poor white man”—­the negro’s expression—­goes through the country and says “Kansas,” they almost want to mob him.  That was the result of the Kansas movement.

Q. What has become of those who went to Kansas?  —­A.  Many of them have returned and many have died; numbers of them have died.  Quite a large number went to Washington County Mississippi, just opposite me.

Q. From time to time, at Washington, efforts are being made to secure public lands in the Territories, the Indian Territory and elsewhere, for the purpose of colonizing such tracts with negroes.  Do you think there is any sort of occasion for that?  —­A.  None in the world.  If the alluvial lands on the Mississippi River were protected from overflow and brought into a condition where they could be cultivated they would afford all the homes, and of the best character, that the negroes could possibly want in the South, and the natural tendency is to come to just such lands.

     Q. And the negroes prefer to be there to anywhere else? 
     —­A.  Those that come, I notice, never go back.

Q. You suggested the improvement of the levees.  What is the necessity, and in what degree is it difficult for those residing along the river banks to protect themselves?  —­A.  I am the president of the levee board of Chicot County.  The plan which has been suggested by the Mississippi River Commission and Mr. Eads, as their chief engineer, is unquestionably the correct one for the improvement of the Mississippi River.  We know this not only from theory, but from long experience with the river, those of us who have lived there.  The Mississippi River being, as it is generally termed, the “Father of Waters,” and passing through several States, it is almost a national system, and it would be impossible for any system to be adopted by the States which would be local.  Consequently it is imperatively the duty of the Government of the United States to take care of the improvement of the Mississippi River.  There are certain sections of the Mississippi River that are naturally above overflow, made so by cut-offs.  The fall of the Mississippi River is about four inches to the mile.  Consequently, when there is one of those large bends, where the river runs around where the cut-off is, no increase of water is needed.  The fall being four inches to the mile, the lands just above the cut-off are made higher and above overflow, whereas just below, the lands are overflowed or become liable to overflow.  The improvement of the Mississippi River itself for commercial purposes, as well as the protection of the lands, is dependent upon the building of the levees, for the levees of course confine the water within its banks, and give not only a greater volumn of water, but greater velocity for scouring purposes, which scours out the sand bars that are formed continually on the river.  Captain Eads’s plan of forming jetties where the banks cave, saves this