Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-09-30
ADDRESS
MAI. D. e. g. SPENCE,

M hus LIS H. Va OF LIN U1,
Il Delivered at the Second Annual Meet
r ing of the Tennessee Central Fail
n Association, Mt Bxurfreesbsro. Wed.
l. nesday, Sept. 20, 1869.
o NV modesty, my proverbial modesty. was nm.
2 | expectediy and painfully shocked when i firsi
realized that I had been conspicuously and
II | positively announced as orator Of the day. in
q the published programme of this. tn Q most in
teresting and successful occasion in the history
| of this community.
}. Ny first impulse, to steal the production of
some competent and practised orator, failed to
: enable me to find one to at the facts, and my
second, to employ some hireling of the stump,
I, bar or pulpit whose necessity forces him 10 the
r habit Of iettihg - brain and heart and tongue
for pay, was foiled by the uniform response
!; that no one could write speech for Dave
| Spence
In the graspings of my perplexity, caught
| hold of the familiar and forcible expression of
| Lord Brougham's that the word impossible
| and as must either speak or apologize, / re-
solved. as an experiment. to follow the advice
of better man. Xho says says ., Look into thine
| the rambling suggestions will make to You to-
| day, and which you can dignity by naming
, them speech. or excuse by calling them an
Upon investigation. found the subject that
accident had announced for me, so full of facts
and figures, theories and arguments, earnest
thought and elaborate discussion, that l
concluded to await more convenient season
and write them into book for the prospective
library of the Farmers Clab. so soon as they
honOred me with an invitation to do So and to-
| day seek to adapt myself more happily to the
time and patience usually allotted to a speaker
on occasions like this, preparing for you little
thin speech on
| WHAT THINK ABOUT VARIOUS THINGS"
| and which will contain the one merit, at least.
of being what feel, for | certainly have the
honesty. to be candid, if have not the talent of
convincing.
| l am aware, however, that to achieve a sue
cess as a "speakist," must not only speak as
feel; but must also speak as you feel, for to do
otherwise would be as illtimed and Improbable
| as to make French speech to a Dutch audi
ence. or gentlemanly address to Radical
| convention.
hope that We will find to-day that we still
think happily and harmoniOusly together, as
| heretofore.
Our thoughts. our hearts our bodies and our
substance went mentally, morally physically
| and financially together ints the late great
trial of our manhood, and surrendered sadly to-
gether at its close, and know we must and will
| think together in the future.
For. II the Intelligent and gallant people Of
| this, the county of my BIRTH my manhood and
/ my last days won't think as do, l guarantee
to you to day. for all times and occasions, that
l will change my most cherished individual pro-
gramme to meet your established views and be
with you to the end.
Accused and spit upon, now and forever.
amen, be the life and II emory and offspring of i
every calculating son Of our SOIL who ever did |
or ever will fail to revere the integrity, and |
prove loyal to the majesty of the friends of his
life. and turning tory to their edicts profess to
know more than they know, and to be better i
than they be. Thank God, the golden foam 1
that sometimes glistens upon the bubbling cup /
OF such life, will not serve to coel their L
parched to CUES in the life that is to come.
ordinarily, on an occasion like this, cult L
waited usage would suggest that the first and Il
most important duty of the speaker would be |
to glOrify with complimentary phrases, and |
crown with his choicest flowers of language
the efforts and triumphs of the association in |
nh into and - L
crates.
To-day. however, the other members of our
Directory, being all men of modesty like unto
myself. have relieved me of the necessity of |
much words by asking me to simply say in
their behalf that to merit your approval. they
have done their best, an angel could no more"
gathered into eture like this-the feeble light |
of my fancy could add no illumination to a |
scene like this, and the eloquent We'll DONE"
greeting our ears all these days from the har. |
mOniOus hum of this multitude, exalts cur |
pride and cheers our hearts more than all the |
poetry or music that the most accomplished |
could chant in an anthem.
We are all proud ofthe occasion. we are proud |
OF one another. we are proud of you, who. by |
your approving presence and smiles so abund-
antly perfect our success as an association.
am glad that no praise of you is expected |
from me. for all the praise of which could |
possibly be capable. would be to praise God for
such people.
hope the bright page of our country's his |
tory, edited and published here to day, will |
record pledge from every father and mother
here. and from every one who hopes ever to be- |
come either, that every day henceforth come
individual effort. worthy of this institution will
be put forth by each, to fslsity Shakespeare and
to this. our violet.
see nothing in your cOuntenances to- day to |
indicate that any in this happy assembly will
fail to syrnpathize with my youthful inexperi-
ence and tOrbear to view me with critics
eye" but think it prudent to throw a concilia-
tory bone TO the critical pups. who picking up
few stray scraps Of plagiarism that will drop
from me, may chance to snap and snarl at my |
heels hereafter.
Hence l announce to them in advance that I |
make no claim that anything offer to-day, will
be original with me, for the last aud only Origi-
nal idea have ever realized was the one ex.
pressive of the thought that God Almighty
never intended that the world should be afflicted
by either old maids or old bachelors or He /
would have saved specimen of ca h in the ark
along with the swapping turtles and snails.
| don't propose by rhetoric or philosophy or |
political economy to make you smarter or |
wiser richer in forty minutes.
/ have simply gone into my little flower |
garden and gathered seeds not flowers into my |
store room, and supplied food, not sweet meats |
into my factory. you please, and brought out |
that you at your leisure plant the seed, digest
the food and gather my skimmings into the /
everlasting cedar, believing that if they prove
neither rich nor sweet, they will at least prove i
| not too old or too sour for buttermilk.
Please bear in mind, that all will ask of you /
to-day, Is that you will think tomorrow and /
assertions l may make, for though it may be i
easier for me to assert. thsn to prove them. you
will find them easier TO dispute than to dis /
prove.
L only ask to convict not to convert. to re- |
cruit not TO muster ID, to capture. not to ad- |
minister any oath. believing that all these |
| things will be added unto me.
will now. in the first place. tell you part of |
| what think about manufactures and man u
| taeturers- and my first proposition is that the |
same cGuses-misfOrtunes or faults as you may /
/ choose to term them-which have ever forbidden |
/ us to become great manufacturing people in |
the past, will and ought to forbid US seeking to
| become such in the future and that without |
manufactures. we need no effort to secure any /
! immigration at present OF in the future. |
| The genius, the wealth and the habits of our |
| people have heretofore proved themselves
| wholly iuapt and unsuited to the organization
| of any of these gigantic enterprises, which so
| many unthlnking editorial and other leaders |
| now clamOr Tor as a solitary salvation for us. |
| and surely think there is nothing in this, the
present calamitOus crisis of our social economy,
| to indicate that this inapttude and antagonism |
has ceased TO exist, and l most heartily rejoice
| at the thought.
The manufacturing system of New England |
! never began to exist until an overwhelming |
| stream of immigration flooded their country |
with paupers and consumed the little life of the
| barren and Puritan cursed land, and no other |
alternative was left to either rich poor, after
their agriculture ceased to offer money getting |
| TO the one or even subsistence to the other.
These establishments, endorsed By the devil
OF Purltanlsm, ever seeking wi bonn he may de-
l
| tanned by the capital wrung by paTsimonlOus
energy from the necessities of crowded thrift
lessness, as the only means of perpetuating that
heartless and CALLING mastery of the rich over
the poor in the enjoyment of which those mer-
cilesS corporations that have no souls. so iascl-
natedly revel
Let Us then avoid all competition with them.
for we have none among US rich enough and at
the same time mean enough, to successfully con-
duct, and more poor enough. and at the same
time submissive enough to slave unreslsungy
in factories with such a slavery as only the
demon Of the mill aud the spindle ever demaa'
ded.
We have as a people no illsotten surplus of
| bonds to idle away in these enterprises that
| better the social lives and cheer the family
hearts of n1ne-nOt even the solitary lonely
| owner. And surely no one ls more SOLITARY than
| the owner of some great factory, who stands
| alOne-alOne and b-lligerent, among his daily
associates fortified by his piles of base coin
and armed with some new and improved great
| screw, as it were, carrying on q cOwardly war
| fare to the death with his helpless operatives
and the whole world, and sustained by no more
exalted purpose than to perfect new plans for
| minglng more cheat and fraud and hide into
| the wool of the fabric, the warp OF which he Is
| continually twisting and spinning from the
heartstrings of the helpless men, women and
children, which the great Moloch OF Manufac-
lures demands that he shall be allowed to sacri-
fee on the altar of the Goddess Mammon.
As Kind Providence in the future adds to.
Iour other numberless blessings an abundance of
capital and the children of our loins we surely
| as community can find more praiseworthy and
| enObling uses for our money ana our OnSprlng,
than to begin gathering them together through
| the long weary weary days of the smoke and
grease and disorder Of the factory
with moral atmosphere
| Around their daily lie.
Heavy with care pale with fear
| And with future tumult rife"
One large model factory of the class, for re-
tusing to build which our papers are constantly
| hurting their everlasting trettul anathema ma
ranatha at our people, Willsadden continually