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Introducing Large Rivers
Introducing Large Rivers

Avijit Gupta
School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences
University of Wollongong
Australia

With contributions from

Olav Slaymaker
Department of Geography
The University of British Columbia
Vancouver
Canada

Wolfgang J. Junk
National Institute of Science and Technology of Wetlands (INCT-INAU)
Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT)
Cuiabá
Brazil
This edition first published 2020
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Name: Gupta, Avijit, author.

Title: Introducing large rivers / by Avijit Gupta.
Description: First edition. | Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2020.
| Includes bibliographic references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019032032 (print) | LCCN 2019032033 (ebook) | ISBN
9781118451403 (paperback) | ISBN 9781118451427 (adobe pdf ) | ISBN
9781118451434 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Rivers–Environmental aspects–Research. | Fluvial
geomorphology–Environmental aspects–Research.
Classification: LCC GB1205 .G86 2020 (print) | LCC GB1205 (ebook) | DDC
551.48/3–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019032032
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019032033

Cover Design: Wiley

Cover Image: © guenterguni/Getty Images

Set in 10/12pt WarnockPro by SPi Global, Chennai, India

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Mira and Mae
 vii

Contents

Preface xiii

1 Introduction 1
1.1 Large Rivers 1
1.2 A Book on Large Rivers 3
References 6

2 Geological Framework of Large Rivers 7

2.1 Introduction 7
2.2 The Geological Framework: Elevated Land and a Large Catchment 8
2.3 Smaller Tectonic Movements 9
2.4 The Subsurface Alluvial Fill of Large Rivers 10
2.5 Geological History of Large Rivers 12
2.6 Conclusion 14
Questions 14
References 14

3 Water and Sediment in Large Rivers 17

3.1 Introduction 17
3.2 Discharge of large Rivers 17
3.3 Global Pattern of Precipitation 18
3.4 Large River Discharge: Annual Pattern and Long-Term Variability 21
3.5 Sediment in Large Rivers 26
3.6 Conclusion 32
Questions 32
References 33

4 Morphology of Large Rivers 35

4.1 Introduction 35
4.2 Large Rivers from Source to Sink 35
4.3 The Amazon River 38
4.3.1 The Setting 39
4.3.2 Hydrology 39
4.3.3 Sediment Load 39
4.3.4 Morphology 42
4.4 The Ganga River 44
viii Contents

4.4.1 The Setting 44

4.4.2 Hydrology 46
4.4.3 Sediment Load 46
4.4.4 Morphology 47
4.5 Morphology of Large Rivers: Commonality and Variations 48
4.6 Conclusion 52
Questions 52
References 52

5 Large Rivers and their Floodplains: Structures, Functions,

Evolutionary Traits and Management with Special Reference to the
Brazilian Rivers 55
Wolfgang J. Junk, Florian Wittmann, Jochen Schöngart, Maria Teresa F. Piedade and
Catia Nunes da Cunha
5.1 Introduction 55
5.2 Origin and Age of Rivers and Floodplains 57
5.3 Scientific Concepts and their Implications for Rivers and Floodplains 59
5.4 Water Chemistry and Hydrology of Major Brazilian Rivers and their
Floodplains 60
5.5 Ecological Characterisation of Floodplains and their Macrohabitats 62
5.6 Ecological Responses of Organisms to Flood-Pulsing Conditions 64
5.6.1 Trees 65
5.6.2 Herbaceous Plants 66
5.6.3 Invertebrates 66
5.6.4 Fish 67
5.6.5 Other Vertebrates 68
5.7 Biodiversity 68
5.7.1 Higher Vegetation 69
5.7.2 Animal Biodiversity 71
5.8 The Role of Rivers and their Floodplains for Speciation and Species
Distribution of Trees 71
5.9 Biogeochemical Cycles in Floodplains 73
5.9.1 Biomass and Net Primary Production 73
5.9.1.1 Algae 73
5.9.1.2 Herbaceous Plants 74
5.9.1.3 Trees of the Flooded Forest 75
5.9.2 Decomposition 76
5.9.3 The Nitrogen Cycle 77
5.9.4 Nutrient Transfer Between the Terrestrial and Aquatic Phases 78
5.9.5 Food Webs 79
5.10 Management of Amazonian River Floodplains 80
5.10.1 Amazonian River Floodplains 80
5.10.2 Savanna Floodplains 82
5.11 Policies in Brazilian Wetlands 82
5.12 Discussion and Conclusion 84
Acknowledgements 89
References 89
 Contents ix

6 Large River Deltas 103

6.1 Introduction 103
6.2 Large River Deltas: The Distribution 104
6.3 Formation of Deltas 104
6.4 Delta Morphology and Sediment 110
6.5 The Ganga-Brahmaputra Delta: An Example of a Major Deltaic
Accumulation 112
6.5.1 The Background 112
6.5.2 Morphology of the Delta 113
6.5.3 Late Glacial and Holocene Evolution of the Delta 114
6.6 Conclusion 115
Questions 115
References 116

7 Geological History of Large River Systems 119

7.1 The Age of Large Rivers 119
7.2 Rivers in the Quaternary 121
7.2.1 The Time Period 121
7.2.2 The Nature of Geomorphic Changes 123
7.2.3 The Pleistocene and Large Rivers 124
7.2.3.1 The Glacial Stage 124
7.2.3.2 The Transition 125
7.2.3.3 The Interglacial Stage 127
7.3 Changes During the Holocene 127
7.4 Evolution and Development of the Mississippi River 128
7.5 The Ganga-Brahmaputra System 133
7.6 Evolution of the Current Amazon 137
7.7 Evolutionary Adjustment of Large Rivers 141
Questions 142
References 142

8 Anthropogenic Alterations of Large Rivers and Drainage Basins 147

8.1 Introduction 147
8.2 Early History of Anthropogenic Alterations 148
8.3 The Mississippi River: Modifications before Big Dams 149
8.4 The Arrival of Large Dams 151
8.5 Evaluating the Impact of Anthropogenic Changes 156
8.5.1 Land Use and Land Cover Changes 157
8.5.2 Channel Impoundments 159
8.6 Effect of Impoundments on Alluvial Rivers 161
8.7 Effect of Impoundments on Rivers in Rock 163
8.8 Large-scale Transfer of River Water 166
8.9 Conclusion 167
Questions 168
References 169
x Contents

9 Management of Large Rivers 173

9.1 Introduction 173
9.2 Biophysical Management 177
9.3 Social and Political Management 178
9.3.1 Values and Objectives in River Management 179
9.3.2 International Basin Arrangements 180
9.4 The Importance of the Channel, Floodplain, and Drainage Basin 180
9.5 Integrated Water Resources Management 182
9.6 Techniques for Managing Large River Basins 183
9.7 Administering the Nile 184
9.8 Conclusion 188
Questions 189
References 190

10 The Mekong: A Case Study on Morphology and Management 193

10.1 Introduction 193
10.2 Physical Characteristics of the Mekong Basin 194
10.2.1 Geology and Landforms 194
10.2.2 Hydrology 196
10.2.3 Land Use 197
10.3 The Mekong: Source to Sea 199
10.3.1 The Upper Mekong in China 199
10.3.2 The Lower Mekong South of China 199
10.4 Erosion, Sediment Storage and Sediment Transfer in the Mekong 202
10.5 Management of the Mekong and its Basin 204
10.5.1 Impoundments on the Mekong 204
10.5.2 Anthropogenic Modification of Erosion and Sedimentation on Slopes 206
10.5.3 Degradation of the Aquatic Life 207
10.6 Conclusion 208
Questions 208
References 209

11 Large Arctic Rivers 211

Olav Slaymaker
11.1 Introduction 211
11.1.1 The Five Largest Arctic River Basins 213
11.1.2 Climate Change in the Five Large Arctic Basins 213
11.1.3 River Basin Zones 214
11.2 Physiography and Quaternary Legacy 216
11.2.1 Physiographic Regions 216
11.2.1.1 Active Mountain Belts and Major Mountain Belts with Accreted Terranes
(Zone 1) 216
11.2.1.2 Interior Plains, Lowlands, and Plateaux (Zone 2) 217
11.2.1.3 Arctic Lowlands (Zone 3) 218
11.2.2 Ice Sheets and Their Influence on Drainage Rearrangement 218
11.2.3 Intense Mass Movement on Glacially Over-steepened Slopes 218
11.3 Hydroclimate and Biomes 220
 Contents xi

11.3.1 Climate Regions 220

11.3.2 Biomes 220
11.3.3 Wetlands 224
11.4 Permafrost 224
11.4.1 Permafrost Distribution 224
11.4.2 Permafrost and Surficial Materials 226
11.4.3 Contemporary Warming 226
11.5 Anthropogenic Effects 228
11.5.1 Development and Population 228
11.5.2 Agriculture and Extractive Industry 228
11.5.3 Urbanisation: The Case of Siberia 228
11.6 Discharge of Large Arctic Rivers 229
11.6.1 Problems in Discharge Measurement 229
11.6.2 Water Fluxes 229
11.6.3 Water Budget 231
11.6.4 Nival River Regime 232
11.6.5 Lakes and Glaciers 234
11.6.6 River Ice: Freeze and Break Up 236
11.6.7 Scale Effects 237
11.6.8 Effects of River Regulation 238
11.6.9 Historical Changes 238
11.7 Sediment Fluxes 239
11.7.1 Complications in Determining Sediment Fluxes Both Within Arctic Basins
and to the Arctic Ocean 239
11.7.2 Flux of Suspended Sediment and Dissolved Solids 240
11.7.3 Historical Changes in Water and Sediment Discharge in the Siberian
Rivers 240
11.7.4 Suspended Sediment Sources and Sinks in the Mackenzie Basin 242
11.7.4.1 Sediment Yield in the Mackenzie Basin 242
11.7.4.2 West Bank Tributary Sources 243
11.7.4.3 Bed and Bank Sources 245
11.8 Nutrients and Contaminants 249
11.8.1 Supply of Nutrients 249
11.8.2 Transport of Contaminants 250
11.9 Mackenzie, Yukon and Lena Deltas 253
11.9.1 Mackenzie Delta 253
11.9.2 Lena Delta 253
11.9.3 Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta 256
11.10 Significance of Large Arctic Rivers 256
Acknowledgment 258
Questions 259
References 259

12 Climate Change and Large Rivers 265

12.1 Introduction 265
12.2 Global Warming: Basic Concept 266
xii Contents

12.3 A Summary of Future Changes in Climate 270

12.4 Impact of Climate Change on Large Rivers 271
12.5 Climate Change and a Typical Large River of the Future 273
12.6 Conclusion 277
Questions 277
References 278

Index 281
 xiii

Preface

An edited anthology on geomorphology and management of large rivers was published

in 2007.1 The book filled a gap in our knowledge about large rivers as fluvial geomorphol-
ogy used to be based more on smaller streams of manageable dimensions. We needed to
extend our study to big rivers which shape a significant part of the global physiography,
carry a high volume of water and sediment to the coastal waters, and support a very
large number of people who live on their floodplains and deltas. That was an advanced
treatise. This volume is written primarily as a textbook on large rivers, introducing such
aspects. A number of line drawings and photographs illustrate the text, and a set of ques-
tions at the end of the chapters encourage the reader to explore various issues regarding
large rivers.
The book introduces the environmental characteristics of river basins and forms and
functions of channels commonly seen among the large rivers of the world. Specific dis-
cussions cover their complex geology, water, and sediment. The great lengths of these
rivers stretch across a range of different environments. The Mekong, for example, flows
on both rock and alluvium with varying form and behaviour. The geological framework
of a large river is based primarily on large-scale tectonics commonly derived by plate
movements. An uplifted zone, the primary source of sediment in the river, and a nearly
subcontinental-scale water catchment area are necessary. A range of morphology exists
in large rivers, and the associated floodplains and flood pulses are ecologically impor-
tant. Large rivers could be geologically long-lived. In future, their forms may change and
their functions may alter, following construction of engineering structures and climate
change.
The quality of the book has been enhanced by detailed and well-illustrated discussions
on two important topics: (i) large rivers and their floodplains: structures, functions,
evolutionary traits and management with special reference to the Brazilian rivers by
W.J. Junk et al. (Chapter 5), and (ii) large arctic rivers by O. Slaymaker (Chapter 11).
I am grateful to all of the authors of these two chapters for their in-depth discussion on
these topics. Lastly, the book indicates that the existing rivers possibly are undergoing
dynamic adjustments in a world with a changing climate. Rivers change with time, and
we usually know a large river only at a particular point in its existence.
Completion of the book has been a demanding task and I am grateful to the editorial
and production teams of John Wiley & Sons, Ltd for their remarkable patience, editorial
assistance, and continuous encouragement. I would like to thank Athira Menon and

1 Gupta, A. (Ed.) (2007). Large Rivers: Geomorphology and Management. Wiley: Chichester.
xiv Preface

Joseph Vimali for guiding me through the intricacies of book production. Lee Li Kheng
has produced many of the diagrams from my rough sketches. I have tremendously
benefited from the critical readings by Colin Murray-Wallace of Chapter 7 on past
rivers and by Colin Woodroffe of Chapter 6 on large river deltas and a discussion on
climate change with John Morrison.

Wollongong, Australia, June 2019 Avijit Gupta

 1

Introduction

1.1 Large Rivers

We have an intuitive recognition of large rivers although a proper definition is elusive.
Even though it is difficult to define a large river, we would probably select the same 15
or 20 rivers as the biggest in the world. Potter identified four characteristic properties
of large rivers: they drain big basins; they are very long; they carry a large volume of
water; and they transfer a considerable amount of sediment (Potter 1978). It is, however,
difficult to attribute quantitative thresholds to these, and not all big rivers exhibit these
four characteristics. We associate large rivers with high discharge and sediment transfer,
but both water and sediment vary over time and space and their data are difficult to
acquire. It is easier to identify large rivers by the size of their drainage basins and their
lengths; both are easier to measure.
Based on the areal extent of their drainage basin, Potter (1978) examined 50 of the
world’s largest rivers, ranked by Inman and Nordstrom (1971), starting with the Ama-
zon. All but one of these rivers are more than 103 km long, and the smallest drainage
basin is about 105 km2 . These 50 rivers collectively drain about 47% of the land mass,
excluding Greenland and Antarctica. The Amazon alone drains about 5% of the con-
tinental area. These rivers also have modified the physiography of a large part of the
world. Table 1.1 lists the top 24 large rivers (Figure 1.1), ranked according to their aver-
age annual water discharge. Their ranks would change if the rivers were listed according
to any of the other three properties.
There are other lists. Hovius (1998) tabulated the morphometric, climatic, hydro-
logic, transport, and denudation data for 97 river basins, all of which measured above
2.5 × 104 km2 . Meade (1996) ranked the top 25 rivers twice: first, according to their dis-
charge; and second, according to their suspended sediment load. The two lists do not
match well. For example, large rivers such as the Zambezi or Lena carry a large water
discharge but a low sediment load. Impoundments too have drastically reduced the once
high sediment load of many rivers such as the Mississippi-Missouri. Over approximately
the last 100 years, many rivers have been modified by engineering structures such as
dams and reservoirs. The Colorado or the Huanghe (Yellow River) at present may not
flow to the sea round the year. Such changes have also reduced the amount of sediment
that passes from the land to the coastal waters. Large rivers such as the Nile or Indus
have been associated with human civilisation for thousands of years and show expected
modifications.

Introducing Large Rivers, First Edition. Avijit Gupta.

© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2020 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
2 1 Introduction

Table 1.1 Selected characteristics of 24 large rivers.

Current
Average annual Drainage average annual
water Length basin area suspended sediment
River discharge (106 m3 ) (km) (km2 ) discharge (106 t)

1. Amazon 6300 6000 5.9 1000–1300

2. Congo 1250 4370 3.75 43
3. Orinoco 1200 770 1.1 150
4. Ganga-Brahmaputra 970 B-2900 1.06 (B-0.63) 900–1200
G-2525
5. Changjiang 900 6300 1.9 480
6. Yenisey 630 5940 2.62 5
7. Mississippi 530 6000 3.22 210
8. Lena 510 4300 2.49 11
9. Mekong 470 4880 0.79 150–170

10. Parana-Uruguay 470 3965 2.6 100
11. St. Lawrence 450 3100 1.02 3
12. Irrawaddy 430 2010 0.41 260
13. Ob 400 >5570 2.77 16
14. Amur 325 4060 2.05 52
15. MacKenzie 310 4200 2.00 100
16. Zhujiang 300 2197 0.41 80
17. Salween 300 2820 0.27 About 100
18. Columbia 250 2200 0.66 8
19. Indus 240 3000 0.97 50
20. Magdalena 240 1540 0.26 220
21. Zambezi 220 2575 1.32 20
22. Danube 210 2860 0.82 40
23. Yukon 195 3200 0.83 60
24. Niger 190 4100 2.27 40

These figures vary between sources, although perhaps given the dimensions, such variations are
proportionally negligible. Discharge and sediment figures are from Meade (1996) and Gupta (2007) and
references therein. Drainage areas are rounded off to 106 km to reduce discrepancies between various
sources. The Nile is not listed, even though it is 6500 km long. It does not qualify for this table as its water
and sediment discharges are relatively low.

The great lengths of these rivers allow them to flow across a range of environments.
The Mekong, for example, flows on both rock and alluvium, looking different
(Figure 1.2). The end part of the river needs to adjust to all such environmental
variations plus the Quaternary changes in sea level.
Fluvial geomorphology generally is based on small and logistically manageable
streams. A study of large rivers is necessary, although difficult, for multiple reasons.
Large rivers form and modify subcontinental-scale landforms and geomorphological
 1.2 A Book on Large Rivers 3

Figure 1.1 A sketch map showing the location of 24 large rivers in the world: 1, Amazon; 2, Congo; 3,
Orinoco; 4, Ganga-Brahmaputra; 5, Changjiang; 6, Yenisei; 7, Mississippi; 8, Lena; 9, Mekong; 10,
Parana-Uruguay; 11, St. Lawrence; 12, Irrawaddy; 13, Ob; 14, Amur; 15, Mackenzie; 16, Zhujiang; 17,
Salween; 18, Columbia; 19, Indus; 20, Magdalena; 21, Zambezi; 22, Danube; 23, Yukon; 24, Niger.

processes. A high number of them convey and discharge a large volume of water
and sediment to the coastal seas. An understanding of modern large rivers helps us
to explain past sedimentary deposits. Large rivers, such as the Amazon (Mertes and
Dunne 2007), and their deposits may reveal basinal and regional tectonics, past and
present climate, and sea-level fluctuations. Management of the water resources of a
large river is often an essential step toward the supply of water and power to a large
number of people. We need to study large rivers for many such reasons.

1.2 A Book on Large Rivers

A number of individual large rivers have been studied and such studies published dis-
cretely. A collection of advanced essays on the general characteristics of large rivers,
their selected case studies, and their utilisation and management is also available (Gupta
2007). In comparison, this volume is primarily an integrated textbook on large rivers
and introduces the reader to the morphology and management of these huge conduits
on which both the general physiography of the basins and utilisation of the resources of
the rivers depend.
The discussion on large rivers starts with an account of their geological framework
(Chapter 2) that determines where they can be located and also what their physical
characteristics would be. The geological framework of a large river is based primarily on
large-scale tectonics commonly driven by plate movements. An uplifted zone and the
4 1 Introduction

(a)

(b)

Figure 1.2 The Mekong. (a) On rock, downstream of Chiang Saen, northern Thailand. (b) On alluvium
near Savanakhet, Lao PDR, photographed from the air. Note the difference in form and behaviour
between the two reaches. Large rivers commonly are a combination of a number of similar variations.
Source: A. Gupta.
 1.2 A Book on Large Rivers 5

adjoining subcontinental-scale water catchment area are necessary requirements for a

big river. Smaller tectonic movements may further modify the basin and the channel
and explain their detailed morphological characteristics.
The regional geology should create a drainage basin large enough to accumulate
enough precipitation to support and maintain the big river. Chapter 3 discusses the
nature of water and sediment in a large river. The discharge in a large river is determined
by various climatic criteria depending on its location: annual rainfall, seasonality in
rainfall, and high episodic rain from synoptic disturbances such as tropical cyclones.
The supply of water to large rivers could be from almost all parts of the watershed
but the sediment supply generally is associated selectively with high mountains. For
example, the discharge of the Orinoco is collected from most of the basin, irrespective
of geology or relief, but its sediment supply is only from the Andes Mountains and the
alluvial Llanos plains formed near the Andean foothills. In certain cases, several large
rivers flow through arid landscapes without identifiable addition to their discharge but
manage to sustain their flow because of the high discharge arriving from the upper
non-arid parts of their drainage basins. Sediment in flood moves in large rivers both in
downstream and lateral directions if large floodplains are present. The sediment grains
travel a long distance to reach the sea and, in the process, become mature and sorted.
Large rivers have been aptly described as massive conveyance systems that move detri-
tal sediment and dissolved matter over transcontinental distances (Meade 2007). Their
morphology is dependent on regional geology, discharge and sediment flux, and may
change several times between the headwaters and the sea (Chapter 4). Morphologically
a large river usually has a channel flanked by bars, floodplain, and terrace fragments.
The channel pattern depends on the gradient of the river and the nature of water and
sediment it transports, and the pattern varies among different rivers as they adjust to
the local physical environment. Floodplains of large rivers are important not only for
their origin and age but also for their ecology which supports a wide variety of species,
and their economic utilisation by people. The role of flood pulses in the maintenance of
the floodplains and its ecology is crucial. This is discussed in detail by Junk et al., in one
of the two invited chapters in this book (Chapter 5). The huge discharge of water and
sediment that is deposited by a big river in the sea may create a large delta. Deltas are
morphologically fragile and change over time (Chapter 6). Deltas of many large rivers
support a large population, and hence are of importance.
Large rivers could be geologically long-lived rivers such as the Mississippi or the Nile.
A river that exists for a long time has a history. Tectonic processes commonly influ-
ence the origin, geographical location, and modification of major rivers. Understanding
of such rivers requires knowledge of their history as rivers have changed episodically
through tectonic movements, and especially through climate and sea-level changes in
the Quaternary (Chapter 7).
Large rivers are a useful resource to people. A proper utilisation (Chapter 8) and man-
agement (Chapter 9) of large rivers is important. The land use of their basins and the use
of their water have modified the environment over years of human civilisation. This has
led to alteration of large rivers and their basins at various levels, especially over the last
hundred years. The form and behaviour of many of the present large rivers have been
modified mainly due to construction of large dams and reservoirs. The present state of
a large river is conditioned by both the original physical environment of the basin and
anthropogenic alterations imposed on the channel.
6 1 Introduction

This requires proper management of the rivers so that basinal economic development
and environmental degradation can be balanced in a sustainable way. A management
procedure which simultaneously allows both economic development and environmen-
tal sustenance needs to be chosen. As a large river usually flows across multiple coun-
tries, each with different expectations and varying ability of resource utilisation, there is
also a political aspect of large river management.
Chapter 10 deals exclusively with the Mekong River as a case study to illustrate the
techniques and problems of managing a multistate river in a complex physical envi-
ronment. It illustrates the reality of river management which involves dealing with the
complexity of the physical characteristics of a big river, meeting the different expectan-
cies of multiple stakeholders of the river basin, and maintaining the quality of the river
for future generations, all at the same time.
Chapter 11 is on the special case of major rivers in the arctic. It deals mainly with the
Lena, Yenisei and Ob in Siberia and the Mackenzie and Yukon in North America. These
rivers flow through a unique environment and are expected to go through large changes
in the near future due to global warming. This discussion on arctic rivers by Slaymaker
is the second invited contribution in this book.
The last chapter deals with the possible modifications of large rivers in the near future.
They may undergo significant changes following climate change and construction of
large-scale engineering structures. The general tenets of climate change are known and
accepted, but we have limited knowledge regarding its impact on large rivers. We, how-
ever, need to consider the future for understanding and management of present large
rivers, as such changes would impact the lifestyles of a very large number of people, as
the rivers of the future are likely to be different.

References
Gupta, A. (ed.) (2007). Large Rivers: Geomorphology and Management, 689. Chichester:
Wiley.
Hovius, N. (1998). Control of sediment supply by large river. In: Relative Role of Eustasy,
Climate, and Tectonism in Continental Rocks, vol. 59 (eds. K.W. Shanley and P.C.
McCabe), 3–16. Tulsa: Society for Sedimentary Petrology Special Publication.
Inman, D.L. and Nordstrom, C.E. (1971). On the tectonic and morphological classification
of coasts. Journal of Geology 79: 1–21.
Meade, R.H. (1996). River-sediment inputs to major deltas. In: Sea-Level Rise and Coastal
Subsidence: Causes, Consequences and Strategies (eds. J.D. Milliman and B.H. Haq),
63–85. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Meade, R.H. (2007). Transcontinental moving and storage: the Orinoco and Amazon rivers
transfer the Andes to the Atlantic. In: Large Rivers: Geomorphology and Management
(ed. A. Gupta), 45–63. Chichester: Wiley.
Mertes, L. and Dunne, T. (2007). Effects of tectonism, climate change, and sea-level change
on the form and behaviour of the modern Amazon River and its floodplain. In: Large
Rivers: Geomorphology and Management (ed. A. Gupta), 112–144. Chichester: Wiley.
Potter, P.E. (1978). Significance and origin of big rivers. Journal of Geology 86: 13–35.
 7

Geological Framework of Large Rivers

2.1 Introduction
A large river is a long river which drains an extensive basin, carries a big discharge,
and usually, but not always, transports a huge quantity of sediment (Potter 1978).
It possesses a suitable three-dimensional geological framework for achieving these
characteristics. A linear depression in rock of considerable length commonly lies below
the river. A sedimentary fill of varying depth rests on this depressed rock surface,
and along with bedrock constitutes the material below the channel of the river. The
fill has been deposited by the main river and its ancestors, and some of its sediment is
contributed by tributary streams. On the surface, the long trunk river crosses a range
of physical environments and changes form and behaviour several times. For example,
the Irrawaddy, Narmada and Danube flow in and out of narrow rocky valleys and wide
alluvial basins. The basin of a large river commonly is an accumulation of several
sub-basins with different character, exhibiting a polyzonal form and behaviour. The end
part of the main river needs to adjust to all such variations in the large basin, plus any
change in sea level.
The geological framework of a large river is formed primarily by past large-scale tec-
tonics. Its basin should also be big enough to collect sufficient precipitation to form
and support a major river system. Conditions vary spatially within the basin of the
large river, and different parts of the basin contribute water and sediment in varying
fashion to the mainstream. The main river usually receives water from multiple parts
of the basin, but almost all of its sediment is usually derived from higher tectonic parts
of the catchment, an area of high relief and disintegrated rocks (Meade 2007; Milliman
and Syvitski 1992). Usually, the sediment is derived from such areas by glaciation, slope
failures, and eroding headstreams of the river.
In brief, the physical characteristics of a large river depend on its structural frame-
work, its geological history, and its pattern of water and sediment supply. Such charac-
teristics form and maintain the river and its basin. Their nature is modified over time
following changes in tectonics and climate, and in current times also by anthropogenic
alterations of the river and its basin.

Introducing Large Rivers, First Edition. Avijit Gupta.

© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2020 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
like effect on all who have the time and patience to read what I have
here written.
 Speech of Hon. John A. Logan,

On Self-Government in Louisiana, January 13 and 14, 1875.

The Senate having under consideration the resolution submitted
by Mr. Schurz on the 8th of January, directing the Committee of the
Judiciary to inquire what legislation is necessary to secure to the
people of the State of Louisiana their rights of Self-government
under the Constitution Mr. Logan said:
Mr. President: I believe it is considered the duty of a good sailor
to stand by his ship in the midst of a great storm. We have been told
in this Chamber that a great storm of indignation is sweeping over
this land, which will rend asunder and sink the old republican craft.
We have listened to denunciations of the President, of the
republicans in this Chamber, of the republican party as an
organization, their acts heretofore and their purposes in reference to
acts hereafter, of such a character as has seldom been listened to in
this or in any other legislative hall. Every fact on the side of the
republican party has been perverted, every falsehood on the part of
the opposition has been exaggerated, arguments have been made
here calculated to inflame and arouse a certain class of the people of
this country against the authorities of the Government, based not
upon truth but upon manufactured statements which were utterly
false. The republican party has been characterized as despotic, as
tyrannical, as oppressive. The course of the Administration and the
party toward the southern people has been denounced as of the most
tyrannical character by men who have received clemency at the
hands of this same party.
Now, sir, what is the cause of all this vain declamation? What is
the cause of all this studied denunciation? What is the reason for all
these accusations made against a party or an administration? I may
be mistaken, but, if I am not, this is the commencement of the
campaign of 1876. It has been thought necessary on the part of the
opposition Senators here to commence, if I may use a homely phrase,
a raid upon the republican party and upon this Administration, and
to base that upon false statements in reference to the conduct of
affairs in the State of Louisiana.
I propose in this debate, and I hope I shall not be too tedious,
though I may be somewhat so, to discuss the question that should be
presented to the American people. I propose to discuss that question
fairly, candidly, and truthfully. I propose to discuss it from a just,
honest, and legal standpoint. Sir, what is that question? There was a
resolution offered in this Chamber calling on the President to furnish
certain information. A second resolution was introduced, (whether
for the purpose of hanging on it an elaborate speech or not I am not
aware,) asking the Committee on the Judiciary to report at once
some legislation in reference to Louisiana. Without any facts
presented officially arguments have been made, the country has been
aroused, and some people have announced themselves in a manner
calculated to produce a very sore feeling against the course and
conduct of the party in power. I say this is done without the facts;
without any basis whatever; without any knowledge officially
communicated to them in reference to the conduct of any of the
parties in the State of Louisiana. In discussing this question we ought
to have a standpoint; we ought to have a beginning; some point from
which we may all reason and see whether or not any great outrage
has been perpetrated against the rights of the American people or
any portion of them.
I then propose to start at this point, that there is a government in
the State of Louisiana. Whether that government is a government of
right or not is not the question. Is there a government in that State
against which treason, insurrection, or rebellion, may be committed?
Is there such a government in the State of Louisiana as should
require the maintenance of peace and order among the citizens of
that State? Is there such a government in the State of Louisiana as
requires the exercise of Executive authority for the purpose of
preserving peace and order within its borders? I ask any Senator on
this floor to-day if he can stand up here as a lawyer, as a Senator, as
an honest man, and deny the fact that a government does exist?
Whether he calls it a government de jure or a government de facto, it
is immaterial. It is such an organization as involves the liberties and
the protection of the rights of the people of that State. It will not do
for Senators to talk about the election of 1872. The election of 1872
has no more to do with this “military usurpation” that you speak of
to-day than an election of a hundred years ago. It is not a question as
to whether this man or that was elected. The question is, is there
such a government there as can be overturned, and has there been an
attempt to overturn it? If so, then what is required to preserve its
status or preserve the peace and order of the people?
But the other day when I asked the question of a Senator on the
other side, who was discussing this question, whether or not he
indorsed the Penn rebellion, he answered me in a playful manner
that excited the mirth of people who did not understand the
question, by saying that I had decided that there was no election, and
that therefore there was no government to overturn. Now I ask
Senators, I ask men of common understanding if that is the way to
treat a question of this kind; when asked whether insurrection
against a government recognized is not an insurrection and whether
he endorses it, he says there is no government to overturn. If there is
no government to overturn, why do you make this noise and
confusion about a Legislature there? If there is no State government,
there is no State Legislature. But I will not answer in that manner. I
will not avoid the issue; I will not evade the question. I answer there
is a Legislature, as there is a State government, recognized by the
President, recognized by the Legislature, recognized by the courts,
recognized by one branch of Congress, and recognized by the
majority of the citizens by their recognition of the laws of the State;
and it will not do to undertake to avoid questions in this manner.
Let us see, then, starting from that standpoint, what the position of
Louisiana is now, and what it has been. On the 14th day of
September last a man by the name of Penn, as to whom we have
official information this morning, with some seven or ten thousand
white-leaguers made war against that government, overturned it,
dispersed it, drove the governor from the executive chamber, and he
had to take refuge under the jurisdiction of the Government of the
United States, on the soil occupied by the United States custom-
house, where the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States
Government extends, for the purpose of protecting his own life.
 This then was a revolution; this then was a rebellion; this then was
treason against the State, for which these men should have been
arrested, tried, and punished. Let gentlemen dodge the question as
they may; it may be well for some men there who engaged in this
treasonable act against the government that they had Mr. Kellogg for
governor. It might not have been so well for them, perhaps, had there
been some other man in his place. I tell the Senator from Maryland if
any crowd of armed men should undertake to disperse the
government of the State of Illinois, drive its governor from the
executive chamber, enter into his private drawers, take his private
letters, and publish them, and act as those men did, some of them
would pay the penalty either in the penitentiary or by dancing at the
end of a rope.
But when this rebellion was going on against that State, these
gentlemen say it was a State affair; the Government of the United
States has nothing to do with it! That is the old-fashioned secession
doctrine again. The government of the United States has nothing to
do with it! This national government is made up of States, and each
State is a part of the Government, each is a part of its life, of its body.
It takes them all to make up the whole; and treason against any part
of it is treason against the whole of it, and it became the duty of the
President to put it down, as he did do; and, in putting down that
treason against the Kellogg government, the whole country almost
responded favorably to his action.
But our friend from Maryland, not in his seat now, [Mr.
Hamilton] said that that was part of the cause of the elections going
as they did. In other words, my friend from Maryland undertook in a
roundabout way to endorse the Penn rebellion, and claim that people
of the country did the same thing against the government of the State
of Louisiana, and on this floor since this discussion has been going
on, not one Senator on that side of the chamber has lisped one word
against the rebellion against the government of the State of
Louisiana, and all who have spoken of it have passed it by in silence
so as to indicate clearly that they endorse it, and I believe they do.
Then, going further, the President issued his proclamation
requiring those insurgents to lay down their arms and to resume
their peaceful pursuits. This morning we have heard read at the
clerk’s desk that these men have not yet complied fully with that
proclamation. Their rebellious organization continued up to the time
of the election and at the election. When the election took place, we
are told by some of these Senators that the election was a peaceable,
and a fair election, that a majority of democrats were elected. That is
the question we propose to discuss as well as we are able to do it.
They tell us that there was no intimidation resorted to by any one in
the State of Louisiana. I dislike very much to follow out these
statements that are not true and attempt to controvert them because
it does seem to me that we ought to act fairly and candidly in this
Chamber and discuss questions without trying to pervert the issue or
the facts in connection with it.
Now, I state it as a fact, and I appeal to the Senator from Louisiana
to say whether or not I state truly, that on the night before the
election in Louisiana notices were posted all over that country on the
doors of the colored republicans and the white republicans, too, of a
character giving them to understand that if they voted their lives
would be in danger; and here is one of the notices posted all over that
country:

2×6

This “2 × 6” was to show the length and width of the grave they
would have. Not only that, but the negroes that they could impose
upon and get to vote the democratic ticket received, after they had
voted, a card of safety; and here is that card issued to the colored
people whom they had induced to vote the democratic ticket, so that
they might present it if any white-leaguers should undertake to
plunder or murder them:
 New Orleans, Nov. 28, 1874.

This is to certify that Charles Durassa, a barber by occupation, is a

Member of the 1st Ward Colored Democratic Club, and that at the late
election he voted for and worked in the interests of the Democratic
Candidates.

WILLIAM ALEXANDER,
President 1st Ward Col’d Democratic Club.

NICK HOPE, Secretary.

Rooms Democratic Parish Committee.

New Orleans, Nov. 28, 1874.

The undersigned, Special Committee, appointed on behalf of the Parish

Committee, approve of the above Certificate.

ED. FLOOD, Chairman.

PAUL WATERMAN.
H. J. RIVET.

Attest:
J. H. HARDY, Ass’t Sec. Parish Committee.

These were the certificates given to negroes who voted the

democratic ticket, that they might present them to save their lives
when attacked by the men commonly known as Ku-Klux or white-
leaguers in that country; and we are told that there is no intimidation
in the State of Louisiana!
Our friend from Georgia [Mr. Gordon] has been very profuse in
his declamation as to the civility and good order and good bearing of
the people of Louisiana and the other Southern States. But, sir, this
intimidation continued up to the election. After the election, it was
necessary for the governor of that State to proceed in some manner
best calculated to preserve the peace and order of the country.

Now, Mr. President, I want to ask candid, honest, fair-minded

men, after reading the report of General Sheridan showing the
murder, not for gain, not for plunder, but for political opinions in the
last few years of thirty-five hundred persons in the State of
Louisiana, all of them republicans, not one of them a democrat—I
want to ask if they can stand here before this country and defend the
democratic party of Louisiana? I put this question to them for they
have been here for days crying against the wrongs upon the
democracy of Louisiana. I want any one of them to tell me if he is
prepared to defend the democracy of Louisiana. What is your
democracy of Louisiana? You are excited, your extreme wrath is
aroused at General Sheridan because he called your White Leagues
down there “banditti.” I ask you if the murder of thirty-five hundred
men in a short time for political purposes by a band of men banded
together for the purpose of murder does not make them banditti,
what it does make them? Does it make them democrats? It certainly
does not make them republicans. Does it make them honest men? It
certainly does not. Does it make them law-abiding men? It certainly
does not. Does it make them peaceable citizens? It certainly does not.
But what does it make them? A band of men banded together and
perpetrating murder in their own State? Webster says a bandit is “a
lawless or desperate fellow; a robber; a brigand,” and “banditti” are
men banded together for plunder and murder; and what are your
White Leagues banded together for if the result proves that they are
banded together for murder for political purposes?
O, what a crime it was in Sheridan to say that these men were
banditti! He is a wretch. From the papers he ought to be hanged to a
lamp-post; from the Senators he is not fit to breathe the free air of
heaven or of this free Republic; but your murderers of thirty-five
hundred people for political offenses are fit to breathe the air of this
country and are defended on this floor to-day, and they are defended
here by the democratic party, and you cannot avoid or escape the
proposition. You have denounced republicans for trying to keep the
peace in Louisiana; you have denounced the Administration for
trying to suppress bloodshed in Louisiana; you have denounced all
for the same purpose; but not one word has fallen from the lips of a
solitary democratic Senator denouncing these wholesale murders in
Louisiana. You have said, “I am sorry these things are done,” but you
have defended the White Leagues; you have defended Penn; you
have defended rebellion; and you stand here to-day the apologists of
murder, of rebellion, and of treason in that State.
I want to ask the judgment of an honest country, I want to ask the
judgment of the moral sentiments of the law-abiding people of this
grand and glorious Republic to tell me whether men shall murder by
the score, whether men shall trample the law under foot, whether
men shall force judges to resign, whether men shall force prosecuting
attorneys to resign, whether men shall take five officers of a State out
and hang or shoot them if they attempt to exercise the functions of
their office, whether men shall terrify the voters and office-holders of
a State, whether men shall undertake in violation of law to organize a
Legislature for revolutionary purposes, for the purpose of putting a
governor in possession and taking possession of the State and then
ask the democracy to stand by them—I appeal to the honest
judgment of the people of this land and ask them to respond whether
this was not an excusable case when this man used the Army to
protect the life of that State and to preserve the peace of that people?
Sir, the man who will not use all the means in his power to preserve
the nationality, the integrity of this Government, the integrity of a
State or the peace and happiness of a people, is not fit to govern, he
is not fit to hold position in this or any other civilized age.
Does liberty mean wholesale slaughter? Does republican
government mean tyranny and oppression of its citizens? Does an
intelligent and enlightened age of civilization mean murder and
pillage, bloodshed at the hands of Ku-Klux or White Leagues or
anybody else, and if any one attempts to put it down, attempts to
reorganize and produce order where chaos and confusion have
reigned, they are to be denounced as tyrants, as oppressors, and as
acting against republican institutions? I say then the happy days of
this Republic are gone. When we fail to see that republicanism
means nothing, that liberty means nothing but the unrestrained
license of the mobs to do as they please, then republican government
is a failure. Liberty of the citizen means the right to exercise such
rights as are prescribed within the limits of the law so that he does
not in the exercise of these rights infringe the rights of other citizens.
But the definition is not well made by our friends on the opposite
side of this Chamber. Their idea of liberty is license; it is not liberty,
but it is license. License to do what? License to violate law, to
trample constitutions under foot, to take life, to take property, to use
the bludgeon and the gun or anything else for the purpose of giving
themselves power. What statesman ever heard of that as a definition
of liberty? What man in a civilized age has ever heard of liberty being
the unrestrained license of the people to do as they please without
any restraint of law or of authority? No man, no not one until we
found the democratic party, would advocate this proposition and
indorse and encourage this kind of license in a free country.
Mr. President, I have perhaps said more on this question of
Louisiana than might have been well for me to say on account of my
strength, but what I have said about it I have said because I honestly
believed it. What I have said in reference to it comes from an honest
conviction in my mind and in my heart of what has been done to
suppress violence and wrong. But I have a few remarks in conclusion
to submit now to my friends on the other side, in answer to what they
have said not by way of argument but by way of accusation. You say
to us—I had it repeated to me this morning in private conversation
—“Withdraw your troops from Louisiana and you will have peace.”
Ah, I heard it said on this floor once “Withdraw your troops from
Louisiana and your State government will not last a minute.” I heard
that said from the opposite side of the Chamber, and now you say
“Withdraw your troops from Louisiana and you will have peace.”
Mr. President, I dislike to refer to things that are past and gone; I
dislike to have my mind called back to things of the past; but I well
remember the voice in this Chamber once that rang out and was
heard throughout this land, “Withdraw your troops from Fort
Sumter if you want peace.” I heard that said. Now it is “Withdraw
your troops from Louisiana if you want peace.” Yes, I say, withdraw
your troops from Louisiana if you want a revolution, and that is what
is meant. But, sir, we are told, and doubtless it is believed by the
Senators who tell us so, who denounce the republican party, that it is
tyrannical, oppressive, and outrageous. They have argued themselves
into the idea that they are patriots, pure and undefiled. They have
argued themselves into the idea that the democratic party never did
any wrong. They have been out of power so long that they have
convinced themselves that if they only had control of this country for
a short time, what a glorious country they would make it. They had
control for nearly forty long years, and while they were the agents of
this country—I appeal to history to bear me out—they made the
Government a bankrupt, with rebellion and treason in the land, and
were then sympathizing with it wherever it existed. That is the
condition in which they left the country when they had it in their
possession and within their control. But they say the republican
party is a tyrant; that it is oppressive. As I have said, I wish to make a
few suggestions to my friends in answer to this accusation—
oppressive to whom? They say to the South, that the republican party
has tyrannized over the South. Let me ask you how has it tyrannized
over the South? Without speaking of our troubles and trials through
which we passed, I will say this: at the end of a rebellion that
scourged this land, that drenched it with blood, that devastated a
portion of it, left us in debt and almost bankrupt, what did the
republican party do? Instead of leaving these our friends and citizens
to-day in a territorial condition where we might exercise jurisdiction
over them for the next coming twenty years, where we might have
deprived them of the rights of members on this floor, what did we
do? We reorganized them into States, admitted them back into the
Union, and through the clemency of the republican party we
admitted representatives on this floor who had thundered against
the gates of liberty for four bloody years. Is that the tyranny and
oppression of which you complain at the hands of the republican
party? Is that a part of our oppression against you southern people?
Let us go a little further. When the armed democracy, for that is
what they were, laid down their arms in the Southern States, after
disputing the right of freedom and liberty in this land for four years,
how did the republican party show itself in its acts of tyranny and
oppression toward you? You appealed to them for clemency. Did you
get it? Not a man was punished for his treason. Not a man ever
knocked at the doors of a republican Congress for a pardon who did
not get it. Not a man ever petitioned the generosity of the republican
party to be excused for his crimes who was not excused. Was that
oppression upon the part of the republicans in this land? Is that a
part of the oppression of which you accuse us?
 Let us look a little further. We find to-day twenty-seven
democratic Representatives in the other branch of Congress who
took arms in their hands and tried to destroy this Government
holding commissions there by the clemency of the republican party.
We find in this Chamber by the clemency of the republican party
three Senators who held such commissions. Is that tyranny; is that
oppression; is that the outrage of this republican party on you
southern people? Sir, when Jeff Davis, the head of the great
rebellion, who roams the land free as air, North, South, East, and
West, makes democratic speeches wherever invited, and the vice-
president of the southern rebellion holds his seat in the other House
of Congress, are we to be told that we are tyrants, and oppressing the
southern people? These things may sound a little harsh, but it is time
to tell the truth in this country. The time has come to talk facts. The
time has come when cowards should hide, and honest men should
come to the front and tell you plain, honest truths. You of the South
talk to us about oppressing you. You drenched your land in blood,
caused weeping throughout this vast domain, covered the land in
weeds of mourning both North and South, widowed thousands and
orphaned many, made the pension-roll as long as an army-list, made
the debt that grinds the poor of this land—for all these things you
have been pardoned, and yet you talk to us about oppression. So
much for the oppression of the republican party of your patriotic
souls and selves. Next comes the President of the United States. He is
a tyrant, too. He is an oppressor still, in conjunction with the
republican party. Oppressor of what? Who has he oppressed of your
Southern people, and when, and where? When your Ku-Klux,
banded together for murder and plunder in the Southern States,
were convicted by their own confession, your own representatives
pleaded to the President and said, “Give them pardon, and it will
reconcile many of the southern people.” The President pardoned
them; pardoned them of their murder, of their plunder, of their
piracy on land; and for this I suppose he is a tyrant.
More than that, sir, this tyrant in the White House has done more
for you southern people than you ought to have asked him to do. He
has had confidence in you until you betrayed that confidence. He has
not only pardoned the offences of the South, pardoned the criminals
of the democratic party, but he has placed in high official position in
this Union some of the leading men who fought in the rebellion. He
has put in his Cabinet one of your men; he has made governors of
Territories of some of your leading men who fought in the rebellion;
he has sent on foreign missions abroad some of your men who
warred against this country; he has placed others in the
Departments; and has tried to reconcile you in every way on earth,
by appealing to your people, by recognizing them and forgiving them
for their offenses, and for these acts of generosity, for these acts of
kindness, he is arraigned to-day as a Cæsar, as a tyrant, as an
oppressor.
Such kindness in return as the President has received from these
people will mark itself in the history of generosity. O, but say they,
Grant wants to oppress the White Leagues in Louisiana; therefore he
is an oppressor. Yes, Mr. President, Grant does desire that these men
should quit their everyday chivalric sports of gunning upon negroes
and republicans. He asks kindly that you stop it. He says to you,
“That is all I want you to do;” and you say that you are desirous that
they shall quit it. You have but to say it and they will quit it. It is
because you have never said it that they have not quit it. It is in the
power of the democratic party to-day but to speak in tones of
majesty, of honor, and justice in favor of human life, and your Ku-
Klux and murderers will stop. But you do not do it; and that is the
reason they do not stop. In States where it has been done they have
stopped. But it will not do to oppress those people; it will not do to
make them submit and subject them to the law; it will not do to stop
these gentlemen in their daily sports and in their lively recreations.
They are White Leagues; they are banded together as gentlemen;
they are of southern blood; they are of old southern stock; they are
the chivalry of days gone by; they are knights of the bloody shield;
and the shield must not be taken from them. Sirs, their shield will be
taken from them; this country will be aroused to its danger; this
country will be aroused to do justice to its citizens; and when it does,
the perpetrators of crime may fear and tremble. Tyranny and
oppression! A people who without one word of opposition allows
men who have been the enemies of a government to come into these
legislative Halls and make laws for that government to be told that
they are oppressors is a monstrosity in declamation and assertion.
Who ever heard of such a thing before? Who ever believed that such
men could make such charges? Yet we are tyrants!
 Mr. President, the reading of the title of that bill from the House
only reminds me of more acts of tyranny and oppression of the
republican party, and there is a continuation of the same great
offenses constantly going on in this Chamber. But some may say “It
is strange to see Logan defending the President of the United States.”
It is not strange to me. I can disagree with the President when I think
he is wrong; and I do not blame him for disagreeing with me; but
when these attacks are made, coming from where they do, I am ready
to stand from the rising sun in the morning to the setting sun in the
evening to defend every act of his in connection with this matter
before us.
I may have disagreed with President Grant in many things; but I
was calling attention to the men who have been accusing him here,
on this floor, on the stump, and in the other House; the kind of men
who do it, the manner of its doing, the sharpness of the shafts that
are sent at him, the poisonous barbs that they bear with them, and
from these men who, at his hands, have received more clemency than
any men ever received at the hands of any President or any man who
governed a country. Why, sir, I will appeal to the soldiers of the rebel
army to testify in behalf of what I say in defense of President Grant—
the honorable men who fought against the country, if there was
honor in doing it. What will be their testimony? It will be that he
captured your armed democracy of the South, he treated them
kindly, turned them loose, with their horses, with their wagons, with
their provisions; treated them as men, and not as pirates. Grant built
no prison-pens for the southern soldiers; Grant provided no
starvation for southern men; Grant provided no “dead-lines” upon
which to shoot southern soldiers if they crossed them; Grant
provided no outrageous punishment against these people that now
call him a tyrant. Generous to a fault in all his actions toward the
men who were fighting his country and destroying the constitution,
that man to-day is denounced as a very Cæsar!
Sherman has not been denounced, but the only reason is that he
was not one of the actors in this transaction; but I want now to say to
my friends on the other side, especially to my friend from Delaware,
who repeated his bitter denunciation against Sheridan yesterday—
and I say this in all kindness, because I am speaking what future
history will bear me out in—when Sheridan and Grant and Sherman,
and others like them, are forgotten in this country, you will have no
country. When the democratic party is rotten for centuries in its
grave, the life, the course, the conduct of these men will live as bright
as the noonday sun in the heart of every patriot of a republic like the
American Union. Sirs, you may talk about tyranny, you may talk
about oppression, you may denounce these men; their glory may
fade into the darkness of night; but that darkness will be a brilliant
light compared with the darkness of the democratic party. Their
pathway is illuminated by glory; yours by dark deeds against the
Government. That is a difference which the country will bear witness
to in future history when speaking of this country and the actors on
its stage.
Now, Mr. President, I have a word to say about our duty. A great
many people are asking, what shall we do? Plain and simple in my
judgment is the proposition. I say to republicans, do not be scared.
No man is ever hurt by doing an honest act and performing a
patriotic duty. If we are to have a war of words outside or inside, let
us have them in truth and soberness, but in earnest. What then is our
duty? I did not believe that in 1872 there were official data upon
which we could decide who was elected governor of Louisiana. But
this is not the point of my argument. It is that the President has
recognized Kellogg as governor of that State, and he has acted for
two years. The Legislature of the State has recognized him; the
supreme court of the State has recognized him; one branch of
Congress has recognized him. The duty is plain, and that is for this,
the other branch of Congress, to do it, and that settles the question.
Then, when it does it, your duty is plain and simple, and as the
President has told you, he will perform his without fear, favor, or
affection. Recognize the government that revolution has been against
and intended to overthrow, and leave the President to his duty, and
he will do it. That is what to do.
Sir, we have been told that this old craft is rapidly going to pieces;
that the angry waves of dissension in the land are lashing against her
sides. We are told that she is sinking, sinking, sinking to the bottom
of the political ocean. Is that true? Is it true that this gallant old
party, that this gallant old ship that has sailed through troubled seas
before is going to be stranded now upon the rock of fury that has
been set up by a clamor in this Chamber and a few newspapers in the
country? Is it true that the party that saved this country in all its
great crises, in all its great trials, is sinking to-day on account of its
fear and trembling before an inferior enemy? I hope not. I
remember, sir, once I was told that the old republican ship was gone;
but when I steadied myself on the shores bounding the political
ocean of strife and commotion, I looked afar off and there I could see
a vessel bounding the boisterous billows with white sails unfurled,
marked on her sides “Freighted with the hopes of mankind,” while
the great Mariner above, as her helmsman, steered her, navigated
her to a haven of rest, of peace, and of safety. You have but to look
again upon that broad ocean of political commotion to-day, and the
time will soon come when the same old craft, provided with the same
cargo, will be seen, flying the same flag, passing through these
tempestuous waves, anchoring herself at the shores of honesty and
justice, and there she will lie undisturbed by strife and tumult, again
in peace and safety. [Manifestations of applause in the galleries.]
 Speech of Hon. James G. Blaine, of Maine,

On the False Issue raised by the Democratic Party, Delivered in the

Senate of the United States, Monday, April 14, 1879.
The Senate having under consideration the bill (H. R. No. 1,)
making appropriations for the support of the Army for the fiscal year
ending June 30, 1880, and for other purposes—
Mr. Blaine said:
Mr. President: The existing section of the Revised Statutes
numbered 2002 reads thus:
No military or naval officer, or other person engaged in the civil,
military, or naval service of the United States, shall order, bring,
keep or have under his authority or control, any troops or armed
men at the place where any general or special election is held in any
State, unless it be necessary to repel the armed enemies of the United
States, or to keep the peace at the polls.
The object of the proposed section, which has just been read at the
Clerk’s desk, is to get rid of the eight closing words, namely, “or to
keep the peace at the polls,” and therefore the mode of legislation
proposed in the Army bill now before the Senate is an unusual mode;
it is an extraordinary mode. If you want to take off a single sentence
at the end of a section in the Revised Statutes the ordinary way is to
strike off those words, but the mode chosen in this bill is to repeat
and re-enact the whole section leaving those few words out. While I
do not wish to be needlessly suspicious on a small point I am quite
persuaded that this did not happen by accident but that it came by
design. If I may so speak it came of cunning, the intent being to
create the impression that whereas the republicans in the
administration of the General Government had been using troops
right and left, hither and thither, in every direction, as soon as the
democrats got power they enacted this section. I can imagine
democratic candidates for Congress all over the country reading this
section to gaping and listening audiences as one of the first
offsprings of democratic reform, whereas every word of it, every
syllable of it, from its first to its last, is the enactment of a republican
Congress.
I repeat that this unusual form presents a dishonest issue, whether
so intended or not. It presents the issue that as soon as the
democrats got possession of the Federal Government they proceeded
to enact the clause which is thus expressed. The law was passed by a
republican Congress in 1865. There were forty-six Senators sitting in
this Chamber at that time, of whom only ten or at most eleven were
democrats. The House of Representatives was overwhelmingly
republican. We were in the midst of a war. The republican
administration had a million or possibly twelve hundred thousand
bayonets at its command. Thus circumstanced and thus surrounded,
with the amplest possible power to interfere with elections had they
so designed, with soldiers in every hamlet and county of the United
States, the republican party themselves placed that provision on the
statute book, and Abraham Lincoln, their President, signed it.
I beg you to observe, Mr. President, that this is the first instance in
the legislation of the United States in which any restrictive clause
whatever was put upon the statute book in regard to the use of troops
at the polls. The republican party did it with the Senate and the
House in their control. Abraham Lincoln signed it when he was
Commander-in-Chief of an army larger than ever Napoleon
Bonaparte had at his command. So much by way of correcting an
ingenious and studied attempt at misrepresentation.
The alleged object is to strike out the few words that authorize the
use of troops to keep peace at the polls. This country has been
alarmed, I rather think indeed amused, at the great effort made to
create a widespread impression that the republican party relies for
its popular strength upon the use of the bayonet. This democratic
Congress has attempted to give a bad name to this country
throughout the civilized world, and to give it on a false issue. They
have raised an issue that has no foundation in fact—that is false in
whole and detail, false in the charge, false in all the specifications.
That impression sought to be created, as I say, not only throughout
the North American continent but in Europe to-day, is that elections
are attempted in this country to be controlled by the bayonet.
I denounce it here as a false issue. I am not at liberty to say that
any gentleman making this issue knows it to be false; I hope he does
not; but I am going to prove to him that it is false, and that there is
not a solitary inch of solid earth on which to rest the foot of any man
who makes that issue. I have in my hand an official transcript of the
location and the number of all the troops of the United States east of
Omaha. By “east of Omaha,” I mean all the United States east of the
Mississippi river and that belt of States that border the Mississippi
river on the west, including forty-one million at least out of the forty-
five million of people that this country is supposed to contain to-day.
In that magnificent area, I will not pretend to state its extent, but
with forty-one million people, how many troops of the United States
are there to-day? Would any Senator on the opposite side like to
guess, or would he like to state how many men with muskets in their
hands there are in the vast area I have named? There are two
thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven! And not one more.
From the headwaters of the Mississippi River to the lakes, and
down the great chain of lakes, and down the Saint Lawrence and
down the valley of the Saint John and down the St. Croix striking the
Atlantic Ocean and following it down to Key West, around the Gulf,
up to the mouth of the Mississippi again, a frontier of eight thousand
miles either bordering on the ocean or upon foreign territory is
guarded by these troops. Within this domain forty-five fortifications
are manned and eleven arsenals protected. There are sixty troops to
every million of people. In the South I have the entire number in
each State, and will give it.
And the entire South has eleven hundred and fifty-five soldiers to
intimidate, overrun, oppress and destroy the liberties of fifteen
million people! In the Southern States there are twelve hundred and
three counties. If you distribute the soldiers there is not quite one for
each county; and when I give the counties I give them from the
census of 1870. If you distribute them territorially there is one for
every seven hundred square miles of territory, so that if you make a
territorial distribution, I would remind the honorable Senator from
Delaware, if I saw him in his seat, that the quota for his State would
be three—“one ragged sergeant and two abreast,” as the old song has
it. [Laughter.] That is the force ready to destroy the liberties of
Delaware!
Mr. President, it was said, as the old maxim has it, that the
soothsayers of Rome could not look each other in the face without
smiling. There are not two democratic Senators on this floor who can
go into the cloak-room and look each other in the face without
smiling at this talk, or, more appropriately, I should say without
blushing—the whole thing is such a prodigious and absolute farce,
such a miserably manufactured false issue, such a pretense without
the slightest foundation in the world, and talked about most and
denounced the loudest in States that have not and have not had a
single Federal soldier. In New England we have three hundred and
eighty soldiers. Throughout the South it does not run quite seventy
to the million people. In New England we have absolutely one
hundred and twenty soldiers to the million. New England is far more
overrun to-day by the Federal soldier, immensely more, than the
whole South is. I never heard anybody complain about it in New
England, or express any great fear of his liberties being endangered
by the presence of a handful of troops.
As I have said, the tendency of this talk is to give us a bad name in
Europe. Republican institutions are looked upon there with jealousy.
Every misrepresentation, every slander is taken up and exaggerated
and talked about to our discredit, and the democratic party of the
country to-day stand indicted, and I here indict them, for public
slander of their country, creating the impression in the civilized
world that we are governed by a ruthless military despotism. I
wonder how amazing it would be to any man in Europe, familiar as
Europeans are with great armies, if he were told that over a territory
larger than France and Spain and Portugal and Great Britain and
Holland and Belgium and the German Empire all combined, there
were but eleven hundred and fifty-five soldiers! That is all this
democratic howl, this mad cry, this false issue, this absurd talk is
based on—the presence of eleven hundred and fifty-five soldiers on
eight hundred and fifty thousand square miles of territory, not
double the number of the democratic police in the city of Baltimore,
not a third of the police in the city of New York, not double the
democratic police in the city of New Orleans. I repeat, the number