Show topographical description hon edward everett the other day presided P 11 aided at the meeting in faneuil fallen i I 1 I 1 hall rei if to hear an address from the eloquent jast East tennessee orator colonel taylor in his opening remarks mr everett Everet fc gave tile the following follon dirig description p of the tennessee river it is exceedingly cee f felicitous elic itous in its rhetoric and it enables the reader to see sec that re TI mai ai kable section of country that is is hereafter to be so full of historical in interest as no canvas painter can make it appear tile following is the passage sa e referred to I 1 that river fellow citizens is is in in some respect one of the m most ost remarkable on oil the continent its southern effluents rise in the state of virginia t hut but as if to read a lesson of union in the very face of the soil as if to prop the fabric of the union by the eternal buttresses of the hills instead of flowing to tho the atlantic like the other rivers of virginia it gathers up tip the waters of its ita tributary streams and connecting virginia and tho the carolinas with east tennessee flows southward down to tho the northeastern corner of georgia there after kissing the feet of the glorious hills of chattanooga instead of nf flowing to the gulf its seeming natural direction it coquets with northern alabama breaks into the muscle shoals plants decatur at their head bead and florence at their feet and then sweeping back to its native north traverses the entire width of tennessee a second time seemingly running up hill bill for while it is flowing northward the miss mississippi parallel to it and at no great distance e is rolling its flood southward enters the state of and empties at last into the ohio fifty miles above its junction with the mississippi thus binding seven states in its silver circuit and connecting them alt all with the great central basin of the continent the soil of eastern tennessee is is rich the mountains mountain sare arc filled with coal I 1 and almost every variety of ore their slopes bubble with minor mineral al springs aprin sprin s tile the climate is temperate and healthful the territory mainly TY divided into farms of moderate size for the most part tilled by frugal industrious men who own the soil which yields them its rall arell earned abundance in no part of the state tate are arc so few slaves in ill none is there a more substantial population in no part of tho the south is the slave interest so feeble east tennessee greatly resembles the lower ranges and fertile valleys of switzerland and it has been often called the american Switz switzerland eiland it is divided into thirty counties and its population does not I 1 think fall short of souls my friend col taylor nods assent KG but this grand valley with the hills bills that tint enclose it pois possesses esses an interest for us ns far beyond that which attaches to their geographical features morel as s such it is one of the most important links in that chain of valley aad and mountain which traverses the entire north american continent from northeast to southwest south west separating tile the streams which flow into the atlantic from those which seek the st lawrence tile the ohio and tho the mississippi forcing its way down int into 0 the sippie heart bear of if tile the re region boll whose alluvial plains are re devoted d to the culture of tobacco cotton cot toll rice and sugar by slave labor labo this ridge of highlands with the valleys niclos closed cd in them from the time you leave eave tiro state of pennsylvania begins gins to assume tile the highest political in importance poria lice in refe reference rence to the present stupendous struggle extending to the southwest south west as far as northern alabama this noble nobl mountain tract and tile the valleys enclosed in its parallel and trans vcr sa ridges by the ch character acar of its climate soil and na natural tural pro dudin n s s is the natural ally or of tl jhb north here if nowhere else we may truly say with the german poet on the he mountain is freedom the breath odthe of the vales tales itic iti c not up to the pure mountain galey gales |