Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1859-05-03

Pennsylvania Are your furnaces IN full |
blast? Are your mills in motion? Are all |
your skilled artizans, your miners and hardy |
laborers employed at living wages? Is the /
great machine of production in full and pro-
fitable operationi 1t is delusion to suppose
that it is, or can be, until the policy of the
government shall be settled upon such a basis
as will give some assurance of stability and
success to future enterprise.
beg now, sir. if may be allowed such
liberty, TO speak of the responsibility which
attaches to the position of your great State.
both in regard to the past and the future. 1t
has always been matter of surprise to me that
the great Stale of Pennsylvania. the Key
stone State, Astounding as she does in popua-
ton, in moral and intellectual wealth. as in
natural and material resources, should not
have had more commanding influence in
moulding the policy of the country than she
has had. ] have understood that the senti-
ment of large majority of her people has
always been favorable to the protective poll
cy. If any one State in the Union has
0eeper interest that another, in upholding
liberal and steady protective policy, it is
Pennsylvania. In all her most material and
essential elements of wealth, she is without
rival. To say nothing of her wool-growing
and other great interests, in her iron and coal
alone-the foundation stones of the vast fab
ric of British wealth and power-she nav
boast her possession Of the fulcrum, the pou
stO asked by Archimedes to move the world by
his lever power. She has both the fulcrum
and the lever. How has it happened then,
that this great State, whose voice and wishes
could never be set aside or disregarded, by
any party with which she co-operated and
sustained, when interposed with earnestness
and energy, has suffered her favorite policy
to be defeated from time to time, to the inf
mite prejudice not only of her own great in
terests, but to the injury of the whole coun-
try? How has it been brought about that
England supplied this country, for a success
sion OF years, with from twenty to thirty mil
lions of dollars worth of iron, while the ores
and coal of Pennsylvania lay undisturbed in
their native beds, and her great iron estab-
hshments stopped, or only operated at a loss?
lapprehend, sir, that there must have been
some great and culpable neglect, or some de-
fiction still less excusable among the repre- .
sentatlves of the great interests of the State,
in the public councils of the country, or this
state OF things would never have existed.
remember that IN the canvass of 1874, the
banner under which the democracy of your
State conquered, bore the inscription, as it
was said at the time. of Polk, Dallas, and the
tariff OF '42. And it was further said that
assurances were given to the people by trust
ed leaders, that Mr.. Polk was even a better
tariff man than Henry Clay. This last was
an astounding, and to me incredible, revela-
ton when first made.
For myself, having entered public life with
strong prejudices against the protective policy
then called by its opponents the hot bed or
forcing system--but for twenty years past
having been its earnest advocate, from a con-
vIctiOn, founded on a close observation OF the
runOus effects of the opposite policy, that by
it alone could this great country attain TO
true independence, and, by a career of steady
and still Increasing prosperity, accomplish
the destiny which great natural resources
combined with free system of government
Sc med to give prom of; and bling at the
time actively engaged in canvassing in Ten
nessee, sustaining the ticket of Henry Clay
the first great champion of the prot, Give
policy, in opposition to that of one of Ten
nessee's own sons, | could not conceive and
did not believe that so great fraud could be
attempted by respectable party leaders upon
the people of Pennsylvania as to declare that
Mr.. Polk could be most safely trusted to sus-
tain her interests. Pennsylvania has had
abundant cause to remember and regret the
grossness of that deception, and how delusive
were the hopes inspired by it.
But, Mr.. President and gentlemen. bright
er day is dawning. Investigation is rife and
active, throughout the whole land, into the
causes which have so long kept the great ma
erial interests of the country in the back
Siouhu, anu ueeTdutu as having subordinate
claims and being fit sacrifices to party organi-
cations. If | am not mistaken in the signs
of the times. a day OF reckoning is close at
hand, when all dclinquencies and defecti0ns
will be fully exposed, and the dclinquents and
false pretenders to patriotism and devotion
to the true interests of country brought 10 a
strict account. The question will be pro-
pounded by the people everywhere, what sin
gle good has resulted from the party orgauiza-
M ont .af h
pensate for the neglect and sacrifice of the
great natural wealth of the country, and the
distractions which have so long prevailed
This question is now being propounded with
powerful effect in Virginia, in Kentucky, in
North Carolina, and in Tennessee, but they
can do but little of themselves. Patriotic
men every where wait with eager expectation
for the movement of some great State, which
from its position and political relations may
give assurance of successful results. May
not say, sir, that the eyes of the patriotic OF
the whole country are now fixed upon your
own great State. Pennsylvania has name
and history Synonymous with patriotism
and devotion to the constitution and the
Union. Her position is COMMUNICABLE
moral influence is great-she may be said to
hold the destinies of the country in her own
hands-she has only to make the effort, to
roll back the tide of adverse fortune, which
has of late set in with such fearful violence
terests.
In conclusion beg 10 propose Pennsyl
vania. She can il she will''
A Natural Well of Iced Wafer--Re-