Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-04-24

VIC NOEt16fu olaIoS nave ODttlnOu CeS'
t~enty-seven million dollars, while the
South have had less than five millions. II
is time that a more Just and equal division
IN such matters was practieed toward the
States of a section now so sorely In need OF
ali the assistance that can be gwen Dy inc
General Government since the blight and
mildew of war have wasted US; and at no
point South could beginning be better
made than in the capital of tennessee, the
great middle ground Of all the States
POPULATION, RAILROADS, BUSINESS, ETC.
Mr.. Speaker, but three States out OF the
eleven engaged in the rebellion have in
creased more rapidly IN population, on the
census Of 1860, than Tennessee. They are
Florida, Texas and Georgia, the last having
an increase too small for much considera-
ton, her increase being 1876 per cent.
against 1914 per cent. for Tennessee. We
~nOw have a population OF l,257,9S3, as
| shown BY the census Of 1870. Our State is
divided into three grand divisions, the East
ern, Western and Middle. Nashville, the
capital, is in Middle Tennessee, and the
value of all real estate in this division of
the State, as shown by the Comptroller's re-
port made to the Legislature in October,
1871, is SOB, 444, 634, while in East Tennes-
see, of which Knoxville is The principal city,
it is S43,664,005, and in West Tennessee,
of which Memphis is the Chief city, it is
$59,34S, AS, thus showing the value of real
property in the middle division to be double
that Of the other two divisions combined.
And the same will be found true of other
kinds Of property. Davidson county, in
which is the city Of Nashville, is the richest
in the State by great odds. the census show
ing for the county and city, $50, 636,318,
against Shelby county and the city of Mem
phis, with S47, 4l2, S73; while Knox county
and the city of Knoxville has S9,529,118.
In point of wealth, the State of Tennessee
is the fifteenth of the thirty-eight now
composing the Union; and yet, sir, in this
grand old State we have never had an ap-
preparation made and expended for public
buildings except small amount in the city
of Knoxville. And Nashville and Memphis,
the two great cities of the State, in every
sense commercial centres, whose wants are
of the most imperative character, have so far
been neglected; but they are now asking,
and il is hoped will receive during the pres
ent session all that a just and generous
Government should grant.
Indeed, sir, when you shall have fur
nisbed these two cities, as is now very
properly being done for Knoxville, the pub
lie buildings they so much need, and which
it is due the Government and all concerned
should be done promptly, then justice in
this regard will have been done to Tennes-
see, and net until then. And when these
three pivot points Of the State have been
cared for, from all that can now be seen
or c0njectured, the State will be provided
for suitably in this respect for all coming
time. And we shall move happily and
contentedly in the orbit assigned us in the
complex and compound circles of this great
Union.
Mr.. Speaker, the capital of State is al
ways focal centre, and when to this great
fact can be added other points of merit, the
capital becomes the more attractive, and
awakens in the bosom of the people of a
State still larger and prouder sentiments. |
And this leads me to speak little more in
detail of our city.
OUR CAPITAL-NAsHvILLE
In it has been built one Of the finest and |
most costly capital ediices to be found in |
the Union. Here assemblies our General |
Assembly. Here is held the leading term /
Of our Supreme Court. Here are congre-
gated all the leading officers of the State. |
tiOns, political and otherwise, having gen
eral significance. Edgefield and the smaller
adjoining the corporate limits
Of Nashville give us a population cOncen-
trated at the capital Of forty thousand souls,
which in point Of fact are all a part of the
city. The Union shows sixty-seVen cities
viii populations exceeding twenty thou
sand, and out Of this number only about
hirtyr hovn s., fba G1aoFa ax-1naIal ,;4
Of Nashville in the growth of population
and wealth, and but few would have ex-
ceeded her had she not been called to wit
ness the vast country upon which she
leaned for growth laid waste by the con-
Stunning fires and destruction of an unhap-
py civil war. It was under the walls OF
this fine capital the last grand battle of the
late war was fought on Tennessee soil.
which threw the Safe back permanently
INTO the arms Of the Federal Union. Situa-
ed on the banks of. the Cumberland river,
he conduit pipe through the Ohio into the
river, which bears on its bosom
he mightiest inland commerce Of the world,
Nashville greets with her boats and water
,rafts alike the great cities Of St. Louis and
New Orleans, and pOurs out the wealth and
productions Of a wide and rich interior in
20 the laps of these great mart cities of the
West and South. Nor is this all. Her rail-
road connections demonstrate her enter
prise and local advantage to be of the first
order. Indeed we feel that nothing is
lazarded IN saying that an examination of
he map Of Tennessee will show that no city
n the South possesses a finer or more hope
ul network of railway communication, one
% admirably and so advantageOusly arrang-
ID, as does the city Of Nashville. Located
IS she is in valley remarkably level and
healthy, midway between the Alleghanies
and the Father Of Waters, with iron AFTER
IS conveTging and diverging in every direc-
ion, the capital Of Tennessee is in the
yraud national highway from the North and
Northeast to the South and Southwest, aud
what is important, on the direct route from
he temperate shores Of the Atlantic to the
shores of the Pacific, and in a
happy latitude, where no excessive heat
anguishes and destroys enterprise, nor cx-
,esstve cold cO1geals the springs or life.
To employ in part the happy thoughts Of
mother, this central point, Nashville, ex-
ends its arms to all points Of the compass
n happy greeting; pushes them out toward
either ocean by her railways; pierces the
,Oal regions in every direction, and de-
hands their wealth for manufacture by
means q roads; reaches eastward TO the
great setp0rts on her lines of travel into
Norfolk; drains the rich and fertile agricul-
ural counties Of our own State by we'll
constructed railways and roads; extends
toward the Rocky mountains
iud the gold regions beyond in hec project
I'd enterprises and connection, and looking
from the slopes Of the Pacific into the sea,
invites the immense empires of China and
Japan, in their newborn zeal of commerce.
20 ind a great middle route across the con
,inent through our capital into the West,
cute never Paralyzed by heat nor bound
With snow. Yes, Mr.. Speaker, we feel,
whether it be in this or the next generation
he fact is we'll pointed and the conclusion
Oregone. that when the great projected
ines Of the Southern Pacific are completed,
our capital will be on one of its tracks, and
| station Of the first Importance as we go
nto the East, or, reversing, travel toward
he West.
Sir, we have already six leading lines of
always concentrating upon our capital.
The Louisville and Nashville railway is the
lirect route which couples us with the
,anks Of the Ohio, and over which the