Year: 1877

:. This kind offer of YOUR generoU
;, hospitality, and this warm an
{ hearty welcome, made in such elC
y quent terms, has put it quite bt
S yond our power to find suitabl
: words with which to reply.


q Let me assure you in behalf of tn
/, Tennessee Press Association that w
T highly appreciate this honor, Will
l we most profoundly. thank you
I Twelve months ago, you did us tn
t kindness to invite us to hold our an
| nual session in your city. Your in
2 vitatiOn was conveyed to us through
/ an honorable member of our Asso


citation and former citizen of you
: community, and we feel to-day tina
we are fortunate in having accepted
: and are happy in being thus warm
} ly welcomed to that enjoyment
The reputation of the people O
Clarksville, for intelligence, refine
, ment and elegant hospitality, finds
its equal in few communities and Is
excelled by none in this enlighten
ed land. 1t is indeed a real pleas


ure to find ourselves assembled in


the beautiful city of Clarksville


that sits like sparkling gem upon
the banks Of the graceful Cumber-


land, which is worthy hencefOrth to


be written the classic stream of our


beloved southland.


! Whilewe congratulate ourselves


upon our good fortune, allow us to


congratulate you upon the high po-


sitiOn you occupy socially, and in the
possession of those great advantages


that the progress of this age has


given you. Geographically you are


very nearly in the centre of one of


the finest agricultural districts of


the cOuntry-of almost unbounded


resources. Your merchants and
! business men can almost defy the


casualties that are incident to trade


commerce, and may settle them


selves and pOsterity in comfort, in
| dependence and even wealth. Your


institutions of learning for both


sexes, widely known and well sus-


tanned, are like the pure streams of
health-giVing waters that gush in


perennial beauty from the rock-ribbed
hills. They send out a constant


stream of intellectual and moral


power to invigOrate and bless and





selves. We are not surprised that


you far excel many communities in


the State in intelligence, refinement


and wealth and as an outgrOwth of


these in your magnificent hOspitali-


ty. We are not surprised that your


professional and public men, who


stand as the peers of the highest and


nObleSt in the land, are proud to


claim Clarksville as their home.


You can well and truthfully boast


of the beauty, accomplishments and


charms of the women of your COM


munity, which may be compared to


that incomprehensible power in ma


ture that we call magnetism, and


without which all nature would


Wither and die. This has its office
in society as that does in nature,
and is the quiet power that gives
form and character and tone tOtrue-
manhood and makes men noble,
chivalrous, and brave.


Your society, with its refinement
and elegance, sheds its hallowed in
fuence in all that may come within
its sphere of attraction, and we
doubt not that when we leave
Clarkvilleit will be that many pleas
ant recOllectiOns of our visit shall |
remain to cheer us in future life.


Allow me, sir, in behalf the Press
to thank you for the very flattering
manner in which you have been |
pleased to speak of the power and |
influence as well as the duties and |
dignity of our calling. We appre- |
ciate it the more as coming from |
such a high source. Your words |
shall not be lost, but shall be treas
ured up by us in our hearts and men, |
Ories; and we pledge you that we will |
go forth to meet these duties and re-
spOnsibilities with higher aims and |
firmer and broader resolves, and to |
grasp the possibilities of the great
future; and that to the cause of
truth, of our country and Ofhuman-
ity we will devote our time, our tai
ent and the best energies of our
lives.


But, getlemen of the Press
Association, amid the pleasures that
us the occasion nissuggeStive
of one of peculiar interest. Our re-
fined and cultured hosts have been
pleased to convey to us this hearty
welcome through the agency of our
venerable friend, Maj. Henry. 'Tis
true he claims his domicile in
and these people
are proud to claim and honor him as
a citizen, but he belongs not to
alone; he is Tennessee's
first born, and best belOved-he be-
longs to us all. He stands before us
to-day as the connecting link be-
tween the past and the present. He
belongs to royal line of intellectual
giants, and fingers as the last one
living amid the falling twilight of
happier day. He with his royal
upon the grand arena of
American craftsmanship and poll
ties, met in honorable, intellectual
combat and lofty polemic warfare.
Our minds revert to these days as
the golden period of American
craftsmanship, yes for all that we re-
we're in our system of government
as true we are largely indebted to
the wisdom and labOrs of those men
who eliminated many errors and es-
tablished the great political princi-
pies and great political truths upon
which our fabrick rests. We are
proud to acknowledge our indebt-
edness, to this royal race of states
men, revered and hon0red while
they lived, and dead, are enshrined
In the hearts of grateful country
men. But of those honored names,
none will stand out in bOlder or
brighter cOlors upon the guided
page of future history, than the
spOtless name of Henry. With a
heart moulded to truth and princi-
pie, and Overflowing with love of
his people and country, his cheek
never blenched, nor his voice quiv-
cred in the face of the proudest or
most heroic foe, Wise in counsel,
eloquent in debate, fearless In con-
hiot, courteous to his equals, defiant
to his foes, and chivalrous to wO-
man, though sometimes Overborne
by numbers, he always camped
upon the field of conflict with the
banner of truth floating above his
head. At a later day, when our
country was tossed upon the billOws
of a terrible revolution that threat
ems to engulph our nationality, and
to send to the sunless depths of a
stormy sea the grand life-work Of
our fathers, and to disrupt even the
very foundations of society itself, his
great heart still thr1hbed with love
to his country and our country, his
people and our people. and that