32 



justice is denied to the poor, or where crime goes unpunished ; no State 

 can prosper, however rich the land or varied the resources, where 

 human rights are not respected. If States cannot or do not govern 

 themselves justty, and accord an equal chance to all their citizens, 

 their influence in the counsels of the nation must be small indeed. 

 But wherever I have been I find great changes have been made, and 

 these great forces working, on all your lines of railroad new enter- 

 prise, thrift, and energy, towns increasing and cities growing ; and, as 

 I have said, the color line is fading in these places, whatever may be 

 the case in the interior. I trust the progress I have noted where I 

 have been may be but the symbol of other districts and other States. 

 If it is not, none know the facts as well as you yourselves, and none 

 can assure the remedy except } T ourselves. By your own acts 3*011 shall 

 be justified ; and, when the end is reached, what grander chapter in his- 

 tory will ever have been recorded than that which is being now 

 written ? 



I had read the Scripture where it is written that men should con- 

 vert their swords into ploughshares arid -their spears into pruning-hooks ; 

 but in 3'our neighboring city of Chattanooga I also saw the battery 

 that had belched forth fire and death converted into a fountain of 

 living water. 1 



As you convert the darkness of oppression and slavery to liberty 

 and justice, so shall } r ou be judged by men and by Him who created 

 all the nations of the earth. 



At the conclusion of the address, after the hearty applause had sub- 

 sided, Mr. S. M. Inman offered the following : 



"Resolved, That the cordial thanks of the citizens of Georgia, who are now 

 assembled in the Capitol, be presented to Mr. Edward Atkinson of Boston, 

 Mass., for his very able and interesting address on the cultivation and man- 

 ufacture of cotton, and the influences resulting thereupon." 



Mr. Inman supported the resolution in a handsome effort, and it wa& 

 unanimously adopted. 



Mr. H. I. Kimball offered a resolution requesting a copy of the 

 address for publication, which was unanimously adopted. 



Mr. Atkinson stated, that if he had erred in any of his statements 

 in the address in an} 7 way, shape, or form, he would esteem it as a 

 personal favor if any one would correct it. 



Mr. Atkinson was warmly congratulated by Governor Colquitt, 

 ex-Governor Bullock, Messrs. S. M. and W. P. Inman, H. I. 

 Kimball, and the audience generally who had enjoyed the address. 



1 One of the Confederate forts at Chattanooga now serves as a reservoir to 

 supply the city with water; another supplies the great iron- works established 

 since the war at that place by one of the Northern carpet-baggers, " who carried 

 his trunk and staid," and who was himself a leader in thirteen great battles near 

 that city by which it was redeemed from the bondage of slavery and opened to- 

 the great forces of liberty. 



