140 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



across Georgia to find the south empty of men; but for them the cause of 

 cecession would have inevitably succeeded. 



I do not wish any one to misunderstand my personal position on this sub- 

 ject. In every fiber of my being — body and soul — I was with Virginia and the 

 Confederate South. But as my people were Union men before the war, so they 

 became Union men when the war closed, and however I may hold in my in- 

 most heart the sacred memories of the unhappy and glorious past, I know now 

 what the south is to this Union and I know how to honor those who were 

 gallant foes even then. 



I therefore make no apology for advocating before you the claims of this 

 great population. As they saved the Union in times past, so in face of the 

 rising tide of foreign immigration I feel that they may be destined to save it 

 again. And it is one of the chief causes of my interest in this discussion to- 

 night that I am wondering what effect this movement in the direction of se- 

 curing a national forest in the Appalachian mountains will have on this popu- 

 lation. If it will benefit them, if it will cai-ry to them the light of knowledge, 

 if it will open that region for the diffusion of the better part of modern science 

 and modern knowledge, then I shall be heart and soul for it, and I believe that 

 it will tend to do so. What is needed is that the rest of the world shall know 

 that this population is among her Appalachian mountains; that they shall 

 know what a virile strain courses in their veins; that they shall know that all 

 that is needed is that the light shall be carried to them. They are beginning 

 to awaken themselves to the knowledge that they are in darkness; they are 

 beginning to see the glimmer of the light afar off and are groping their way 

 towards it, asking that it may be brought nearer to them. 



It has often been a cause of wonder to me that with philanthropy pouring 

 out its lavish millions for the education and betterment of other races and 

 other sections, so little of it should have gone to this race and region which 

 saved the Union. All that they need is light and they may become themselves 

 the torch-bearers of the future civilization. 



I have not had time to go fully into the history of these mountains and 

 these mountaineers, but I will tell you a few men who have come from there 

 and by them you may judge their possibilities. Andrew Jackson came from 

 there; Stonewall Jackson came from there; Abraham Lincoln was the son of 

 one who came from there. 



Do you think that the strain which produced these men has died out in 

 the past generation? If so, you are vastly mistaken. No more virile strain 

 of men and women exists in any quarter of the world than today inhabits the 

 Appalachian range, and no one which promises more for the future welfare 

 of this country. One of the most distinguished citizens of New York — a man 

 of national reputation as an orator and a lawyer — wa.s a mountain boy from 

 the eastern corner of Tennessee, and what is more he was one of fifteen sons. 

 His father never learned to write until after he was married and his mother 

 never learned to write, but, mark me, this illiteracy did not nece.ssarily mean 

 ignorance. It was only that they had not had the opportunity. That father 

 was a lieutenant in the federal army during the war and afterwards he reared 

 fifteen sons in the fastnesses of the Appalachian range. 



Now, sirs, talk about conservation, here is something worth conserving. 

 Conserve the American strain in the Appalachian range by bearing to them 

 the light of knowledge and giving them the advantages of education and train- 

 ing and you will have the basis of the greatest government park that this or 

 any country has ever known. 



Few schools or colleges of any importance exist among them. The states 

 "ive them their share of the taxes levied for common school education, but 

 the southern states still have a great illiterate population and are still unable 



