Steamboats, The Presidency, and Public Opinion

On the night of the 19th, the Hon. Josiah Johnson, senator from Louisiana (see Figure 15), was killed along with 13 others, and the Hon. Edward White, also of Louisiana, was injured when the steamboat Lioness blew up (see Figure 16) [ ³ , pp. 83–85]. The Baltimore American once more called for action: Figure 15 Senator Johnson. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315224633/610b66b7-61a5-4713-a9bd-0236d88d19da/content/fig15.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Figure 16 The <italic>Lioness</italic> explodes. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315224633/610b66b7-61a5-4713-a9bd-0236d88d19da/content/fig16.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>

The number of fatal accidents on the Mississippi—particularly the disastrous one by which Senator Johnson lost his life—imperiously call for some legislative interference [ ⁴ , p. 153].