Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1864-03-17
The Tennessee River.

Mr.. Everett, in q recent speech ut Bos
ton, gave the following very picturesque
description of East Tennessee and the
Tennessee river:
That river, fellow citizens, is in some
respects one of the most remarkable on
the continent. Its northern aifluents rise
in the State of Virginia, but, as if to
read Il lesson of Union in the very face of
the sol-as if to prop the fabric of the
Union by the eternal butresses of the
hills, instead of flowing to the Atlantic
like the otherriyers of Virginia, it gathers
up the waters of its tributary streams,
and connecting Virginia and the Carolinas
with East Tennessee, flows southward
down to the northeastern corner OF Gcor=
sia. ...HI .y..a... l.#I
There, sf'cr kissin. the feet Of the
glorious hills of Chattanooga insteod 'ui
flowing to the Gulf, its seeming natural
direction, it eoqucts with Northern Ala
bama, breaks into the Muscle Shoals,
plants Decatur Mt their head, and Flor
eucc 1T their feet, and then swee ping back
it its native North traverses the entire
width of Tennessee second time, seem
ingly running up hill for while it is
flowing northward the Mississippi parallel
to it, and no great distance, is rolling its
floods suuthward--enters the State of
Kentucky, and empties at last into the
Ohio, fifty miles above the junction with
the Mississippi-thus birding seven States
in its silver circuit, and connecting them
all with the great central basin of the
continent. ...tif
/ The soil of Eastern Tennessee is rich !;
the mountains are filled with coal and al
most every variety of ore their slopes
bubble with mineral springs; the terri
tory mninly divided into farms of a
moderate size, for the most part titled by
frugal, Industrious meil, who own the
soil, whid yields them its well-carncd
abundance. In no part of the State arc
there so few slaves in none is there a
more substantial population; in no part
of the South is the slave interest SO feeble.
East Tennessee greatly resembles the
lower RACES and fertile valleys Of Switzcr-
land, AMI it has often been called the
American Switzerland. It's divided into
thirty counties, and its population does
not. l think, fall short of 800, 700 souls.
My friend, Colonel Taylor, mods assent.
But this grand valley with the hills
that enclose it, possesses an interest for us
far beyond that which attaches to their
geographical features, merely as such
II is onr of the most important links in
that chain of valley and mountain which
travcrses the entire North American con-
tincnt from northeast and southwest sep
aration the streams which flow into the
Atlantic from those which seek tile st.
Lawrence, the Ohio and the Mississippi.
Forcing its way down into tho heart OF
the region, whose alluvail plains are de-
voted to the culture of tabocco, cotton,
rice and sugar by slave labor, this ridge
of highlands. with 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 stupendous struggle. Ex'
tending to the southwest as far az North
ern Alabama, this noble moslntain tract,
and tho valleys enclosed in its parallel
and traverse ridges, is, by the character
of its climate. soil and natural production
the natural of the North Here, if no.
where else. We may truly say, with the
German poet .a1a
On the mountains is Freedom; tho breath O
. the wales .. .IH
Rises not up to the pure mountain gales.