Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-02-07

ID 4 accepted the +p4snlQn OF presiding
officer of your honQTable body under a
dkfearful apprehension of my inability to
| discharge the arduous and delicate duties
incumbent on me aeceptably TO You and
with credit to myself. 2I
| Your resolution so cordially adopted,
assures me that my official acts have met
your approval, that my efforts to do right
been fully appreciated and that my ru-
lings of parliamentary law, which at all
times have been made without fear, favor,
partially or prejudice, are sanctioned.
! No member of this House has ever re-
ceived from me other than the greatest
politeness and courtesy. -
For the kindness and respect you have
ever extended to me ana wholly unable
to command language suitably to express
! the gratitude of my heart. can only
say most profoundly thank you. 4.
Courtesy and respect have ever charac-
terized our intercourse since first we met.
Nothing has occurred to distract the hal
mony of our deliberations, and although
we have differed and often differed wide
| ly, yet it was conscientious difference
in the discharge of what each considered
to be his duty to his constituency and his
country. .g..-.a r..-- /
No preceding Legislature has ever con-
vened surrounded by so many difficulties
difficulties which seemed almost insur-
mountable, and but for the zeal and per-
severing energy with which you have
| met them, would not have been overcome.
Upon assembling, you found thousands
of your fellow citizens groaning under
the weight of political bondage, denied
the exercise of those high and noble pre-
negatives, dearer to every Tennnesseean
than life itself-shackled, spurned, neg
lected and downtrodden- strippe1 of their
earthly possessions by the rayages
of an unfortunate civil war, looking
to you with anxiety and earnest hope for
deliverance, knowing that you would
never turn deaf ear to their entreaties.
Their hope was not in vain. To this
glorious work your first energies were di-
rected, and never did you rest until by
wise and judicious legislation the prison
doors were thrown wide open, the shack
els broken off and they restored to the
inalienable rights of American citizens,
free as the air they breathed. If your
legislation had ceased here, you would
have erected monument to your memory
more enduring than the adamantine walls
of this beautiful capitol. Step by step
our State has emerged from the darkness
of political bondage and placed herself
upon platform of equal rights and equal
benefits to all. The policy of proscrip-
ton has been broken, and to-day we see
our constituency freed from the bias of
sectional strife, a prosperous and happy
people. You felt the importance of your
position and met the responsibility like
men, with prudence and moderation.
You have avoided the danger of an ex-
IRENE course, and casting aside petty ami
mosities and lingering resentments, you
have legislated in the spirit of charity
and forbearance, endesvoring at all times
to secure the greatest good to the greatest
number, yet you have not abated one jot
or title of your zeal for constitutional
liberty.
am forced to say that you have so
demeaned yourselves that no future truth
full historian will be able to record one
act of yours unworthy of the demands
of the hour, or that you were recreant to
the trust confded to you.
When you assembled you found the
State burdened with an enormous debt
with an empty Treasury and tottering on
the verge of bankruptcy, but if the sys-
TEN of relief you have adopted is faith
fully enacted and rightly enforced, she
will be relieved, her Treasury will be
filled, her credit reclaimed, her plighted
faith redeemed and she restored to that
high position of power and influence she
once occupied and to which she rightly
belongs.
Our predecessors many years since adop-
ted wise system of internal improve,
ments well calculated to develop the
latent resources of the State and by its
liberal aid had encouraged the construc-
ton of railroads travelling from East to
West the entire length of The
State intersected by others connect
ing the lakes with the gulf; and
while several had reached completion aud
were in successful operation, giving life,
energy and enterprise to the labJring pop
ulation and advancing all in wealth and
intelligence, many others reaching out to-
ward the mountains and valleys to unlock
the stores of wealth deep hidden in their
Businesses, were cut off before completion
and almost destroyed by the contending
armies. By this unforeseen and unex-
pected calamity the railroads were given
to destruction, the wealth of the public
spirited was swept away, the energies and
enterprise of the people paralyzed and the
State left burdened with heavy pecuniary
liabilities.
But since the noise of war has been
hushed, and the cOntending armies have
retired from the field, and the work of
destruction has ceased, the dead energies
of the people have been reVivifed, and
now, instead of the tramp of the soldier,
the rafting of musketry and roar of
artillery, our ears are greeted with the
hum of the spindle, the beat of the loom,
the sound of the hammer, the whistle of
the engine and the merry laugh of a
thrifty populace. New life and greater
energy has permeated the masses, and
ere long our doWn-trodden people will
stand erect and walk like men. Your
action upon the railroad question trust
will relieve the State from the heavy
liabilities caused by her aid to internal
Improvements.
The State Prison which you found
crowded to its utmost capacity, was idle;
the inmates strolling in the dark halls of
the penitentiary pale and detected, their
thoughts either rehearsing the dark deeds
of crime in the past or looking along the
gloomy years of the future and musing
over the broken hearts left at home, q
position the most miserable and more to
be dreaded than death itself. You have
relieved that prison from its embarrass-
ment, put its machinery in motion, and
given life and activity to its miserable in
mates. hope the plan you have devised
for its government and operation will
make it self sustaining and relieve the
State Treasury of one of its heaviest
drains.
You have adopted wise system OF
common schools. By blending the State
and county system, you have devised q
plan better calculated to build up and
foster common schools in this State than
any heretofore suggested, and better cal
culated to harmoHize conflicting opinions
and sllay bitter opposition one that has
been pronounced by the wisest and most
experienced men of other States as the
best system in the nation.