Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-12-07

CO1l)llultu1 DdSSSu upon JllOSc WHO Cllallce
to occupy public stations, accompanied by
convenient and perhaps profitable powers.
have no contract to award, no patronage
to bestow, no public favors to grant. In
this respect | am as powerless as the hum
blest citizen of our State. The more high
ly, therefore, do | appreciate this interest
ing occasion, and l shall treasure it. among
the cherished recOllections of a somewhat
protracted public life. If, in the remarks
that | submit, shall seem to our looking
on friends to limit myself too much to our
own Commonwealth, to her sons and their
affairs, beg that it may be remembered
that / seldom address so many from all
parts of our vast State in one gathering.
Omitting any mention of our home af-
fairs, will colfine myself to those topics
which belong 10 us, in connection with,
and as a part Of this great nation.
Some of you are here, for the first time,
in the national capital; others have re-
turned after lapse Of years. You are i'm
pressed most favorably with the exhibition
of greatness that is seen in
THIS BEAUTIFUL CITY.
The streets, with all their appointments;
the public grounds and buildings, grand
among the grandest, as | am assured by
those who have been abroad, as 1 have not;
the schools, the system of education, the
sanitary measures of the city, and above all,
| that which impresses every stranger as he
comes here, the general order and good con
duct Of the citizens, mark this as city not
| unworthy to be the capital Ofthe greatest
nation on the globe. [Cheers.]
When we left home a few days ago we
saw our people anxious and excited at the
possibility of a war that might spring up
between US and foreign nation. They
| have watched from day to day the click of
the telegraph; they have read every an
nouncement in the public press; they have
watched the signs of the times to see
whether they boded war or peace, and
when they shall hear, as they are probably
| doing now, Of the protocol signed in this
| city a few days ago, honorable to America
and not dishonorable to Spain, her ancient
| ally and friend, they will look up with
gratitude to him who is the author of
peace and the lover of concord, and they
will not forget in their prayers
THE DISTINGUISHED STATE SECRETARY,
whose patient wisdom has been 50 largely
| instrumental in bringing this about. Zap
| plause.l The people of Tennessee, like the
| Chief Magistrate of the nation, have a re-
| cord behind them which permits them to
90 a great way and to do many things in
! the interests of peace without liability to
| be misunderstood or suspected of indifer
| ence to the flag, for the honor of which, in
| times past, they have done and suffered so
much. [Applause.l Another topic which
has interested them not a little has been
the disturbance of the material interests of
the country. 1t is true, in this great Union
of States, this body polite, that when one
member suffers all the other members suffer
| with it. So has our State suffered in SYM
| pathy with the more active and severe agi-
| tation which has disturbed some other pOr-
tions of the land.
In our country we have had similar con-
vulSions in our financial affairs, which pass
ed away and left the atmosphere more clear
| than before; but in England, whose tinan-
cial matters are suppOSedto stand on amuch
| firmer basis than ours, such connections
have been far more frequent, difficult and
troublesome to control Allow me to refer
to a period in that country near the close of
| the last century. Early in 1877
THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND
| were on the verge of bankruptcy. As a
| measure of relief the Bank of England sus-
pended specie payment in February of that
year. That suspension continued nearly a
| quarter Of a century, when specie payment
was resumed, and the affairs of the nation
seemed not in the slightest degree disturb
| ed. But in 1925 there came a crash. While
| all this alarm was going on one strong man
rose up and uttered the word confidence.
| This was Alexander Barring afterwards
| known as Lord Ashburton, great name in
| the financial world, which breathed life into
the commerce of Great Britain.
Our times are, in some respects, not un-
| like those, and l commend them to the in
struction of those who apprehend that re-
| turn to specie payment would necessarily
result in disaster and ruin, and to those
who look upon the resumption of specie
pnyment as the great remedy that is to
provide against imitation, expansion, eX-
| travagance and ruin.
SPECIE PAYMENT
has been suspended in this country about
| twelve years. The last of those years have
been years of eminent prosperity, greater,
perhaps, than the country has ever enjoyed
| before. We have, doubtless, had eXtrava-
! gance, but these have been in the direction
| of building railroads and improving real
| estate. While some of these have been
built in advance Of the vans of the coull-
try they will doubtless prove useful.
Well, my countrymen, what we want
now is some one with a voice powerful
enough to make himself heard, and with
| intelligence enough to make his voice res
| pected, who shall cry as was uttered a half
| century ago, "'Confidence!" :" There may be
| blood in the body, but the misfortune is
| that il don't circulate. In Tennessee we
| have not had the means to be eXtravagant,
| but have been improving the enforced les
| sons of frugality and industry which serve
US well in these times, and few of cur cit
| liens will this winter, suspect, go supper
less to bed, or will shiver for want of food
or clothing, except in the plague-stricken
city of Memphis.
PEoP E OF WASHINGTON,
generous. humane and kind, in the name of
! the citizens of Memphis, her widows and
| orphans, in the name of the people of Ten
nessee, in the name of our common human
ity, [ giveyou our hearty, unfeigned thanks.
| Gentlemen, YOU will return to our State,
many of you, most of you called tempoIa-
rily to this city. Go back to the savannahs
OF the Mississippi; go back to the fertile
| fields that lie west of the Cumberland
mountains: 90 back to the fastnesses and
recesses of the eternal hills of East Tennes-
see, and tell your neighbors what you saw
here at the capital of the nation; tell them
what the flag of their country signifies; tell
| them that as they stand gazing on the flag
so shall their sons ever rally to its support,
and upon whatever field or whatever occa-
sion it may be called in question, this ex-
| hibition tonight in honor of you, men of
! Tennessee, attests the sympathy that you
| enioy throughout this wide country
As your representative l have had my
residence here for many years. have seen
many changes pass over this metropolis; ali