That is to say, an area inclosing from twelve to fourteen hundred square miles of fertile territory is indirectly damaged, and is menaced with ultimate destruction.

Nor is this the whole of the situation, for the injury done to the Sacramento Valley extends, by a reflex action, to the low lands of the San Joaquin, and to the lands about the upper bays by a direct movement. It may, therefore, be said without exaggeration that the indirect damage actually embraces an area extending from Oroville and Chico to Benicia on the Strait of Carquinez.

It is necessary to bear in mind that the destruction of the navigability of the Sacramento River is involved. This would deprive the whole of Northern California of competition in transportation. The wheat-crop alone of that region may be estimated at five hundred thousand tons. It may also be fairly calculated that the removal of competition would result in a rise of freight-rates to the extent of $2 per ton. Thus, then, an additional tax of $1,000,000 a year on the movement of the harvest alone is involved in this question, as concerns Northern California. An illustrative instance of the influence of river improvements on freight-rates is to be found in the effect produced by deepening the channel at the mouth of the Mississippi. The competition offered by that river after the opening of its mouth reduced the aggregate freight charges on the first year's products of the Mississippi Valley $50,000,000. Taking the counties of Colusa, Placer, Sacramento, Solano, Sutter, Yolo, Yuba, Butte, and Tehama, and estimating the assessed value of the real estate other than town lots, and the improvements, and of the town lots and their improvements, and making what seems a sufficient deduction from the aggregate, it is estimated that the property in these counties threatened with partial or complete destruction can not properly be put at a lower amount than $60,000,000.

The evidence furnished by the State and consulting engineers shows that the water-ways are in danger of destruction, and that, unless sustained and systematic treatment is applied to the rivers, they will shortly cease to be navigable, and that both the Feather and Sacramento Rivers are in a condition in which an unusual flood might cause them to abandon their present channels, and spread themselves abroad through the low lands between Knight's Landing or Grey's Bend and Suisun Bay, ruining the country everywhere, and changing the very face of the State.

Apart from the burden that would fall upon the northern region of the State by the removal of the means of competition by the rivers, this injury would affect a population of at least one hundred and fifty thousand, of whom one third would be directly and two thirds in directly concerned. The effect upon the value of land can not be ignored. It is evident that

if through any cause the cost of transportation is raised two dollars a ton, the products of the region so affected must by this change be put at an increased disadvantage equal to the removal of their lands from a market a distance represented by the enhanced ratio of transportation. Their lands are in fact thereby put as much farther from the market as two dollars will carry a ton of wheat, and the consequence must be to lower the value of land exposed to such an impost.

An approximate estimate of the loss of values to be apprehended in this direction from the destruction of the principal water-ways can not be fairly stated at less than $100,000,000.

This leads to a statement of the value and importance of hydraulic mining, which is the cause of the present and prospective damage to the State. This mining has been carried on for twenty-five years, and the present annual output of the hydraulic mines is estimated at from $12,000,000 to $14,000,000. It is therefore apparent that an estimate of $150,000,000 for the whole period of their working is not extravagant. It is equally clear that while no accurate estimate of their future output can be made, it is safe to assume that it will be larger than it has been in the past, since the extent of gravel-bearing claims remaining unworked is practically unlimited, and since many very extensive workings have either just been opened or are not yet opened so as to be largely productive. Enough is known to make it plain that the hydraulic mines have contributed greatly to the prosperity of the State, and will contribute still more largely in the future, if suffered to proceed. A very considerable population is supported by these mines, estimated at 30,000, and the indirect support is very much more extensive. The counties in which the principal hydraulic mines are situated may be said to depend almost entirely upon the mining industry. All values in those counties are therefore dependent upon the prosperity of this interest. What this involves may be perceived by reference to the comprehensive decline of values in Virginia City consequent upon the depreciation of the mines on the Comstock lode. In that case the mining population was thinned out, the value of real property fell to panic prices, and the general effect upon the prosperity of the community was as disastrous as though every man in the city had been directly interested in the mines. Similar results must always follow where the intimacy of the relations between the various interests is as great as in the mining counties of California. The suppression of hydraulic mining, therefore, would in all probability be productive of a general collapse throughout this region. Not only would there ensue a positive and direct loss to the State in the cessation of auriferous production, but the entire industries, commercial activities, and general civilization of the mining counties would be virtually destroyed, and the tax-paying as well as the wealth-producing

capacities of those counties would be paralyzed. It is, however, evident that the hydraulic mining interest is an important one. It may be said, as regards its annual output, to represent a fixed capital of $100,000,000, and directly and indirectly it affords support to a considerable population. Even the farmers in the valley, who occupy lands on the verge of the mineral area, owe a portion of their prosperity to these mines, which create a brisk demand for their produce, and a demand the loss of which would be severely felt.

The engineers were required to ascertain the extent of the injury, present and prospective, and whether remedial measures were available. Their reports have shown that the extent and gravity of the damage and menace are far greater than had been commonly supposed; that it was possible to counteract the ill effects of hydraulic mining by a systematic treatment of the rivers; that such a systematic treatment of the rivers was necessary in any case, since it would be impossible to meet the exigencies of the situation by merely stopping hydraulic mining.

The most formidable danger to the low lands is due to the deposit in the mountain-streams and tributaries of enormous quantities of heavy sand, which is being washed down lower every year. The deposit of this sand must continue until the entire Sacramento Valley is covered and destroyed, even though hydraulic mining should be stopped at once, until remedial measures are adopted. In fact, it may be asserted that the stoppage of hydraulic mining in the present stage of the débris evil would produce no alleviation whatever. There is a mass of mining débris now collected in the cañons of the mountains sufficient to cover the Sacramento Valley completely a couple of feet deep, and this matter will continue to be washed down every winter until the beds of the river are entirely choked, and until the destruction inflicted upon the valley agricultural lands has become past relief or reparation.

The surveys of the engineers resulted in ascertaining the practicability of remedial measures, but at the same time showed that the subject was too extensive to be dealt with locally. It was particularly insisted on by the engineers that sustained and systematic treatment of the rivers must be undertaken, or that it would be useless to attempt anything. While, therefore, they held out the encouraging consideration that by such a systematic treatment the condition of the rivers might be made even better than it had ever been, they contended that nothing less comprehensive than the methods they proposed would be adequate. It was estimated by the engineers that the expenditure required for the construction of suitable works could not exceed $10,000,000, and that it might not exceed $5,000,000. What was known as the drainage bill was prepared and passed at the previous session of the Legislature. This act levied a benefit assessment upon the

districts to be aided; the hydraulic miners were called upon for extra contributions, and a tax of five cents on the hundred dollars was made general throughout the State.

A large portion of the session of the Legislature was occupied in the discussion of the bill to repeal the act, which, however, was defeated on the first reading in the Assembly.

The plans of the engineers embrace a system of levees and cut-offs for the lower course of the Sacramento, and a system of dams for the upper course. It has never been pretended that the dams without the levees, or the levees without the dams, would bring about the results aimed at. But the works have only been commenced a short time, and the dams alone have been constructed. No engineer has claimed that the dams were capable by themselves of effecting a cure for the evil attacked. On the contrary, all the engineers have agreed that before any real relief can be had, the levees must be made strong enough to carry the flood-waters of the river without giving way. During the past winter no real test of the engineering plans was possible, inasmuch as they were incomplete. Such a test can not be applied until the lower river has been leveed scientifically-and this is not the work of a few months. The brush dams, however, have been so successful in holding back the heavier débris, that the efficiency of that kind of work can not be questioned seriously. The inundation of the Sacramento Valley does not show that the engineers made any mistake, for no steps had been taken to prevent such an inundation.

The floods found no obstacles

but the old and thin and insufficient levees which had been built piecemeal here and there, and as a matter of course they soon overcame those frail barriers.

The report of the Board of Equalization presented the first trustworthy data for ascertaining the results of the revenue system put in operation by the new Constitution. Its framers believed that a great deal of property had escaped taxation in the past, and they were determined to make everybody pay in the future. They imagined that this could be done by decreeing it, and so resolute and unflinching were they in the prosecution of their purpose that they refused to exempt from taxation even the shadows of property, but insisted that everything which represented property should be assessed. It happened coincidently that there prevailed a belief that land monopoly could be put an end to by taxation, and to this end it was agreed that cultivated and uncultivated land, of the same character and quality, should be assessed at the same rate when in contiguity. The taxation of mortgages, the taxation of credits and stocks, the taxation of uncultivated land at the same rate as cultivated, was to lighten the burden of taxation on the masses by forcing the rich to bear their just share of the general load. How the new system succeeded, the State

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »