Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1865-12-15
The English Capitalists at Horne.

The English capitalists who recently made
an extended tour of observation in this
| country, with view of acquainting them
selves with our resources preparatory to the
| investment OF their capital in some of our
public improvements, appear to have carried
home with them very favorable impressions
of our people and institutions, as well as of
our wonderful inherent strength, industrially
and commercially. Reference has already
been made to the speech of Sir Morton Peto,
delivered at Bristol, England, Immediately
upon his return, in which he spoke in the
warmest terms as to his reception here; but
the full text of his address shows that he
was even more enthusiastic in his praise
than appeared from the first summary of
his remarks. In the course of his speech,
he said:
] went to America at an important and
interesting epoch of its history. | went
there at the close of the most tremendous
struggle known in modern times, and when
| certainly did expect to find the country
exhausted and society disorganized. l de-
clare to you that | saw nothing in that por-
ton of that great country through which
we passed which could for moment re-
mind us that such a struggle had arisen
and | was still more astonished when came
to learn the advance which had been made
in the Western States of America within
the last ten years.
Why, sir, within that period %, 145, OO0ad
ditional acres have been brought into cult
walton on the average 24O,OOO,OOO bushels
of wheat were grown, and the population of
those Western States had advanced $780,
600. 1t may be interesting to my Lord
nupin IN E,Cyy hot
more than 100000 of the population in the
Western States are employed in the cultiya-
ton of land but it may be equally inter
esting for You to hear that Chicago which a
few years since was mere village, dot
upon the map, has now a population ex-
ceeding a quarter of 4 million, and public
buildings finer than any that l know of in
any provincial city in this country; while
its public works, its bridges, and its roads,
its universities its hospitals, are all on
most magnificent scale
But, to coniine myself to the Western
States, | went to Boston; and what did |
find there? ] found that even since the
commencement of the war five million ster-
ling had been spent in that city in the ex-
tension of public buildings Gentlemen,
surely that was no sign of exhaustion.
Il
We found one of the most magnificent parks
in the world, the greater part of the works
connected with which had been actually con-
t ructed during the war; and on referring
to statistics we found that the interest on
the debt and the whole of the municipal
taxes, only amounted to something like
three per cent on the rental. | say fear
leSsly that no young man who intends to
ont IA e l,,c,
slider his education complete without pay
ing a visit to America; and, without men
tiOning names, can assure YOU that one of
the largest merchants Of my acquaintance
a man who does an immense business
visited America
No person who has the least information
on the subject can doubt the ability Of the
Americans to pay their national debt and |
any one who expressed a doubt of their |
willingness to do so would be treated with |
mcrited contempt. Then as to the army |
There was a wonderful thing in the absorp- |
ton of that army. The United States Army |
was ], 100000 strong, and General Grant told |
him, at st. Louis, he had mustered out S75,- |
900 men up to that day. He stated that he |
did not mean to have more than 10000 men, |
cere they would bring the army down to
10000. Cheers. If these men could go |
and be absorbed in civil life, it must show
that the country possessed resources such as
were never seen before, and which nations
IN Europe would do well to initiate. Loud
cheers.
Sir Morton went on to give an instance of
how the soldiers were absorbed into civil
,allings, and he said that in Chicago he went
over a large printing establishment belong
ng TO a gentleman who was for some years n
Secretary of the Embassy in London. Talk
ng to him about the war, he said that forty
even Of his compositors were all of them
oldiers. That man." said he, pointing to
me, was major, that one a captain, that
! lieutenant, that a sergeant ~ but they are
III at work as quietly as if they had never
eft the compositor's desk. lie (Sir Norton
lsked what he did when they left him?
Oho," he replied, 81 gave them written
that their situations should be
'pen to them when they returned lAp-
,lousn I