<p>White paper with typed black text and a handwritten signature</p>
<p>Upon a tree in Tennessee, for over a century after Daniel Boone’s time, this crude inscription could be read, “D.BoonE CillED A.BAR On Tree in ThE yEAR 1760.” But Tennessee’s pioneer days have long since passed. Today, this State is practically the center of 70% of our national population – a great industrial State, growing steadily.
Manufacturing, mineral and timber products, in Tennessee, now exceed $600,000.00 annually, while agriculture returns $400,000,000.00 annually. Bast electric power resources … ample coal, iron, copper and other deposits … superb water and rail facilities … important cities … and strategic location have brought into Tennessee new industries by the score. She is producing, now, nationally known products from bathtubs to brake shoes, aluminum to artificial silk, iron pipe to hosiery and cotton goods, and numerous other commodities used the world over.
Tennessee is not merely a leading Southern State; it is one of the important States of the Union. With natural resources unsurpassed, she has gone further, perhaps, in comparative development than any other State in recent times.
The above words appeared in “The Southern States Review” published in August 1928. That affluent era survived the greatest financial depression the World ever knew; Tennessee did its share in winning W.W. II, when this Nation was forced to raise, and equip, millions of Americans to defeat two stubborn foes; one in the Far East – the other in Europe and Africa; not forgetting North Korea, and our present conflict with Vietnam. Tennessee, and the Union continue to progress and remains the strongest Nation in the World.
The development of our State in the past forty years staggers ones imagination. In fact it would be a difficult task for the biggest, and best, computers to assay this financial, economical up-surge and general development.
In our haste to accomplish the high goals of advancement and affluence it seems that we have failed to memorialize those who have gone before us making these things possible. It is your Governor’s sincere hope that Tennesseans throughout the Volunteer State will rally ‘round the flag and make the Gettysburg Monument Project a late, but a lasting success. The men in gray fought for a lost cause, giving their last breath of death of devotion to a cause which they believed right. The result must have justified the great price they paid since we are now; “One Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Cordially yours,
Buford Ellington
Governor</p>
<ul><li>Keywords: Gettysburg; Gettysburg National Military Park; Photography; monuments; memorials; virtual experience; battlefield</li></ul>
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