be in getting a system of locks and dams on the Kentucky
river--that river that winds through an enchantment of rocky cliffs and
hanging foliage; by mountains, cedar-tipped and mossy-green; by rolling
meadows, where the velvet softness of the blue-grass enriches this
idyllic picture--this stream that is famed in song and story, a perfect
Switzerland of enrapturing and delicious beauty. Here a thundering
waterfall and fragile foliage bending over the foam. Here cool and shady
ravines leading up to tranquil Edens, the voluptuous bends through an
enchantment of bloom and wildwood, losing themselves among the
rock-ribbed hills. This stream, bathed in the effulgence of the dropping
sun--the mingling afterglow of sunset and the primrose bloom of the
first stars, unfolds then with its majestic splendors to the enraptured
gaze. We are held spell-bound, my friends, as we see the bright moon
riding the hilltops and shining overhead,
"'The bright moon shining overhead,
The stream beneath the breeze's touch,
Are pure and perfect joys indeed,
But few are they who think them such.'"
The rough and rocky points are softened under the magic and seem to lean
lovingly toward the stream. Ah, to keep all of this loveliness stored
from human eye--I mean to lock and dam this stream for all humanity who
wish to journey thence and revel amid these splendors. 'Sic passem;
semper idem.' Not one measly lock and dam, but a system of locks by
which navigation could be advanced from the mountains to the Ohio,
developing the great resources of that wonderous possibility, wherein
the bema procliamus of nature we might find another Arch of Hadrian, or
the Tower of the Winds; where mountain peaks may rise like unto the
temple of Olympian Zeus, or the far away monument of Philopappos. Yes,
gentlemen, I stand for locking and damming the Kentucky river! 'Civis
Romanus Sum' was the proud utterance of the noble Roman, and the
proudest of that proud and conquering race never proclaimed himself such
with greater delight than I, that I am an American and a Democrat. With
my feeling of patriotism runs my devotion to the democratic party. But,
gentlemen, in saying that I am a Democrat, brings forward the great
existing issues between the two leading parties of the country. I might
go into a long discussion of the principles of those two parties, but in
a nutshell I can define the differences of such vital import to the
voters of this land. The pr
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