Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, and rebel ventilator. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1863-1866, 1864-02-27
Mr.. Everett on East Tennessee.

AT meeting on Wednesday evening, in
Boston, to aid the suffering people of East
Tennessee Edward Everett gave the fol-
lowing picturesque and eloquent description
of East Tennessee and the Tennessee
river;
That river icllow-ctzcns, is in some respects one
of the most remarkable on the continent Its
Northern aflucnts rise in the State of Virginia, but
rs if TO reud lesson of Union in the very face Of
the soil-as if TO prep the fabric of the Union by
the eternal butrcsscs of the hills instead of flowing
to the Atlantic like the other rivers of Virginia, it
gathers up the waters Of It's tributary streams, and
connecting Virginia and the Caroas with East
Tennessee flows southwark down to the northeastern
corner of Georgia.
There after kissing the feet of the glorious hills
of Chattanooga instead of flowing to the Gulf its
seeming natural direction it coqucs with Northern
Alabama, breaks into the Muscle Shoals plants De
catur ut their head and Florence Mt their feet and
then, sweeping back TO It's native North, travcrscs
the entire width of Tennessee a second time seem
ingly running up HILL for willis it is flowing north
ward the Mississippi parallel to it, and at no
great distance is rolling It's floods southward-cntcrs
the State of Kentucky and emptics at last into the
Ohio, fifty miles above it, junction with the Misis-
spri, thus binding seven States in its silver circuit
aud connecting them all with the great central basin
of the continent
The coil of Eastern Tennessee is rich the noun
tains are flled with coal and almost every variety
of ore; their slopes bubble with mineral springs;
the climate is temperate ana hoalthful; the terrific
ry mainly divided into farms of moderate size, for
the most part titled by frugal industrious men,
who own the soil, which yields them its well-carncd
abundance. In no part of the State are there SO
few slaves, in none is there n more substantial pop
ulation; in part of the South is the slave inter
est so feeble East Tennessee greatly resembles the
lower ranges and fertile valleys of Switzerland and
it has bcon often called the American Switzerland.
1t is divided into thirty counties and its population
does not, | think, fall short of 100000 souls My
friend Colonel Taylor, mods assent.
But this grand valley, with the hills that enclose
it, possesses interest for us far beyond that which
attaches to their geographical features merely as
such. 1t is one of the most important links in that
chain of valley which trayerses the entire North
American continent from northeast to southwest,
separating the streams which flow into the Atlantic
from thoss which seek the st. Lawrence the Ohio,
and the Mississippi. Forcing its way down into
the heart of the region whose alluvial plains are
devoted to the culture of tobacco, cotton, rice and
sugar ny sihNe-mbor Thu liu.p or iiSuhnus wan
the valleys enclosed in them, from the time you
leave the State of Pennsylvania, begins to assume
the highest political importance, in reference to the
present stupcnlous struggle. Extending to the
southwest MS far MS Northern Alabama, this noble
mountain tract, and the valleys enclosed in its par
ael and transverse ridges is by the character of
its climate, soil and natural productions the natu-
raj ally Of the North. Here, if nowhere else we
may truly say, with the German poet;
Auf den Bergen list Frcyhcet; der lIauch der Crufc
Streght NIGHT hinauf, in die rcinen Lutte.
That means
On the mountains is Freedoms the breath of the
wales
Rises not up to the pure mountain gales