They have since practically destroyed or crippled all internal navigation on inland rivers, reaching their iron arms over the United States, traversing north and south, east and west--a vast gridiron of roads, in value greater than the…

The canals of Ohio and this improvement were, perhaps, the necessary forerunner of the railroads to come, but the money expended on them was practically lost.

And I believe that the experiment now being made by the United States in the improvement of the Ohio, Missouri and Mississippi Rivers will end in a like result on a grander scale.

By the demolition of the forests which covered this great valley, the supply and distribution of the waters and rivers in this region will be so diminished at certain seasons as to render these water- ways worthless for navigation.

The railroads will possess the land, the steamboats the ocean and the great fresh waters of the world.

Possibly steamboats may be utilized on short stretches of rivers, but even on these they will have to compete with railroads having wide-reaching connections which they do not possess.

One of these was upon the dangerous subject of temperance, a topic not then much discussed, for drinking of something stronger than water was almost as universal as eating, and considered equally necessary.

Thus, after two years of faithful work with small pay, I was, at the age of sixteen, turned adrift on account of politics.

I have no doubt, from a present reading of the papers, but that he would have retained me as a juvenile offender if I had made a suitable apology, but the instinct of a boy to stand up for his party was strong.

I was a Whig of sixteen, and it was glorious to be a victim of persecution.

The only benefit I derived was the habit I formed of writing upon such subjects as attracted my attention by reading, a habit I continued when studying law, in preparing a case for trial, and in preparation for a debate in Congress.

I was not stupid enough to be unconscious of my degradation and her affection, and then and there resolved never to be in such a condition again, and from that time to this I am not conscious of having been under the influence of liquor.

I have partaken of wine and spirits at weddings, feasts and dinners, I have used it as a medicine, and in response to toasts and compliments, but never to an extent to addle my brain or disturb my walk.

Of the young men who were my contemporaries a very large proportion became habitual drunkards and died prematurely.

No reform in my time has been so general and beneficial as that of the disuse of drinking intoxicating liquors, commencing in 1841.

Whisky is banished to the drug store, the grocery and the saloon, and even there it is under surveillance and so highly taxed as to furnish a large proportion of the national revenue.

This was no doubt demagoguism, but there was back of it the great questions of protection to American industries, sound and stable currency, and the necessity of economy in public expenditures.

Our banking system was then as bad as it could be, exchange on New York was always at a premium, and there was no confidence in our local banks.

I felt more keenly than my client the injustice done him, and never forgave Baldwin until he was indicted for perjury and driven out of the county in disgrace.

In those days of primitive barter the merchant was the banker of all the farmers dealing with him.

This was the life of a farmer before the days of railroads, and I am not sure but it was a more happy one than now.

Then the village blacksmith or shoemaker, the tinker, the carpenter and the mechanic of every trade had his shop and was a far more important and independent citizen than now, when grouped into large manufacturing and machine works.

I have always regarded our contests in this moot court as the most important part of my legal training.

Such was the military condition of the United States when the War of the Rebellion sounded the tocsin of alarm, and our generation was called upon to meet the gravest struggle in American history.

I worked hard that winter, for hard work, I thought, was the way to fortune.