e arrived at Fort Dodge on
Saturday evening, intending to spend some time there in locating
land. The tavern at which we stopped was an unfinished frame
building with no plastering, and sash without glass in the windows.
On the next day, Sunday, Cobean invited us to join him in drinking
some choice whisky he had brought with him. We did so in the dining
room. While thus engaged the landlady came to us and told Cobean
that she was not very well, and would be glad if he would give her
some whisky. He handed her the bottle, and she went to the other
end of the room and there poured out nearly a glass full and drank
it. Cobean was so much alarmed lest the woman should become drunk
that he insisted upon leaving the town immediately, and we acquiesced
and left. Afterwards we learned that she became very drunk, and
the landlord was very violent in denouncing us for giving her
whisky, but we got outside the county before the sun went down.
I had frequent occasion to be in Fort Dodge afterwards, but heard
nothing more of the landlord or his wife.

The road to Council Bluffs from Des Moines was over a high rolling
prairie with scarcely any inhabitants. The village of Omaha,
opposite Council Bluffs, contained but a few frame houses of little
value. The settlement of Iowa and Nebraska after this period is
almost marvelous. Iowa now (1895), contains over 2,000,000 and
Nebraska over 1,200,000 people. The twelve states composing the
north central division of the United States contained 5,403,595
inhabitants in 1850, and now number over 24,000,000, or more than
quadruple the number in 1850, and more than the entire population
of the United States in that year. I have frequently visited these
states since, and am not surprised at their wonderful growth. I
believe there is no portion of the earth's surface of equal area
which is susceptible of a larger population than that portion of
the United States lying north of the Ohio River, and between the
Alleghany Mountains and the Missouri River.

CHAPTER V.
EARLY DAYS IN CONGRESS.
My First Speech in the House--Struggle for the Possession of Kansas
--Appointed as a Member of the Kansas Investigating Committee--The
Invasion of March 30, 1855--Exciting Scenes in the Second District
of Kansas--Similar Violence in Other Territorial Districts--Return
and Report of the Committee--No Relief Afforded the People of Kansas
--Men of Distinction in the 34th Congress--Long Intimacy with