Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-08-05
CONDOLENCES OF GREAT MINDS

From the Chicago Times, Aug. l.
That great minds, though widely sepa-
rated by distance, time and circumstance,
should frequently give birth to the same
idea, is a fact which philosophers have
noted, but which they have not been able
TO explain.
A remarkable instance Of this "coinci-
dence of great minds" is furnished in the
case of those two great men, Schuyler Col
fax and Deacon Bross. Eighteen months
have passed since Deacon Bross, sitting in
the Presidents chair in the Senate of Hi
nois gave birth to something about as fol-
lows:
Senators Standing on the Handicapped
SUBMITS of the Sierra Nevada-in COM
pany, Senators, with Schuyler Colfax and
Frederick Law Notwithstanding Oh
every hand mountain peaks whose snowy
crowns glittered in the sunshine, and
gazing down into green and vine-clad val
leys, the idea first struck me that what
Chicago most wanted was a public park "
Two days ago, Mr.. Colfax, in the pre-
sence Of a good many witnesses, at the lit
tie town of South Bend, Indiana, gave birth
to the subjoined:
"When the railroad train sped, on Mon
day last, from the banks of the Potomac,
and across the Susquehana and across the
Allaohenies and the Ohio, there was one
thought that filled me full. 1t was the
thought of my own loved home on the
border Of our beautiful st. Joe !"
The coincidence Of great minds is in this
instance peculiarly remarkable. The exact
similarity of ideas the same rapid eleva-
ton of the mind from plain surface, at
no great altitude above Underwater, to a
LOFTY mountain top, eliminating in the same
grand climax of sublimity, find no COM
harrison in literature but the statement of
the Frenchman who said he had torn his
breeebes as if heaven and earth were COM
ing togetheri
But this remarkable coincidence of great
minds is not only observable az between
Mr.. Colfax and his illustriOus companion
"on the heights of Sierra Nevada" 10
another part of his South Bend speech, Mr..
| Colfax assembled to a loftier summit of
rhetorical grandeur concerning that other
| wonderful child of NauT, - Hiram Ulysses
! Grant. No one who has ever read the
| speech of the Honorable Elijah Pogram
| can fail to recognize the coincidence OF
| great minds that appears in the grand
| iloauent utteTanCes Of those representative
| great men. both "fresh from Natur' smould, F"
| Elijah Colfax and Schuyler Pogram. For
| the benefit Of any who 10 not recollect Mr..
| Pogram's eloquent remarks" the two PO-
Grams are repreqented eide by side
| Ma. COLFAXs sPEFGH. JR. PoGHANs SPEECH
| The great hero OftheI oar fellow country
| century, who leads the man Is model Of a
| nnion armies to-day IN man, quite fresh from
| this contest command Natur's mould !" said
ed peace on the battle P0grami with enthusl-
| Geld. lie VIII, IN the asnl. lie Is true-bOiu
| executive chair, COM child ot TINS mems
| mand peace in this re-'phere Nerdant rs tue
! public OF ours from mountains Of our cOon-
| ocean TO ocean, from Try; bright anu flowing
tho frozen lakes tO'as our mineral hicks
| where the flowers bloom unspiled BY Witherlne
| in perpetual spring COnY enuonallttes as al
| upon the borders Of the our broad and b9uhu
/ Southern gulf He will less Perearersl housu
have peace, by protect he may pc so % AR 9ui
ing every man WithIni bars. VIA pc llay DC
| ourlmits. Poor though So AR our Buna5eIS
| he may be, drowntrOd- But he - cnlld @
] den though he may Natur' aand a child O
| have been humble Freedom; and ms
! though he may be, bOastlul answer to The
| fricndleSs though he DespOt and the 1yrani
nav be ohsecurelis, that his bright homt
though he may be, the Is IN tho Setun sun
hand and the arm OF
| Ulysses $. Grant will -
give to him peace, be-
cause be will give to .f
Mr., Pogram waited until his hearer
were calm again. says the historian, be
fore he said to Mark;
"'You do not seem TO coincide, SIR.
Mr.. Colfax's auditors were in The situa
ton Of Mark. Amazed by 20 marvellous
burst Of eloquence, they could only gaze il
wonder at the orator and cry; "Hurrah 10
Colfa1r' Mr.. Colfax waited until hi
hearers were calm ogain, before he SAID
THAT ought to have been, 'hurrah 10
Grant 2 for speak about him, and no
about myself!'
1t is thus seen that the coincidence o
T great minds is even more remarkable 10 IN
case Of Mr.. Colfax and Mr.. Pogram, tha
It IL in the case Of Mr.. Colfax and hi
travelling companion who looked dow
. from the heights Of the Sierra Neyadas.