The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1920-07-30
ROBERTS SPEECH
ABLEST EVER HEARD
DECLARES JOHN TROTWoOD
MOORE, THE TENNESSEE
STATE LIBRARIAN.
To the Editor of The Herald:

ways an inspiration amounting TO
feeling akin to sacredness in visiting
the place where spent the best years
of my life, where so many of my
friends are living and where so many
more are sleeping in Rose Hill.
| want to say to you that | have
heard every governor in Tennessee
speak, from that grand old warhorse,
William B. Bates time to the present
date, but the speech of Albert H. Rob-
erts in the opera house in Columbia
from 1870 to p. m, was the ablest
speech | have ever heard any COVER
nor of Tennessee make. 1t was rare
combination of great lawyers
speech before supreme court and the
great husting's speech of great COM
moner. have heard both Of these
kind of speeches before, but ! have
never before heard great Tonnes
sean who could do both.
Intellectually, courageously, pro-
excessively, this man is positively in a
class by himself. | have never known
a public man in Tennessee who loves
his state and his people with more de-
votion than Governor Roberts. 1t is
not fictitious or political. It is a pos
tive religion with him. Last winter,
in a speech before the Tennessee His
torical committee he electrified all of
us with one sentence which anyone
may now see is the keynote of all his
efforts: 81 will prove to the world.'
he said, that Tennessee is not bank
rupt, poverty-stricken and broken.
backed state, but the greatest state in
the Union And while / am on this
subject, | want you to take this from
me because believe you will credit
me with having lived long enough, and
studied men and books enough to be a
fairly good Judge of public men, their
motives, their abilities and their char
acter. believe, also, that you and my
other friends in Maury county know
that ray love for Tennessee, its histo-
ry, it's traditions, it's great men and
it's people is my religion. ] believe
you'll admit that ] have studied its
history, written some of it, and that
now having access to all the records
of the past, ! have studied these re-
cords, and that am in a position to
know who were the really great gov
ernors Of TENNESSEE. WV Y ~'" l'e ~
From the records in my Office, John
Sewer, six times and first governor
of Tennessee was it's great foundation
governor. He laid splendidly the foun-
dation for all our future achievements.
He served twelve years in all.
William Carroll, who came along in
the thirties, was the great construc-
tive governor of Tennessee. He also
served six terms and twelve years in
all He built on what John Sewer
had done, nearly all the constructive
work which made Tennessee for near
ly one hundred years the progressive
state that she is, and any student of
Tennessee history, if honest, is bound
to admit that little original construc-
tive work in Tennessee has ben &C.
complished since his day, and nearly
all that has been accomplished being
an extenuation of his policies.
Politics, almost to the exclusion of
everything else, has been more or less,
in one form or another, the only incen-
tive for craftsmanship until Albert
H. Roberts came
want to tell all my friends in Mid
die Tennessee to take this from me in
all seriousness, earnestness and with
all the emphasis of my nature: AS
surely as he lives to be reelected and
carry out his plans, Albert H. Roberts
will prove to be the third great con-
structive governor of Tennessee. And
you may tell it to Gath, or anywhere
else you please. Nor do | fear the re.
suit. If ! know anything know Ten
nessee and the Tennessee spirit, and
never can | be made to believe that
the Tennessee which | love, the Ten
nessee which produced such great
men as Sewer, Crockett, Jackson,
Houston, Polk, Andrew Johnson and
Carmack, men always much abused
misunderstood aud even malighed, in
their day, as tits great Tennessean
is, will fail to see that the state has
given birth to another of that kind,
nor will they destroy him and the
great work he is doing at the behest
of the disgruntled politicians.
JOHN TROTWOOD MOORE.