The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1875-06-16
sweetwater High school---Ad-
dress of Sam. Mckinney, Esq.

ing school. We have heard many adj
dresses on similar occasions, but never
one which TO our mind seemed so COM
pletely to touch in perfect harmony the
popular chord. The language, pure and
chaste, worthy a Macauley-the delivery
bold and free-with gesticulation easy
and graceful, combined to make the eff
fort a success of which the speaker, his
friends and the gentlemen who secured
his services on the occasion may well be
proud. 1t was an address full of sound
logic and solid truths. Clear and con
else in his statement of facts, the speak
err was correct in the principles evolved.
1t was replete with admonition and adj
vice to the youth of our country, and
there were frequent bursts of eloduence
that would have done credit to any ora
tor of the day. 1t Is impossible for US
To do justice to the speaker in attempt
ing an outline of his mastery produc
ton. The lesson of the hour was The
young American: his opportunities and
obligations. The young gentleman of
to-day was ordained to an imperious
mission. American society calls the
young man to action earlier than any
other government. Political science
meets with an early development. At
his majority he attains the position of a
citizen, with all its rights and privileges;
and from the peculiar circumstances of
his birthright and destiny, drifts into
politics, without knowing how or why.
Oftentimes he is placed in positions of
office and trust, because society rewards
ability and energy wherever found. Yet,
in his official position he remains a cor
%stituent element of the body polite, and
stands in the complex relation of COVER
nor and governed. The failure to re-
cognize this twOfold relation had been
the occasion of our political shipwreck.
The failures of the past are no excuse.
We may not reconstruct human nature,
but we may inaugurate anObler creed of
faith and purpose among the masses.
The speaker considered the young
generation of to-day adequate to the
mission to which it had been called.
Disclaimed forcing a political aspect on
the occasion, and proceeded to what
might be appropriately termed a philosO-
phical analysis of the issues of the hour.
The source of trouble, he held to be, the
actual scepticism of the age-a. simple
want of faith; arising from mere ignor-
ance of the truth on important questions
of social order and human destiny. The
workings of that doubt, disappointment
and sccpticism were dwelt or at length.
The outline of its progress was shown
in all the history of the past as the re-
suit of revolution and upheaval of es-
tablIshed creeds of social, civil and re-
ligions truth. By the light Of that his
tory our present condition as a nation
was analysed. As the result, it was shown
that the masses were ranged in three
parties-tEc devotees to the past,-the
party of despair-and the party Of the
The speaker held the party of
the future the only hope of the nation.
1t was to he formed and controlled by
the young America. manifest destiny"
was an exploded theory; but American
liberty was a vital, living principle
which could not die till God'struth per
ished. Religion, society and politics in
their true development, cannot contra
dict each other. The government, the
ruler, and the Union of the future must
obey that grand evangel of human lib
social order and political govern
ment, -"glory to God in the highest, on
earth, peace and good will toward men,"
Human destiny-man's highest good
was the end. Social order and political
a requisite opportunity of the
Christian religion, the means for its at
tainment, because it is the grand key
note of the eternal plan. The moral
care was first to be wrought, before so
cial order and political redemption could
be achieved. The speaker, in beautiful Ian
guage, called the attention of his audi-
to the grand heritage which has de-
to the young men of our coun-
try as the lineage of the Anglo-Saxon
race, and most forcibly portrayed the
great achievements in the fields Of art,
science, literature and religion, accom-
by our ancestors in the genera
lions that are gone, and impressed the
that in the hands of the young
men of to-day rests the destinies of their
country, with a reminder of their duties
obligations to the past, the present
md the future.
a year or so ago, in noticing the ac-
by Mr.. Mckinney of the posi-
ion of Assistant Cashier of the Peoples
Bank. of Knoxville, we intimated as
lelicately as we could our regret thai
lis usefulness to the community had not
been ordered in other and more natur-
i ields-of letters and law. We are
the estimate we had formed of
lis brilliant intellect and educated man. =.
hers was not over-wrought-and that his
old worth and merit will b. sooner or =.
alter demanded and better utilized. We
most heartily congratulate him upon his
success on the occasion referred :
and desire to say that we have not =
this in any spirit of fulsome COM
but out of the fullness of a !
heart. :
After the address, Col. John A.. Nc i
of Ro~gersville, on behalf of the /,
ommittee to award premiums for the s
est dec. amations, briefly addressed the @
gentlemen contestants, eompli- G
them on the creditable manner n
ley had sustained themselves and their n
before so large an audience rep
the intelligence of the town
nd the elite of the county" THE few G
,marks the Colonel made were deliver
in his Enthusiastically handsome and
,~Iicitous manner, aud were certainly ap- :.