Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1865-12-13
RESOURCES OF TENNESSEE.

We shonld like TO see the physical re-
sources Of Tennessee developed to their full
extent. 1t would be a grand as well a
beautiful sight. Her fields teeming with
grain, her mountains yielding their imbed-
ded minerals and Goals to work them into
shapes of beauty and usefulness, her forests
giving up their glories for the comfort and
decoration Of human habitations, and all
conspiring to employ and bring abundance
10 millions Of moral, virtuous and industri-
Gus people, would be a scencto enrapture the
beholder.
1t will require, perhaps, several genera
tons Of working men TO bring about this de-
yelopment; for our resources seem to be ex-
haustless, and the better they are known,
the more inviting they become. Nature
has, indeed, been muniiicent in her gifts.
What is it, but bananas and months of con-
tinuous sleighing, that we have not? Who
yet knows the value and extent of our min
erals Our iron is the best the world has
yet offered TO the use of man; our copper
inferior 10 none which has gone into the mar
kets Of the country; our timber embraces
the best varieties for the substantial uses of
life; our soils yield, in abundance equal
and superior in quality for commercial pur-
poses, the various cereals and our fruits are
unsurpassed.
These excellencies have struck thousands
of eyes, from the North and from the South,
during the four years just closed, which, but
for the war, would never have known them.
Ask any Of them in their long tramps from
Virginia TO Missouri, and from Maryland 10
Texas, which, of all the States in which they
marched and campcd and fought, leaving
out the associations of birthplace and of
home, they would prefer TO live in, and nine
out Of ten will promptly answer Tennes-
see" Thousands remember with satisfac-
ton their campaigns in Tennessee, and yet
wish that their condition and affairs were
such as TO allow them to return and make it
their home.
The prodigality Of nature has been 30 great
that our people have subsisted, many of
them grown wealthy, without an effort That
energy and enterprise which has been neccs-
sary to make less-favored sections prosper
Gus and rich, has never been wanted here
There was no particular necessity for dis
play Of the higher mastery over matter
which was compulsory over other communi-
ties. And we have accepted the bounties of
the soil, the golden harvests and the blush
ing orchards as matters of course, and the
labor of planting and plucking and reaping
has leen our chief concern.
But we have now entered upon a new era.
Our systems Of thought and labor have |
been suddenly changed. Our fields wasted, |
our homes made desolate, our stock scat
tered, our meadows destroyed-we must |
work 10 build up II is short work, for |
the rccuperative powers OF the soil are such |
that the Garth will soon replenish itself.
But this work, being necessary and impera-
tive, will bring with il a new sense Of vigor
and energy. At the end Of next summer
the prudent and economic hushandman will |
wonder how il was possible TO accomplish
80 much rs he will then find he has. Before, |
he was d pendent, and felt his dependence; /
now he is independent He VIII have
learned the initial lesson Of human success,
seli-denial and sclEro,iance His boys
around him viii have learned the same, and
when they como up TO manhood, they will
be men indeed.
And In this change and renovation there
is another element which is making lis inn
prss rapidly and deeply upon the physical
economy of the State, and that is the cner-
gy and enterprise and tremendous yigor Of
the Yankee" He is entering upon our
fair domain, as he has a right to do, and by
his skill and oeascless activity, is lifting up
to our vision unknown sources of profit.
He comes to-day, with his Engine and tools,
and tomorrow, uprising from a simple
hole in the ground" is flow Of oil that
electri6es and astonishes us. By and bv, he
viii bring his ponderous machinery and ex-
pose our vast hidden mountain riches. He
win find immense coal-felds within score
Of miles Of this city, viii build roads to
bring il here; and, anew, the ragged out
skirts and the naked hills Of Nashville will
blaze and shrob under the directing eye and