re to take up
the question at the next meeting. The vote was unanimous
against Mr. Eads's Bill. When the Committee came out of their
room he was waiting outside the door to learn his fate. I
saw the look of disappointment and despair on his face when
he was told of the vote. I asked him to come with me into
another room, which he did. I told him that I was satisfied
from what I had heard that his plan was a good one, although
I had voted against it with the rest of the Committee. It
seemed to me that it would be presumptuous in me, having no
special knowledge in such matters, to go against the practically
unanimous report of the United States Board of Engineers.
But I said: "Captain Eads, can you not frame a bill, which
will provide that you shall not have any money from the Treasury
for your work until you have accomplished something. If you
deepen the channel of the river a foot that will have done
some good. Suppose you provide that when you have deepened
the river a certain number of feet you shall have so much
of your pay, when it is deepened further so much more, and
so on until the work is done." Captain Eads eagerly caught
at the plan. He said that he was willing to do it, and that
he was perfectly willing that his getting his pay should depend
upon the certificate of the engineers of his having accomplished
the result. He agreed to have a bill drawn on that principle.
He brought it to me afterward. I went over it very carefully,
inserting some additional securities for the Government.
I then took it to the next meeting of the Committee, moved a
reconsideration of the vote of the previous week. That was
carried by a bare majority of one vote. I then moved the
new bill as a substitute for the old one. It was adopted.
The bill passed the House and Senate under which the Eads
jetties were constructed and vessels drawing over twenty-
eight feet of water passed freely up and down to and from
New Orleans. The depth before that time, I think, had been
twelve feet. Captain Eads afterward sent me a beautifully
bound copy of the history of the Eads's jetties with an inscription
certifying to the facts I have stated, in his own handwriting.
I told this story afterward at a meeting of the business men
of Boston. Mr. Corthell who happened to be present made a
speech after I got through. He is himself a very eminent
water engineer. He said that he was associated with Captain
Eads at the time and had o