" 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.
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