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Show 322 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT The purpose of the Act of March 2, 1849, was "to aid the State of Louisiana in constructing the necessary levees and drains to reclaim the swamp and overflowed lands therein," and to achieve that objective "the whole of those swamp and overflowed lands which may be or are found unfit for cultivation," were granted to the state. Subdivisions in which the greater part of the land was swamp or overflowed were to be included in the donation. Levee construction had begun unsystem-atically in French Louisiana in the 18th century with each planter on the rivers or bayous starting his levees after he had suffered from the spring overflows. Levees no more than 5 feet high were constructed close to the river, and without any of the careful engineering planning that came much later. Community action to defend and strengthen the levees when danger appeared was rare, and indeed there was considerable opposition at all times, since levee building seemed to divert floodwaters onto those lands not protected. Slowly, through cooperation and group action and with the aid of local parish authorities and then of the state government, progress was made, but the work was on too small a scale to protect plantations in unusually high floods. A wide variety of state laws were passed, sizable appropriations were made, and some planning was done by the states of the lower Mississippi before 1848, yet unusually high floods continued to inflict great damage. These states needed help; how better could it be provided than by the Federal government giving them the lands that would be benefited by larger levees?8 In 1850 John Wilson, a career man in the General Land Office, was sent to Louisiana to make a reconnaissance of the lands along the streams for the purpose of recommending steps to secure speedy selection of the swamplands, thus enabling Louisiana to undertake levee improvement as soon as possible.9 Wilson arrived in the state at the height of one of its great floods, which had breached the inadequate levees in many spots, covered whole plantations and villages, and inflicted enormous and widespread damage. After talks with the Federal surveyor general and other influential people in Louisiana, 8 Robert W. Harrison, "Levee Building in Mississippi before the Civil War," Journal of Mississippi History, XII (April 1950), 63 ff.; id., Alluvial Empire, A Study of State and Local Efforts Toward Land Development in the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River (Little Rock, Ark., 1961), I, 50 ff. 9 The careers of the brothers John and Joseph Wilson in the General Land Office are worthy of attention for their success in avoiding the frequent removals the patronage system seemed to make necessary, the informative reports they prepared as Commissioners and the high-mindedness of their service. Both listed themselves as born in the District. Joseph S. Wilson first appeared as messenger in the Office in 1827 with a salary of 8700, which became $1,150 in 1833. In 1837 he was principal clerk at $1,800. In 1855 with John as Commissioner his salary was raised to $2,000. In 1859 he was Acting Commissioner, salary $3,000, but 2 years later was back as chief clerk at $2,000, which he remained until 1867 when he became Commissioner, again at $3,000. This he held until 1871. Although Joseph S. Wilson first appeared on the GLO staff in 1827, a Joseph Wilson who gave his birthplace as Ireland, held the same position from 1819 through 1825 and was replaced by Joseph S. Wilson. John Wilson first appeared on the list of employees of the Land Office in 1843 as principal clerk drawing $1,800. He gradually worked up to the third position in the hierarchy and in 1853 became Commissioner at $3,000. In every responsibility he filled and left records he seemed to be one who could make decisions, was reliable, forward-looking, and had a grasp of subjects in his charge which made him stand out in officialdom, though he may not always have been tactful in presenting his ideas to his superiors. For the positions held by the two brothers see the Federal Registers, 1819-71. For John Wilson's efforts to protect the public timbered lands from depredations and his dismissal for political reasons see Chap. XIX, "Early Efforts to Protect the Public Timberlands." Wilson then became Land Commissioner of the Illinois Central Railroad and later held the same position for the Transit Railroad which became the Winona and St. Peter Railroad of Minnesota. John B. Rae says that Wilson was lobbying before the General Land Office for a Michigan railroad in 1857. Rae, "The Development of Railway Land Subsidy Policy in the United States" (Ph.D. dissertation, Brown University, 1936), pp. 47, 49. |