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A great storm.
Commodore Maury said that ninety miles from the
Virginia coast is the point more free from storms than any other place in
America.
The storm that killed
Conklin had its head centre in the great lakes, passed south behind the
Appalachian hills, and struck the
Atlantic below
Charleston, then returned with the
Gulf stream, struck the
Jersey coast at
Cape Henlopen.
We hardly felt it here.
What wonderful hidden stores of wealth are in your soil?
At
New river, near
White Top mountain,
Virginia,
Washington got lead to kill the Indians.
From these mines he had bullets made to shoot the
British.
The same mines furnished that material to fight the war of 1812, and then the Mexicans, and then the
Yankees, and still they are unexhausted.
Money, like water, will seek its level.
It pays better here, and despite all prejudice it will come.
Already it has spread the golden wings of its flight to this Southland.
Almost all the railways now building are in the
South; transportation and commerce, manufacturing plants and men are moving South.
The proximity to raw material, the evenness of our climate, the brevity of our winters, and the immensity of our water-power, make us feel as we recognize the ‘Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man,’ and welcome the good and true to come with us. The South, with its growing enterprise and increasing population, is obliged to participate in the prosperity of the nation.
The cotton crop for 1891 is placed at three hundred million dollars; tobacco at fifty million dollars, with her part in the one billion, seven hundred million dollars of cereals, to say nothing of hay, molasses, sugar, potatoes, wool, forests and mines, make us feel that we stand in the place of prophecy as we look at the opening of the golden gates of a future rich in promise.
And the vision widens with the horizon.
You say what becomes of the race question, precipitated upon us by the results of the war?
I answer.
That question was on us before the war, and it may be on our children when we are dead.
I believe in a special providence over nations as over individuals.
I do not understand the providence that brought the negroes to these shores as slaves, nor do I understand the slave agitation which culminated in the bloodiest war of the ages.
Nor still do I understand the present condition of the negro.
I cannot see the wisdom of our Government in enfranchising a nation yet in its swaddling clothes, and elevating an incongruous people — some of whom are, to say the least, not far removed
