“If a former generation could have foreseen that the liberal
views which far-sighted men among them held on the subject of
a park which should embrace both banks of the Schuylkill would
finally ripen into a fruition beyond what the most sanguine could
then have dreamed, the great railways which now run in close
proximity to that stream would have reached the city by other
routes, or at least would have been carried on tracks more remote
from the river. At that day this could readily have been done
without conflicting with any interest; but now that the conditions
have been long established, and trade and travel settled in
conformity to them, any violent change must be regarded as out of
the question.”[42]
The Commissioners then make certain recommendations, which I will not
take up time to read. But I come to a brief passage:--
“The Commissioners, therefore, respectfully but strenuously
urge that steps shall be immediately taken to promote this most
desirable end. And they do this not alone in the interest of the
thousands whose vehicles are entangled at the railroad-crossing,
but much more in the interest of the hundreds of thousands
whose principal enjoyment of the Park has been and will be in
that portion of it which is most exposed to these dangerous
annoyances.”[43]
That is testimony. If this were a court of justice instead of
the Senate, and if you, Sir, were a court and the Senators now
before me were a jury, that would be a testimony conclusive in the
case,--testimony of experts, who know by experience what they testify,
who have seen with their own eyes and felt in their own consciousness,
whenever they entered that park, the nuisance against which I now
protest. Sir, they testify against the present bill. Can you answer the
testimony? Is it not clear? Is it not complete?
Sir, I need no testimony. I only ask Senators to look at the Park. Let
them pass through our Library and take their stand on that unequalled
portico from which they may look down upon an amphitheatre more like
that of ancient Rome than that of any other capital, with a river
beneath and hills in the distance,--a river much larger than the
ancient Tiber, and hills much more beautiful than those that stand
about Rome,--and a Capitol, too, but how much more beautiful than that
which once gave the law to mankind! Stand on that portico, Sir, and
survey the amphitheatre; your eye will then rest with satisfaction on
the outline of this very Park, stretching from the Capitol beyond the
Executive Mansion, and destined to be a breathing-place for the immense
population of future generations. Stand on that portico and try to
imagine what this Park may be.
And now it is proposed not only to diminish that breathing-place, but
to disturb it by the smoke of steam-engines, and to confuse it by
the perpetual din of locomotives. I hope no such thing will be done.
There is a place for all things; and this I know, the place for a
railway-station is not a public park.