New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-05-14


that large proportion of the taxes? Unde,
what auspices has she reached the point thai
she is able to do so? Fifty years ago Chic
ago could only boast of n few log huts; ana
if she will just exchange conditions as tc
wealth with us down in Alabama we will
cheerfully pay her proportion of the taxation
toward the celebration of this anniversary
and will throw in few millions or so be.
side.
l wish now, Mr.. chairman, to say some.
thing on this subject as Southern man and
an Albanian. 1 will leave this discussion
of dollars and cents to those who have pre-.
coded and to those who are to follow me in
this debate. l will merely say further in
regard to this, that when nation, no matter
what intellect may guide or genius preside
over it, no matter what may be its success
in the attainment of riches and dominion -
whom it forgets its honor, when it rejects
those noble sentiments which alone inspire
men and communities to great deeds, no
matter how prosperous it may seem to he
there is within it rOttenness, and it is on the
road to decline and decay and death. The
lessons OF history everywhere recognize the
fact that it is only in the heroic ages, or
under the influence Of sentiments which
spring from heroic ages, that nations have
ever accomplished great things in the world.
But we at the South are peculiarly inter-
ested in this subject in Il utilitarian point of
view. Gentlemen, We do not know our own
country. Any one who will mingle with the
members on this floor will be struck with the
fact of how little we know of each other in
distant and remote sections of the United
States. Members here from the Northwest
and the North and from the far West, though
they may have Travelled through the South
and are familiar with her general topograph-
ical outlines, and to some extent with her
people and public men, yet know little COM
paratively of the South.
Let me tell you, gentlemen, what English
men say in regard to my own State; for they
have been looking into the coal and iron re-
sources Of the South. There are in Alabama,
says the London 1dratiscr, twenty eight
thousand million tons of coal; enough to
supply the whole world for the next two
thousand years. And, says n very intell-
gent writer, and know to very great ex-
tent ofmy own personal knowledge that his
| statement is true, there are iron ore and lime
stone in juXtapositiOn to it to work up all
this coal in making iron. We have in Ala
bama vein of iron ore which, commencing
in the State of New York-bcing there about
| fifteen inches in Widths to be traced all
along until you reach Tennessee, where it
develops largely; then into Georgia; and i'm
Alabama it spreads out until man can ride
hundred miles over a bed of iron ore fifteen
feet in thickness and forty feet in width, and
his horses hOOfwill never be oil the iron ore.
And we have within few miles of it par
allel lines of coal continuous and incXhausti-
bic. We want the world and we want the
people of the United States first to realize
the fact that pig-iron can be made i'm Alabama
at fifteen dollars ton. l know this to be
the truth, for | have it from iron-men who
make iron there, and who inform me that in
New York it brings n higher price (pig-iron
| mcan) than Pennsylvania iron.
We have there also greater number of
line marbles than decorates this magnificent
building. We have mountains OF these.
We have building stone that is not surpassed
in the world. And l think if we could get
You once to go to Alabama, if you could look
upon our broad forests ofpine as, in beautiful
green, their lofty tops wave like the waters
of the sea under the impulse of the gentle
wind; if you could see our noble rivers, our
mountains, and our valleys, which an English
nobleman who travelled through Alabama
since the war pronounced equal to Switzer-
| land in their scenery if we could have YOU 20
there and look at that land, remembering that
| over it all is our glorious climate never eX-
hausting with heat or freezing with cold,
where q man can work out of doors all the
year round without Inconvenience, l think
| you would listen to our Cry, you men of the
Northwest, to come to Alabama, to come
with your capital and skilled labor. to enrich
| it and become rich yOurselvcs-to that land
where the wandering Indian tribes who had
traverscd more than one-half ofthis continent
in search Off home, when they reached il and
looked abroad on its beauties and lOveliuess,
declared alabama, here let us rest"
We have a State where may dwell cOmforta-
bly, and well, ay, prOsperously and rich, ten
millions people, and we have only one million
| These, Mr.. Chairman, are some of the rca-
sons that influence my mind in a utilitaran
point of view to favor this bill. It's purpose
is 4 national one. l wOuldnOt be willing to
cOncede to the old keystone State nor to the
city of Brotherly Love the honor ofalone COM
memorating this great event. All honor to
the State OF Pennsylvania and the city of
Philadelphia for their generous contributions
to this great object. They have proven
themselves worthy oftheir illustrOus founder
and of Independence Hall.
But this work belongs to the nation, and
the nation should dot. II is nations heri-
taSe, and 4 nations obligation is upon us that
we should do justice to the memory of the
men of that day, to that glorious era, and to
the still more glorious principles eternal in
their influence upon the future of mankind
THAT all men are born free aud equal that
they are endowed by their Creator with GER
tain inalenable rights; that among tbese
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
These principles, sir, had never before been
flung from mortal lips to the winds. Thcil
announcement marked an era in the cycles
of humanity.
Bnt Mr.. Chairman, am OBTAINING the
committee longer than had intended. Sir
l sympathize with the spirit of those noble
men in Independence Hall on the 4th ofJuly
l77G, who felt that life and liberty to them
selves and to the American people were in
volved in the issue, and feel that on this
subject the action of Congress should be in
, consonance with and responsive to the hero
ism which proclaimed that 'sink or swim
live or die, survive or perish, we pledge on
lives, our f0rtunes"-nOt 5 600, 900 or =, 900,
600, not this much, but all--'Our lives, ou
fortunes, and our sacred honor to this cause ,
Upon the moral and patriotic infuenfcs o
celebration such as is contemplated by thi
bill will not enlarge but L think, sir, tina
he who has studied the history ofnlan and tn,
history of republics, and who looks arOun,
upon our country and its condition, may wei
, have couse to reflect whether il is not gOot
! for us that we should gather again in old In
/, dependence Hall and around the altar there
and amid its cOnsecrated associations reney
again that patriotism which glowcd in tn
/, hearts of the signers Of Declaration of indie
i pendencc, that love of liberty which Ell
! Unused the entire people and led OH
!. revolutionary fathers to final victory and i'm
J dependence, and to which we can directl,
trace all we are, all that we have been. an
! all that we hope to be as free and a grea