Brownlow's Knoxville Whig. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1866-1869, 1869-01-27
Letter from Hon. N. G. Taylor on Inn.
migration.
WAsHINoroN. jan. Ie. he


WAsHINoToE, Jan. I9, 1859
Editor Of R'1orUiUe Wig:
l have watched with great interest the efortr
which you have been making ever since the war 4
lift up State from the ruins Of the rebellion snC
TO start her afresh upon tho race of progress AND
prosperity and have prayed you God-speed iu every
effort for good.
II We were starting out a State with no old
draw backs upon us, with no old bleeding sores Euc
no heavy State debt TO worry and torment Us, oui
way would, it seems TO me, be plain aud easy. We
might rely upon our own muscle and manhood
the means might carve out of the forest and dig
from our teeming mines.
As il is our situation is different.
The rebellion exhausted our resources, demoraliz.
ed our labor and paralysed cur enterprise, and now
that the smoke of the battle has lifted and the bit
terness Of the conflict is over find ourselves il
ruins, disorganized and impoverished, and bound
down under the pressure of a heavy State debt.
If we were worn oat with age or denuded of pop
ulstion, desolated by dark earthquakes and tenn
pests, wasted by pestienee and famine, we might
repudiate our obligations in despair, succumb 70
misfortune, and forego every effort whatever TO dis
charge honest debts and restore the State TO her
ancient prosperity and credit We might cry sll is
lost and give up the ghost
| But fortunately are not in this sad category.
We hsve still more than a million of population,
occupying more than two hundred thousand dwell
lings, and owning more than forty-four thousand
square miles OF generous fertile SOIL WaiereQ
Vulnerable springs, rlvuiets and rivers, abounding
in cultivated fields and peerless forests, uEderlaid
! with incaeulable mineral wealth. and prolific of
mtless manufacturing facilities unsurpassed in the
wide world. With such resources at hand nature
has given our people, dependency is folly and fall
/ ure Will be crime objectionable.
! The war has desolated US, 1 grant, and left us
! poor. But what of that. New England is natur-
ally poor too infinitely poorer than We and yet in
spite Of her poverty, New England is the richest
portion Of the nation. Tennessee, in all the natural
elements of wealth. is perhaps the richest State in
the Union; yet in spite Of her boundess treasures
she is fearfully poor.
This seems paradoxicsl but il is not the less true
and thereby hangs tale which l propose to un-
fold.
Nature gave New England barren, unproduc-
tive soil broken but by knobs and mountains rib
bed by rocks and washed by the sea. She gave her
also a bleak, damp and inhosptable climate.
Poverty was New Bngland's natural heritage
Necessity the daughter of poverty and the mother
Of invention Hence it is that the very poverty of
New England has enriched her people. Denied the
means Of subsistence by their sterile soil and snowy
climate her people from the start put 60 their
wits TO live Poverty brought forth necessity, and
necessity gave birth to invention. Invention sub
stituted machinery for muscle, utilizing her water
power her timber and her granite. She made credit
subserve the purposes Of capital, and compelled en-
ergy, enterprise and skill to meet promptly the de-
mands of credit.
Look at New England and you see grand series
Of stupendous manufactures. Out of these have
grown the prinoely wealth that crowns her people
and these are the products of her necessity and the
results of her poverty.
| The bread of New England in large part, is
grown in the far North vest her meat in the West,
the cotton Of the South, the wool of commerce. and
the iron of Pennsylvania, feed her factories; her
fuel drawn from distant coal fields, as we'll as all
raw materials l suppose her agriculture does not
/ a a of
There are few fabric articles Of civilized COM
merce that are not produced in her manufactures.
Her capital sustains and rewards her energy, enter
prise skill and labor and these in turn reproduce
and enlarge her capital. She draws her mstsnAls
from all lands and from every sea, and makCs all
people tributary TO her Golfers.
At Ames' factory in Massachusetts, saw tho
iron Of Pennsylvania, the steel of England, the AGh
wood Of Maine and the coal Of Cornwall combined
/ by the skill and labor of his operatives into the
common shovel, which finds market in every re-
| tail shop in christendom.
Destroy New England Tomorrow, and let her
people live and in ten years she would bloom again
in vigorous prosperity. And why Because her
people full of intelligent enterprise, skill and
energy. Her people are educated in letters, in
science in arts; her statesmen wise and legis-
late for practical ends-for the benefit of her peo-
pie. Where capital il unattanRble at home, credit
attracts and commands it from abroad TO any de-
|
When individual capital is insufficient TO accom-
pss a desired end combination of capital is in
/ vIEed and secured by liberal charters.
You have seen Rhode Island, but most Of your
readers have not. You know how rich she is and
/ yet how little and poor. Not bigger than two OF
three counties in East Tennessee her soil is more
lean and sterile than the poorest sandiest ridge
the summit of Cumberland Mountains. Yet this
little poor State is probably worth more in manu-
factories and solid cash capital than the whole of
Tennessee perhaps twice told.
Pennsylvania is called the great Keystone of the
Union, and New York the Empire State. They
are both magnificent Commonwealth, crowded
with population, great, prosperous and rich Yet
Pennsylvania has not the variety extent of min
eral wealth, nor has New York the agricultural
area the fertility of soil that Tennessee has nor
has either Of them as salubrious a climate grand
old forests nor as abundant manufacturing facili-
| ties, Tennessee.
Then why the ditference2 The causes are obvi-
Gus. They copied New England. Develop has
been their motto, and they have lived up to it. En-
! terprise labor and capital, hand in hand, have
utilized their natural resources opened their mines,
! fertilized their fields, made their waterfalls work
eheckered their territory with railroads. making
travel and transportation cheap, speedy and safe )
| in short, made them what they are On the con-
trary, Tennessee has been sleeping, like all the
! Southern States under the shadow Of slavery,
wrapped in the mantle Of utopian visions, or vast
ing her vigOr in the frutless struggles of political
psrtizan warware, content in all her great interests
TO drag along under the primstive fig leaf policy Of
the Adamic age and regardless of the spirit of pro-
gress that has exhibited the Eastern States as the
eighth wonder of the world.
| We have built a few railroads; but how Just
! think of this a moment, and see II shame don't
| mantle your cheek as It does mine The great
items Of expense in constructing railroads are grad
ing iron and running stock. We had plenty OF la
Dor TO grade with, but hired it from abroad. We
had mountains Of iron, overgrown with timber for
charcoal underlad with stone coal, and in stones
throw Of boundless water-power, but We have
bought from Europe and elsewhere every pound Of
our rails and sent the money TO pay for it tot the
State. Nearly or quite every engine and car we
used down 10 this hour has been purchased out
OF the State and brought to But Ibis is not all.
There Is cotton grown abundantly in Tennessee,
Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North and South
Csrolins, nearly sll around There are millions
of Of the finest sheep walks within our borders
in the known world; there is water power enough
in East Tennessee alone to propell the machinery
that would clothe the world, and vet we are and
have been always tributary to Europe and New
England for almost every yard Of cotton snd vol
len fabrics our people have used, when we could
manufacture such fabrics cheaper than any other
country, and should have in fact driven competitors
from their own home markets.
The same shameful story must be told In refer
ence 10 our farming implements, mechanics tools,
and nearly Hll the utensils IN domestic among
Us All are uhue ese"Oo4e 80 a. -. seU ~ NJ iii,
monse aggregate expense of transportation. Sheet
iron tacks, screws, wire nails, bagging, axes and
wagon boxes butts and hinges axes AIDES, hatchets
hammers, chissels, drawing knives gmlets, linens
woolens, eottons ropes glass wadding, carpeting
shoes boots leather, and ten thousand other things
We ought to send abroad by the hundred ton, We
buy abroad and transport hundreds Of miles. Ever
brooms buckets, pot hooks and fat irons are made
in Connecticut and sold at paying profit at retail
| in East Tennessee.
Who can wonder that we are poor--that we have
a heavy State debt-that we groan under taxes w
can hardly pay