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18 Youth's Golden Gleam |
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Apart from accidents, there were financial risks for owners and agents of steamboats in routine ways. 'Two hundred and fifteen boats lost in five years by snagging" reported the Western Boatman which then editorially interrogated the government: "Is it not perfectly easy to clear out and keep cleared out nine-tenths of the snags ?"24
In the three-party campaign of 1848 the hazards of river traffic became a political issue. The Whig appeal to the voters in _river towns and cities was set forth in the leading editorial of the Cincinnati Gazette (October 26, 1848) as follows;
Gen. Cass holds it unconstitutional to appropriate the money of the General Government to improve our rivers and harbors. Remember it was under Van Buren's administration that the work was stopped and the boats &c sold. If either of these men are elected President, not a snag or a sand bar in any of our rivers will be removed!
Remember that the Whigs and Gen. Taylor are for improving the Rivers and Harbors, and if Taylor is elected the snags will be removed, the shoal places deepened, the harbor made safe. Vote for the man who is in favor of these great interests, of your great interests. TURN OUT AND DO IT. |
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