The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-11-04

TEwwsz- 49, *n1 Wxe
Al the opening of the Southern
Commercial Convention, in Cigcin-
natl, on the 9TH Of October, Hon. Geo.
Ii. rcndloton delivered the following
eloquent address of welcome to the
delegates: Y& hHs
GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION =
My fellow-citizens have done me In
finite honor to-day. The civic au-
thorities, the commercial authorities,
the Chamber of Commerce, the Board
of Trade, the people generally, have
commissioned me TO speak to you in
their behalf.
They have commanded me to give
you a most fraternal greeting. They
have commanded me to say with q
sincerity and warmth, for which find
no fitting words, that you are their
honored and most welcome guests.
They have commanded me to say that
they appreciate the honor Of your
presence here, and they desire to
recognize it by every act ofcoIrteous,
and attentive, and affectionate hospi-
tally. lApplause.
These annually recurring mectings
this concourse of representative
men-these delegations from every
State and city and Chamber of Com
merce and combination of business
men, from the Hudson tottho Rio
Grande-tbesez earnest, thoughtful
learned debates by friends of every
industrial interest, and advocates of
every growing enterprise, from THE
Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains
attest the dignity of this Conven-
ton, and the magnitude of the ques-
ton committed to its consideration.
Your predecessors who met at Nor
folk in 1868, were few in Numbers, and
the chief subject Of their considera-
ton was the ocean trade Of the At
lantic cities with Europe.
Your number already reaches many
hundreds; and your debates will
touch every project of material devel-
opment-every phase OF intelligent
industry-every facility ofcommercial
intercourse-every plan of finance and
taxation-every encouragement ofim.
migration-every question Of govern
mental economy. - tz s1E 7
Ii must be so. This convention
meets to consider and advance the in
terests Of the great Mississippi Valley.
| say it in no narrow spirit. l would
limit your duties and your influence
to no local lines. 49,
Tie interests of the Mississippi Val
ln,- o,.a thn anntra o.1 eO,,roo nc tho
wellbeing Of other portions of the
country. Its development is their
growth. Its prosperity is their wealth;
and when the hand Of industry touch
es into life any dormant element of
power which nature has hidden in its
fields, or mines, or lakes, or rivers,
they grow by its activity and move
under it's impulsion. ~
The Mississippi Valley. The very
name calls upa vision of transcen-
dent grandeur. Mountains filled with
ore; valleys instinct with fecund life,
prairies carpeted with the most bril-
liant wild flowers and redolent of the
sweetest perfumes; lands generous
with wheat, corn and barley lands
teeming with cotton, rice and sugar (;
the snow-clad fields of the North
shading into the dusky yellow of the
parched and thirsty South; the freez-
ing blasts of Canada, melted to genial
breezes i'm the warm embrace of the
fervent winds of Florida.
II stretches from Central Pennsyl.
vania to the western boundary of
Kansas, from the Lake of the Woods
to the Gulf of Mexico. Its soils are
fertile its mines are productive; its
forests are exhaustless lis skies are
bright; its climates are healthful T;
God has given to it every element of
wealth every attribute ofbeauty and
through its whole length the Great
River--made of the continent waters
of every spring and rivulet, and stream
i'm all its broad expanse-rol!s its
ceaseless flood from the frozen regions
of the arctic ices to the golden orange
groves of the sun-begotten tropics.
Cheep lands and abounding bread
stuffs will secure its future. Ere long
a hundred millions of people will in
habit it. They will till its fertile soil /;
they will.work its fruitful mines they
will manufacture its raw materials;
they will bring every force Of nature
into cooperation with ever, appli-
ance of art, and use both every device
of human ingenuity and every effort
of human industry in the develop
mcnt of its unrivaled resources.
They will be an active, enterprising,
self-reliant, audaeious people.
They will not submit to isolation.
They will require and they will
have free, uninterrupted, easy COM
munication with the Gulf of Mexico
by the Mississippi River; with the
Chesapeake by the canals of Virginia;
with Sandy Hook by the canals of
New York; with the North Atlantic
BY the lakes and the st. Lawrence.
They reach the Pacific by the North.
ern and the Central and the Southern
Railroads.
They will dig through the noun
tsins of Virginia, and import by way
of Norfolk. They will tread the val
leys OF Kentucky and Tennessee, and
load the ships of Charleston and Sa-
vannah. They will build the levces
of the Southern rivers, and reclaim to
cultivation their rich %alluviOn.
Thay will sweep away every CHI
barrassment caused by a restrictive,
or, if You prefer the word, a protec-
tive system !; and they will demand
every improvement in the burden of
taxation and in the benefits of cur
rency which the most enlightened
and sagacious civilization a suggest.
And | would fain believe that in
the midst of this splendid material
advancement they will forget
that in the eyes of God and humanity
they are charged with the. mainten-
ancc, as its best guarantee, of the on
fcderate system of our fathers. Loud
applause.
Does this consummation seem i'm
probable:
Look at the ocean telegraph; at the
Pacific railroad, at the Suez canal, at
the delicate machinery which does
actually supply the place of hnman
hands, and can almost think, and
who shall doubt that the Almighty
has touched with living fire the in
ventive genus of this age, and has
subjugated to the control of daring
and audacious man the mysterious
forces which fill the earth, and sea
and air.
we live in deeds not years; in thought. not
breaths;
In feelings, not in figures ON the dial.
We should 0ount time by hearts throbs: