Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-09-17
From the London Timer, August %.
Future X Citations of Great Britain
aud America as assured by the Tel
e9rauv,

The sentiments of exultation and delight
which have been excited on both sides OF the
Atlantic by the completion of the great ocean
telegraph bear the best of all testimonies to
the grandeur and utility of the work. 1t is
upon the popular mind that the magnitude
and consequences of this mighty enterprise
have been most strikingly impressed. Before
gratulations could be transmitted from gov
eminent to government. the people of the two
countries gave vent TO their Joy. Their feel
ings instinctively taught them that fat OF
marvellous import had been accomplished,
and that in some manner other, through
agencies either Immediate or gradual, direct
or indirect, the concord and amity of two
kindred States had become greater certain
ty than before. In England we talked and
thought about it, till at last the success OF the
enterprise burst with almost unexpected alb
ruptness upon our ears. In America they have
done even more. Preachers took the topic
into the pulpit and addressed their congrega-
lions upon the benifcent powers of the inter-
course which now, by Gods blessing and for
Gods purposes, had been at length achieved.
The secular authorities followed with equal
animation and zeal. Meetings are to be held,
resolutions voted and festivals given, and we
may already learn a lesson from our Ameri-
can brethren in their prompt recognition of
national service. The expedition from which
the Agamemnon has so successfully returned
was at least as important aud as heroic as any
of those which, in old times, brought down the
Acknowledgements of royal visits, knighthoods,
promotions and gratuites.
We must say. however, that the instinct OF
American citizens. has carried them straight
to tina mark. The voice of the people has
been the voice of the truth The real import
of this surprising feat is the connection OF
two nations already united by links of lineage,
institutions and speech, and separated only by
the space of waters which the wonderful wire
has now annihilated. We may regard this
last conquest of man over nature from many
points of view. We may discern in it the
browning and conclusive establishment of tel
egraphic intercourse-fo now that two thous-
and miles of stormy ocean have been sue
cessfully traversed. there remains no guilt or
distance Oh the globe which may not be
bridged.
1t is impossible but that the prospects of
peace should be improved by an intercourse
which almost extinguishes the chance of a
misunderstanding. Englshmen and Amerl-
cans can now certainly never quarrel over a
mistake. and that we trust is equivalent to an
assumption that they cannot quarrel at all.
Perhaps this result is none the less probable
because we are often exchanging hard words
with each other. People who are prompt to
'.jangle' rarely fight. Chickering's furnish
vent for ill-temper, and arrangement is not
thought so much of when it occurs for the
hundredth time. having been always followed
by reconciliation before. There is another
consideration. too, in favor of peace, which is,
that as America becomes an older country she
is assimilating more in ideas with older States
and losing the chief element of difference be-
tween her views and our own. But the great
bond of all must be fixed and immOvable in
the sympathies and convictions of the two
nations. What have Old Englanders and
New Englanders got to keep them assunder
except those leagues Of ocean which are now
annihlated? This is one of the forms in which
truth must prevail, if only it can be recog-
niZed, and now that recognition appears so
certain we may reckon with assurance and
thanksgiving upon the result.