Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-10-19
TENNEssEE CEN1RAI. nAILRoAb


Ate8UAFte8 and Prospects,.
Mr.. pEB0Ws LETgER-EO. V.
There is no State IN the Union which
possesses greater natural advantages, and
which opens theatre Of greater future en-
terprise and wealth than The State Of Ten
nessee. Possessed Of mild and equable
climate, Of a fertile soil capable Of every
variety Of production, Of abundant mineral
resources, and having capacity for manu-
features which truly without limit-nOthing
seems to be needed but the industry and en-
terprise Of Its people to put them in the fore
most rank Of progress Dependent less upon
slavery than any Of her sisters, and with
less per centage Of negro population, her
losses have been less By emancipation as they
have in general been less in other re-
speeta from the casualties OF the war. Her
recovery may be counted upon rapidly and
speedily, and there can be no doubt that the
establishment Of free laber, from the stimu-
lous which il will give to immigration, win,
in no long period, be q positive and great
advantage TO the State. For this iInmigra-
ton she is eminentiy fitted, and if wise
measures are inaugurated, it will be very
practicable, by means Of il, to double our
present population.
The population Of Tennessee in 1860 was
1,109,S0l, of which 275,719 were slaves-a
population within fraction Of being as
largeas that of any Southern State except Vir-
ginia. Her rate of increase in the previous
ten y,sars-ten per cent.-was only half the
increase of the former decade, and was less
than the increase Of almost every State in
the Union-a fact which is indicative that
emig1utioa, instead Of Immigration had be-
gun to operate. Her increase IN general
wealth, however, was very large, and in
consequence the condition of her people inn
proved. The real and personal estate in
creased by the census from $40, 276, $50 in
1850 to S493, 903, 1872 in 1864 ratio
greater than that of Kentucky, and of more
than half the States of the Union. Her
manufactures increased from SO, 725,6 03 to
Sl7 ,9S7 ,225 in the same time-very nearly
a duplieation-which was greater than the
increase in Missouri or Kentucky, although
the aggregate manufactures Of these States
is more than double that of ours, for which
there is no good reason. Georgia, Alabama,
Louisiana and Texas, showed larger ratio
of increase than Tennessee.
Although our coal and iron resources are
unlimited, we yet produced in 1860 but 1885,
600 tons of iron against twice that quantity
produced by Kentucky. From this report Of
the American Iron Association in 1858, we
learn that " in the northern part of East
Tennessee and northwest corner of North
Carolina is seen a knot of forty-one blomer-
les and nine furnaces while to the west of
these, at the base Of the Cumberland Noun
tains, are fourteen FORCES and five furnaces"
"There is but one principal iron region in
the Far West-that of Western Tennessee
and Western Kentucky" "The
whole country possesses an incalculable, in
exhaustable abundance of the richest ores"
The aggregate coal product Of the State in
1860, was valued at half million dollars,
and the iron product at million and a
third of dollars.
Prof. Wilson, who was sent from Eng
land to examine our mineral resources in
1856, estimated the coal region of Tennessee
at 800 square miles, and that of Alabama
at 8, 400, but considered the former to be
more prolific in the ratio Of ten to seven.
The proportion of Tennessee was one-third
as great as Kentucky and half that Of Mis-
souri, and Indiana. The whole coal forma-
ton of the United States he fixed at 133, 1872
square miles. The London Geological So
ciety, speaking of the coal deposits, says
THE United States coal deposits have been d.
Nlueu by BIOLOGISTS lnlO l0uF prl0clpal ueiuS OF
tracts. The first in importance, by reason of its
enormous extent, is the -Alleghanean, or Great
Central, reaching from Tuscaloosa. in Alabama.
through East Tennessee and Kentucky, thence
| into West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania,
| where it apparently terminates, but afterwards
reappears in the British Provinces of New Bruins
wick and Nova Scotia. This basin as far as il has
| been traced was known many years ago to en-
| brace an area within the United States of 10000
square miles, of which 5000 square miles, or o.,
| $4,000 acres. was one unbroken seam"
MARK II. COOPER, the Iron-King Of
Georgia, said in 1856, there are SOC, 900 tons
of iron made in the United States, which
cost the consumers 100000 per annum !;
| 500 900 tons more are imported at a cost of
| S87, 100000. The South consumes half Of
this, and produces little.
With the indispensable condition Of coal
and iron so fully met, what is it to inter
fere with the great manufacturing future of
Tennessee? Col. SAM MORGAN, of Nash
vile, demonstrated to Mr.. LAWRENCE, of
Massachusetts,, some years since, that he was
manufacturing cotton at a lower price in this
State than it was done at Lowell.
The leading agricultural productions OF
Tennessee were in 1860: